Our Trip to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

"That was the best field trip ever!"

"That was my favorite field trip all year!"

"I loved it!"

"That was so fun!"

Those were just some of the comments on the way home from our field trip to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary on Friday. We had BEEautiful weather and the place was BUZZing with activity! We saw examples of almost every animal category: mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, amphibians, arthropods and insects. We got to see two deer so close up we were speechless! Unfortunately they were too fast for Miss Varrell to get a photograph. However, here are some of the other pictures we did manage to take while we were there. There is even a video at the end of the photo collection. Enjoy!

At the pond, looking at aquatic insects:

And finding other forms of life too!

 Learning from Amy, our Audubon naturalist, the life cycle of aquatic insects...

My goodness! This one doesn't look like an insect to me!

Click here to listen to leopard frog vocalizations

Using diagrams to identify aquatic insects:

Next, Amy took us on a walk in the woods to look for insects that live in damp, wooded areas. We did some "log-rolling" to discover more insects...

But while we were on our walk, two deer crossed our path! We had to stop and watch. They were beautiful  animals who were anxious to be in a quiet place to relax and eat their lunch. We obliged...

Next, we learned about flying insects. We had to learn about different types of nets and how to use them to catch flying insects.  Here we are, relaxing, before Amy began her lesson on flying insects.

Scoop, scoop, swoop!

 Wow! Amy told us she had never had a class find so many different types of flying insects in one session before. We were as proud as peacocks!

We had a fabulous day. Thank you Mom and Dad for letting us go on our field trip to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. We had a great time!