New Hampshire Day 2013

Thanks to everyone who attended New Hampshire Day on Saturday, May 4! The day was big hit thanks to gorgeous weather with more than 1,200 people enjoying the live animal trail and special Up Close to Animals presentations that featured the woodchuck, peregrine falcon, and wood turtle.

If you missed New Hampshire Day mark your calendars for the first Saturday in May 2014! Also, memberships are a great deal and get you on the trails free all season (purchase online).

Blue Heron School Offers Extended Hours

Nature based Montessori school at Science Center offers full day program 

Blue Heron School at Squam Lakes Natural Science Center is offering a full day program for the 2013-2014 school year and is currently accepting new registrations. Families can choose from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. or 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. sessions.

Blue Heron School began in 2010 as New Hampshire’s first nature-based Montessori early learning center with a child-focused approach and daily outdoor experiences. The school, for ages three to six, operates from September to June, Monday through Friday.

Being outdoors every day in all types of weather helps students learn about themselves and the world around them. The children climb trees, jump off rocks, balance on logs, and build shelters outside. They explore the streams, feed the deer and otter, and investigate in the woods. There are weekly expeditions with a naturalist to learn about specific topics and visits with live animals. Blending environmental education in a nature preschool with the Montessori approach creates a rich program for students. Teachers and students collect interesting discoveries from the outdoors to display in the classroom and take learning activities outside to use with objects found in nature. The classroom is a carefully prepared environment with activities that introduce letters, numbers, geography, care of the self and the environment, science and nature, and more. Children learn individually and in small groups. Teachers observe each child's interests and strengths and guide them in activities to support growth in independence and social skills. Children are encouraged to develop responsibility for their own behavior and learning.

Blue Heron School is a place where children have engaging experiences that connect them with nature and their world. The setting supports child development and achievement, builds community, and offers structured and unstructured outdoor activities every day. The goals of the school are for children to develop an affinity for nature and an awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things as they grow and gain a lifelong environmental ethic.

Blue Heron School is designed as a three-year program; students start at age three and have two years of preschool and one year of kindergarten. Each year builds on the previous year as younger students learn by modeling older students and older students learn by teaching and assisting younger students.

“We are happy to offer extended hours to families,” said Laura Mammarelli, Blue Heron School Director. “Extending our schedule until 3:30 will make it possible for more children to experience Blue Heron. We are excited to have more time every day for outdoor adventures and activities.”

Blue Heron School is currently accepting registrations for the 2013-2014 school year. More information about Blue Heron School is at www.nhnature.org/programs/blue_heron_school.php.

National Volunteer Appreciation Week!

By Carol Raymond

April 21 – 27 is National Volunteer Appreciation Week!

Here at the Science Center, volunteers are enormously important in almost all that we do. Our volunteer team is wonderful! We are very thankful that so many members of the community show their passion and love for the Science Center by donating their valuable time to help us. Volunteers greet and help direct visitors as they walk along the Gephart Exhibit Trail. Docents and teen First Guides are a presence on the trail often with a live animal or animal artifacts sharing information about ecology. And volunteers assist with activities at special events. School children meet volunteers who are trained to lead programs and assist Naturalists on and off campus. Volunteer docents present artifacts and information at Discovery Tables at many local fairs and events. Behind the scenes, many helping hands assist with animal care, mailings, planning, office tasks, trail, exhibit, and maintenance needs, media research, and more. Lots more!

In 2012, 392 volunteers donated over 8,900 hours of service. Even more than what they do, volunteers add their spirit of dedication, enthusiasm, and joy. In celebration of Volunteer Appreciation Week, the Science Center staff would like to give a huge Thank You to our incredible volunteer team!

Where in the world is Art the Osprey?

Art the Osprey is making his way back to New Hampshire from his winter home in Brazil and is making great progress. You can track his movements here.

Also, the great folks at Movebank.org have created an interactive map to track the migrations of the Ospreys. You can see and use the map at http://www.nhnature.org/programs/project_ospreytrack/osprey_maps.php.

Press Release: Chipmunks Using Morse Code

Press Contact: Iain MacLeod
603-968-7194 or Iain.MacLeod@nhnature.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 1, 2012

Chipmunks Using Morse Code 

Science Center Staff Make Startling Discovery 

Holderness, NH – Over the last couple of weeks, staff members at Squam Lakes Natural Science Center have noticed something peculiar about the chipping sounds made by the large number of wild chipmunks that inhabit the Science Center’s campus in Holderness. They appear to be communicating in Morse code. The phenomenon was first noticed by children in the Science Center’s Blue Heron School. One child started tapping a stick on another in the same rhythm as a nearby noisy chipmunk. Blue Heron staff were intrigued that there seemed to be a pattern that was repeated. They reported it to one of the staff Naturalists who made a few recordings and analyzed the results. On a hunch, she looked at a website that described Morse code – the communications system first developed in 1836 that uses groups of clicks to represent letters and numerals to communicate over telegraph wires. It turns out that Chipmunks use the same system to warn each other of danger, share food sources, pick fights and attract a potential mate.

The Science Center contacted scientists at the Smithsonian Institute and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (which specializes in animal sounds and acoustics) and was recently visited by a team of researchers and students from Cornell. Recordings were made and researchers were able to communicate to the Chipmunks. Spelling out the word “acorn” resulted in a sudden mad rush towards the researchers. If no acorn was presented, the Chipmunks immediately scolded the researchers and chirped expletives at them “Their choice of words would make you blush,” said Dr. Patrick Tapper, the lead researcher. If an acorn was presented, there was much excitement and celebration but no thank yous. “They are not very polite,” added Dr. Tapper.

