Nature was always a part of my childhood growing up in Maine, where meadows of milkweed were home to thousands of monarch butterflies. A nearby pond, built as part of a trout hatchery in the 1890s, provided plenty of mud for exploring invertebrates with a cheap microscope. It was all intriguing and fascinating, activities that became part of my own second nature. I loved lying down in the milkweed, hands clasped behind my head, watching the clouds float by while listening to the polyrhythmic cacophony of songbirds and insects. There were no ticks or chiggers and no poisonous snakes in Maine, so little to fear or annoy.
The naïve joy of emersion in nature gave way to awe and new eagerness to learn more, when the neighbor across the street, the late Barbara Garsoe, started a Junior Audubon club for the kids in the neighborhood. It was through this experience that nature came into focus. Flowers, trees, bugs and birds began to have names attached to them, and stories and natural histories.
Our first field trip was to the Mast Landing Audubon Sanctuary in Freeport, Maine (famous as the home of L.L. Bean). “Mast Landing” was a location in the 1700s where giant white pines were felled for ship masts for the British Navy. The magnificent osprey nest at the edge of a tidal marsh, with the adults feeding the nestlings, is forever imprinted in my mind.
On Sunday, June 11, the Ozark Chapter of FrogWatch USA and the Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists held an annual frog watching (and listening) event at the cattail marsh at the south end of Lake Leatherwood. The event was organized by Eureka Springs’ Lilia Beattie, along with the help of fellow FrogWatch enthusiast, Sim Barrow of Fayetteville.
Watching the excitement of local kids as they waded through shoe-sucking mud in an attempt to net a frog or two for identification returned me to childhood awe. Then, another amphibian found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. The highlight arrived in the form of a full-grown eastern river cooter (Pseudemys concinna) lumbering at the edge of the lake. Everyone scurried over to take a look, an object awe for local kids. Will that experience spark a child’s lifelong interest? Time will tell.