Outdoor Activity

Our afternoon starts off with self-guided activities, challenges, or puzzles that lead us to our topic for the day. As a group, we'll observe, investigate, and compare wildlife, their adaptations, and the changes that they undergo each season. Participants may play the role of a zoologist, a naturalist, or even an Arctic explorer throughout this series. Each experience will leave your young scientist eager for the next session.

This introduction to vernal ponds is presented by Cape Ann Vernal Pond Team and sponsored by The Trustees of Reservations's Ravenswood Park.  Vernal pools are crucial to the survival of salamanders and wood frogs. Join Ravenswood Park as we explore the pools at Agassiz Rock reservation, and learn how you can certify and protect vernal pools. Vernal Pool Certification is a state certification of vernal pools, which have not been covered in the wetlands act, but serve an important roll in wetlands and are crucial to survival for a number of species.

We know how important it is to be "green," but how do we apply that to the way we live on the New England coast? Come to Mass Audubon’s Joppa Flats for a full day of activities all about ocean creatures like whales, sea turtles & fish! We’ll learn about ocean sustainability and seashore conservation with fun, informative games like mini sporting events, quiz competitions, model building, and art projects for all ages!

Celebrate the arrival of spring with a hike to Waterfowl Pond. Along the way, we'll look for ducks and red-winged blackbirds in the wetlands, listen for the call of the phoebe, and search for signs that the animals that slept away the winter are emerging and those that went south are returning.

Join us at Halibut Point State Park, a nationally renowned destination for viewing winter birds, to learn the basics of birding, natural history, and behavioral traits of our area's winter birds such as ducks, gulls, cormorants, loons, grebes, gannets, and alcids.

Our afternoon starts off with self-guided activities, challenges, or puzzles that lead us to our topic for the day. As a group, we'll observe, investigate, and compare wildlife, their adaptations, and the changes that they undergo each season. Participants may play the role of a zoologist, a naturalist, or even an Arctic explorer throughout this series. Each experience will leave your young scientist eager for the next session.

Forces of nature formed Ravenswood’s landscape. Thousands of years ago ice chunks from melting glaciers created kettle ponds, bogs, and swamps. As a matter of fact, most of New England was buried under an enormous ice sheet that was more than a mile thick!

Spring celebrations begin early at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary with the age-old tradition of maple sugaring. The warm days of late winter awaken the flow of sap in the maples, causing buds to swell and resulting in sweet-smelling billowing clouds of steam rising from the sugarhouse.

Amesbury Sports Park is offering free snow tubing admission for active military personnel & employees of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Pease Air Force Base as well as $5 off each of their guests’ admissions from February 25th through March 1st, 2013. 

Have you ever walked through the woods looking for owls during the day? Owls are most active at night, of course, but if you know what to look for you can find their daytime roosts. Together we'll discover what our local owls look like, what they eat, and what they sound like. As a special activity, everyone will help to dissect an owl pellet.