Category Archives: Nature

Planning Ahead?

Posted on November 8, 2015 by AnnieRie

Just a couple of really interesting programs are coming up next weekend over at the Howard County Conservancy Mt. Pleasant site. Followed by one of the very popular meteor shower watches on the following Tuesday. Here are the details for those planning their weekends in advance.

Spotting Wildlife in Winter – Saturday morning the 14th at 10am. For the hikers, photographers, and nature lovers who want to learn how to see more during the winter, Frank Marsden is leading a hike through the fields, woods and along the stream out at Mt. Pleasant. Frank has been taking amazing pictures out at Eden Mill Nature Center in Harford County. He is coming into our woods to show us what to look for, and how to increase our chances of seeing wildlife in their natural habitat.

Then, on Sunday, another very special program. Do you know where Patterson Park is? Have you ever heard of Miracle Pond? Middleton Evans had made over 600 trips to this pond in a wildly overgrown section of the park. His visits, and his amazing photographs, span 15 years. He is giving a presentation in the Gudelsky Center at 4pm on the 15th of November. It should be something special.

Planning to check out the Leonids? Want to do it with some of our talented astronomical experts, like Star Doc (Dr. Joel Goodman) and Dr. Alex Storrs from Towson University? They will be bringing high powered scopes, but on a dark night like the 17th, you should be able to sit back in a lawn chair, bundled up against the cool weather, sipping some hot chocolate while looking for meteors shooting across the skies. This is always a popular event, with many attendees. Sometimes we’ve had over a 100 people out there. They will be there from 10pm until the wee hours of the morning.

This trio of programs should give us a few good reasons to “Get Out There”. Details on the Conservancy web site, under upcoming events.

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Posted in Birds, Community, Day Trips, Howard County, Nature and tagged birds, community, day trips, Howard County, howard county conservancy, photography. Bookmark the permalink.

Nighttime Hiking

Posted on October 27, 2015 by AnnieRie

What are you doing this Friday night? How about hiking under an almost full moon, with flashlights?

Out at my favorite volunteer location, where I spend way too much time having fun (yes, tomorrow I get to chase first graders all over the property on a field trip about owls), this Friday at 7 PM, they are having a flashlight night hike for anyone interested in what is out there in the dark. As an aside, how is that for an epic run on sentence?

What can we see in the dark? What can we hear? If you really want to have a great beginning to your Halloween weekend, go to the web site and guarantee a place. Howard County Conservancy. Mt. Pleasant. Woodstock. If you haven’t been there, you are really missing something. Worth the time to check it out. Your family will love you for it.

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Posted in Howard County, Nature, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, nature, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Fall Fest is On!

Posted on October 3, 2015 by AnnieRie

Tired of being indoors from the rain? Want to get out and have a fun Sunday at the Howard County Conservancy? The festival tomorrow the 4th of October is still going to take place. Minus a few things, like the hay rides. Slippery, wet trails where they usually ride will make it impossible to hold the rides without creating ruts, which encourage erosion.

Besides that change, the rest will still take place. Pumpkin painting. Crafts and storytelling.

You can visit the animals, including the alpacas from Pearl Moon.

The square dancers will be inside the Gudelsky Center. The historic farmhouse will be open for tours.

The blacksmiths will be operating. So will the chair caners, the woodturners, the basketweavers, and more.

The cost. Just $10 a car. Bring neighbors, relatives and friends. The more the merrier. Time is 11am-3pm. Food trucks will be there with waffles, BBQ, and other goodies.

See you there?

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Posted in Community, Day Trips, Farms, Howard County, Nature, West HoCo and tagged community, farms, howard county conservancy, nature, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Twilight Hiking for the Family

Posted on September 23, 2015 by AnnieRie

Out on the Howard County Conservancy trails at Mt. Pleasant. Friday night, 5-7 pm.

This is the description from the web site.

“Walk through the meadow and along the stream to the woodland campfire ring. Listen to the birds singing at dusk. Gather around the crackling fire and hear legend-stories about the Equinox, sing old-time songs, roast marshmallows, and enjoy s’mores. Hike back in time to watch the sun set over horizon –exactly due west – and hear other interesting astronomical facts about the Fall Equinox.”

You can look for milkweed.

Or maybe check out all the walnuts that have fallen from the trees along the trail.

Pre-register if you can, so we know how much food to buy and how many volunteers we may need.

Loving the fact that we are well into my favorite season around here.

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Foraging, Howard County, Nature and tagged community, day trips, fall foliage, hiking, hobbies, howard county conservancy, nature. Bookmark the permalink.

A Triple Header

Posted on September 8, 2015 by AnnieRie

This weekend. For birders, and those who want to learn about birds. At Mt. Pleasant on Saturday.

Mike Kerwin is leading three different walks to observe bird migrations. At 8 am, the Howard Bird Club two hour early morning walk looking for migrating birds.

At 10 am, a Conservancy sponsored Wonder Walk which is focusing on identifying hawks while looking for birds.

Followed by an impromptu hang out and watch the hawks in action, as they are very active over the Conservancy property. This is an opportunity to do as much or as little as you wish.

The events are free. After 9 am, the Conservancy building is open for restroom facilities and water.

Mike is seen quite often at Centennial Lake, hanging out over on the southwest side, watching the birds of prey. He is a wealth of knowledge in identifying raptors.

Do you know the difference between a Cooper’s Hawk and a Sharp Shinned Hawk. Mike can show you.

