HallowEno

Yes it is that time of year, our Halloween family event is happening tonight.  This program is geared towards families with children in the 5-14 age range.  We will have a hayride, a spooky performance, campfire and stories, face painting, the Scrap Exchange, and we will be giving out apples and candy.  The trails will be lit up with luminaries. 
The program is free and runs from 6:00pm - 9:00pm here at West Point on the Eno Park.  Dress up and come on out, we'll be looking for you.

Nature Programs we'll be running...

So we have a busy weekend ahead.  You can join us on Saturday, October 22 from 1-3pm at our Native Discoveries Program at Leigh Farm.  On this program we will learn how Native Americans and early settlers made shelter and fire.  Join us as we build our own shelter big enough to hold four people.
Also on Saturday, October 22 from 8-10pm we will have a moonlight paddle program at Lake Michie.  You must call and register for the paddle program.  We only have limited space available.  There is a fee for this program.
Please call 919-471-1623 (opt 2) for more information or to register.  Hope to see you.

Nature in Canoes Intersession Trip

There is no better way to see and experience the flora and fauna that live in our watersheds than by boat.  We took a group of 8 children out on two canoe trips to explore and learn about natural world up by Lake Michie and on the lower Eno and Flat Rivers.  The weather was perfect and the children did a great job in their boats. 
The day at Lake Michie was great, unfortunately for you we have no pictures to document it.  We saw a lot of wildlife and we got to explore and experience a mountain micro-climate on the north shore of the Flat River.  All part of a really fun day.

Fortunately we do have pictures from our day on the rivers.  It was another sunny day and we had one of our campers volunteer to be trip photographer, which is good since sometimes it is hard to take pics and lead the group.  Here are a couple of shots...

Beautiful day



Paddling along

An unidentified furry animal was in this hole

Despite the low lake levels of Falls Lake the canoeing was great.  We saw Kingfishers, Vultures, Hawks, Heron, Cardinals, Crows, and Bluebirds.  There were a couple of mysterious furry animals that we only got brief glimpses of and unfortunately we were unable to identify them.  This was a really fun day with a lot of nature all around us.  If you get a chance get out and explore some too.  You can always join us on a program.  See our link on the right.



Fall Nature...

So we haven't forgotten about the blog, this time we are having technical issues getting pictures from the camera to the computer.  We had some great intersession trips last week.  One was up at Lake Michie and the other was on the lower Eno and Flat Rivers.  We are working hard to get the picture issue worked out so we can show you what we have been doing.  Till then enjoy these pictures from the Natural World of Durham County...

Beautiful fall weather...

So we really can't complain about the weather, 70's with clear blue skies.  This has been perfect weather for our intersession trips.  On Tuesday we went up to Lake Michie and paddle up to where the Flat River enters the lake.  This was fun, but also a bit depressing as the river is not much more than a small creek with a lot of large rocks exposed and weeds.  You can criss-cross the river bed without getting wet just by walking on all the exposed rocks.  So maybe we can complain about the weather.  We need rain, lots of steady, soaking rain.  I know that our nature is to not like rain, but with the rivers barely flowing and the resivoirs drying up, we need some rain bad.  So I guess that I can complain about the weather. 

Tomorrow we will be paddling on the lower Eno River and I guess we will see what Falls Lake is looking like right now.  The weather will be really pretty, but what we need in reality is rain.  So make sure you are conserving water and start doing some actions/activities to try and encourage rain to come our way.  We need it.  We'll post some pictures from the Eno Trip soon.