Animal mayham(fun filled week of animals)!

By Katie
On Monday,we went on a hike and saw a fox hole. After that we saw bones.On Tuseday we found a toad by the creek. It was brown with golden spots.On Wednesday Tabby`s group found a baby garden snake. It was hanging from a spiderweb and we saved it.

A Home in the Woods

By,Enya

This week(Strive to Survive) Mrs.Tabby group helped build a shelter with big sticks and grass(stilt grass and grass). I never would have thought that it could take 2 days to build a basic shelter made out of sticks and grass. Maybe you could come and see what we did? See you next time

Butterfly Hike on Saturday

The butterfly hike on Saturday was a big success. 37 people attended. Dick Smith helped the group find and identify 17 types of butterflies.

Species sighted:

Silver-spotted Skipper
Horace’s Dusky Wing

Swarthy Skipper
Least Skipper
Fiery Skipper
Peck’s Skipper
Zabulon Skipper, Male

Black Swallowtail
Tiger Swallowtail
Spicebush Swallowtail

Orange Sulphur
Cabbage White

American Copper
Red-Banded Hairstreak

Pearl Crescent
Red-spotted Purple

Monarch

Really Really Muddy

By R

Enough said!

Down and Dirty

Does your lunch come from dirt, or the shirt you are wearing? The campers will be discovering why soil is important for everything we do, while getting down and dirty in our soil pit or making dirt soup! On Tuesday, the campers will be visited by the Howard County Soil Conservation District staff in which they will take a hike around our property to discover why all of our topsoil is down by the stream (do you know why?) Wednesday is the big mud day, where they are making mud castles, mud tosses and other fun mud activities. Thursday is our water day, (we were supposed to go to the Patapso, which we are not allowing due to the swarm of last week.) Overall - it is definitely a down and dirty week, where the campers should get nice and muddy!

The Birds of Prey

The above pictures are a screech owl, barred owl, kestrel and a red tailed hawk.

This is just a sampling of some of the birds that Mr. Heacock from Hashawa Outdoor School brought with him. It was a great program, and I think the kids really enjoyed seeing them up close! Don't worry, none of these birds could survive on their own, and Mr. Heacock really stressed the importance of not taking in any animal from the wild to be a pet.

One interesting fact: most owls get hit by cars because someone threw their leftover food out the window of their car. A mouse comes to eat the yummy morsel of food, then the owl comes to eat the mouse. Then you guess it: the owl goes to a place like Hashawa and lives the rest of its life in a cage. I think we all learned to keep our food with us, and to compost it if possible.

All about plants and birds and streams

by K and R

Yesterday we went birdwatching. We built a shelter for them with sticks. Some people found two salamanders. There were down near the stream, one under the log in the mud.

On Monday we saw hiked to see the sassafras tree. It has three different shapes of leaves and the leaves smell like froot loops. You can kind of chew on the stems.

We ended up in the stream and got all dirty! It leads to the Patapsco and the Patapsco brings it to the bay.