Want to Watch? ©2025 by Jenny, Paul, Joe, Joshua, and Caleb Venturo Darting here and there, up the current, down it, between the rocks, through the water—he tries to dodge my attempts to view his bright colors. A minnow—keeping ever on the bottom—bright stripes, large fins—he is a darter. A rainbow darter—his name betrays his habits and looks. And it was in the Current River in Missouri where we found him. We just had an afternoon to wade in the river and get some fresh air b

Once upon a time, in the land of dreams, there lived two kings, King Just and King Greed. They both had beautiful land to rule, but King Just had the most beautiful land. He also had more wealth.  Now, one day, King Just invited King Greed to stay a week at his castle. The week went by quickly, for King Greed enjoyed seeing all the wonderful things King Just had. Before leaving, King Greed went through a closet when no one else was around. King Greed saw a beautiful crown of

Want to Listen? It was a beautiful day on the Emerald Coast, Florida. It was a tad rough and a bit more turbid than usual, which was perfect for fishing. As I sat in the warm sun watching my rod, I decided some swimming would not be amiss, so I hopped in. I could still see my rod, and I couldn’t resist the clear, cool water. After a little swimming and still no fishing action, I did some skimboarding, with frequent glances over at my rod. Still no action. We ate lunch. No act

Want to Listen? There was once a country called Shadow Hills where many different people lived. Now you may think that Shadow Hills was a horrible place to live. The name makes it sound like a dark place where there is no sunshine. But it actually wasn’t a bad place to be. In fact, the people who lived there loved it. Despite it’s name, Shadow Hills wasn’t dark all the time—there was night and day just like we have, and Shadow Hills had a sun. There were two reasons, then, wh

Want to Listen? America’s Florida Keys are home to a wide range of animals. The Keys are located off the Southernmost tip of Florida, making them subtropical. Among many other species are Florida Horse Conchs, Portuguese Man-of-Wars, and iguanas. A Live Florida Horse Conch Florida Horse Conchs are common mollusks in the waters around the Keys. A mollusk has a slimy, soft body and a hard shell. Florida Horse Conchs are large shells—24 inches—and are carnivores. They have an op

Want to Listen? Once upon a time, there were two small hermit crabs who lived on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean. Their names were Mertz and Ninnis. Now you may think these were funny names, but these names fit the crabs well. In case you didn’t know, there were two men who lived during the early 1900s whose names were Mertz and Ninnis. These two men were explorers in Antarctica. The reason the names Mertz and Ninnis were fitting for these crabs was because these

©2025 by Jenny Venturo Want to Listen? You may think that monkeys are a far away, tropical animal that you’ll never be able to see except at a zoo. But what many of us don’t realize is that there are moneys right under our noses in Florida.   The sun was shining as we paddled down the Silver River in central Florida. There were anhingas and herons all along the banks, and the occasional alligator sunned itself on a log. We had brought our goggles so that we could peer into th

Want to Listen? Long, long ago, at the very beginning of time, two people, a man and a woman, the first that God ever created, took a bite of forbidden fruit . . . and with that one bite, changed the course of history. Things had been so wonderful, so perfect. The man and the woman had lived in a beautiful world where there were no such things as pain or tears or fights. There was no sorrow. There was no death. And best of all, these two people were friends with God. They liv

Want to Listen? Tides. They suck water out to the deep, out of sounds, and through inlets; they expose the rocks encrusted with life; they surge back up over land. All this pulling, surging, moving of tons of water, is controlled by the moon, which is controlled by God. It is He Who keeps life going—and we get to study how He decided to do it!   Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon (gravity is what pulls a book onto the floor when you drop it). The earth has

Want to Listen? Once, there were two kings and two kingdoms. The first king was good. His kingdom was good too; his people loved him, and he loved his people. The other king was not good. His kingdom was full of darkness and evil. He hated goodness and light, and so he hated the good king and his kingdom. This king wanted to conquer the good kingdom. He wanted to make it as dark and evil as his own so that he could be the king of both kingdoms. The evil king had a huge army.

