Yesterday was one of those perfectly serendipitous nature days. It started with bunnies playing in the backyard. After lunch, we found an American Toad under the play structure at my mom’s which we moved to the back of the lot away from the dogs (and had a big lesson in really washing hands after handling nature – toads can excrete poison). Then, while the kids were chasing the millions of butterflies in the neighbors field, we stumbled upon a baby skunk!

Ok, so the baby skunk (which ‘L’ says has the ‘most beautiful tail’ – she is all about accessorizing) had us scrambling to get the dogs in the house. My mother then called her neighbors to let them know a skunk was hanging out by their backdoor… comes to find out that their oldest son (recently grad from college) rescued it off the side of the road and was nursing it with cat formula until its teeth come in. Who rescues a baby skunk? Well a homeschooled grad of course 😉 .

Here is ‘A’s nature study from yesterday. This is what he learned about American Toads.

We found him at Gammy’s house under the playfort. You have to wash your hands very good if you touch one ’cause they have poison. They eat crickets, flies and worms. They sleep in tunnels.

 For more information on American Toads visit eNature, one of our favorite online IDing sites.