Another sunny warm welcome this morning. After the snow last Tuesday, it was hard to imagine a day like today and that spring was really upon us. Our seasonal morning activity had us focusing on the amphibians and reptiles that we recall being here at Audubon. Looking at our ID guide our task was to pick 3 or 4 critters that we believe that we would see today as we adventure. Many of us picked the eastern newt, others hoped for the spotted salamander, or a bull or green frog too. During this morning activity we were greeted by a Yellow-bellied sapsucker, eastern pheobes, and robins!
Our morning block we spent at the Brook, but the lower section of the brook. To our surprise (we hadn’t been to this section of the brook since the fall) it looked very different. There were so many trees down, the pooling of the water was different, and we could see/have access to the river right at the bottom. Seeing this change had us pause and consider what we could do at the brook in this location now. Some of us tried to see if there were any critters to catch like minnows, or salamanders, while others worked on fairy houses and collected rocks.
Right before lunch we enjoyed a field game, played a few rounds of park ranger. It’s so interesting to see what animals the students select and what common characteristics they always select to say to see if it will make the kids run. On a beautiful day like today, we could have played this field game forever.
Our afternoon was packed with fun exploration. We started at Beaver Pond with the hope that we would be able to catch some critters. Only being there for 5 minutes, we were a little defeated that we couldn’t see any critters in the pond, but we didn’t lose hope! Moments after expressing our sadness our first eastern newt was caught! We then noticed that there was a painted turtle basking on a log in the pond, and then we kept catching more. Over the course of our time being there we caught 20 newts, a couple water striders, a dragonfly larva, and a water scorpion! What started off as feeling hopeless ended in complete joy and the feeling of success.
We then put our nets away and took out our binoculars! We had a little lesson on how to use them and be safe before we went off on our bird walk. We started going to Beaver Pond because when we were there, we noticed some birds in the distance. After looking through our binoculars we noticed it was a pair of common mergansers! We also noticed that there wasn’t only 1 painted turtle basking but 3! We then hiked up to Peeper Pond and got to see some Red-winged blackbirds and we got to look at some of the wood frogs up close too.
We ended out day having some reflective journal time enjoying our final moments of the day together peacefully!
With only 4 more session left there is still so much to explore!
