What are puffins?

Puffins are comical-looking sea birds of the North Atlantic Ocean. Puffins are sometimes called sea parrots, these plump, short-winged sea birds are one of the world’s oddest-looking birds.

A white face with blue lines around the eyes and a comical waddle make the common puffin look like a circus clown. Its enormous beak, colored with red, blue, and yellow bands, is nearly as large as its head.

The gaudy colors of the male puffin’s beak are just for show.  They are really colored growths that drop off after the nesting season.

Despite its comical appearance, the puffin is an expert flier and swimmer.  Puffins can actually swim underwater in pursuit of their prey.  A puffin can catch several fish, one after another, and carry them dangling crosswise in its beak to its nestling.

Puffins nest in large colonies on rocky coasts.  One white egg island in a burrow or crevice in the rocks at nestling time. - Dick Rogers

How are oysters born?

Oysters are hatched from eggs.  An oyster spends all except the first few weeks of its life fastened to a rock or other hard object in the water.

Along the world’s seashores there are many kinds of sea animals with shells to rocks and other hard objects in shallow water near the shore.

A baby oyster is hatched from an egg laid by the mother oyster.  When first hatched, the baby oyster is about the size of a pinpoint and has no shell.  Its shell begins to form when it is a day old.

The baby oyster spends the first two weeks of its life swimming about freely.  Then it fastened itself so something hard, perhaps a rock or the piling of a wharf, or even to the shell of another oyster.

It remains fastened to the same spot for the rest of its life, feeding on tiny plants and animals carried to it by the current. The oyster grows about an inch a mouth until fully grown.  Oysters are one of the most popular foods that we take from the sea. - Dick Rogers

How does a snail grow its shell?

The shell grows in an ever-widening spiral as the snail continues to add new shell material to its shell during its lifetime.

You have probably seen a common garden snail peeking out of its shell as it slowly creeps along on a slick pathway of ooze.

Where did the snail get its shell?  It was born with a tiny shell just the right size for its body.  The shell serves as a suit of armor to protect the snail’s soft body.

As the snail grows, it oozes a slimy shell liquid that hardens into shell, and so the shell grows with the snail. The snail gets its shell-building materials from its food.

There are many kinds of snails, in almost every part of the world.  Some live only on land, some live in lakes and ponds, and others live deep in the ocean. The most snails are hatched from tiny eggs and look very much like their parents when they are born.

Most snail shells are shaped like coiled spirals.  Some are brightly colored with gray stripes.  Some snails grow shells that are no bigger than a pinhead. But the biggest shells belong to the sea snails called conchs.  Their shell grows to be more than a foot long. - Dick Rogers

What are jellyfish?

Jellyfish are unusual sea animals that have jellylike bodies and stinging tentacles, with which they capture their food. The jellyfish is among the strangest of sea creatures.

It is not even a fish, but a very simple kind of sea animal that has no skeleton.  The main pair of the jellyfish’s body looks like an umbrella, and it is made up of two thin layers of tissue with jellylike materials between them.

Around the rim of the umbrella are usually a number of simple eyes, and in the center of the body underneath is the mouth.

Hanging down from the edge are string like tentacles, armed with batteries of stinging cells filled with paralyzing poison.

If a small bumps into the jellyfish’s tentacles, it gets stung and captured for food. If you touch these tentacles, you may get stung, too!

A jellyfish swims by folding and unfolding its body—much like closing an umbrella.  Mostly, it floats along with the current.  Some jellyfish are no larger than a pea.  Other may be two feet or more in diameter.-Dick Rogers

Is the wise old owl really wise?

Although its big, staring eyes make the own look like it is thinking very hard, it is really no smarter than other birds.

Owls look wise because their big, staring eyes and thoughtful air give the appearance that they are thinking very hard.

Actually, the “wise old owl” is really no smarter that other birds. In fact, geese, crows, and ravens are all smarter than the owl.  A person can recognized an owl at once by its large, broad face with a fur of feathers around the large eyes.

Unlike the eyes of most birds, the owl’s eyes are in front of its head and point forward. But to see in another direction, the own must turn its whole head.

Persons walking around a perched owl are often amused at the way it seems in danger of twisting its head off while watching them.

The owl comes out at night to hunt for mice and other small creatures.  Its large eyes can see in the dimmest light.

