Why Do Leaves Change Colors?

It’s that time of year. The air gets chillier. The leaves get ready to fall. Trees begin to show their colors. Have you ever wondered why they change colors? It turns out that the colors were there all along. Each color is a kind of pigment (color molecules) we call chlorophyll. We are just used to only seeing the Green kind.

There are basically two kinds of trees. Those that keep their leaves all the time (coniferous trees) like pines and firs that have modified leaves called needles. There are also some regular leaf trees that keep their leaves all year. They live in tropical climates like the Amazon. Our broad leaf trees in the US usually go dormant in the winter and drop all their leaves. These trees are called deciduous trees.

When trees are growing during the summer, most of the chlorophyll that the trees use to make sugars (and oxygen for us) are the green kind. The reds, oranges, and yellows also help; we just can’t see them. When the tree starts to go dormant in the fall and the leaves start to die, the green chlorophyll is the first to fade. The other colors are longer lasting and so they are the ones we see. They may keep their colors for weeks, but eventually even they will lose their color and the leaf will shrivel and turn brown.

You can keep them longer by pressing them. All you need is some thin, absorbent paper and a book. Place the leaf between two sheets of paper and place the book on top of the “leaf sandwich”. If you put a thin piece of cardboard in between, you can actually do several layers of leaves. Leave them to dry. One hint, you may want to remove the book for several minutes every day to help them dry out. Otherwise they could get moldy.

Here’s a video that shows you how.

I hoped you enjoyed our talk about fall colors!

Love Papaw.It’s that time of year. The air gets chillier. The leaves get ready to fall. Trees begin to show their colors. Have you ever wondered why they change colors? It turns out that the colors were there all along. Each color is a kind of pigment (color molecules) we call chlorophyll. We are just used to only seeing the Green kind.

There are basically two kinds of trees. Those that keep their leaves all the time (coniferous trees) like pines and firs that have modified leaves called needles. There are also some regular leaf trees that keep their leaves all year. They live in tropical climates like the Amazon. Our broad leaf trees in the US usually go dormant in the winter and drop all their leaves. These trees are called deciduous trees.

When trees are growing during the summer, most of the chlorophyll that the trees use to make sugars (and oxygen for us) are the green kind. The reds, oranges, and yellows also help; we just can’t see them. When the tree starts to go dormant in the fall and the leaves start to die, the green chlorophyll is the first to fade. The other colors are longer lasting and so they are the ones we see. They may keep their colors for weeks, but eventually even they will lose their color and the leaf will shrivel and turn brown.

You can keep them longer by pressing them. All you need is some thin, absorbent paper and a book. Place the leaf between two sheets of paper and place the book on top of the “leaf sandwich”. If you put a thin piece of cardboard in between, you can actually do several layers of leaves. Leave them to dry. One hint, you may want to remove the book for several minutes every day to help them dry out. Otherwise they could get moldy.

Here’s a video that shows you how.

I hoped you enjoyed our talk about fall colors!

Love Papaw.

Otters

 This week one of my granddaughters requested a post about otters. So, I guess I “otter” get started. Although there are 14 species of otters in the world, they are basically divided into two main kinds: river otters and sea otters. As it turns out, we have both kinds here in California. We have river otters in the Stanislaus River that runs through the State Park where I work during the summer, and sea otters in the waters along the California coast, especially around Monterey Bay.

River otters are smaller and thinner than their ocean going cousins. They can be 2-3 feet long and weight between 20-30 lbs. a river otter can live for up to 25 years. They live in dens (tunnels in the river bank). Mothers can give birth to between 1-5 babies called “kits” or sometimes “pups”. Once they are ready to swim, they may spend all day in the water playing and searching for food. Otters have some of the thickest fur of any mammal. Their dense fur helps keep them warm even if there is ice on the water.

River otters love to eat fish, crayfish & clams. One time an otter even stole Papaw’s anchovy off of his fishing line! They have very sharp teeth and are really good hunters. They have sensitive whiskers that help them find food in the water.

Sea otters like to live in the ocean. They are much bigger than the river otters (4-5 feet long and close to 100 lbs.). They spend a lot of time just floating in the kelp. They can even sleep while floating in the water. One of their favorite treats is a sea urchin. Urchins have lots of spines, but they are no match for
a clever sea otter. The otters have a special pouch under their arm where they keep their favorite rock. They set the rock on their chest and smash the urchin on it until it breaks open. They can even break clam shells that way! Once the urchin or tasty clam is open, it’s dinner time.

