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As a kid growing up, I always thought these were called wood bugs and I’m not sure why. Now I know their real name! I was surprised at how much detail there was in their back markings. It was also interesting that there were a few markings that weren’t really even from side to side. These guys almost remind me of the markings on a monarch butterfly.

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At first I thought it was a bee on the willow tree leaf, but it had details that didn't match a regular bee. Then I realized it had strange shaped rings with a v on its back. I also noticed that there were many of them all over the tree, still not sure what they are, but they were feeding off something on the leaves.

I think kids would love this activity and pointing out for them to look at the details will help them look closer.

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This from one of my Environmental Science students who was also my Biology student AND my student aide. She had such a passion for art that I had her do Nature in Art type projects for assignments instead of traditional assessments.

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It is the wee hours of the morning and so I used the magic of the internet to attempt my drawing. I am known in our area as the crazy bird lady and my husband and I keep four feeding stations around our tiny property filled during the winter months. I am fascinated with Black Capped Chickadees. And as crazy is it may sound, I am fascinated by the adaptations that birds feet have made to our very cold winters. I have read that they modulate the temperature of their feet, keeping them very, very cold compared to their body temperature so that they do not lose heat through their legs and feet, and yet their legs and feet do not freeze. They are trusting creatures and in the winter we include freeze dried worms from time to time sprinkled in the seed mixtures we create. The Black Capped Chickadees get giggly, chattering about these worms in mid winter. It is not unusual for them to fly down within a foot of my hands as I am filling the feeders. I am fascinated that these small creatures with so little body mass can survive and thrive in our spells of subzero temperatures. I love their calls in the winter, and it has inspired me to create my own whistle-call as I feed them.  

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Black Capped Chickadee, Kristal Kangas-Hanes

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Black Capped Chickadee, Kristal Kangas-Hanes

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There aren't very many squirrels at my house because the dogs like to chase them, but there are some. I didn't realize that squirrels have thumbs, I've just never really thought about it. When you look at a squirrel head on their face looks more like a triangle then a circle. Their fur has a lot of different shades of color in it and they are very active most of the time. It is amazing how they can jump from one object to another. 

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I love watching the birds visit our feeder in our backyard. I’m not great at identifying them, but this was fun to take a photo of a beautiful yellow bird and then draw it. It did force me to notice the small details. I think this was a yellow warbler – it does have white and black on its wings which I never noticed before. I could use this when teaching about variations - focusing on beaks and feather differences.

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We have a lot of ducks near our house, so we decided to draw a duck. I am on spring break with my kids, so I went out with my 9 year old (Rustin) and did the drawing activity with him. The colors on the ducks were amazing, even though he did not have the time to add them to our drawing. He did a good job, and worked hard to get the direction of all the feathers. We learned that the feathers go different directions on the duck! They aren't all arranged in the same pattern. The feet took a little longer, because the crazy things weren't very still, and if they were, they were usually sitting down and covering their feet. We learned that they have an extra ridge on the back of their leg above their webbed foot! We did end up cheating a little bit at the end and just pulled up a picture on google so he could get the details right. Overall, it was a fun activity, and it was fun to involve my own son who loves to draw.

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We have a lot of squirrels around our house, so I thought it would be fitting to draw one. I am no artist by any means, but it was still fun to do! Drawing the basic outline of the squirrel was pretty easy, but when I looked closer at the picture, it became increasingly more difficult to draw. There are so many details on an animal that you don’t realize until you get a more close up view. God’s creation is amazing! They have big, black eyes with a white circle around their eyes. I guess I never really noticed that. I did notice while observing them that they are very active and always playing or looking for food!

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I drew a sowbug! I'm on that macros theme.  This was so totally fun.  I could see adding this as an activity once kids have collected their macros.  I like this because it really focuses in on the small details that are important for macro ID. 

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Ants and are part of wildlife! Insects are easy to forget about when learning about wildlife. We mostly tend to thinks about the larger animals or the ones that make noise, like a raven on the post.  I learned that animals do like to be out and about right after a snow storm when it is windy and wet. My choices were limited. I had to turn over pots and different ground covering to find an organism to draw. I found a large ant mound under a sagebrush. The ants were moving slowly because of the snow. I took several pictures and used "Seek" from "iNaturalist"  to identify the ants. I learned that ants body parts are not simple circles but designed specifically for their functions. An example is the middle body section. It is longer do be able to attach the six legs with a larger top end towards the head. I also learned that ants have toe like structures on the feet. I think this would be for gripping. However this poor ant is missing one of his legs.                                                                                             If I were to do this with kids I would use the "Seek" app to help put a name to their finished drawing. It also can help students find clear photos of their organism in case their own photo turns out blurry. (5 out 6 of my photos were blurry). I also think it would be important to point out to students about really looking at different parts and how they are shaped and colored. This ant is not three circles with striate lines for legs and black as a color.  It took some time to draw correctly. I really enjoyed this activity and will be keeping this lesson in my back pocket. 

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Our school mascot is the Ram. A few years ago I was asked to do a painting for a school fundraiser/auction and this is a copy of the painting. I studied multiple photographs and zoomed in to enlarge different areas to study exactly how the hair laid in the different areas as well as how the shadows emphasized bone structure and muscle definition.  I have also done similar activities as "Draw What You Hear" to teach listening skills, giving and following directions. These are great activates to develop skills of paying attention to detail and being observant. 

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Deer are a very common in my neighborhood. The whitetail deer are more prevalent during the winter and spring where as the mule deer are much more common during the summer and fall months.

I never spot the whitetail does/fawns/yearlings alone. They always travel in groups. Because so many are fed (either unintentionally through birdfeeders, or intentionally) they are very bold and will allow you to get an extended look without them being spooked.

I had never really noticed the white around the mouth and eyes. Had I drawn from memory, I would have excluded those details.

This time of year, they still have to dig through the snow in our yard to access vegetation however, there are sunny places across the street where food has already been revealed.

While the bucks draw our family's attention, they are hard to spot this time of year because they have not yet grown this year's antlers.

I appreciated the reason to stop and really look at my "neighbors."

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I observed a spotted towhee in my backyard near our birdfeeder. I am not an artist, so please don't judge my drawing too harshly! I found that once I started drawing the bird, there were so many details that I hadn't noticed initially. I could easily recognize the colors of the bird, but when I started drawing it I had to look closely to see exactly where the orange feathers began and ended. I did not have access to a good camera, so I looked up pictures online so I could really see some of the details that I overlooked during my initial observation. Drawing the bird made me look much more carefully and notice those little details. I learned more about their behavior by observing them more closely. I noticed that they mostly ate seeds on the ground and I wondered about their nesting behavior. I learned that their nests are often on the ground or low to the ground. This activity made me a more active observer and made me more curious about the spotted towhee.