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.

Sculpins explore the 100 acre woods for their first outing - 9/10/16

Crisp blue skies dappled with wispy white clouds welcomed our young Sculpin explorers to Fairhaven Park, as they gathered in a loose circle, anticipating their first adventure. Spirits were high as we all introduced ourselves and Explorer’s Club.

As a new group, it is always important to spend time establishing expectations and going over ground rules so that everyone can be at their best and ready for adventure. One of our mottos in Explorer’s Club is Safety First. This means that everyone’s first priority should be safety, and each explorer is responsible for making safe decisions for themselves and their group!

Once we recognize safety as the foundation for exploring, we focused on our three-point philosophy: Explore - Serve - Connect. These three ideas are central to every adventure. Exploring is our most obvious goal: we want to get to know our big backyard, develop our observational skills, learn new things, and have fun. The next step, Serve, is giving back to the place that we explore. We strive to Connect by developing relationships and deepening our understanding of nature, community, and ourselves.

As part of getting to know our place, the boys agreed that our group name would be the Sculpins: sculpins are a type of benthic (bottom-dwelling) fish that can live in a variety of habitats depending on their species, from river canyons to shallow tidepools. A special adaptation on their lower fins helps them anchor in fast-flowing water.  We would like to emulate this creature’s flexibility, resourcefulness, and aptitude to withstand strong currents.

In opening circle, each explorer gets a job for the day. There’s the Medicine Man who carries the first aid kit; Our TTTPP (totally terrific toilet paper person) who carries our nature poop kit; the Games Master who carries bandanas and other supplies for spontaneous fun; the Hunter-Gather who carries our apples, cutting board and apple cutter; and our Knowledge Keeper who holds our copy of Plants of the Pacific Northwest by Pojar and McKinnon for field plant identification. Ask your explorer what job they had on our first outing, and if they didn’t have a job this time, don’t worry - we rotate jobs every outing, and introduce more jobs as the season continues.

Mid-circle, we discovered our first nature myster: a big, maroon spider in the grass. It was our first lesson in respecting nature, as we all decided to watch this amazing creature and how it uses 8 legs to travel, instead of ending its life. We also learned how to deal with bees: stay still and don’t swat at them.

With antsy feet we set out down the trail to play a name game. Games are important as a framework for learning and exploring, and one of our favorites is called Hide - It’s a great way to develop the kids’ observation skills and understanding of camouflage. Ask your explorer if they can explain the rules of the game to you, and what strategies they used in order to camouflage themselves during the game. There can be (and often are) several winners!

Another game we played is called Eagle Eye, a more involved and challenging version of Hide: the eagle perches in his nest and counts to 30. Then, rooted in place, he looks around to find hiders. If anyone hasn’t been spotted in ~2 minutes, the eagle closes his eyes again, and counts to 20. Meanwhile everyone has to move at least 10 feet closer to the eagle. In round 3, everyone has to touch the eagle and hide again. Only if they survive this last round do they win! With this game under our belts, we talked about contrast and breaking up one’s outline as part of how any animal camouflages itself.

As our last activity of the day, we did a sit-spot reflection in the woods. Ask your explorer if they can remember the 5 S’s of a sit spot: Safe, Still, Solo, Silent, Senses. This is a great way to bring the day to a close, letting the kids think about everything they explored and say goodbye to the forest. Each day is closed with a Circle of Gratitude, where we slice and share the apples that the hunter-gatherer has carried for us. Everyone shared something that they were grateful for, and went home tuckered out and covered in bits of forest. Looking forward to our next outing at Lake Padden!