Here’s the live sea Otter cam at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

 

Manatees

 

This week I want to talk about another special mammal, the Manatee. Mammals are warm-blooded creatures that breathe air, have fur or hair, and feed their young with milk. Most live on land, but some like whales, dolphins and manatees live in rivers or oceans. There are manatees that live around Florida, the Caribbean, India, the Amazon, and West Africa. They are called by other names around the world. In Australia there is a related “cousin” of the manatee called the dugong.  They look a lot like the manatee, but have a different shaped tail.

Manatees are often called “sea cows” because they like to graze on sea grass growing in the warm shallow waters. They only eat plants so it is important for us to protect the sea grass beds where they live. They can hold their breath for 20 minutes while they feed on the grasses.

They can get up to 13 feet long (that’s twice as long as your dad if he laid in the grass) and can weight over 1200 lbs. That’s really heavy! A baby manatee weighs about 60 lbs. at birth. That’s as big as a second grader! They have cute whiskers, gray wrinkly skin, and a cute snout. Manatees can live for up to 60 years.

Manatees are usually solitary, which means they like to be by themselves, but you can often see mothers with their babies, called calves, feeding in the shallows. In winter they can group together in warmer spring-fed rivers. They need water that is above 60 degrees.

Manatees do not really have any natural predators. The biggest danger to manatees are boat propellers. Many are killed every year by being struck by boats. Others have scars on their backs that show they were run over. If you are ever in a boat where manatees live, please drive carefully. You don’t want to hurt one. They are gentle creatures who just want to eat in peace.

Here is a cute video of Manatees!

 

Well that all for today!

Love Papaw.

Dolphins!

Whenever I go to the ocean, I get excited when I see dolphins. You can occasionally see them swimming by as the look for food or the others in their group. A group of dolphins is called a pod. Once when Memaw and I were on a whale watching boat, we had some dolphins swimming right in front of the boat. They seem to swim effortlessly as they played in the wave called a “bow wave” that is pushed out in front of the boat. At a park called Marine World, I even got to feed one of the dolphins a tasty fish. He even said “thanks”, well I think that’s what he said. It was that or “Wow, you look handsome in that shirt”. It was hard to be sure.

There are over 30 kinds of dolphins in the world’s oceans. There are also some that live in fresh water rivers. Dolphins are actually considered small tooth whales. They are not fish. Fish breath underwater using gills. Dolphins breath air like us instead of having gills. Dolphins are also aquatic (it means living in the water) mammals. They feed their babies milk and even have eyelashes! Dolphins can live for 40-50 years. They love to eat small fish which they find with the help of echolocation. They make a series of clicks and whistles which help them locate the fish. They can even find fish buried in the sand and mud!

Dolphins are very intelligent. They even have a kind of language.  All those clicks and whistles really mean something. Unfortunately, Papaw doesn’t speak dolphin, so I can’t tell you what they talk about.

One of my favorite dolphins lives in the Amazon River of Brazil, South America. It’s called the pink

dolphin because its skin looks, well, pink. It’s a bit bigger than the ocean dolphins. Ocean dolphins are usually 5-6 feet long. The pink dolphin can be 7-8 feet long.  They eat many different kinds of fish. The males are the pinkest. They also have a big forehead that scientists call the “melon”. It helps them echolocate and hunt easier in the muddier water. They can swim in groups, but often are found in pairs. They can be really playful. They have been known to rub against fishermen’s boats and even grab their oars. They love to play with things in the water like sticks, or even turtles. It looks fun, but I’m not sure if the turtle likes it.  

Here’s a fun video about dolphins. I hope you like it!

 

Love Papaw.

 

Antlions!

 

This time of year here in the Central Valley is usually dry and dusty. If you look around building foundations, fence posts, or anywhere the dust tends to pile up, you may see a strange thing. You will find upside-down cones in the dirt. You probably have them around where you live too if you look closely. They look like this.

