After our opening circle, and a sweet dance party to start off the day, we put our adventure caps on and tested our bear-hunt skills as we twirled, growled, hopped and stomped our way through a maze. And we were off on the hunt, along the way being sidetracked (as normal!) from the hunt itself and jumping into lots of creative and fun play. Students opened up a clay store, a McDonalds drive thru (featuring the “McBug”), cooked elaborate meals and even made some “chili” (sumac, garlic mustard and mud). They were lost in their imaginative play for quite some time, letting the teachers in every so often with a taste test here, and a “hey check this out” over there. It’s some of our favourite moments!
During our picnic lunch we read some parts of Curious George, which naturally led to setting up a pulley trap (with a banana peel in it) and trying to catch him. After hauling it up and letting it drop countless times, we finally tied it up and were able to catch him!
Meanwhile, we also checked in on the mailbox and had received a letter from the Grape Valley Fairies. It thanked us for all the hard work we put in last week rebuilding their village and they gave us a special gift – honourary fairy names! So we wrote these names down on wood cookies and painted some sticks to create a windchime to take home so all fairies in the world knew we were friends!
And that’s our magical day!
Reminder – next week is a holiday so no Forest School! Enjoy the Sunshine!
Worms and insects are out. Turtles and Frogs are sunbathing. Birds are singing and making nests. Spring is here and here’s the recap of our week, enjoy!
Tuesday
With emergent interests at the forefront, we were a little all over the place on Tuesday with an overarching theme of Spring – though it felt more like Summer! We began our day with some of our core routines and games, then jumped into plant ID. We set the stage – 8 mystery plants that need to be identified and limited time periods to peek at the master copy! Students did an excellent job of uncovering and naming various plants using just small pieces of them including clover, willow, dogwood and more.
Afterwards, we had to take advantage of the warm sun and headed out on an adventure, nets in hand just in case. We played around the big lake, dammed up our stream, climbed fossil mountain and found and caught an incredible amount of critters! Frogs, tadpoles, a blind fish, some green eggs and 2 Giant Water Bugs aka Lethocerus americanus. In addition, we found a kill site from what we guessed was last fall, and tried to unravel the mystery of what occurred.
In the afternoon, we got crafty and did some painting and made “seed” bombs. Seed bombs (clay, soil and seeds) are meant to be tossed anywhere and make flowers grow. Let us know how yours do! We finished up with a teambuilding initiative – choose the right path – and before we knew our day had flown by!
Wednesday
Similar to Tuesday, our Wednesday group was excited about searching for water creatures – and determined to find a Giant Water Bug. After a thrilling “Ring Toss” Tournament, we were on our way to the West side of the big pond in hopes of capturing some critters. We were able to snag some striders, a tadpole and frog pretty quickly, but as the rain began to roll in our hopes dwindled on catching a Giant Water Bug – until at nearly the last moment, a log was moved and we got one!
We decided to head back as the rain picked up, and along the way were treated to a nesting Morning Dove in a cedar. A big props to the student with the keen eyes! On our way to get dry however, the rain stopped (as was our day: rain, sun, rain, sun) so we stopped too to spend some quality time at our sit spots. It wasn’t long until students were drawn to a huge puddle – a bridge went up, frogs eggs were spotted and inevitably shoes came off to squish in the clay.
After lunch – and a quick thunderstorm that sent us inside for a bit – we dove into a teambuilding initiative (island hopping) and students did extremely well coming through with the fastest time to date!
After our story of the day (debrief) it was to say adieu for another week.
Thursday
The rain didn’t slow us down on Thursday as we lit ourselves a nice big fire to dry off and stay warm. In fact the wet weather actually inspired us to get building on our shelters in our it spots. And who can resist a giant puddle full of clay? And hundreds of striders – so much that our students shoveled out a section, built some walls and created a strider sanctuary. Some students even took on the initiative of building a tee-“pea”: a living garden structure designed to grow peas and provide shelter!
In the afternoon we ventured west with nets in hand. With the cold weather, we were sort of surprised to find a turtle out on shore, but happy nonetheless. And while we didn’t spot any giant water bugs, we did get up close and personal with a mama morning dove sitting on her nest in a cedar. As we ventured more, we uncovered tons of fossils, found that the bank swallows have returned to Fossil Mountain and followed some fresh deer tracks.
