Whether birds, bogs, boulders, or blooms are of interest, there is something for everyone at Hidden Valley Nature Center this May.
Whether birds, bogs, boulders, or blooms are of interest, there is something for everyone at Hidden Valley Nature Center this May.
Hildy Ellis, coordinator at Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District, will lead visitors on a walk along the margins of the kettlehole bog at Hidden Valley Nature Center in Jefferson on Thursday, May 9 from 10 a.m. to noon. A 220-foot boardwalk extends into the heart of the wetland, making it possible for visitors to interact with a fascinating, but incredibly delicate, ecosystem and to witness the spring explosion of plant life there.
Wildflowers will be the main focus of a walk on Saturday, May 11 from 9-11:30 a.m. led by Dan Townsend, a retired professor of biology. In addition to lady’s slippers, trillium, or rhodora blooming, many smaller, but no less spectacular, other wildflowers await observation, and trees and shrubs are donning their spring-green foliage while more subtly doing their own reproductive thing.
Rock out at Hidden Valley Nature Center on Sunday, May 12 from 9 a.m. to noon on a guided hike around the preserve with geologist David Pope, author of “The Geology of the Pemaquid Region.” The field trip will zero in on Hidden Valley Nature Center’s fascinating geology, a spectacular piece of Maine landscape.
Finally, join bird expert Jeff Cherry on Tuesday, May 21 from 7-9 a.m. for a morning of bird identification. This will be a short-distance slow walk to enjoy the recently returned migrant birds of meadow and edge habitat. Cherry will share his knowledge of identifying birds by sight and sound, and other topics of interest to the group such as avian breeding biology, eBird, and the Maine Breeding Bird Atlas project.
For more information on these events, and to register, go to midcoastconservancy.org/explore/events. For any questions, feel free to call 389-5150.
