Such an AMAZING week! Every day at Mudboot Naturalist Ecology Camp was filled with smiles, laughs, and exploration. Even when it rained we were happy becuase we were hear to fully connect with mud this week.

We spent plenty of time at Beaver Pond catching critters with our nets, yogurt cups, and our bare hands.  We caught multiple crayfish, some beautiful pollywogs, diving beetles, and we saw some painting turtles basking in the sun on logs. Also Beaver Pond has some of the BEST mud at Audubon.

The week is called Mudboot Naturalist so of course we got muddy!  We collected mud samples from different parts of Hemlock Swamp and at the Sherman Hollow Brook.  It was interesting to see how the mud samples from these different spots were different colors based on the different nutrients that were in the soil, and different tectures as well.

We all got to get our hands nice and muddy and made a mud print banner for the week of camp.

There was a special appearance from naturalist “Steve Birdwin”. Steve had a quest for us, we needed to find the secret ingredient to her crocodile soup recipe, and WE FOUND IT! Later we found out that Steve was Julia in disguise.

We played many games of muddy camouflage in the sugarbush, we tried to blend in with the trees and forest floor, we were very sneaky.

We built EPIC forts, bird banded with Mark LaBarr who is our Master Bird Bander at Audubon! Our final activity before closing circle was LIFE AND DEATH IN THE FOREST!

We sure LOVE MUD!