It is mid July and the NorthWoods summer campers have been exploring some pretty cool spots in the Northeast Kingdom so far this summer.
This week, Nature Day Campers have trekked on Brousseau Mountain and Mount Pisgah. We’ve worked on our stealth-walking skills, tracking snowshoe hare and garter snakes through the meadow, woods, and rocks of NorthWoods. We’ve spent countless hours in and around the pond, cooling off, testing crayfish pinch power, and becoming one with the pond life we have been investigating. We’ve learned about the unique adaptations of owls, and pay regular visits to Oberon, our resident barred owl. The Osprey group harnessed in to the Holy Cow Swing, for a special chance and challenge to swing through the pine forest with a bird’s eye view. The Barred Owl group made ash beads, helped prepare (and consume) homemade pretzels, and explored animal adaptations through games and play.
Last week, the NFCT Northern Forest Explorers Canoe Campers headed out on a journey on the Clyde River. We began at the headwaters in Island Pond, crossed under town’s main street and the old hotel, and saw many new habitats, from the meandering, narrow cedar-filled upper reaches, through the wetland fen, downstream through the silver maples, and on to ponds and backwaters and then the open waters of Lake Salem.
Back at the NorthWoods campus, Science Discovery Campers trapped and survey 24 small mammal specimens (and 9 different species) on study sites on the NorthWoods campus. They helped construct a loon nesting platform with biologist Eric Hanson learning the distinct calls of loons. Wouldn’t YOU like to know what message the wild call of a loon carries? We snorkeled clear waters on Seymour Lake, and joined Wildlife Biologist Pete Emerson to survey fish in the Lang Brook, via electro-fishing and rubber boots.
Keeping up with NorthWoods summer campers is a great way to dig deep into a Kingdom summer.
Coming up soon: Earth Sisters, Mountain Bike Adventure Camp on Burke Mountain, and Survival Camp.
