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Community Corner

Grab & Go Kids Planner: Nightwalks and Pancakes Offered This Weekend

Check out all the outdoor activities this weekend.

With the promise of warm weather this week, nature will be putting on a show with the newly arriving birds and awakening amphibians. Pack up your family and head out to one of the organized events in the area to help welcome spring. Here’s a list of some of the many events going on.

  • By mid-March there is a steady stream of migrating birds arriving in Wisconsin from their wintering grounds in the southern states. Join a naturalist on an early morning, early spring bird walk at Richard Bong State Recreation Area in Kenosha County to observe some of these early migrants.  The hike will be from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Saturday. Expect some wet trails, but you’re sure to see some birds. Meet at the park Visitor Center.
  • One of the problems our native plants and animals are faced with is competition with species that aren’t supposed to be here like Garlic Mustard and Buckthorn. Left unchecked, they choke out our more desirable native species, ultimately eliminating them from the landscape. By joining with other volunteers near Ottawa Lake in the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine you can help rid an area of the invasive Buckthorn by cutting down the trees with loppers and handsaws. The group will meet at the boat launch of Ottawa Lake from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. Dress for the weather and bring your own work gloves and rubber boots. The Kettle Moraine Natural History Association will provide lunch, but you’ll need to RSVP to Amanda at the Forest Headquarters.
  • Participate in a mini-workshop and learn how to conduct surveys for our local amphibians at Havenwood State Forest. Learn how to identify them and use various surveying techniques. Be prepared to spend part of the time outdoors, so wear warm clothing including rubber boots or even hip boots, if you have them. If interested, you will be invited to join a naturalist to check traps and listen for frogs and toads this spring. This program is for adults and youth who are 12-years-old or older and will be held from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
  • March is the time to be outside at night listening for owls and woodcock. In celebration of the spring Equinox, nighttime walks are being held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday at Pringle Nature Center in Kenosha, and from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday at Schlitz Audubon Center in Milwaukee.
  • Remember the Sugarin’ Off Pancake Sundays at River Bend Nature Center in Racine. Help support River Bends many educational programs and help maintain their nature center in one of their largest fundraisers of the year. Enjoy a walk through the Sugar Bush and learn how maple sap is collected and turned into syrup, and then enjoy an all-you-can-eat breakfast of pancakes and sausage from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday in March.
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