To hear a recording of the chipmunks and to see more details about the research, go to www. nhnature.org/chipmunk.php.

Beaver

By Jeremy Phillips

Dark, damp, roots, branches and mud. A slide into the water reveals a dim, aqua-blue light that shines through the ice as the sun overhead is barely seen through the snow covered ice. Its soggy food cache dwindling, and spring approaches.

With warmer days ahead, the beaver (Castor canadensis) will take any opportunity the melting ice gives to leave its lodge in search of fresh food sources. Buds from trees make a nice change of pace for the beaver that has been eating only tree branches, stored before winter, at the bottom of the pond. Animals will change in many ways because of winter. The cold temperatures force the beavers hand as the ice above thickens, trapping them below. A totally frozen pond and only an underwater entrance, how excited would you be to find that first opening in ice?

Sights and Sounds of Spring

By Iain MacLeod

Early spring birds are already back in New Hampshire. Here’s a few to listen and look for in the coming days and weeks:

• Turkey Vultures are already back in many parts of the state, including as far north as Tilton and Rumney
• Bluebirds are already checking out nesting boxes and singing – one was singing at the Science Center on Wednesday
• Ravens are already nesting – listen for their bizarre “pop” and “click” calls as they tumble in flight overhead 
• Brown Creepers are already singing in the woods. Listen for their high-pitched warble 
• Black-capped Chickadee males are already singing their clear two-note whistle 
• Mourning Doves are cooing and courting (some people mistake their “hoo, hoo, hoo” call for owls) 
• Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles are back in many wetlands – one was flying over the Science Center on Wednesday
• Killdeer have been seen in many locations in southern New Hampshire – usually found in muddy fields 
• Woodcock have also started their spring courtship calls – listen for them at dusk in woodland clearings and meadows 
• Great Horned, Barred and Northern Saw-whet Owls can be heard calling at night (listen on still nights) 
• Before the end of the month Phoebes, Pine Warblers and Tree Swallows will have joined the chorus 

Enjoy the spring!

Fluttering Wings of Spring

By Margaret Gillespie

Courtesy flickr SD Dirk

All of us have had some variation of this experience. You are handed of list of rather obscure landmarks designed to lead you to a specific location. With a bright but ominous smile, the giver of directions says, “You can’t miss it!” Later, as you attempt to find your destination but feel quite lost, around the corner you go and ahead is one of the elusive landmarks. Something inside you leaps with excitement . . . you know you are on the right track after all. This is the kind of thrill I feel as I wander out of winter toward spring, searching for landmarks that will tell me I’m approaching this season of new beginnings. Sighting some of the early spring butterflies can give me just the kind of lift I need.

Butterflies, as well as moths, belong to the insect order, Lepidoptera, coming from Greek words, lepid, meaning “scale” and ptera translating as “wing.” Giving these creatures such brilliant colors, scales are actually modified hairs, best seen under a microscope, but rubbing off like powder when touched. Butterflies are active by day and always have thin antennae with a swelling or club at the end. With some exceptions, moths are nocturnal but always have antennae that are hair-like, saw-toothed or feathery. Members of Lepidoptera overwinter as eggs, larvae, pupae or as adults, emerging at different times throughout the spring and summer.

The first butterfly prize of the spring is the Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), named for its maroon wings edged with blue spots and a yellow border, resembling a cloak worn in times past when in mourning. With a wingspan of approximately three inches, this butterfly hibernates through the winter as an adult, coming out of its hiding place under the bark as early as March. To see one, choose a sunny day with temperatures nudging 60 degrees Fahrenheit and explore deciduous woodlands where Mourning Cloaks will be seeking and sipping tree sap from broken branches, particularly maples or birches with high sugar content.

Courtesy flickr davidhofmann08

Once you have located a Mourning Cloak butterfly, what are some special things to observe? This butterfly is a member of the family Nymphalidae or “brush-footed butterflies,” whose front pair of legs are so reduced and hairy that they look like tiny brushes. The function is sensory but the result is that you seem to be looking at a four-legged butterfly rather than the six legs expected on an insect. When at rest, these dark, early spring butterflies set themselves up as solar-collectors, in a behavior called “basking.” To fly, they must raise their body temperature and do so by orienting their open wings and bodies to the sun. If disturbed, Mourning Cloaks flutter up, land on tree bark and effectively disappear by closing their wings and letting the brown cryptic coloration of the underside of their wings hide them. Watch also for “puddling,” an amazing behavior where butterflies gather in damp spots or shallow puddles; places minerals and nutrients have become concentrated as the water evaporates. In Donald and Lillian Stokes’ guide, The Butterfly Book, they describe how puddling is done mostly by males to obtain sodium and nutrients essential for mating. Speaking of mating, male Mourning Cloaks perch on branches in early spring, defending territories by chasing other males away and waiting for females to fly by. After mating, females will lay groups of eggs on twigs, willow being a favorite. Hatching coincides with fresh spring leaves that provide larval food as clusters of black, spiny caterpillars with dorsal red spots start a new generation.

The ballet of fluttering butterflies continues throughout the summer as different butterflies take center stage. Compton Tortoiseshells, orange-brown butterflies with dark and light patches, closely follow Mourning Cloaks. A special highlight is the Spring Azure – males being sky blue above and females having dark edging on the forewing tips, all on a one-inch wingspan.