On days like this, we’re reminded that rain is a good thing as flowers are starting to bloom!
Friday
The morning clouds gave us a heads up – take advantage of the sun because we’d likely have rain later.
Our students set the stage today when they imagined a mini jungle life playing itself out in the grass – think “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”. Therefore after doing some core routines (smudge, animal forms, quiet time) we headed out to our Sit Spots to play, build and get up close a personal with bugs. Specifically we built a bug hotel! Complete with pine cone rooms, sumac rooms, bark rooms, and mud rooms. Holes were drilled in locks, mini hammocks were made and even a pool was put in for the striders. It turned into more of a 5-star bug resort, and students eagerly sought out bugs to add to it. Worms, Potato Bugs, Striders, Centipedes and even a Wooly Bear caterpillar (named Crawly) all checked in. With lunch looming, we headed back, just in time for the torrential downpour.
The sun made it’s return shortly after, and we continued with our bug theme shifting our focus to bees. After some students made some beeswax chap stick to take home, we chatted about threats to the bee population and the ramifications it could have. We explored pesticide use, habitat loss and other critical issues. And then we dove into the roles of bees in a macro-model we call “Bee-Safe” where bees must retrieve pollen without getting tagged by some of the “threats”.
After a final barefoot walk through the gigantic puddle, we called it a day. Happy May the 4th Star Wars fans!
We welcomed the warm weather and (mostly) sunshine with open arms this week at FNS! The birds were quite active, insects were out and about, turtles and frogs were sunning, flowers and grasses were growing – Spring is here. Check out the recap below.
Tuesday
After some of our core routines, we dove into our full values contract. If you are unfamiliar with this, essentially we brainstorm of ideas to what it takes to create a safe, happy and welcoming atmosphere for all, write them all down on leaves and pin them to our FS tree. Everyone signs the roots (and taking ownership over it) and these become our norms and guidelines that we were refer when needed.
We then headed out for our camp out lunch to Mysterious Forest to try and unravel some of the mysteries. Children sought to understand the “Mystery” of Mysterious Forest and discovered all sorts of clues to what it could be. And so what is the Mystery? Well, the jury is still out on that. But slowly the puzzle pieces are coming together.
Throughout the day, we took time to develop our quiet minds by being intentional on taking time to listen. A great book we read is The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor which set the tone for some quiet connection time in the Forest. We also spent some time channeling our inner animals (aka Animal Forms) in various games like camouflage and person-hunt.
Oh and we found a great big painted turtle just meandering it’s way across the path!
Wednesday
Wednesday was a student-planned day and after months, perhaps years, of asking we finally decided as teachers that Nerf Mania could happen. (For more information on the “behind the scenes” of this decision, we’ve written a a blog in our Campfire Notes – check it out here.)
After creating comprehensive guidelines, our day started off with a triathlon where students raced around the pond, answered an FNS trivia question and then fired at their homemade target to see how many points they could achieve. From here we moved into target practice by setting up “antique tin cans” (toilet paper rolls) on a fence and trying to knock them over. It’s surprising how accurate they can be.
We had snack and moved into learning about hunting. We talked about skills as a hunter (silence, camouflage, patience, etc) and sustainable practices. The students then became hunters with the goal of shooting the deer before the deer noticed them. They set up their perfect space, and waited. And waited. And waited. Until the deer (teachers) started grazing and moved close enough to be hit! Later on, we finished our day with Capture the Flag with a twist using Nerf.
And did we mention Baby Chicks? 16 to be exact. With all the Nerf excitement, we as teachers were pleasantly surprised when students opted to spend most of their days playing with the chicks (to be clear: Nerf and Baby Chicks were two very separate activities). They gave them names, built huge elaborate homes, and even some amusement parks. We as teachers also learned an important lesson – it’s hard to debrief when everyone in the circle is holding a squawking little chick!
Thursday
Our day started off with the usual routines, but when we headed to our check-in and sit spots we noticed something. There were so many birds! And one thing led to another and before we knew it, we were following some turkey vultures to see what they had found. This led us North to an off-the-map area and we found it! Massive vultures over the remains of Green-Winged Teal (we later identified) which gave us a first-hand look at the food chain. After finding some other interesting things, we all agreed that we need to explore this area in more depth.
