Several years ago while I was reading Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories to my children we came across an essay about curiosities. Curiosities may be natural or man-made, but they are interesting and unusual, not "everyday."
Since then, my children and I are always on the lookout for curiosities. On a recent spring hike at a local nature preserve we found several.
Yellow Brain Fungus (tremella mesenterica):
Insect gall attached to an evergreen branch. I would like to be able to identify it (find out the insect that made it) but it is difficult to do:
Fir Bracket Fungus...possibly. Difficult to accurately identify. Greener than the photo in my identification guide:
Insect gall on what appears to be some sort of cedar-like tree. See the needles poking through? I have never seen one like this before:
And now for some not so uncommon finds, but interesting nonetheless...
An animal burrow...possibly muskrat as it was on the edge of the creek:
Lichen and moss-covered rock outcropping:
Animal bone collection on display in the nature center:
My 8-year-old gaped in amazement (so did I!). We wondered how long it would take to amass such a collection of bones.
A beautiful view from the top of a meadow:
I would love to create a museum of nature curiosities with my children. Or a public nature center...or perhaps host a show of homeschooled children's nature collections or nature finds. Hmmm...I'm going to think some more about this.
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