Se7en Science Experiments: Bugs, Birds and Beasts…

When it comes to science our experiments are mostly observing and we are really just working on our observation skills. Luckily when it comes to bugs, birds and beasts we are not short of material to study.

Most of our science projects are inspired by reading and some of the experiments we did for this post were inspired by this fabulous Dorling Kindersley book.

Here we go Se7en + 1 Experiments: Please feel free to click on any picture that you would like to see bigger.

1. Many Miles of Mapping: For all our outings in the last month we kept a list of animals we had spotted. Then we plotted them on a map of our area. Once they were on the map we went and had a read about them in our local guide books for kids.




2. Camouflage Camping: We read a whole lot about camouflage and then drew a couple of beasties and then had a beastly hunt. Some of them were a lot harder to find than others!!!
   

   

   And some of them were a lot more colorful than others!!!







3. Butterfly Bananas: Our willing chef chopped some peeled and chopped a banana. Warmed them in a pan and added some brown sugar – and stirred tilled he had a thick paste… very yummy. We put this out on the lavender to attract butterflies.
   

   

   We got some really large ants, double the size of our usual ants and a couple of bees but the butterfly preferred the tree that they are always hovering around.



4. Fruit Fly Feast: The point of this experiment was to see if we could observe the life and times of a couple of fruit flies… The chef chopped some bananas, skins and all and popped them in a jar. Leave the jar open in a warm sunny spot for a day to attract the flies… this gives the fruit flies a chance to lay their eggs, cover the jar with fabric and leave it. Within a fortnight you should have a crop of fruit flies in our jar and we will have to report back on that one.




5. Lemon lounge: Chop a lemon in half and whip all the insides out. Hide it upside down in a dark damp garden spot and see who comes over to visit. We had the tiniest little bugs and some very small slugs… We wondered if we would have more visitors if we used an orange – not being so sour and all!!! What happened if we hollowed out an apple? We only had a lemon at the time… I see this experiment going much further than we anticipated!!!
   

   

6. Bug Hotel: We took a little plastic box and put some delectable edibles in it… bread crumbs, a bit of fruit and lettuce in it. We propped some stones on either side and propped a stone on top to keep it dark and stop the rain (like we ever have any!!! and then we did!!!). Leave it overnight and look for visitors in the morning. We had a couple of slugs, snails, ants and tiny red bugs.




7. Birdy Banqueting: We got together a feast of birdy delights!!!Bacon bits, breadcrumbs, oat porridge, different seeds, honey, chopped fruit… We hid it in the hedge to see what our birds preferred. we watched and saw nothing, we heard heaps of activity, but as long as we watched there were no visitors, we glanced away…
   

   

   

   And wow: They tried nearly everything… They loved bread crumbs, honey and bacon…. Makes sense we have some nectar loving sugar birds, some fruit loving white eyes, and one noisy bird that loves to eat bugs and beasts – it must have had the bacon!) and so on!!!

And our Se7en + 1 th experiment:

• Bird Bazaar: We took the left over seeds from the bird banquet and planted them in a container that is in a great spot for birdwatching. And we will let you know if any birds come and do their shopping here in a couple of weeks.

That’s us. Bugs, birds and beasts are done for a little while!!!