Pickering Creek Audubon Center will debut its Summer Pollinator Play Trail, sponsored by The Easton Group at Morgan Stanley, on Thursday June 17 to coincide with the end of the school year.  This new trail begins near the Pickering Creek Welcome Center and loops through the nearby meadow and shallow water wetlands, including a stop at one of the Center’s viewing platforms overlooking 24 acres of marsh. The trail features fourteen stops that encourage kids and families to explore nature together through short fun activities. The trail is self-guided, and in both English and Spanish. At each stop, learn about nests by following interactive signs with prompts like, “Nocturnal pollinators like moths and bats prefer white flowers that reflect moonlight and are easier to see in the dark. Look for three different white flowers before the next sign!”  Each location asks kids and families to engage a different sense as they explore nature around them.

“The Pollinator Play Trail is a great way to mark the end of the school year with a family adventure outdoors on the trails of Pickering Creek,” says trail designer Sammi Ocher. “With flowers blooming, colorful butterflies fluttering everywhere, and frogs and toads singing up a storm, it is a wonderful time to be outside.”  The trail will be in place from Thursday June 17 through Monday July 5 and coincides with the long fourth of July weekend as well as the end of school.  Keep an eye on the weather and remember both ticks and mosquitoes share the outdoors with us.

After enjoying the Summer Pollinator Play Trail, further explorations lie beyond! With over four miles of trails and several beautiful vistas over Pickering Creek and the Center’s expansive wetlands, Pickering Creek has miles of trails for exploration and enjoyment.

Pickering Creek’s trails are open daily from 7am to 8pm during this summer.  There is no admission fee.  Guests are asked to carry masks and wear them when passing each other on trails; restrooms facilities are limited at this time, so plan accordingly.  For all our guidelines please check:

https://pickering.audubon.org/visit/planning-visit

WEBINAR: Kids Science Center: Seeds on the Grow!
May 7, 2021
1:00 – 2:00 pm
FREE
Plants are amazing but before the mightiest oak tree towers over the ground, it has to start as a seed! Join Pickering Creek educators as we talk all about super seeds and how they grow then conduct some fun at home seed experiments! Recommended for ages 4-8 but all ages are welcome! To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

WEBINAR: Love is in the Air: Native Plants for Pollinators
May 20, 2021
7:00 – 8:00 pm
FREE
Spring is a critical season for pollinators that are emerging to look for food and mates. It is typical to associate pollinators with meadows and flowers, but native trees fill a very important void in the early season of spring. We’ll talk about the importance of seasonality, the influence of climate change, and what native plants can support a wide variety of pollinators. To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Pickering Creek Audubon Center will debut its Spring Nature Play Trail on Friday April 2nd.  The trail begins near the Pickering Creek Welcome Center and loops through the nearby wetland boardwalk, woods, and pond loop.  The trail features fourteen stops that encourage kids and families to explore nature through short fun activities.  The trail is self-guided, and in both English and Spanish. At each stop, learn about nests by following interactive signs with prompts like, “Many eggs are brown, to help them camouflage with the ground so predators don’t eat them. Pick up three brown things before the next sign!” Each location asks kids and families to engage a different sense as they explore nature around them.

“The Spring Nature Play Trail is a great way for families to get outside during spring break and enjoy a pleasant walk at the Center as spring begins to unfold,” says trail designer Sammi Ocher. “Buds are getting ready to burst, birds are picking nest locations, early spring flowers are emerging, and frogs and toads are beginning to sing.”  The trail will be in place from Friday April 2nd through Sunday April 18th and coincides with area school’s spring break.  Keep an eye on the weather and remember boots as it has been a wet winter and puddles are one of spring’s promises.

After enjoying the Spring Nature Play Trail, further explorations lie beyond, with over four miles of trails and several beautiful vistas over Pickering Creek and the Center’s expansive wetlands, Pickering Creek has miles of trails for exploration and enjoyment.

