One of the exciting elements of going out on a nature walk is that you never know what you may find, see, hear, or experience. That’s what’s so special about a "Nature Moment", there's no scheduled time and it’s fleeting, but it makes you feel more connected to the world around you, and lets you in on some of its magic. This is exactly what happened during a nature walk with our Homeschoolers! While playing along the creek, they found what was first thought to be a rubber fishing lurer submerged in a bit of water on the creek’s bank. Educator Adam pulled it from the water to show Educator Carl after realizing it was in fact real. In his 25 plus years of teaching Nature Education, Carl had never seen a grub so big! After the group did a bit of research, they discovered it to be the Grub of an Eastern Hercules Beetle. They deduced that most likely it had been ejected from the root system of a dead nearby tree that recently went down. Unfortunately it did not seem to survive its ordeal and time in the water, but they left in an observation carrier to show the other classes. A bit later, when they went to check on it and note any changes— and there was a big one…. it was very much alive and moving around! It looks like this grub was lucky to have been spotted and rescued by our Homeschoolers, as it seems it was able to expel some of the water it had taken on and wriggled around as the teachers and students celebrated their unexpected successful rescue mission. They decided on the best new home for it, inside of a rotten log along the trail, and bid it goodbye and wished it well. Nature Moments are unexpected and can come in a multitude of ways. In the form of admiring a favorite rare flower blooming, a butterfly resting for a moment on your shoulder, seeing a Green Heron and feeling like you’re in Jurassic Park, or even, rescuing the fattest grub you’ll ever see from drowning…#TogetherOutside. Click here to learn more about our Homeschool Naturalist program!
By Joanna Marvel - with photos and information from Carl Heitmuller
