Aden’s blog post as transcribed verbatim by Megan….she started off by answering the question “what do you want to talk about”

Well…there are a lot of butterflies, bumblebees, hornets and wasps, wild cats (“ya there is” she said when I looked sideways at her), deer…ummm…and moths.

There are really pretty flowers by the park and by this nice place where you can have coffee. Mom and Dad like the coffee and they have it basically every morning. The flowers attract nice insects but also some bad insects, but I like seeing butterflies, moths and bumblebees. The things that I don’t like are the hornets and the yellow jackets. They (the people who like…uhhhh…basically the caretakers) also put cat food out for the cats, they take care of them but they don’t adopt them.

There is also lots of birds. Let me tell you about the birds. I am going to save the biggest one for last. Blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, swallows, doves, and last but not least…the biggest one…there are quite a few nest around here. They are big nests. And some of their babies are learning to fly. This big bird is….(Note: she is totally getting into this dictating thing now)…an OSPREY. The ospreys lay eggs on posts and things. People make models of the ospreys in restaurants. No one hurts the ospreys and they don’t get rid of the nests. Some of the nests are in places where they need to move boats in and out. So they can’t move the object until the babies learn to fly and they aren’t using that nest anymore. The people are nice to the ospreys. They ospreys eat the fish that are in the harbour. I have seen an osprey with a fish in the osprey’s claws.

Now let me tell you about the fish and the sea creatures we have around here. The fish are usually tiny fish that like to feed on the “moss” on the boats, on the dinghies and on the posts at the dock. There are also some blue crabs around here. They have a lot here. They swim. I saw one swimming in between two boats and then it went onto the side of the dock and fed on “moss”.

*Note: “moss” to Aden I think means anything plant-like that grows on something underwater…

I am curious how deep the water is, it’s very mucky and stuff. I wish I could see the bottom because I like seeing the bottom, the sand, the rocks and seaweed, and all the nice fish. There are probably bigger fish down there.

I’m going to explain those things I just said with pictures.

First the flowers. These are some pictures of flowers I took with Mommy’s phone. I like these pictures because the flowers are beautiful, some are big and some are small. I hope you enjoy looking at these pictures. Two pictures are not of flowers but they are pretty with the sun and they are nice and green. And I like how rough the bark is on the tree. The grass is near the park we play at (it’s at the end of our dock). So I felt I could put these pictures in with the flowers.

Next are the insects. Most are on purple cone flowers as you can see. Those cone flowers really are attracted to bees and butterflies and moths. We walk right by them at the park and on the way to and from the dock where our boat is. The other picture is of a red beetle. I don't know if you can see him there you will probably have to look around. Can you see the red beetle in the picture?

Next are the osprey. It's at the boat thingy...I don't know what it's called (Note: Liam looks up from playing Minecraft and says "travel lift"). They have babies. You can see the female there. She's feeding her babies. You can't see the babies but they are learning to fly right now.

The fish are usually silver when they reflect on the sun. They usually swim in pods and like to jump out of the water. Most people call them schools.

There are also dolphins in Chesapeake Bay but they are just out of the harbour and I am looking forward to seeing some. That's all I have to say. I hope you liked that. I hope you are an animal person.

Buh bye!

Aden