After snack we jumped into a new team-building game we like to call Islands. The premise is all students have some sort of ability taken away, and all know a few bits of the puzzle. They rocked this game and came up with some really creative answers. Ask your child about it.
Before lunch, we got out some tools and constructed a giant slingshot with some of our students. After lunch, we just had to try it out and headed out to explore around the lake. With the sun so hot, we inevitably stumbled across a TINY painted turtle. Check out the pictures below!
Friday
Another beautiful day, and we took full advantage. After spending some time in our sit spots and trying our the giant slingshot, it was the Friday groups turn to try out the Island teambuilding game (see Thursday). And they rocked it! It also led to a really powerful debrief for this group about teamwork, cooperation and communication.
After lunch, we slowly headed West with our Willow Crowns, checking for our amphibian and reptile friends along the way (and climbing a mountain). Eventually we made it out to Maple Forest to check out the new trail systems that have been created. This gave us a good chance to reflect on balancing human impacts (including our own) in natural areas. The new trails are beautiful!
Upon arriving to Grape Valley, our campsite, we spent some time getting to know one another better. We broke off into pairs and “interviewed” each other, then reported back to the group to introduce our partners. And before we knew it, it was time to head back.
After some time building with our loose parts and having a bonfire, students’ imaginations came alive as all the snow on the ground became a lake. They were trapped on an island (a-frame climbing gym), trying to escape the sharks (teachers), while jumping from bridge to bridge (stumps). Our students soon wanted to go in the “water” jumping into the role of baby whales, with the shark as their leader. It sounds like a crazy story, but it’s one of the wonderful experiences we can’t ever plan as teachers but get the privilege of being co-conspirators in this play – one of the million reasons we love doing what we do. When given the space, time and opportunity, it’s truly amazing to see what happens.
After snack, the tone was set with one of our favourite books: “We’re going on a bear hunt”. So naturally, we went on a bear hunt! With frog nets in hand we were off through the woods. We slowed down and quietly stalked our way through the forest, listening for any clues. And while we didn’t find a bear, we swear we may have heard one and heard a lot of other critters along the way, too.
After lunch, we jumped into the roles of prey and predator – fox vs rabbit, where the rabbits could escape to their burrows (black tubes) to avoid getting tagged. This turned into a lot of fun crawling and worming our way through the tubes, until we headed out on our next adventure to the “Fort”. Here we pushed comfort zones climbing trees and forts, swung on the swings, balanced on beams and slid on slides for the last part of of the day. And as you know, it was muddy!!
We welcomed our FNS friends back at Bygone Days this week and dove right into some fun winter activities! After opening our day with a ceremonial smudge, our morning circle and some teambuilding icebreakers to get to know one another, students were keen to lean into learning about all things SNOW.
One of our favourite stories this time of year is called “Over and Under the Snow” by Kate Messner. It certainly set the stage for our snowshoe (or hiking) adventures and helped draw students’ attention to the little things along the way. Whether we ventured around the pond, to Ducky’s Campsite, or all the way to Fossil Mountain, we recognized the magical world that exists underneath the snow in the subnivean zone and were excited to discover it firsthand! We found various tracks, scat and other signs of animals surviving this wild winter along the way too!
After identifying some of the ways animals survive the winter (migrate, hibernate or stay active), students were tasked with the mission of keeping their own “animal” safe during the winter (ie. ensuring their jello didn’t harden when left in the cold). Using some of the learning from earlier in the day, combined with their own creativity, students hid, burrowed, or simply insulated their “animals” in the snow. Some even huddled with other containers of jello to keep warm, like deer mice! Ask your child what technique they used and whether or not it survived!
We further explored some important safety considerations about adventuring in the winter and took an in-depth look at ways to stay prepared to prevent some of the nasty, but realistic consequences of winter – like frost bite or hypothermia. We discussed ways to prevent and treat these concerns and packed our own survival backpack, filled with important gear to keep us safe and prepared while out in the elements.
During Wednesday and Thursday, students had the opportunity to build emergency shelters. We had some creative and thoughtful designs – like a collaborative snow trench (which turned into an awesome snow-village among the sumacs), and individual snow caves that were dug into the side of Fossil Mountain using mostly just snowshoes!
