Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Another Goblin Walks, Come and Gone

One of the great things about autumn is Halloween, and here at Dahlem we do it up in style with our Goblin Walks:  not-so -scarey Halloween fun.  For two nights each October, usually the weekend before Halloween, Dahlem's arboretum gets a facelift and becomes a theater for not-too-spooky Halloween antics.  

It actually begins the previous Monday, when staff and volunteers head out to Gee Farms and collect hundreds of pumpkins to bring back for carving - courtesy of the fine folks at Gee Farms!  This year the pumpkins were very big...and very heavy!

Then, come noon on Friday, the carving begins.  Another crew of volunteers comes out and spends over three hours washing, gutting and carving all those pumpkins!  This year we had a crew of volunteers from DaVinci high school out in the morning to gut pumpkins so that our carvers had a good head start when they arrived at noon.  

Carving over 300 pumpkins is a big task, but our volunteers are up to it.  Wait until you see some of their creations below!

When Friday evening rolls around, the walks begin.  

Guided tours go out every 15 minutes starting at 6:30 PM.  The crowd starts to gather about 5:30 - some to see the pumpkins and other decorations before the walks begin, others hoping to maybe get a spot if someone doesn't show up!  This year our spots were all filled before mid-October!  We had quite a waiting list going.



We love it when visitors come in costume!


One family came with everyone dressed as a character from the Wizard of Oz!



Gallery of pumpkins:










These pumpkins line the path down which the guides lead their groups.  Along the way, the groups stop at several locations to watch a skit (each with its own song, too).  These skits, each dispelling the misunderstandings of various animals, are put on by a large cast of volunteers made up from local teachers and students, and their friends.  Many thanks to Dahlem volunteer Kathy Shaw for putting it all together every year!  This year we had five skits:  Bear and Raccoon (what it means to be an omnivore);






Scarecrow, Crow and Raven (the differences between crows and ravens);




Robins in the 'Hood (migration and what it means to be a robin);
 

They sing a rap song about migration, but I was unable to capture any good audio on it.


 
the Mariachi Moose Montage (new this year - all about moose and their relationships with wolves and people);




a close-up of Lawrence Elk




and the perennial favorite:  The Roadkill Cafe (why turkey vultures do what they do). 




By now it was so dark that photography without a flash was impossible...and these actors did not want any flashes.  So, you'll have to picture the turkey vulture and chef in your head as they do their skit.



After the Roadkill Cafe, visitors head to the pavilion, where the Friends of Dahlem await them with cider (hot or cold) and donuts.


There's also a rip-roarin' good fire going at the fire pit, where folks who are chilled can have a seat and defrost.  We were actually very lucky with the weather this year - couldn't have been more perfect!


 One of our camp staff leads songs and tells stories at the pavilion while guests enjoy their treats before heading down the last pumpkin-lined path and make their way back home.

We had a record number of visitors this year:  over 300 each night!  Each performer had to do 10 shows each night.  But they did a bang up job, no one went home with laryngitis, and all our visitors had a good time.

Did you miss Goblin Walks this year?  Don't despair - there's always 2015!  We start taking reservations in September, and, as we always tell folks, it fills up fast, so don't wait until the last moment to reserve your spot!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Autumn Discoveries

Ah, autumn.  Some days are crisp and cool, perhaps with brilliant blue sky and eye-popping colors on the trees, while others cling to summer by being warm and humid, rain often not far away in the forecast.  No matter what the weather is actually doing, we know it is a time of change - summer is becoming winter.

With this change, of course, many critters may start to have closer encounters with humans than they did before.  Ladybugs come to mind.  Did you see all the ladybugs in the air over the weekend?  And now they are in our houses, our cars?  Yes, encounters are on the rise.

Today one of our board members brought us his encounter:  a juvenile milk snake.


Snakes are great.  We love snakes.  Snakes are amazing creatures - I mean, they can climb trees without having any arms or legs!!!  Just you try to do that!

But, as amazing as they are, they are not the best of pets (no wild animal is).  Sometimes we may keep a snake in a tank for a few months here at Dahlem, to use it as an education animal, but we always let it go back to where it belongs.  

Milk snakes do not make the best exhibit animals.  They are rather shy and retiring, and yet can also become "aggressive" - in other words, they see us as a BIG threat and become defensive.  They will rear up and strike, although they are not venomous.  Still, a bite is a bite, and the animal is obviously stressed out at this point.  Not a good situation for anyone.  This behavior rather mimics that of the massasauga, or pygmy rattlesnake, which we also have here.  The massasauga is a protected species, so if you should ever be so lucky as to see one, leave it alone!  But, back to  the milk snake.  It rears up and strikes, and may also shake its tail in dry leaves to imitate the rattle sound of the rattlesnake.  Do not be alarmed - it is all just pretense.  The milk snake is harmless, and actually quite beneficial (as are all snakes).

So, because we did not want to keep this fellow any longer than necessary (show and tell at our staff meeting), it was carried to a nearby wood pile and released.





For quite some time it just lay there, probably taking in its new surroundings.  The tongue flicked in and out, tasting the air.  Nothing familiar - wood piles and basements do not taste the same.  I finally stroked it with my finger and that was enough incentive for it to move along.
 


And off it goes...to find a place to snuggle down for the winter.  Happy Trails, my friend.


Saturday, October 11, 2014

Staying Found

One of the classes that I just love to teach is how to use a compass.  Today's Staying Found class, offered to kids ages 11 to 14, had five participants, plus a grandmother.  The first half of the class was spent learning the parts of a compass, how to read the dial and set bearings, and then how to follow a compass and get to a destination, first by sighting ahead, and then by learning how to navigate around objects.

The second half our our program was spent using the compasses and 30m tapes to follow directions that would create a shape when completed (if done correctly).  This is a wonderfully challenging activity:  participants have to know how to set bearings on a compass, how to line up the compass, how to follow the bearing, and how to measure.

Grandma partnered with her grandsons for the shape challenge.


These three boys (two brothers and a cousin) had a blast!  
They wanted to do shape after shape.





It was a perfect autumn morning for this exercise.  we all started off with warm clothing (including a fur hat), but after half an hour in the toasty sun, layers started to come off.

The hour and a half just whizzed by, and we ran out of time, so we will be offering a Staying Found, Part 2 later on, in which participants will learn how to read maps, how to use the map and compass together, how to bushwhack from point A to point B from a bearing on the map, and how to not get lost if one doesn't have a map or compass.

GPS units are great, but what do you do if your batteries die, or you cannot get a signal?  This is why being able to use a compass is a great skill to have.  Would you like to learn?  Give us a call - we will train you right.