Very excited and glad to start our winter session in a winter wonderland! Being able to spend the whole day out in the snow at Audubon is so special and fun. We started our winter session up at the Education Barn, it was a new space to some, but we all found our cubbies and spaces for our things. Our morning activity was a continuation of learning from December, tracking. Our task was to match pictures of animal tracks to the picture of the animal. Some we struggled with, but as a whole group matched the majority correct. Some were very similar but we used clues, like if the animals were different sizes then the print that is bigger would go with the bigger animals, like the different between a fox and coyote print. In addition to this we discussed the patterns these animals most commonly move in, such as walkers, bounders, hoppers, and waddlers.
After we went through all the cards we spent time working on digging a snow fort into a snow tunnel. This was some hard work, the snow pile had been there for a while so the snow was hard in some areas, but together we are a super strong group.
We had our first morning meeting in 2025 and we so excited to explore a snowy Audubon. We enjoyed morning snack on the front porch watching the birds visiting our bird feeders. We mainly saw chickadees, but there were a couple Downey woodpeckers and a nuthatch too.
We journeyed from the barn to visit Beaver Pond. The hike was snow nice and full of snow-covered trees and spaces. Once at Beaver pond there was a chance that it was frozen all the way and we could explore on the ice. I tested the thickness, which was a little over 4 inches, normally safe to be on, but there was a decent amount of snow that created some slushes sections and some thin areas.. We talked again about how snow insulates a space, so it keep any warm area from the pond there, which is why slush is created. It was decided that the pond wouldn’t be a safe choice, so instead explored some tracks around the pond and the woody snowy hill. On our hike we pointed out tracks, and if we couldn’t tell what animal made them we at least discussed what kind of pattern the trail was, such as a walker or a waddler.
We hiked back up to enjoy lunch at Forest Camp around a nice warm fire. This month, and for the rest of our time at Audubon this year we are doing to be tracking the weather and reporting it to a community science group website, CoCoRHS- Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network. We will be regularly measuring and reporting the snow and rain fall. This data is used my scientist across the country. Learn more here!
We then enjoyed some sledding time and rolling in the snow time. Before we knew it we were close to the end of the day and needed to continue our work on our tunnel, we hadn’t made it all the way through yet. After working on the tunnel, and some help/muscle from me, we made it through! Then worked on making it large enough to worm through! It was a great feeling of success for the group.