Pickering Creek’s Trails are open daily from 7am to 7pm during this spring.  There is no admission fee.  Guests are asked to carry masks and wear them when passing each other on trails, restrooms facilities are limited at this time, so plan accordingly.  For all our guidelines please check:

https://pickering.audubon.org/visit/planning-visit

On April 1^st at 7:00PM via zoom webinar Pickering Creek presents A World on the Wing: A Talk with Author Scott Weidensaul.  A World on the Wing, the newest book from acclaimed nature writer Scott Weidensaul, is at once a celebration of global bird migration, an exploration of our rapidly evolving understanding of the science that underpins it, and a cautionary tale of the challenges humans have placed in the way of migrating birds. It conveys both the wonder of bird migration and its global sweep, from the mudflats of the Yellow Sea in China to the wilderness of central Alaska, the remote mountains of northeastern India to the dusty hills of southern Cyprus. A World on the Wing is also the story of Weidensaul’s own journey over the past two decades from a deeply interested amateur to someone immersed in migration research, using cutting-edge technology to answer questions that have fascinated him all his life–and, with fellow scientists, researchers, and bird lovers, trying to preserve global migratory patterns in the face of climate change and other looming challenges.

Ornithologist and author Scott Weidensaul celebrates the natural world—particularly birds and bird migration—in his research, his writing and his public speaking. Scott’s writing career began in 1978 with a weekly natural history column in the local newspaper, the Pottsville Republican in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, where he grew up. The column soon led a fulltime reporting job, which he held until 1988, when he left to become a freelance writer specializing in nature and wildlife. (He continued to write about nature for newspapers, however, including long-running columns for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Harrisburg Patriot-News.)

Weidensaul has written more than 30 books, including his widely acclaimed Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds (North Point 1999), which was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. His newest book, A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds (W.W. Norton) will be published in March 2021. Weidensaul’s writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including Audubon, Living Bird, Bird Watcher’s Digest and National Wildlife, among many others. He lectures widely on conservation and nature, and directs ornithological programs for National Audubon’s famed Hog Island Center on the coast of Maine.

In addition to writing about wildlife, Weidensaul is an active field researcher whose work focuses on bird migration. He is a co-director of Project Owlnet, a collaborative effort among nearly 125 banding and research stations across North America studying owl migration, and for more than 20 years he has directed a major effort to study the movements of northern saw-whet owls, one of the smallest and least-understood raptors in North America.

Weidensaul co-founded Project SNOWstorm, which uses cutting-edge tracking technology to study snowy owls, and is a founder of the Critical Connections project, which is tracking the migration of birds that breed on National Park lands in Alaska. He is also part of a continental effort to understand the rapid evolution, by several species of western hummingbirds, of a new migratory route and wintering range in the East.

To register:

https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Pickering Creek’s great line up of engaging online programs continues as we all get ready and dream of spring gardens and migrating waterbirds, raptors and songbirds. A full list of Pickering’s great virtual programming is available at its website pickering.audubon.org.  These two are of particular interest.

On March 15 at 7:00 PM via zoom webinar Pickering presents Nature’s Best Hope with Entomologist Doug Tallamy. Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us.  Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on Planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can- and must- take to reverse declining biodiversity and will explain why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope.   “Doug is an amazingly engaging speaker,” says Pickering Director Mark Scallion, “his presentations really bring home the importance of changing our views of landscaping. You will be dazzled by the plethora of amazing images in his visually stunning presentation.”

Doug Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 104 research publications and has taught insect related courses for 40 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens was published by Timber Press in 2007 and was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. The Living Landscape, co-authored with Rick Darke, was published in 2014. Doug’s new book ‘Nature’s Best Hope’ released by Timber Press in February 2020, is a New York Times Best Seller.

Sign up at https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Here is a list of public programs Pickering Creek is offering for March.

