Little Turtles?

Our Box Turtle has laid 3 eggs in the past month. We are very excited about the possibility of having baby turtles in August. The eggs are being kept in a container filled with sand in our greenhouse. They need to stay moist and warm, which is why they are under plastic. Turtles can perish if their eggs are jostled, jiggled or even turned over. So please look but don't touch! If they hatch we promise to let you hold the little turtles as much as you want!

More Babies!

Although these babies may not be as cute as the barn swallows, they are still a neat sight to see! We find a lot of Wolf Spiders in the Center, but not many have their offspring hitching a ride. This one was crawling right outside of our front door, and we couldn't quite tell what kept falling off of her back. Upon closer inspection, we saw that it was about 8o babies! WOW! The young will fall off when they are large enough to eat on their own and spin a large enough web. I bet Mom can't wait for that day!

Babies!!!

It's baby season, and that can only mean one thing...cute pictures! Here is one that I took this morning at the Oregon Ridge Beach. It is a little hard to see, but this is a nest of Barn Swallows who are getting ready to fledge. They are standing on the edge of their mudball nest waiting for mom to bring them some tasty insects. YUM! If you have any cute pictures of babies at ORNC, send them to our email that you can easily access at our website. The link is on the side of the blog, or you can copy and paste this address: ornc@bcpl.net. Label the subject as Baby pix 4 Courtney. Any that I recieve I will post on the blog with your caption.

Nature's Bounty

Chef Matt
During seasonal naturalist training, our seasonals got to sample some foods straight from the outdoors. We made a meal out of edible plants that we collected that morning. The menu included a salad of plantain, dandelion and lamb's quarters, a mix of stinging nettle, yellow dock and milkweed flower heads sauteed in olive oil and wild garlic, service berries and mulberries for dessert and a selection of teas: oswego, chocolate mint, rose hip, red clover or sweet birch. We also got to crack open hickory nuts with two stones. This helped us understand how primitive people had to find their food.
This is only one of the many fun activities that our seasonals got to do this year.
If you are looking for a summer job next year, keep us in mind. Then you too can taste nature's bounty!

Lunch is Served!

Disclaimer: Please do not consume any wild plants that you can not identify properly. Consult a plant field guide, naturalist, botanist or herbalist before consuming any wild plants or herbs.

Ouch!

This week, we were lucky enough to get a phone call about a Black Rat snake who seemed to be in trouble. When he was brought to the Nature Center, this proved to be very true! The snake was caught in some leftover deer fence that had been discarded or dragged into the woods by another animal. We decided that he had probably become tangled when he started struggling to get free. The fencing was tight and squeezing the snake so hard that his scales were coming off!


With patience and a pair of surgical scissors, we freed this beautiful animal. He was set loose outside of the Center and has been spotted around the building several times. Maybe it is his way of saying "Thanks!" to eat all of the rodents that try to get in here and live with us. We hope that he continues on his way without anymore snags in his path. Good luck buddy!