Kids & Families get batty

A small group of kids and their families, including some new folks in town- welcome!- came out for our back-to-school Kids & Families event on Saturday, August 30.

After a ramble around the block using 5 senses to see, hear, smell, touch and even taste our natural surroundings, the group came inside to enjoy snacks while learning about bats, with live cam footage and a video of a "batnado" at the world's largest bat cave, and finished up with a lively game of bird bingo, learning about some really colorful species and some with very long and funny names. Everyone left with prizes and information about upcoming LAS field trips, evening programs, and our annual Spooky Halloween Scavenger Hunt.

Check out our Events page to see what's coming up this fall!

August Newsletter Now Online!

 

Hot off the presses - our August newsletter!  

Waterbird Field Trip - 16 August 2025

Five of us met on Saturday, 16 August, to search for waterbirds on the Laramie Plains. Because all the basins on Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge were dry, we checked Blake’s Pond, Meeboer Lake, and Twin Buttes Lake. Starting at Blake’s Pond, we had a smattering of shorebirds including Killdeer, American Avocet, Least Sandpiper, Wilson’s Snipe, Wilson’s Phalarope, and Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. Western Wood-Pewees were still singing from nearby cottonwoods, which also produced a Yellow Warbler and American Goldfich and several Bullock’s Orioles. A Prairie Falcon and Northern Harriers winged by the pond. The road into Meeboer Lake had lots of Yellow-headed and Brewer’s Blackbirds and Vesper and Savannah Sparrows. The lake was pretty quiet, although we were treated to a small group of Forster’s Terns, a Ruddy Duck pair, a winter-plumaged Eared Grebe, and great looks at winter-plumaged Spotted Sandpipers. We finally found some Baird’s Sandpipers at Twin Buttes Lake and were able to get some good looks at California and Ring-billed Gulls. Great light and calm winds were a highlight of the morning! Overall, we tallied 51 species in two and one-half hours of birding.

Brad Andres

 

Foster's Terns (Heather Johnson)

 

Ruddy Duck (Heather Johnson)

 

 

Greater Yellowlegs (Heather Johnson)