Kudos to students on Friday who were able to brave the wind-whipping snow and hail! It’s a good reminder for students to be prepared for FNS – including a fleece neck warmer, extra mitts, hats and thick socks, and even extra boots if you have them! You can’t have too many layers at FNS.
We had an AWESOME first week at FNS and made some great new friends each day! We look forward to another season of learning, exploring, laughing and playing with new friends!
Thanks for checking into the blog this week. We spent time learning about animal tracks and were fully prepared to discover all of the new (and old) prints on our beautiful property. To understand tracks better, students focused on learning various parts of a print, how/what to measure to correctly identify it using a field guide and how to use the print information to tell us about what’s happening (stride, straddle, direction of travel). Is the animal galloping, pacing, or stalking? Are they conserving energy or doubling back on their tracks? Are they moving to and from specific places, like shelter, food or water?
Whether we heard animals rustling, saw tracks, scat or deer rubbings, felt chew marks or scratches on trees, or smelled (though not nearly as well as animals!) animals, we could use all of our senses to discover various large, medium and small signs of animals nearby. We soon learned that animal tracking is both a science and an art- it’s not just about the actual print; we also need to be aware and process the entire environment while tracking to get a complete sense of the story!
Tuesday saw us jump into the role of animals with a game of Survival to start us off. We then headed out and around Mysterious Forest, where we discovered a lot of coyote scat, and prints, rabbit signs, and different burrows. Tuesday even brought the addition of Frarles (or Fred/Charles) our lovable, crooked live Christmas tree. Students also got crafty with some homemade wreaths, decorations and other play dough figures.
On Wednesday, students decided to stay close to a water source and we were amazed by all of the activity! We were able to track prints, discover more scat, and even follow a trail of a coyote stalking a goose – feathers, bones and all! Students seemed incredibly understanding after discovering a loss like this, especially when we explored the topic of needing to survive and took a deeper look at the life cycle. We also ventured off site to do some stalking of our own with the community healthy kids GPS challenge!
On Thursday, with freshly fallen snow, students enjoyed seeing some fresh squirrel, chipmunk and rabbit tracks in between the trees. We even ventured to the far end of our property for the first time, all the way past the maple forest and sugar shack. We spent some quality time out there with newly invented student-led survival and camouflage games.
On Friday, students were keen to go to both the water source and Mysterious Forest on the hunt for more tracks! It was really fun to see them using the guidebooks independently and creating their own understanding about what unfolded (be it an epic battle scene or a squirrel dance party after finding a lost nut!) Tracking animal prints lets us explore outside, feel closer to nature and hone our creativity and imagination! We also had a special guest – Mrs. Simpson (Matt’s Mom) – who taught us some American Sign Language to go along with the creatures we discovered. Thanks Sandi!
A special thanks to our Thursday class as well for diving in to help set up part of our new amazing plans for the winter: a Prospector Tent, with a wonderful wood stove!!! We love how helpful and curious our Forest School students are and how keen they were to be involved in this new addition. Just in time too for our winter session!
Despite having some warm places, please remember to bring extra clothing. In particular, we consider boots, hats, mitts and neck warmers a mandatory part of our outer wear. When these inevitably get wet, we can dry them by the fire/heater and wear our extras in the meantime! Remember, with our freshly welcomed snow, always wear snow pants/jacket, with some good fleece and wick away layered clothing underneath.
This week at Forest School was dedicated to continuing our education about our feathred little friends, Birds! With our in-class lessons and hands on games, we packed our day full of physical activity. This morning we put our students to the test, and worked together to start a fire without a match! Thanks Aaron for sharing your flint and steel, and great job to Jack for starting it, we even timed it at 7 minutes and 49 seconds. Between our fire starting and teaching each other how to fish, we discovered our second Beaver! We even found 3 bird nests with mommy protecting her eggs, which fit our curriculum perfectly. Check out our epic day!
Our day was too beautiful to be inside, so we only spent one lesson indoors. There was a big discussion about what makes a bird, a bird! Is it their feathers, wings, beak, hollow bones or just their great personality? Either way birds are pretty cool animals and getting the chance to not just discuss them, but feel their feathers, and get up close an personal with their nests is a great opportunity to invoke more curiosity. While we spent some time on our journals, we also took a moment to create our “Forest School Binoculars” out of toilet paper rolls. Through out our day we saw many Canadian Geese, Robins, Chickadee’s and Turkey Vultures.
