For the past four weeks, youth ages 4-12 came to the Lubec Community Outreach Center for two-hours of weekly outdoor exploration with Downeast Coastal Conservancy. Each week, DCC’s Outreach Director Cathy Lookabaugh took the young explorers down the Mowry Beach Boardwalk for some hands-on nature discoveries.
Week 1 began by learning what is a naturalist and how to find nature clues to become nature detectives! This journey began by reading How to be A Nature Detective by Millicent Selsam from the Lubec Memorial Library. Then the group played a quick round of ‘Guess the Mystery Item’ to hone in one of our senses, our sense of touch. Ready to get moving and equipped with hand-lens the 14 young explorers walked down the boardwalk searching for animal signs. Quickly they found nibbled leaves, a crab shell, bird droppings, and a tiny feather. At the beach, the group took a few minutes to explore another important sense for detectives, their sense of hearing, by listening to their environment and making Sound Maps.
Week 2 the explorers were ready to focus in on their detective skills and began exploring tiny worlds around us. Finding snails, spiders, and bugs, they took time to nature journal by drawing images and making observations such as “I wonder if he was scared of me” and “It makes me feel happy and weird”. After reading our library book of the week The Snail’s Spell by Joanne Ryder, the group again took a stroll down the boardwalk. At the beach they created their own animal homes made of rocks and sand. On the walk back, the group decided to count as many different shades of colors they could find. 57 became the grand total! From rosy pink to forest green and everything in-between!
Week 3 had a special guest, Jennifer from the library, who helped us kick off the afternoon with a story about the intertidal zone called Between the Tide by Fran Hodgkins. After learning about the animals adapted to this unique ecosystem we headed to the beach for our own self-discoveries. There the explorers found crabs, periwinkles, seaweeds, and tiny invertebrates. We talked about the difficulties of living in an area exposed to the sun but then inundated by the tides several times of the day. The favorite thing of this day was unanimously “the tiny jelly on the beach”!
Week 4 was our final week. Again Jennifer from the library came with a story, Hummingbird by Nicola Davies. This week was all about our favorite feathered friends – birds! After learning about the amazing journey of the ruby-throated hummingbird, we set out to the boardwalk with binoculars in hand to see who we could find. Despite the warm windy breeze, we heard goldfinch, robins, and song sparrows. After a bit of beach exploration, the youth explorers used different props representing various types of bird beaks to learn how each bird is adapted to their food source. The highlight of the day however was a handful of fresh picked raspberries we discovered along the way!
Downeast Coastal Conservancy is grateful for local partnerships such as the Lubec Memorial Library and Lubec Community Outreach Center. We hope to continue expanding our Environmental Education programming to local youth as much as possible. These free programs are made possible by the donations of generous supporters and donors.