The cone is actually a trap made by the larva of an antlion. They are often called “doodlebugs” because of the way they spin and wiggle. The walls of the pit are very steep and lined with loose sand and dust particles. When an unsuspecting ant falls in one, it finds it very hard to crawl out. The doodlebug throws sand at the ant to knock it further down towards the bottom. If the ant falls to the bottom of the pit, the larva grabs it with its sharp mandibles (jaws) and pulls it underground. Its mandibles are hollow like a straw so it sucks all the juices out of the ant and throws the dry part out of the pit. Them to waits patiently for another ant or small insect to wander by. They eat, and eat, and eat! Here’s a video of a doodlebug in action.

When it gets large enough, it will for a pupa and rest for a few days. Soon it will emerge as an adult ant lion. The adults look a lot like damselflies. You don’t usually see them flying around during the day. They are pretty shy. The y don’t eat ants like the doodlebugs but instead prefer to sip nectar from flowers. They only live a few weeks in their adult form.

If you look around carefully, you might find some. They are fun to watch and really can’t hurt us. We’re just way to big to get trapped like an ant!

Well that’s all for this week.

Love, Papaw.

Dragons in the Sky

 

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects in nature. They can fly in any direction, up down, sideways, backwards, you name it. They have incredible eyes. They can see all around them, even backwards. This is good, because they have to see everything while they are flying. They hunt for insects like mosquitoes and flies while all the while watching for predators like birds ore even bigger dragonflies.

Dragonflies have 4 wings witch can be clear or have colored markings. They are divided into little cell areas that scientists use to help identify all the different kinds. Each species of dragonfly is unique. They are cold blooded so they need to warm up in the sun every morning before they can get started. You can often find them sunning on a fencepost or wire so that they can dry off from the morning dew and warm their flight muscles. Once they are airborne they will fly over grassy fields and meadows looking for unsuspecting insects. One single dragonfly can catch and devour over 100 insects in a single day. The have a cool way of catching them. They make a “basket” with their legs and scoop them up right out of the air!

Dragonflies start their lives in the water. The female lays eggs on plants just under the surface of the water. When they hatch, the larva (called a nymph) starts searching for small water dwellers to eat. They have a jaw that shoots out like some kind of alien! They eat and eat until they are full grown. Then they crawl out of the water on the stem of a plant. Their skin splits down the back and the adult dragonfly pulls itself out. When its wings are expanded and fully dried, they take their place in the skies as fierce hunters like their parents.

A cousin of the dragonfly is the damselfly. You can tell them apart because the dragonfly rests with its wings laid flat. A damselfly rests with its wing folded back. They are also much thinner. You can tell the difference in the larva also. They have feathery gills that they wave around in the water.

Dragonflies can’t really hurt you. If you see one, watch it carefully.  They are really amazing.

Here is a neat video about dragonflies.

 

Hope you liked our dragonfly talk!

Love Papaw.

Earthworms!

 

When I was growing up, nighttime excursions in the back yard after a good rain were a fun time. My dad and I loved to fish for largemouth bass, and nothing gets the attention of a hungry fish like a nice, fat night crawler. We would go out with a pail and a flashlight. We noticed that night crawlers were very sensitive to light. Although they do not have eyes like we have, they can “sense” light and dark, especially on their ends. If you turned the light right on them, they would pull back into the ground before you could get close. They are also sensitive to vibrations so we would have to walk very slowly and quietly. When you grabbed one, they would feel slimy. The slime is called mucus. They use it to protect their skin. Since they breathe through their skin, if it dries out, they will die. They also have short, bristly hairs (kind of like you daddy’s whiskers if he forgets to shave) that help them pull into their burrows and keep them from being pulled out easily.

The head end is darker brown that the rest of the worm. That’s where you can find its hearts. He has 5 of them! Worms like to eat organic matter (things like dead leaves on the ground) that they find in the dirt. They spit the dirt back out at the surface. They look like little piles of round, wet, dirtballs. Many people like to put these in their garden because they contain nutrients for plants. Earthworms help aerate the soil and help turn leaves and other debris into usable nutrients for plants. We call animals that do that decomposers. In the fall they leave little pouches with eggs in the soil. Soon they hatch out and begin to burrow in the ground in their own tunnels’

There are many different earthworms around the world. Some are very small like red worms. One variety from South Africa can be 21 feet long! Australia also has huge earth worms that can grow to 9 feet. Some here in the Central Valley can flop around like little break dancers. We call these “snake worms”.

Here’s a video about giant earth worm. Wow they’re huge!

Well I hope you liked our talk about earthworms!

Love Papaw.