Friday, March 17, 2017

The Sculpins Track Wildlife at Whatcom Falls Park

The Sculpins met for their first outing of the spring season at Whatcom Falls Park. Getting to explore around Whatcom Creek and all of its powerful waterfalls was a great way for us to observe first hand how much water has fallen in the Pacific Northwest over the past month!
Checking out the falls

During the first part of our outing we had a special visit from two students at WWU who came to run a couple of activities with us. One of them introduced the motto “Leave No Trace”. As a young group, we are learning lots about what our relationship with the woods looks like and this was a great opportunity for us to begin to think about how we have an impact when we explore together. The other activity introduced us to some basic tracking skills. Later in the outing we would have a chance to practice these skills with real wildlife!
Playing a tracking game

After a morning of some focused attention, we decided that it was time for some free play and exploration.While we were exploring we saw two deer moving through the forest not to far from us. We saw them jump over a log and decided that we should go and try to pick up their trail.
Some forest friends!

We were excited to find tracks right next to the log! After picking up the trail, we followed the tracks along a deer trail that meandered through the woods near where we were exploring. As we walked further along the deer trail, we noticed more and different types of sign. We could see areas where deer and other forest creatures had removed the moss on a log that laid across the trail. We also saw lots of scat and even some fur on branches in the understory. This was a truly exciting experience for us and as soon as we met back up with the rest of the Sculpins we took them back to show them what we had found.
Trailing the deer that we saw earlier

As if our day didn't have enough nature gifts already, we got the opportunity to hear a barred owl in the distance and then finally locate it using our ears and eyes. We enjoyed watching it spin its head around in seemingly impossible ways in order to get a better look at all of us.
Looking up at the barred owl

To round out our day and introduce the Art of Harvest, we settled down to some hemlock-cedar-licorice root tea. Harvest is an important part of deepening our relationship with nature and we are excited to get to learn more about it this spring season.


This outing left us full of inspiration and excitement for further exploration together. We are looking forward to growing our skill in terms of Harvest as well as continuing to do some more tracking as we move into spring!

Some Sculpins on a log

Make sure you check out the rest of the pictures from our day here.