We live in a wonderful area for wildlife: many of our parks are built into trail systems so you can play and hike in the same morning. In this case we intended to hike but met a new little friend who could keep up with all four kids and was also equally fascinated with nature. This is how we ended up with all five kids taking turns holding and petting a fuzzy Woolly Bear caterpillar:
No great pictures of them actually holding it as the kids were so tightly clustered around the bug, but they were enjoying the experience immensely.
We popped into the local ranger station building to use the restroom (right next to the park) and ended up staying for an hour while two very patient rangers answered all of the kids questions about paw prints, skulls, scat, bears, shells, raccoons, spiders... you get the idea ;)
We got home a little late but it was totally worth it. Here's a rare moment of Theo resting; he was pretty tired at this point.
Ok, for those of you not liking bugs, you can stop here, no more pictures of kids.
This guy landed on our window with an audible "THUD". I sadly couldn't get a good shot of him but he was easily 5-6 inches long. He stuck around for a few minutes; it was very windy so we got a good look at him while he took shelter.
Turns out "he" is a she - a female Giant Ichneumon Wasp. That tail isn't a stinger like the kids and I originally thought - it's an ovipositor used to deposit eggs in wood. Super cool!
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