The Naturalist’s Blog

Week of October 15, 2023 – October 21, 2023 by Catherine McLaughlin, Environmental Educator In the peak of fall we begin to see what was hidden in the trees during the spring and summer. During this week a child spotted a squirrel’s nest up in a tree, being revealed after the leaves had fallen. I often wonder how I could have possibly missed seeing a huge nest earlier in the [...]

Week of October 8, 2023 – October 14, 2023 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator What was your favorite childhood memory outdoors? I remember having so much fun climbing the huge holly tree in the backyard (and pretending I lived in it), the excitement of discovering frogs in a stream near my house, building elaborate stick forts with the neighbors, and “cooking food” with my friend out of wood chips, rocks, [...]

Week of October 1, 2023 – October 7, 2023 by Tom Meier, Camp Director & Program Manager Peter Mulvey’s song, The Milkman, laments change. A line that always sticks out to me goes, “Children off hiding behind aluminum siding that’s painted to look just like wood.” In our world of screens, sturdy shelter, linoleum, and convenience, have we given up opportunities for direct experience to light up our senses? What have [...]

Week of September 25, 2023 – September 30, 2023 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator As summer turns to fall, a rich palette of colors in nature is changing. This is most apparent in open spaces where goldenrods, asters, and other fall blooms paint the fields with a patchwork of colors such as yellow, purple, and white. In the big field adjacent to the Harrison Trail, native plants are emerging in [...]

Week of September 17, 2023 – September 23, 2023 by Sunny Guyette, Environmental Educator Every year my family makes a trip up to Maine to visit my grandparents. My grandparents house sits beside a small lake called Estes Lake. Stretching out from the shore is a half metal half plastic dock that has four evenly spaced out pillars on both sides of the dock. Orb weavers construct their webs in [...]

Week of September 10, 2023 – September 16, 2023 by Bridget Jones, Environmental Educator As September begins, I’ve been noticing signs that fall is on the way: leaves are turning red and goldenrod is blooming in the fields. But alongside these early changes, there are reminders that summer is not over yet. All around us, insects fill the air with the sounds of late summer. It can be easy to [...]

Week of September 3, 2023 – September 9, 2023 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator While I was walking to my car the other day, I found something that I still can’t believe I even noticed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a branch on a goldenrod that didn’t look quite right. It was a little bit wider, looking almost like a seed pod- a structure that goldenrods [...]

Week of August 27, 2023 – September 2, 2023 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator Late August is a special time of year in which goldenrods and some other aster flowers are just beginning to bloom. As this happens, a bustling community of insect pollinators awakens, marking the gradual transition from summer to fall. When walking around in meadows of goldenrod and other late summer wildflowers, I often find myself pausing [...]

Week of August 20, 2023 – August 26, 2023 by Sunny Guyette, Environmental Educator This summer I have witnessed amazing feastings happening at Baltimore Woods with the help of my sharp-eyed campers; a Bee Mimic Robber Fly eating a Ladybug, a Cicada Killer Wasp paralyzing a Cicada to prepare it for feeding it’s larvae, and slugs feasting on already deceased Black and Yellow Flat Millipedes. The Robber Fly and the [...]