But the owl does not depend on its eyes alone for hunting.  Its keen ears can hear the faintest sound and its cry startles small animals into revealing their location. The owl’s soft feathers allow it to swoop down silently on its prey.-Dick Rogers

What are ladybirds?

Ladybirds are really small, spotted beetles with a rounded body shaped like half a pea. The polka-dotted ladybird, or ladybug, is really  small beetle with a round body shaped like half a pea.

The most familiar ladybirds are shiny red with black spots.  But some are black with red spots.  Still others are yellow with black of red spots.

These gaily colored insects live in a orchards, gardens, and fields, where they eat great number of aphids and other plant-harming bugs.

In order times, farmers burning off their fields fretted about harming the helpful ladybird, giving rise to the children’s verse:  “ladybird, ladybird, fly away home.  Your house is on fire and your children are gone.”

To “fly away home,” a ladybird first raises its hard wing covers and then unfolds it flying wings.  The lady bird beetle got its name during the Middle Ages, when the insect was associated with the Virgin Mary by such names as creatures of Our Lady and Animals of the Virgin.-Dick Rogers

What are condors and where do they live?

The condor’s giant wingspread make it the largest vulture in the world. Condors are large, dark vultures that can be found living high up in the remote parts of the California Mountains of North America, and in the higher mountains of South America.

A condor may grow to be over 4 feet long and have a wingspread of nearly 11 feet.  It is one of the largest flying birds in the world.

The condor is useful to man as an animal garbage collector.  It helps keep the ground clean by feeding on dead animals which otherwise might present a health danger.

Like all vultures, condors have small, naked heads and hooked beaks.  They have no voice, but hiss like a snake when disturbed.

Though ugly to look at, condors are powerful and graceful in flight.  They spend much of their time wheeling and circling high overhead searching for food.  Their remarkable eyesight can spy out the smallest dead animal from great heights.

Because their wings are so large and heavy, baby condors are nearly a year old before they have the strength to soar. - Dick Rogers

Are tarantulas poisonous?

In the United Stales, any large, hairy spider is popularly called a tarantula.  It looks fierce but it is not as dangerous as it looks.  Its bite is no more harmful to man than that of most other spiders found in the United States.  But it can inflict a painful wound in self-defense.

Most tarantulas make homes in deep burrows.  They come out at night to look for food, and lie hidden among the leaves or in the burrow.  When an insect comes along, the tarantula rushes out and bites it, and then drags it into its burrow.

During the winter, the tarantula shuts itself up in its home with a silken door.  The tarantula gets its name from a large wolf spider found near Taranto, a town in Italy.

Long go, it was believed that people bitten by this spider came ill with a disease called “tarantism.”  The cure was said to be for the victim to dance and skip about to music until he became well.  From this old belief came the tarantella, a lively Italian folk dance.-Dick Rogers

How does a duck keep dry in the water?

A duck’s feathers are made water-proof by oil from a special oil gland near its tail.  A duck is able to deep dry while swimming because its coat of closely packed feathers is actually waterproof.

A duck’s feathers are made waterproof by oil from a special oil gland hear the duck’s tail, which the duck rubs on its feathers.  Oil and water will not mix, and so the water will not soak into the oil-covered feathers and the duck keeps dry.

A duck or any other water bird that covers its feathers with oil, such as a swan or a goose, will sink in the water if the oil is removed.

A thick undercoat of down helps keep the duck warm in icy waters.  A duck swims by paddling with its webbed feet.  A baby duck does not need swimming lessons.

It knows to swim as soon as it hatches from the egg. The mother duck leads the baby ducks to the water as soon as they are able to travel.

The ducklings cannot fly for six weeks or more after they hatch.  Though a duck can swim with easy grace in the water, it waddles clumsily on land.  It is hard for ducks to walk because their legs are short and placed so far on the body.–Dick Rogers

What does the blue whale eat?

As big as the blue whale is, it eats only the tiniest plants and creatures in the ocean.  A giant blue whale 100 feet long and weighing nearly 150 tons makes an elephant look small.

The blue whale is perhaps the biggest animal that ever lived.  But as big as the blue whale is, it eats the smallest bits of food it can find in the oceans.

The blue whale has no teeth, so it can’t chew food, and its throat is so small that it can only swallow small fish.  So it eats mostly tiny plants and sea creatures called plankton that drift about in the ocean.

