Nature School Bird Walk

Wasatch Nature School invited FeatherQuest to join their birding scavenger hunt at Utah Lake State Park. Armed with binoculars, nature journals, and plenty of excitement, we headed out to see what the morning would bring.

The group was full of energy. The kids were not always perfectly focused, but they were excited, curious, and constantly asking questions. That ended up being the best part of the morning. Every few minutes someone wanted to know, “What is that one?”

By the end of the walk, we had seen most of the birds on their scavenger hunt list, plus several surprises. More importantly, the campers practiced the real habits of birding: listening, looking carefully, comparing what they saw, and sharing discoveries with each other.

Before the campers arrived, I stood on the bridge and watched a Bullock's Oriole feeding a begging fledgling in the trees nearby. In the same tree, the campers later found what appeared to be the family's woven nest tucked into the leaves.

I didn't manage to show everyone the fledgling, but we did relocate the adult moving through the trees. It was a fun way to begin the morning, knowing an oriole family was raising young just above the trail.

One of my favorite moments came from a Yellow Warbler. We stopped and listened while everyone searched the willows for the tiny singer. It stayed hidden just long enough to keep everyone looking.

Then, almost as if it wanted to say hello, the Yellow Warbler flew right down into the tree beside us. After spending several minutes listening and searching, everyone suddenly had a perfect look at the bright yellow singer. It was one of those rewarding birding moments where patience paid off, and the campers were able to connect the song they had been hearing with the bird that had been hiding in plain sight.

Another camper described seeing an orange bird. At first I wondered if it might be a tanager, but after asking a few questions and showing pictures, the description changed: orange head, black body. That sounded like a Yellow-headed Blackbird.

When I showed the picture, the camper recognized it immediately. Then I looked up and spotted five Yellow-headed Blackbirds on the rocks nearby. They flew before I could get a photo, but the moment worked perfectly: the group had solved the mystery together.

The kids also found one of the morning's best surprises: a sleek, dark American mink scampering along the shoreline below the bridge. Several campers reacted exactly like kids should: “Is that a big rat?” It was not a bird, but it may have been one of the most memorable wildlife moments of the walk.

At the end of the walk, a large Turkey Vulture soared overhead. Some of the kids had wondered earlier if they were seeing an eagle, which gave us a chance to talk about big soaring birds and how vultures rock slightly on raised wings as they ride the air.

The open water gave the group some of the biggest visual moments. A sky full of American White Pelicans appeared overhead, then later we saw more gathered along the shoreline. For kids, one giant white bird is impressive. A whole sky full of them is unforgettable.

Our final scavenger hunt challenge was the grebe. We walked to the harbor, scanned the water, and finally found a Clark's Grebe far out from shore. It was visible, but small. I took a photo and showed it to the campers on the back of the camera, and they immediately compared it to the grebe on their sheet: “It looks just like this one!”

At the end of the walk, every camper picked a FeatherQuest sticker. The stickers quickly became more than a simple handout. Several kids wanted extras for family members, and one camper was devastated when she dropped the heron sticker she had chosen for her mom on the way back.

We found her another sticker, and she happily chose a parrotlet instead. It was a small moment, but it captured something important. A bird sticker had already become a gift, a story, and a way to take the morning home.

I also left two FeatherQuest books with the group leaders. Hopefully the morning does not end with one walk. Maybe it becomes another activity, another nature journal entry, or another kid pointing at a bird and asking, “What is that one?”

The scavenger hunt turned into much more than checking boxes. Along the way we solved an orange-bird mystery, watched pelicans fill the sky, found a distant grebe, discovered an American mink below the bridge, and celebrated every new bird the campers spotted.

By the time everyone headed home with a FeatherQuest sticker, they had seen more than two dozen species and, hopefully, discovered that birding is simply about slowing down, paying attention, and enjoying what you find.