Monthly Archives: March, 2012
A-Z in April blog challenge – Alaskan wood frog!
Alaskan Wood Frog Amazing Alaskan wood frogs – they live in Alaska, obviously, and are attractive, unremarkable-looking, greeny-brown frogs about 3- 7cm in size. But they have an extraordinary ability. As it becomes colder, they burrow under leaves and mosses, and when it begins to snow and then freeze – Alaskan wood frogs freeze too! …
Elephant mother
Elephants communicate with a very deep note which can travel through the ground. After she gives birth, an elephant mother sings a low note of greeting to her baby. Illustration © Liz Brownlee First published in ‘Shouting at the Ocean’ Hands Up Press 2009 This post is copyright material with all rights reserved, please do …
Waiting
Illustration © Liz Brownlee Illustration first published in “Shouting at the Ocean” Eds. Roger Stevens, Graham Denton, Andrea Shavick, Hands Up Press 2009
Fairy fly
. Fairy flies are in fact tiny parasitic wasps, the tiniest insects discovered. This one, which lives in India, measures only 0.2mm across its wings. Fairy flies lay their eggs inside the eggs of larger insects. The wasp egg hatches into a larva, which eats the host egg before it has a chance to develop. …
Paradox Frog
The paradoxical frog lives in lakes with floating vegetation in South America and Trinidad. Scientists do not know why this frog lays eggs which hatch into huge (up to 27 cm) tadpoles, but which shrink instead of growing into small (4-6 cm) frogs. It is not endangered at the moment. Illustration© Liz Brownlee
Honey Possum
Honey possums are so tiny (40 -90 cm), they need constant supplies of pollen and nectar to survive. They live in one small part of south-eastern Australia, and have a symbiotic relationship with the flowering plants there, passing on pollen as they feed. Honey possums are unique in several ways. They are not true …
Bamboo Tree Frog
. Illustration © Liz Brownlee Bamboo tree frogs are quite numerous and not endangered, which is why he’s not in my book, Animal Magic!
Hippobotamus
I love writing shape poems – I’m so lucky, they seem to come to my brain while I’m writing the poem, so I can accommodate certain words or letters to appear in the right place to work as a picture. That’s what happened with ‘Hippobotamus’. This puzzle was made and painted for me by Holly …
Animal Magic
My book, Animal Magic, will be published in April. It contains more than 40 poems and facts about endangered animals, beautifully illustrated by Bristol artist, Rose Sanderson.The foreword is by Dr George McGavin, insect and small animal expert on ‘The One Show’ and ‘Expedition’ series on the BBC. If you’d like a copy, you can …
Welcome to my blog!
Well, this is the first post. Here I hope to wander through poems and poetry related issues, talk about Lola my lovely medical alert dog, and generally waffle about stuff. do have a nosy around – there is also a link to my website on the right.
lizbrownlee - poet 