Want to Listen? While staying at Schoodic Peninsula in Acadia National Park, Maine, we saw quite a few animals. Keep reading to learn about some of them. Pollock are a cod species that live in the waters off of New England. Pollock live in schools over rocks and sometimes feed at the surface. A pollock’s diet consists of fish, especially sand eels. We discovered this when we were fishing from the rocks at Schoodic. Hundreds of pollock were involved in a huge feeding frenzy, t

This is a sextant, a tool used for navigation Crash! Another monster wave loomed towering over the boat, then hurtled down and swept over it, engulfing it in ice cold seawater. Then another rose up under it, lifting it high into the black sky and flinging it down again into the depths below, where it was only buffeted again from the side by yet another furious wave. The year was 1916. The tiny boat and the 5 men on board were in the most treacherous waters in all the world—Dr

©2025 by Joshua Venturo “There’s a Daddy-long-legs eating my pepperoni!” That’s what Caleb said as we sat by the Glen Ellis river in New Hampshire, eating our dinner of “pizza rice.” Caleb quickly snatched his pepperoni away from this lanky thief. As he said, “I want my pepperoni.” The Eastern Daddy-long-legs lives east of the Rocky Mountains in the US. In the evening, Daddy-long-legs will climb up trees in search of extra heat from the sun. They can be found clustered togeth

Wolves, lions, bears, sharks—these are all ferocious predators that hunt down prey. With their strong jaws and sharp claws, they are experts at catching other animals for food. You probably know about a lot of predators. If you have read some of our previous posts, you will know that the Northern Pike  is a fish that is a nasty predator. You also learned that the ichneumon wasp  is a fascinating creature that preys on insects and spiders. Can you think of any other predators?

Which fish has huge scales, can survive in polluted water, and eats berries? Which fish grows to 100 pounds and lives across the country? You’re about to find out. While we were in New York, on Lake Ontario, Daniel caught a carp with his hands. We think something was wrong with him, because he did not speed away like most carp. We were excited to have caught him with our hands! Carp are large fish that are native to Europe and Asia but were introduced to the US. There are 3 m

A small amphibian steps onto a bright green leaf. His gray body stands out against the green. A perfect target for predators. Very slowly, the gray fades out and is replaced with brownish, and then dark green. When the change is complete, he is very hard to spot on the leaf. He is green. What is this small amphibian? Treefrogs live in the eastern United States. The Common Gray Treefrog lives throughout the East, but the Green Treefrog can only be seen south of Pennsylvania. T

At first glance, it might look like a huge stinger that would make a big welt on your skin. But you don’t have to worry about this thing stinging you. Or do you? . . .   The ichneumon wasp is a large wasp that lives worldwide. There are many different species of ichneumon wasp, but one species, the Giant Ichneumon grows to 3 inches long, plus a 4 3/8-inch ovipositor. Most ichneumons do not sting, but some are able to inject venom through their ovipositor! The Giant Ichneumon

All night long, the storm raged. Wind howled in the treetops. It whipped over the water of the lake, ruffling it into turmoil. It ripped the leaves off the trees and scattered them everywhere. It tore tree branches loose and flung them onto the ground. Throughout all this uproar, two little baby squirrels were huddled high up in a hole in an enormous tree. With each blast of wind, the great tree shuddered, and the two frightened squirrels cowered and cuddled up closer to each

He hasn’t eaten for a while now and he’s hungry. He is lurking around in the rocks, deep down in the water, looking for prey. Suddenly, a flash off to his side catches his notice. A shiner is struggling through the water—a perfect target. One powerful thrust of his tail and the shiner is in his mouth, down his throat . . . Wait a minute. Something is different about this shiner. He feels a sharp pang in his mouth—something is pulling him towards shore. He struggles and wriggl

He runs about on talus fields all summer with bundles of small plants in his mouth. He spreads the plants in the sun to dry and brings them down in his hole when it rains. By the end of summer, he has a small haystack on the mountain where he lives. Do you know what he is yet? . . . He is a pika!   Pikas are small, brown mammals that live high on the mountains of Colorado. They are herbivores, which means they eat plants. Pikas grow to 8 ½ inches, but most are about 6 inches.