Our students dove right into their role of Canadian Geese for the game “Canadian Geese Migration” this morning. Our little birds had to migrate down South safely, and be aware of all the risks associated with migration. Our flock of birds had to fly from each resting stop, making their way through beautiful landscapes full of clean water and food , natural disasters, oil spills and landfills and a SURPRISE from the hunters! Our students discovered some of the challenges these birds face on a daily basis, and that nature isn’t nice all the time. It was sad to say not all Canadian Geese survived, with starting with 9, and ended up with 2!
This afternoon we let our creativity take over, and made natural bird feeders with peanut butter, honey, bird seed, pine cones and sticks. Some of our students even made “human-feeders” with bracelets and necklaces made from Cheerios and pipe cleaners which led us into our bird feeder game, and then into the ultimate “Chickadee Vs Blue Jays”. It’s not always easy being a bird, our little Chickadee’s had to fly to the bird feeders and take their food back to their nests, but WAIT! Those pesky Blue Jays are trying to steal food from the Chickadee’s nest! All of our little birds worked so hard to fill their nest with food, but the Blue Jays won the battle, flying away with 25 pieces of food. Good news is all birds went home with some food in their nests!
Today there was an abundance of Love, Wisdom and Respect stickers earned! We are getting close to some prizes and Bingo beads! Thank you to Izzy for bringing in your Whale book, it was super awesome to look at all those pictures, Congrats on the Show and Tell Bead!
Next Week – We will be working on some new, and unfinished projects!
This week the classes learned all about Ecosystems. After our core routines, we started off by coming up with a working definition of what Ecosystems are and how they connect all over the world. It was awesome to lean on the prior-knowledge of our students – we’ve got a clever bunch!
After our lessons, we threw on our scientist hat and headed for the field to make observations and record data. Our objective was to mark off a rectangular section of “ecosystem”, measure it and search for all living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things. The students jumped to the task with magnifying glasses in-hand and found some really cool things – robin eggs, insect eggs and nests, snails galore, mushrooms, and much more. After a “museum walk” to view everyone’s site, it was quite evident that there’s much more than meets the eye in a relatively small area.
After telling a legend, the afternoon had us exploring more ecosystems as we set out on a hike to the far edges of our property. More specifically, we were looking at the biodiversity between ecosystems, in the ecotones. It’s awesome what you can find when you slow down and take a look – the remains of a Northern Flicker, a Turkey nest, edible trout lilies, and that’s just to name a few.
You never know what you’re going to get at Forest School and different days saw many different things happen this week:
TuesdaY
Students were really engaged with ring toss yet again. They also got a chance to become the food chain in a serious rock, paper, scissors competition. This group was the first group to discover the remains of the Northern Flicker (and they chose to leave the beautiful feathers there for the other groups to see – yay LNT principles and nature lovers!). A big portion of them also started work on carving projects, and as always enjoyed some time in their sit spots.
Wednesday
A really cool thing happened on Wednesday – during our exploration one of the students noticed his magnifying glass warmed up his hand. And from there we naturally had to make a fire from it. So we tried and lo and behold, the char cloth caught quick. So we tried other materials – paper, birch bark, tree resin, wood – to see what would happen. We eventually were able to make a fire only using the sun!!!
During a game of camouflage, this group also accidentally (and quite literally) stumbled upon a turkey nest. The mama turkey flew off and we quickly left the area in hopes that she’ll return.
THURSDAY
Wow! What a hot day! So nice we even had to cool down in the spring, and had our first real day where we could take our shoes off this Spring. (And the lightning storms held off just for us!)
The students on Thursday jumped into the roles of Producers, Consumers and Decomposers for a better understanding of food chains. On a sadder note, we experienced this cycle first hand after discovering that our mallard nest was attacked by a hungry predator. We worked through these heavy feelings with the group and realized that this loss is an important part of the food chain. Soon after, we were treated when we discovered a healthy baby of another species – a snapping turtle!
Of course you may have noticed some stinky breath coming from your child after school this week… Tuesday we came across a Leek patch and of course the Wed and Thurs groups had to try!
Congrats to our bead recipients: 3 Leadership Beads, 2 Curiosity Bead, 3 Show and Tell, and 1 Craft bead (for homemade charcloth!)
Next week: Projects!!! We’re going to let our imaginations run wild.