Come join us. At 8 am with the bird club, or 10 am with the Conservancy. Mike will love to have you there.

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Posted in Birds, Hobbies, Nature and tagged birds, hawks, hobbies, howard county conservancy, nature, photography. Bookmark the permalink.

Back To School

Posted on August 21, 2015 by AnnieRie

Not just for the students who go back into the classroom on Monday, but for those of us who volunteer to lead field trips, we begin our fall learning series next Tuesday out in Woodstock, at Mt. Pleasant. The private nonprofit where I volunteer, Howard County Conservancy has a large and interesting series of trips that need hike leaders.

Our schedule for fall training. Including our ever popular potluck luncheon.

We begin with the Watershed Report Card Program. Which was a huge success last year. Results are here.

Volunteering is easy. You can do as many field trips as you want. They request a minimum of three, and there are dozens of days that children are on the Conservancy grounds at Mt .Pleasant and/or Belmont. Sometimes we even head out to the schools to lead trips. This year I see we are going to practice the Stream Survey Program over at the Therapeutic and Recreational Riding Center in Glenelg.

I also see a new preschool program on the calendar. I like working with the younger children. They are incredibly inquisitive and just really enjoy being out in the fields and woodlands. Particularly in the lovely weather that autumn brings to our area.

It’s not hard to join us as a volunteer. Email volunteer@hcconservancy.org or call 410 465-8877.

Last year, over 10000 students came to the properties for trips. There are many, many opportunities to help.

See you on Tuesday or Thursday next week?

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Posted in Community, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering and tagged community, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Building Fairy Houses

Posted on July 8, 2015 by AnnieRie

It’s that time of year again. The annual program at the Howard County Conservancy to build fairy houses in the woods.

It’s an adventure in imagination, and creativity, and in celebrating the outdoors. It is immensely popular.

This is last year’s crowd. There are many volunteers to help and there is a large amount of material available to use. Part of the fun, though, for many of the families is the pre-event collection of materials from your own area. Bringing leaves and flowers and acorns along to use in the construction.

The event is 10 am this Saturday at Mt. Pleasant in Woodstock. Details here.

Last year they built the houses down by Hodge Podge Lodge. This year, who knows where they will go. After getting a bit of instruction, the families go down into the woods to build their houses.

You can go off into the woods to make that very special, very private house.

I will be wandering around taking pictures. We always make a scrapbook of the pictures to keep.

Come do something truly special and fun. Saturday morning. FREE. They do ask you to email and let them know how many are coming. The more advance notice we have of the potential attendance, the better we can gather volunteers to assist.

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Nature, Volunteering and tagged community, fairy houses, howard county conservancy, nature, photography, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Last Child in the Meadow

Posted on May 21, 2015 by AnnieRie

I think not. To take a page from the famous Richard Louv book, Last Child in the Woods, helping children connect with nature brings immense satisfaction.

Like this week. Bioblitz Belmont. Four days with seventh graders from Ellicott Mills and Thomas Viaduct middle schools. You know, those middle schoolers who aren’t impressed with things adults do or like. WRONG!!!

What a fun time we had.

Today wasn’t as nice out as yesterday, but we still had a great, albeit wet time, wading through meadows in deep grass looking for insects, plants, animal tracks, trees and grasses. We use iNaturalist to catalogue what we found. Yes, it rained today but who cared.

We also had visits with our local nature center residents like our owl.

And, Maize, our corn snake. I didn’t get a pic of Maize, but the students loved being able to see and touch him.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

Uploading and editing their citizen scientist observations. Any resident nature experts are welcome to set up an account, log into the Belmont Bioblitz project and help them identify what they observed.

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering and tagged community, Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Tea ‘N Scones

Posted on May 7, 2015 by AnnieRie

For Mother’s Day. This Saturday. A trip through the gardens surrounding the Conservancy Farm, with all the gardeners to show off their handiwork.

It may not be a proper cuppa, but still. This event, in its third year, keeps getting bigger.

The flowers are in full bloom all over the gardens. Master gardeners will be there, helping you with your questions and selling some plants. The community gardeners will be there, talking about what we grow, and how.

Those clubs that maintain all the other lovely gardens surrounding the historic farm will also be there.

Come with mom. With friends. With your friend’s mom.

Here’s all the sites that are open.

You can preregister online here.

I am baking scones. Two kinds. I am also hosting up at the community gardens. Talking mostly about our food bank plots.

The event starts at 10 am. If you are lucky you can watch the baby killdeer chase after momma and poppa.

They hatched Tuesday and are now running all over the place.

See you maybe?

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Posted in Birds, Gardening, Howard County, Nature, Volunteering and tagged birds, gardening, howard county conservancy, nature, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Brighton Dam Azaleas 2015 — Behind Schedule

Posted on May 5, 2015 by AnnieRie

Yes, the azalea gardens out at Brighton Dam are far behind schedule this spring. Not to say they aren’t lovely but they won’t have peaked even at Mother’s Day, the traditional visit weekend.

They look like this.

And not like this from a few years back.

This picture from 2012 was in April. A much warmer winter and early spring.

Those white azaleas. Looked like this yesterday.

They need a few more warm days to open.

Still, not a bad place to have a picnic lunch. The south side of the property has a picnic area, with a playground and tables and grills.

You can’t picnic in the azalea gardens, but you can enjoy these bright spring days just west of the center of Howard County. Right over the county line.

My suggestion. If you can, hit the gardens early next week. Avoid the crowds and take a picnic lunch.