These are giant cockroaches. The scientific name is Blaberus giganteus. If you live in or go to Central or South America, you might see these big bugs. They are one of the world’s largest cockroaches. They are about 3 inches long. They live in dark caves in rainforests.
Their wings look like paper. I like their faces and their long antennas.
The cockroaches in these pictures live at the Bugs Alive! exhibit at Milwaukee Public Museum. We took these pictures on October 29 this year.
This is an eastern American toad, also called American toad. They live in northeast North America in woodlands, prairies, wetlands, grassy lawns, and fields. We sometimes see them in our yard. They are good for gardeners because they eat lots of insects like grasshoppers, and they also eat worms, spiders, and slugs. You can hear them in May, June, and early July. Their call sounds like a high-pitched trill that lasts 10-30 seconds or longer. They are a true toad. In the winter, they burrow underground below the frost line.
If you want to see the same toad that is in the picture, you can find it at Heckrodt Wetland Reserve in Menasha at their nature center. We took this picture there last spring.
This is a northern green frog, also called green frog. The northern green frog is native to Wisconsin and is very common throughout northeastern North America. It lives 5-10 years. It eats grasshoppers, crickets and other insects, slugs, and snails. You can hear its call in late May, June, and July, and it sounds like a single plucked note from an out-of-tune banjo string.
In the winter time, they go under water and burrow into the mud at the bottom of ponds and lakes and hibernate. They don’t need to breathe because they can absorb oxygen through their skin.
You can visit the frog in the picture at the Heckrodt Wetland Reserve nature center in Menasha, Wisconsin. We took this picture on April 24, 2010.
This is a giant black millipede. It is also called a giant African millipede, because it lives in Ghana and other parts of tropical western Africa. We saw this one at the Milwaukee Public Museum. In the picture above, you can see its face pretty well. If you look on the right side, you can see the giant desert centipede in the other cage.
Giant black millipedes live in the rain forest and eat decaying plants. They can be found under bark, in the soil, or in leaves on the ground. Just like the millipedes in North America, they can curl up into a spiral for defense.
They have two pairs of legs on each segment. In this picture, you can see the legs better. Click on the pictures to make them bigger.
These are jade-headed buffalo beetles. They are called jade-headed because they are the color of jade. These bugs live in the Bugs Alive exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
When I first visited the museum in February, my favorite exhibit was the Bugs Alive exhibit, which is a bug zoo right in the museum. While I was there, I got to talk to the lady that takes care of the bugs. She feeds them, she takes out dead bugs, and puts in new bugs that they have hatched and grown. She told us that she calls these bugs Packer beetles, because they are green and gold, which are the Green Bay Packers colors. She had some new Packer beetles to put in the cage, and she let me put them in! It was very exciting.
Jade-headed buffalo beetles live in the tropical forests of Africa. They eat pollen, tree sap, and fruits. If you are ever in Africa, you can trap these beetles using rotten bananas. The males have a forked horn on their heads, and the females do not have a horn.
This is a Polish chicken that belongs to Aunt Paula and Uncle Pete. You can tell a Polish by the crown of feathers on its head. This one is a White Crested Black Polish, which is one of the color varieties of non-bearded Polish chickens. Polish are egg laying chickens that lay white eggs. They are also popular show birds.
Polish is a very old breed of chicken. They are named Polish because the breed was very popular in Poland in the 17th century. But the breed probably came in from Asia.
This is a barred rock. Barred rock is a color variety of the Plymouth rock breed of domestic chicken. The breed was developed in the United States in the 1800’s, and it is one of the most common breeds of chicken in the United States. Barred rock chickens are a cold-hardy bird, which means that it can survive cold winters. It is also a dual-purpose bird, which means that it is useful for the eggs that it lays and the meat that it produces. Usually they are not aggressive, so they are good farm birds.
We took this picture on Saturday at my Uncle Pete and Aunt Paula’s farm.
Yesterday, we visited chicks and chickens at my Aunt Paula and Uncle Pete’s farm. We went with them out to the barn to open the door and let them run around outside.
We found an egg in the nest!
We aren’t sure which hen this egg came from.
They have many different kinds of chickens at their barn. In the next few days, we will write posts about a few different breeds of chickens.
I hope you enjoy watching them eat as much as I did.
Chickens Eating on Vimeo.
Or watch on YouTube. (If you are using an iPod, use this link.)
These are chicks that live at Uncle Pete and Aunt Paula’s farm. They were really cute and really soft. They live in a big trough with a heat lamp to keep them warm. There is also a dead deer hanging nearby for them to look at.
There are different color chicks. The youngest ones are yellow and covered with very soft down. The older ones have black feathers. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see that the oldest chicks are starting to grow combs.
In the video, if you listen close you can hear the peeping sound that the chicks make. If you listen very close to the beginning of the video you can hear my Aunt Paula comment on what the chick did in her hand.
Chicks Walking and Peeping on Vimeo.
Or watch on YouTube. (If you are using an iPod, use this link.)
These are red pandas. We saw them last year in October at the Minnesota Zoo. Red pandas are crepuscular, which means they are mostly active at dusk and dawn. They eat mostly bamboo, but can also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. They live in the forests of the Himalayas, in the countries of Nepal, China, India, Bhutan, and Burma (also called Myanmar).
They love to climb trees, and they are really cute.
Red pandas have lots of other names, like Lesser panda, Firefox, Fire cat, Bright panda, Common panda, Wokdonka, Sankam, Thokya, Woker, and Ye.
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