WEBINAR: A Conversation on Corvids
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Free
Corvids are some of the smartest birds on the planet. They can solve complex puzzles, recognize human faces & work cooperatively to achieve a goal. While they might be seen as common place, they are truly spectacular birds that deserve some recognition! So join Pickering Creek Audubon Center educators as we talk about ravens, crows & bluejays and why these birds are so intelligent. To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

WEBINAR: Nature’s Best Hope with Entomologist Doug Tallamy
March 15, 2021
7:00PM-8:30PM
$7.00 per person
Recent headlines about global insect declines and three billion fewer birds in North America are a bleak reality check about how ineffective our current landscape designs have been at sustaining the plants and animals that sustain us.  Such losses are not an option if we wish to continue our current standard of living on Planet Earth. The good news is that none of this is inevitable. Join Pickering Creek as Dr. Doug Tallamy will discuss simple steps that each of us can- and must- take to reverse declining biodiversity and will explain why we, ourselves, are nature’s best hope. To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

WEBINAR: Animal Similes: Fact Or Fiction
Thursday, March 18, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Free
Are bats actually blind, bees truly busy? Just how happy are clams? Join Pickering Creek naturalists to find out the truth about these common animal-related sayings and more, and you’ll become wise as an owl! To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Pickering Creek’s great line up of engaging online programs to keep you sane during the pandemic continues in February.  The month’s highlights include webinars by science writer and cartoonist Rosemary Mosco and environmental educator and scientist Samara Ocher.

Rosemary will present Comics with a Naturalist’s Knowledge on Thursday February 11^th ay 7pm via zoom webinar. Rosemary makes books and cartoons that connect people with the natural world. Her Bird and Moon nature comics were the subject of an award-winning exhibit at Cornell’s Museum of the Earth, and they’re collected in the book, “Birding Is My Favorite Video Game”, a 2019 ALA Great Graphic Novel for Teens. She co-wrote the New York Times best-selling book, “The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid” and wrote a graphic novel about the solar system. She speaks at birding festivals and writes for Audubon and the PBS kids’ show, Elinor Wonders Why. Otherwise, she spends a lot of time out in the field, taking pictures of eye-wateringly tiny butterflies. Delight in Rosemary’s whimsical depictions of birds, reptiles, mammals, and more while picking up marvelous tidbits to share at your next (virtual) dinner party! This program will enchant, fascinate and inspire – you don’t want to miss it!

Samara Ocher will present Puffins & Petrels: Seabirds in the Field on Wednesday February 17 at 7:00 PM via Zoom webinar.  As their name suggests, seabirds spend the majority of their lives out at sea. These amazing birds soar above the waves of the open ocean, and dive beneath them for fish, without land in sight for most of the year. Come summertime, albatross, puffins, petrels, and more converge on tiny islands all over the world to form breeding colonies, often returning to the same island where they were born. Many birds even find the same mate each year, picking out their partner from among hundreds if not thousands! They’ll spend the summer caring for their nestlings and taking turns heading out to sea to forage for fish, krill, squid, and other seafood delicacies to feed their chicks. At the end of the summer, both parents and chicks abscond to the water, often under the cover of night to escape the hungry eyes (and mouths) of predators. They’ll spend the rest of the year flying, swimming, and eating miles out at sea, then return next year to begin again.

When seabirds come together in these breeding colonies every summer, they present us with a unique opportunity to study and observe them. While they can be difficult to find during most of the year, during the summer they’ve gathered in one location, and on land! These seabird islands tend to be remote, so any scientist eager to get their hands dirty (with copious amounts of guano) must pack up their gear and live amongst the seabirds for the summer season. They keep track of these breeding colonies from year to year, giving them a peek into the lives of these otherwise inconspicuous but fascinating birds. Seabirds also provide us with a window into their marine ecosystems. It’s much easier to record the number of puffin fledglings from a bird blind on a remote island than it is to count the number of juvenile rockfish in a fishery under the waves! If seabird populations are healthy, we can infer that the other members of their ecosystem, such as important fisheries species, are thriving as well. Samara will share more about some of the species she’s studied, life on a seabird island, and how scientists keep tack of populations from year to year.

A lifelong lover of birds and the ocean, Samara has studied seabirds in both the field and the laboratory. She received her Master’s degree in Marine Biology from Northeastern University, and completed her research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute using computer models to study the population demographics of the Wandering Albatross. Spurred by her continuing fascination of the unique adaptations seabirds use to survive in their marine ecosystems, she then spent a summer as a field researcher on the Farallon Islands in California. These rocky outcroppings are home to 13 species of breeding seabirds, with over 200,000 birds nesting there each year. She worked as a naturalist for Audubon’s Project Puffin in Maine, living on a research island for two weeks and educating the public on boat tours of the breeding islands for the remainder of the summer. Samara always carts her trusty DSLR camera along on all her seabirding adventures, and is looking forward to sharing her experiences, photos, and passion for these unique birds and their ecosystems.