This week at Forest School we looked at our Eco System, and tied in some fun games along the way! It also brought opportunities for new discoveries, and an activity we haven’t done since last September, frog hunting! After our morning routines, our day started with an intense football game to get our blood pumping. We also challenged our kids with food-chain games along with an Eco System freeze tag! We were so active enjoying the beautiful spring weather, and a little too clean – so we had to get a little dirty, or it just wouldn’t be Forest School.
Our main lesson of the day was to learn about our Consumers (Animals and Humans), Producers (Plants that grow from the ground), and Decomposers (Slugs, Snails and Worms). We tested our knowledge with a skill testing questions, a mix and match game, and though it came challenging for all at the end of the game, we all had a better understanding of each topic. With all the hard work we did, it paid off and we got a fun game out of it!
So while we were on our hike surrounded by tons of producers, looking for evidence of consumers (Racoon tracks, Beaver and Canadian Geese) and finding decomposers (Snails, Worms and centipedes) we spotted our FIRST Beaver of the season! We now have a better idea of who is chopping down all those trees! It was a beautiful day to relax and so we spent a large part of our afternoon working on our sit spots where we reflect, write in our journals and explore our 5 senses. Using the knowledge from our earlier lesson, we brainstormed examples of Consumers, Producers and Decomposers and used our imagination to write a story about their favourite animal along with a food chain associated with them.
With all of the beautiful sunshine and heat today, we were over joyed to see our first frog of the season as well, which lead into an impromptu frog hunt! Our kids didn’t lose any agility over the Winter to catch our little friends, and in total we caught 11 Frogs! All frogs went back home safe and sound. Along with this fun activity, we even had time at the end of the day to do some fishing. Unfortunately we didn’t catch anything this week, but we are looking forward to our next opportunity.
Our Morning Glory starting to sprout
This week was full of Wisdom stickers, Respect sticker and Love. Exciting news – we are getting close to some prizes! There was also 1 Al bead earned, 4 Litterless Lunch and 2 Show and Tell Beads.
Next Week – We are going to be looking into the fun and exciting world of Birds!
We had a fun week at Forest School exploring the wonderful and intricate world of Animals. And we were SURROUNDED by them this week. A hare one morning, a groundhog, lots of squirrels, our resident chipmunk and even a bat that literally hung out on the school house all day. Oh and of course we were inundated with birds! We saw dozens of different types and listened attentively to all their songs – it’s getting us really excited for next week’s Bird focus. In prep for this we set up some big feeders to draw them in and made our own smaller Easter Egg bird feeders to put in our sit spots.
After some exploratory play and our morning routines, we took some extended time at our sit spots. These spots are really coming together – check out the pictures below for a sample of the cool shelters and creations our kids are making. The students are really becoming stewards of their areas and adding their own flare.
Back to the subject of the day: Animals. In the past, we’ve worked a lot with animals – tracking, identification, adaptations, fish, birds, insects and more – and we wanted to build on this knowledge. So we tested our knowledge on animals tracks and found out that we could use a little refresher! We took a first hand look at Aden’s paws and followed some tracks laid down by some local fauna. Afterwards, we really wanted to emphasize an understanding of the needs of animals and what better way than with a game of Survival? Students were herbivores, omnivores and carnivores and became part of the food chain. The only goal? To survive!!
Later on we built on this with a couple lessons on carrying capacity and limiting factors. As part of our lesson, chairs slowly started disappearing so students had to share, until ultimately there was not enough space (and thus we figured out our “Classroom Carrying Capacity”). Then we went outside and became deer fighting for resources. We graphed the results over a “15 year” period (yay math!) and drew out conclusions from our findings. We took this one step further by making predictions and looking at real world applications (ie 7 year hare/lynx cycle).
On Thursday we had an impromptu Easter Egg hunt when we came across an abandoned Mallard nest with an egg. Although this is unfortunate, we learned a good lesson in avoiding wildlife (some of our LNT principles). Since we know it has been abandoned for a while, we are going to see if it we can hatch it under a light.
All in all, a real fun day. Congrats to our bead recipients: 2 fire beads, 2 litterless-lunch beads and 5 fire keeper beads.
Next week:
BIRDS!! This is always a fun day and the property has an incredible amount of our avian friends right now. If you’ve got binoculars, please bring them!
