April Pulley Sayre Children's Book Author » Animal of the Month

November Animal Surprise

admin — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:59:50 +0000

Look who came to my book signing! This tortoise lives outdoors on the grounds of the education area of the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. Someone left the door open during my signing and the tortoise walked in and up to my signing table. No joke!

October Animal

admin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:53:52 +0000

Time for some desert animals. Jeff and I drove all the way to Phoenix so I could give talks at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. LOVE this place. Full of plants. Wild birds, butterflies, squirrels, and bunnies wander freely. These Gambell’s Quail strut around, then dash, dash, dash when startled.

September Animal

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:51:13 +0000

This is a moth on our window. It was attracted to the kitchen light. What a beauty. I don’t know the species. Photographing through the glass is a tad tricky. Still working on capturing their fluffy loveliness.

August Sounds!

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:41:46 +0000

Now listen to the night time insect sounds of an insect that has perfect green leafy camouflage. These were also recorded in our Indiana yard, later at night than the July sounds.

Aug22011 SBendIN

To find their name and more information on them, click here. Then celebrate by reading Ant, Ant, Ant: an Insect Chant!

July Sound Picture

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:34:39 +0000

This insect calls during the day. Sometimes it emerges in great numbers after many years. These were in our yard.

To hear them, click here: Aug 22011SBendearlyev

You can also hear some other insects in the background. (See next month’s sound.)
What are these creatures ? For the answer, click here.

June Animal Spouts!

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:29:17 +0000

We just returned from seeing these creatures, the second longest whales in the world, in the St. Lawrence Seaway, near Tadoussac, Quebec. Their common name has three letters and is also part of a fish. Answer here.

May Animal: Warbler

admin — Sun, 08 May 2011 17:03:51 +0000

In the month of May, Jeff and I take a special vacation just to watch warblers that migrate through the Midwest at this time of year. This is a Northern Parula at Magee Marsh in Ohio.

April Animal Surprise

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:25:24 +0000

Here is one of our favorite squirrels.

It is a Gray Squirrel. Small, local populations of gray squirrels have this gorgeous coffee color. This one lives in our neighborhood because a wildlife trapper released it here. As a Gray Squirrel, it is noticeably slimmer than the local Fox Squirrels. And it spends more time up in the trees. It’s the only one that can leap to our platform feeder, too.

March Animal

admin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:02:08 +0000

Birds hop, too. Here are some Sandhill Cranes doing their hopping dance during their migration rest stop. This happens here in Indiana at Jasper-Pulaski.

February Animal

admin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:54:08 +0000

We photographed this poison dart frog in Peru. It’s tiny, not much larger than a dime. For more hoppy animals, see my article on the Under the Greenwillow blog.

January Animal

admin — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 19:38:56 +0000

To celebrate If You’re Hoppy, the next few months are hoppy animals., like this insect! These insects drink juices from plants. See all the brown spots on the leaf, probably from the insect feeding. I don’t know this insect’s identity. Do you?

December Bird 2011

admin — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:19:02 +0000

There’s a blue one, a green one, and this one. The two parts of its common name rhyme. I photographed this bird in Yellowstone. It stashes pine nuts. Sometimes finds food from careless campers. It is in the Corvidae (crow) family. Still stumped? Find its identity here.

November Posterior

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:01:14 +0000

This creature’s rump pattern is a signal. When alarmed, the long white hairs stand up. The rest of the herd can see this flash of white from a long way away. So they all know to flee. It is the world’s second fastest land animal. (The cheetah is the fastest.) I photographed it in SE Wyoming. Click photo for its name.

October Rodent

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:36:01 +0000

Forget the big animals in Yosemite National Park, CA. This was our favorite seen and photographed there. It has fascinating behavior, somewhat like a fox squirrel, but also a little bit like a prairie dog, too. It does not live in large groups, as prairie dogs do. It does burrow in the ground. It is the California Ground Squirrel.

September Animal

admin — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:27:31 +0000

What is this creature scratching an itch? This animal can hold 3 gallons of water in its mouth. I photographed it in Monterey, CA, on the docks before I took a whale watch trip. Click photo for answer.

August Insect

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:08:44 +0000

This Tiger Swallowtail is feeding from a cupplant in our back yard. In addition to the yellow form, it also has a dark form, called a dark morph. In our area, the caterpillars feed on cherry trees. (They are different from the tent caterpillars, though.)

July Mammal

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:08:14 +0000

Who’s this eating bird seed under the feeder? They visit every night. Give me an “R” for r——. They smell just slightly musky, but not as much as a skunk. So you can often tell when a raccoon has been visiting. They are often active at night, but I photographed this one in early morning. Perhaps it could not sleep and got up for a snack?

June Animal Eye

admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:03:07 +0000

Who’s this? Give me an “E” and think Africa. One of my favorite sites is Safari TV, which features three daily game drives led by knowledgeable naturalist guides in Sabi Sands. You can email and ask them questions and they often answer, live.

May Animal Mystery

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:16:56 +0000

It eats worms.

Its common name begins with the letter “R.”

It fills in this game phrase: round _____

There is a bird in Britain by the same “r” name. But it’s a different bird!

April Animal Is Not a Fox

admin — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:34:30 +0000

This is not a Fox Squirrel. It is another kind. Some people call it the piney squirrel. It is actually the Red Squirrel. We have seen photos of these squirrels elsewhere and those populations of Red Squirrels look much more red all over. This one is adding material to its nest in Spring. Usually we see them add material in Fall. Perhaps the baby squirrels are making a mess so this adult had to take out some material from the nest and replace it?