Spring Calendar of Events

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Special Events | Adults Programs | Family Programs | Preschool Programs
Spring Vacation Day Camp | Winter Vacation Day Camp

Special Events

Sugar on Snow Parties
Date: March 24; Sun., March 25; and Sat., March 31
Time: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Meeting place: Sugarhouse, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Fee: Admission is free. Food and syrup for sale.

Come celebrate the sugaring season with sweet sugar on snow, cider donuts, sugaring demonstrations, and a delicious taste of each grade of maple syrup! Tap a tree, collect sap from buckets, and follow the journey from sap to syrup during our sugarbush tours. Bring home a jug or two of pure Vermont maple syrup to support the Green Mountain Audubon Center’s education and conservation programs.

Sugar on Snow Parties are generously sponsored by Main Street Landing.

Celebrate the return of migratory birds to Vermont with Audubon Vermont and the Birds of Vermont Museum. The day will be jam packed with activities, including: admission to the Birds of Vermont museum, a live bird presentation, live music, bird walks, children’s programs, art projects, raffles and more! Find more details on our website as Bird Day approaches

Programs for Adults

Drawing Birds and Blossoms
Date: Sunday, May 6
Time: 1 - 4 p.m.
Meeting place: Sugarhouse Parking Area, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Fee: Members $15, Non-members $20
Ages: appropriate for adults; children 8 years and older welcome with adult companion
Pre-registration is required: 434-3068.

Spend an artistic afternoon at Audubon focused on both birds and blossoms. Join Vermont wildlife and landscape illustrator Libby Walker Davidson and teacher/naturalist Gwendolyn Causer. We’ll begin by drawing closer to ephemeral spring wildflowers, sketching to capture key identifying features. Since the flowers stay put, we’ll have time to add color washes to our drawings, if desired. We’ll shift to more gestural sketching with the birds, focusing on form, movement and field marks.

Weather permitting, we plan to spend the entire afternoon outdoors exploring different habitats at the Audubon Center. Indoor space will be available in case of rain. Bring your nature journal, favorite drawing pencils, and binoculars. Watercolors, brushes, and field guides will be provided. Binoculars available to borrow.

Managing Your Woods with Birds in Mind:
a Workshop for Small Woodland Owners
Dates: Saturday, May 12
Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (8:30 a.m. coffee and registration)
Meeting place: Education Barn, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Fee: Members $40, Non-members $45 (includes resource packet and pocket Vermont bird guide)
Pre-registration is required: 434-3068.

Audubon Vermont Conservation Biologists and local County Foresters team up to lead a full-day, bird-focused woodland management workshop. Learn bird identification by sight and sound. Receive hands-on lessons in easy bird habitat assessment that you can use on your own property. Explore forestry practices that integrate management for timber and birds. Whether your primary interest is wildlife, timber production, recreation, aesthetics, or forest health, this workshop will give you a new way to think about your woods. The workshop will feature a field tour of a planned harvest at the Audubon Center, so come prepared for an off-trail walk in the woods. Coffee and refreshments provided; bring your own lunch.

Bird Monitoring Walks
Dates: Saturday, March 10, 8 – 10 a.m.
Saturday, April 7, 8 – 10 a.m.
Saturday, May 12, 7 – 9 a.m.
Meeting Place: Office Building, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Fee: Donations are appreciated.

Join us as we monitor bird populations in the different habitats at the Green Mountain Audubon Center. Our monthly walks gather long-term data on the presence of bird species, their abundance, and changes in populations. The information we gather will be entered into the Vermont e-bird database where we store data for our Important Bird Area monitoring.

Family Programs
Pre-registration is required for these programs: 434-3068

Singing Frogs and Silent Salamanders
Date:Sunday, April 15
Time: 1 – 3 p.m.
Meeting Place: Sugarhouse Parking Area, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Ages: Families with children ages 4 and up
Fee: Members: $10 adult-child pair, $4/additional child
Non-members: $12 adult-child pair, $5/additional child

Spring evenings are a-buzz with peeps, croaks, quacks and trills. The ponds are a-slither with silent salamanders. Spend an afternoon at the Audubon Center figuring out exactly who is making all of the noise – and why. Sing along with the frog chorus, tickle tadpoles at the peeper pond, and discover the secrets of the nighttime amphibian migration.

