Kids and Families Bundle Up and Use Their Senses!

Eleven kids and 11 adults bundled up and braved near-zero temps on Saturday morning, January 6, at Optimist Park, for a 5 Senses Winter Walk along the Laramie Greenbelt, beginning at Optimist Park. One family drove in from Curt Gowdy area, and another all the way from Casper! The day began with an easy find with both ears and eyes: Crows! After meeting at the picnic shelter, where we reviewed our 5 senses and talked about why winter is a cold time of year here, the group departed on a tracking adventure, with a light dusting of fresh snow and no wind making conditions perfect, and stopped along the way to taste spruce needles- which were discovered to taste like they smell! The first tracks encountered were tiny hoofprints. A few minutes later from the bridge an observant participant pointed out two deer in a field across the river, in the vicinity the tracks had been spotted. The group also saw rabbits and squirrels, along with their tracks, and learned how to tell the two apart. Other animals the kids thought would be fun to see included raccoon, beaver, otter, chickadee, monkey and panda bear. The last two were dropped from the list of possibilities- until we remembered sometimes raccoons are called trash pandas, which made the yound boy who sought pandas very happy! Questions raised during and after the walk included, "Is it OK to touch bird feathers and bones if you find them in the wild?"- prompting a brief talk about migration and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act- "Why are there no magpies in Laramie?"-and discussion of the differences in bird species found around the Curt Gowdy and Cheyenne areas vs. Laramie- and "Is that a wasp nest- or what kind of bird?" (It looked like a Bullock's Oriole nest in a cottonwood tree along the path to this trip leader.) All kids left with a link to a cool YouTube video called Seasons in the Sun, which they can watch at home to learn more about the tilt of the earth and how seasons come about. Our next Kids and Families event will be indoors in February. Please check the Events calendar here on our website and on our social feeds for future events, and remember that Laramie Audubon Society members receive email notice of upcoming events!