Instead of teeth, long stringy plates of whalebone hang like curtains from the top of the blue whale’s mouth.  They are used like a strainer.  To eat, the blue whale swims through the plankton with its mouth wide open. 

The blue whale then squeezes the water out with its big tongue and swallows the plankton trapped on the whalebone.  It takes barrels of plankton to fill the blue whale’s big stomach.  There are other toothless whales, but some whales have strong teeth, such as the killer whale, and throats large enough to swallow chunks of food.-Dick Rogers

How do barnacles get on a ship’s hull?

Barnacles can swim at birth.  When they reach adult stage, they attach themselves to objects in the water and grow a shell.

If you have ever visited a seacoast where there were rocks and piers you’ve almost certainly seen barnacles, for the “crush” you saw on the wharf’s pilings and the rocks was made up of millions of salt water shellfish called barnacles.

When barnacle is first hatched, it resembles a young water flea and can swim about in the water.  But when it reaches adult stage it can no longer swim, so it attaches itself to any convenient object, such as the hull of a ship, piling, rock, whale, or even a sting of seaweed.

Once attached, a hard lime-like shell  forms around the barnacles. The barnacle eats by waving its feathery legs through an opening in the shell to pull tiny sea creatures and plants into its mouth.

In olden days, sailor of wooden sailing ships had to periodically pull their ships ashore to scrape off the masses of barnacles clinging to the hulls, because they reduced the ship’s speed and made steering difficult.  Today, special paints, prevent growth of barnacles.-Dick Rogers

How do a clam eat?

A clam gets its food from the water.  Food enters by way of the clam’s siphon or “neck.”

A clam is an animal whose soft body is protected by two hard shells that close over it like the covers of a book.  There are many kinds of clams, in many parts of the world.  Some clams lives on the bottoms of oceans, others live on the muddy bottoms of lakes and streams.

Clams called soft-shell clams live buried in the sand along seashores.  They are sometimes called “longneck” clams since they have a long siphon which people call a “neck.”

When the tide covers the sand the soft-shell clam opens up its shell and pushes its long siphon up through the sand to the water above.  It sucks water into its body and digests the tiny plants and other food particles it finds in the water.

When the tidies out, the clam pulls in its siphon.  This causes a little spurt of water which shows someone who is hunting clams where the clam is hidden.

The American Indians taught the Pilgrims how to dig clams along the beach.  Today a favorite picnic in many towns along the seashore is the clambake.-Dick Rogers

Where did wild mustangs come from?

Wild mustangs descended from the Spanish horses brought to Mexico by the early Spanish explorers.

A mustang is a small, hardy wild horse that once roamed the American southwest in large herds.  It got its name from the Spanish word “mestenos,” meaning “ownerless horses.”

Many people think that there were wild horses in America when Columbus fist landed.  They are wrong.  The Indians had never seen horses until the early Spanish explorers brought them to Mexico.  Some escaped and ran wild.

They lived in large herds – usually several dozen mares with their young colts.  The herd was headed by an old station, or male mustang.  The young male mustangs were driven out by the old stallion.  But sometimes one came back after he had grown up, defeated the old stallion and took the leader’s place.

The Indians were the first to capture and tame the wild mustangs.  The swift mustangs also made excellent saddle horses for cowboys, cavalrymen and pony express riders.  Cowboys often called mustangs “broncos,” which is another Spanish word, meaning “wild.”-Dick Rogers

How do frogs stay under water so long?

When under water, a frog takes in oxygen through its skin.  When a frog dives under water, he does not come to the  surface as quickly as you have to when you dive.  Why not?

The frog, of course, cannot breathe under water, as it did when it was a tadpole.  When a frog is on the bank or pond, it breathes with its lungs, which are somewhat like your lungs.

There is always some air mixed with water in the pond.  When the frog is under water, it can take a little of the air it needs through its skin.  This explains why the frog can stay under water all winter.

If you live where the winters are cold, you have probably noticed that the frogs seem to disappear when cold weather comes.  Many frogs dive into ponds and bury themselves in the muddy bottom, and quickly fall asleep.  Sleeping all winter is called “hibernation.”

While the frog is sleeping, its body keeps so still that it can get along without any fresh air until it wakes in the spring.  During its winter sleep, the frog lives on the food stored in its fat body.-Dick Rogers