Build Your Own Birdhouse
Date: Saturday, May 5
Time: 10 a.m. - noon
Meeting Place: Sugarhouse Parking Area, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Ages: Families with children ages 4 and up
Fee: (includes bird house kit)
Members: $20/family, $15/additional bird house kit
Non-members:$25/family, $15/additional bird house kit

Eastern bluebirds, tree swallows and yellow-bellied sapsuckers are migrating back to Vermont to start new families this spring. Cavity-nesting birds need a hollow place like a dead tree or a bird box to lay their eggs and raise their young. Let’s help them out! Join us for a morning of bird box building. You’ll get to take yours home and see who finds it fit for their new family – maybe a chickadee, a wren or a woodpecker! Once the construction is done, we’ll play bird-themed games and search the Audubon Center for early-bird travellers!

Drawing Birds and Blossoms
Date: Sunday, May 6
Time: 1 – 4 p.m.
Ages: children 8 years and older welcome with adult

See Adult Programs for more details.

Preschool Programs
Pre-registration is required for these programs: 434-3068

Ages: 3-5 with adult companion
Fee: Audubon members: $8 adult-child pair, $4/additional child
Non-members: $10 adult-child pair, $4/additional child

Journey from Sap to Syrup
Date: Thursday, March 22
Time: 10 - 11 a.m.
Meeting Place: Sugarhouse Parking Area, Green Mountain Audubon Center

Follow a droplet of maple sap as it turns to maple syrup! Find out how much hard work it takes to become a real Vermont sugar maker as you help us tap a tree, collect sap from buckets, and watch it boil. In the end, all of our hard work will be rewarded with a sweet maple syrup taste test!

Spring Discovery
Date: Thursday, Thursday, April 19
Time: 10 – 11 a.m.
Meeting Place: Sugarhouse Parking Area, Green Mountain Audubon Center

Let’s celebrate spring! Join us as we discover both spectacular and subtle signs of spring in Vermont. Plan to play migration tag, search for wildflowers and bask in the sun by the beaver ponds. Satisfy your interest in insects, salamanders and frogs as we search the fields with sweep nets and flip logs in the forest. Don’t let spring slip by without a family trip to the Audubon Center!

Feathered Frenzy
Date: Thursday, May 24
Time: 10 – 11 a.m.
Meeting Place: Sugarhouse Parking Area, Green Mountain Audubon Center

Join us as we learn how our feathered friends spend their spring. You’ll have a chance to spread your wings and discover the beauty of birdsongs as we hike through our forest and fields. We’ll build nests, check out feathers, and marvel at the delicacy of bird eggs. By the end of your time with us, you’ll be set to take flight into the forest!

Spring Vacation Day Camps

Ages: 6-10 years
Dates:Tuesday, April 24 and Thursday, April 26
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Meeting Place: Education Barn, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Fee: Members: $55/day, Non-members: $60/day
Pre-registration is required for these programs: 434-3068.

Mudology
Date: Tuesday, April 24

What comes after winter but before spring? That’s right, mud season! To celebrate all things sticky and sloppy, we’ll turn our attention to the wonderful world of mud. To start, we’ll strap on our boots and squish our way to the banks of the Huntington River, searching for evidence of muskrats, otters or beavers. Then we’ll get creative by experimenting with different styles of mud-based art. There will also be plenty of muddy science experiments, which will help open our eyes to the world under our feet. Be sure to bring your boots!

Cold Blooded Creatures
Date: Thursday, April 26

The days are getting longer, the winds feel warmer, and the sun is shining a little bit brighter. Spring is back and so are our cold blooded friends. Throughout the day we’ll explore what it means to be cold blooded with games, art projects, and tales of how the snakes, salamanders and spring peepers survive the winter. We’ll scope the peeper pond for tadpoles, the beaver pond for baby bullfrogs and, with luck, meet many of our ectothermic neighbors along the way. See you this spring!

Winter Vacation Day Camps

Ages: 6-10 years
Dates:see listings
Time: 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Meeting Place: Education Barn, Green Mountain Audubon Center
Fee: Members: $55/day, Non-members: $60/day
Pre-registration is required for these programs: 434-3068.

Audubon Expedition
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Join us as we mount an expedition, Audubon-style! Throughout the day we will work together as a team and explore our winter wilderness. We’ll learn how maps can help us blaze our own trail through the winter landscape. Whether snowshoeing through the woods or traversing the obstacle course, we’ll have a day filled with fun and adventure. And, of course, once our expedition is complete we’ll have time to relax and eat s’mores by a roaring fire!

Bring on the Birds
Date:Thursday, March 1, 2012

Calling all ornithologists! Grab a pair of binoculars as we learn what makes our Vermont forests such a special place for our feathered friends. We’ll have a chance to visit the legendary Birds of Vermont Museum, build a nesting platform that you can take home, and did we mention… watch a live bird demonstration!?! We’ll round out the day with games, hikes and activities to better your birding skills.