Sunday, July 10, 2011

Searching for Salamanders


We had a wonderful turn out for Searching for Salamanders, Finding Frogs and Catching Crayfish on a coolish Saturday morning. Despite the numbers I think everyone had a good time and got to explore several different areas of the creek. We counted 67 participants!!


















We found 2 salamanders, bunches of frogs, and crayfish and a rather stunned box turtle. Being surrounded by many pairs of feet will to that to a shy, retiring creature!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Day Two Fanning Summer Science Camp: Birds

We began day two inside working on a bird mural. Here Blaine is hard at work rendering a robin. The goals for this morning activity were to become familiar using identification guides, to think about rendering details (field marks), and have fun! I discovered they love to paint -








We were extremely lucky to be the recipients of three Identiflyers, made by a local company based in Salem, SC - just down the road from the Botanical Garden. This is an extremely easy to operate bird song identifier. The kids loved playing with them in the Nature Center, almost as much as outside - below is my son James having a great time with one. Just sitting with them began to tune the children into birdsongs. Outside on the trail the Identiflyers were even more fun- as they enticed first a Blue Jay and then a Robin to check out the invading "birds."