DVOC Youth Birding Committee members Cindy Ahern, Sandra Keller, and Joe Hudson, along with Valley Forge Audubon leader Dan Sullivan, led a group of children from the Sadie Glover Blossom Camp on a nature walk at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge on July 20.
This was our fourth year providing a nature-based program for this group of underserved children from the Southwark projects in Philadelphia. Campers are hosted by the Southwark Queen Village Community Gardens, as part of a community outreach program, and our ongoing partnership with this group was arranged with garden representatives Janice Chorba and Ed Mitinger, also DVOC members.
Despite the extreme heat, the group of approximately 25 children ranging in age from 6 to 13 enjoyed a walk around the impoundment of the refuge.
Highlights from the walk included meeting a garter snake, finding a number of Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons, swallows, Painted Turtles and Red-eared Sliders. The kids loved seeing viewing the egrets through the scope as they perched in trees and hunted in the marsh.
