Earth Science Lessons

It has been a tough month for nature around here. I'm afraid all of our recent outdoor earth science lessons have had tragic endings.

It all started earlier in the month, when we went to our little pond to check on our fish, which have lived here long before us. Wilbur and Charlotte were gone! We don't know what ate them, but he sure wasn't very nice.

A few weeks after that, we discovered one golf-ball sized green tomato growing on our lone tomato plant. We were very proud of ourselves for growing something. That we could eat! A few days later, we went to check on its progress and to our surprise it was gone. Ace cried a few crocodile tears and said, "But I thought it was for us!"

Then, we were very excited to discover a mama bird in a nest in our front yard. Our older neighborhood friends ran home to grab their handy "Birds of Central Texas" guide. We compared and compared but our bird didn't look like any of the birds in the trusty guide. So I told them, in all my infinite wisdom, that she was a dove. Whew! Good thing it was a bird that I know. A few days after that, the neighbor boys nearly beat down our door (at 8am on a Saturday - we were all still in our jammies) to tell us that the eggs had hatched and we had baby birds! We quickly dressed and went outside to check them out. Steve got out the ladder and all the kids took turns peering at the little birds and their mama. It was all very exciting.

We took pictures.

And then, each kid took some pictures.

And then, they started snapping pictures of us from above.


Then, we took the camera away.

The next morning, the same neighbors beat down our door again, this time, to tell us that mama and the babies were GONE. A coyote had eaten them, according to the neighbors. Oh, the horror. We'd been able to work through our grief over the fish and then the tomato, but not our baby birds too! At least we hadn't given them names yet...

So, to all the birds and tomatoes and fish, we bid you a fond farewell. Perhaps next Spring, we'll have more time with your friends.