To register for one of these programs visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Comics with a Naturalist’s Knowledge with Rosemary Mosco
Thursday, February 11th 
7:00 – 8:00 PM
$7/ per person
Pickering Creek is pleased to announce that Rosemary Mosco, the creator of Bird and Moon Comics and the New York Times best-selling book, “The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid,” will join us virtually for an engaging talk on sharing science and humor through her art. Delight in Rosemary’s whimsical depictions of birds, reptiles, mammals, and more while picking up marvelous tidbits to share at your next (virtual) dinner party! This program will enchant, fascinate and inspire – you don’t want to miss it! To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Getting Ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count
Friday, February 12, 2021
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
FREE
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a free, fun, and easy event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of bird populations. Join Audubon Staff to help us kick off the GBBC weekend with birdy crafts, activities and bird watching challenges and get ready to share sharing birding stories online all weekend.  To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Puffins & Petrels: Seabirds in the Field
Wednesday, February, 17, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
$5.00 per person
Seabirds spend most of their lives over (or under) the water, miles away from the shore. The only reliable way to study them is by living amongst them when they form summer breeding colonies in the thousands on small uninhabited islands. Learn what makes seabirds like puffins, albatross, and storm-petrels so special, find out what techniques we use to study them, and discover how scientists use this information to strengthen ecosystem-wide conservation efforts. To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

WEBINAR: The Art of Audubon: Exploring John James Audubon’s artwork
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
$5.00 per person
Nature & art go hand in hand. The beauty and majesty of our surroundings have been inspiring artists for centuries to paint, sketch, draw, photograph and more. Join Pickering Creek Naturalists as we discuss the artwork of John James Audubon and the complicated legacy he left behind. To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Kids Craft Along: Happy Hibernation (Webinar)
Friday, January 22, 2021
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
Free
Who’s sleeping in that cave? What about that warm nest in that tree? How do animals survive during the cold and snowy winters in Maryland? Join us for an afternoon of arts and crafts about hibernating animals during the winter! To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

WEBINAR: Deciphering Winter Bird Behavior
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Free
Ever wonder how overwintering birds survive the cold? Though we’re all familiar with the sight of Canada Geese and other species flying south for the winter in search of more resources, other residential species find ways to stick it out locally. Some have physical adaptations to help them beat the cold, while others change their behaviors. Join us to find out more, and to learn what you can do to help birds all winter long. To register, visit https://pickering.audubon.org/programs/upcoming-online-events

Pickering Creek will be joined by their friend Ken Elkins of Audubon Connecticut for a unique webinar on Thursday December 3rd, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm, entitled Bird Friendly Pantry.

Every birder or nature-lover has a genesis moment—the point at which their passion is born. For Audubon Education Program Manager Ken Elkins, the moment he got hooked was at age 10 when he noticed and observed the birds at his grandmother’s feeders at her home in Vermont. The experience was fascinating, and Ken has been obsessed with birds and nature ever since.

Active in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) since he was a teenager, Ken’s later participation in Connecticut and National Envirothons led him to pursue a degree in Environmental Biology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry. He started his career in conservation education at Westmoor Park in West Hartford, Connecticut, and quickly moved on to The Connecticut Audubon Society (CAS) where he taught at all five of their Centers and became their Director of Education. While at CAS, Ken led many EcoTravel trips and organized their World Series of Birding team for eight years.

Ken’s presentation will answer the question: What does Bird Friendly mean? As an example, Bird Friendly coffee comes from farms using a combination of foliage cover, tree height and biodiversity to provide quality habitat for birds and other wildlife. Join Pickering Creek to learn more about coffee and other pantry items that are bird friendly. This program is presented in partnership with Bent of the River Audubon Center in Connecticut.

Register at https://act.audubon.org/a/bird-friendly-pantry