We had a great weekend during our annual youth programming at Nature Nova Scotia’s Celebration of Nature this spring.  With 17 youth from ages 6 to 13 we had an interesting mix of activities to satisfy all interests.  On Saturday we started the morning talking about migrating birds and had a warm up playing the Migration Game. We then tackled a bird geocaching course where we used our GPS units to find 8 hidden stations that had bird related activities at them.  It was a big hit.  Later that morning Jill Francis from Parks Canada came and talked about Mi’kmaw hunting and everyone got to try their hands using an Atatl, a spear throwing tool that helped native hunters achieve greater distances.

That afternoon everyone joined a field trip in the local area and rejoined us at the lodge for a musical performance by Little Miss Moffat!  Nobody forgets the lyrics to “Raven or Crow?”.  Even some of the adults joined in with their owl hoots.  After dinner we had a very moving bonfire chat with Frank Meuse and shalan joudry from Bear River First Nation.  Everyone slept well that night, even it was a little chilly!

The next day brought us a visit from Katie McLean from Clean Annapolis River Partnership who taught us about some of the different turtles they monitor and let us try our hands at trying to find the GPS units they attach to the turtles. Then we had Jeffie McNeil and some interns from the Mersey Tobeatic River Institute come and help the kids build some turtle nesting cages that they will use to protect newly laid turtle eggs from predators.  Charlie from Milford House took some time to have some of the older kids help him make a new wood duck nesting box as well!

We are so fortunate to have been at such a beautiful location this year. Great kids and families and we are looking forward to doing it all again next May!