A Wildlife Festival celebrating the 46th Anniversary of Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge was held on Saturday, September 17th, 2011. Open to the public free of charge, a variety of activities were available to teach about wildlife and ways to enjoy wildlife at your refuge, or in your own backyard.
Festivities included a horse drawn hay ride, a geo-caching scavenger hunt, guides along Wildlife Drive, guided nature hikes, hands-on archery and air-rifle workshops, face painting, nature crafts and exhibits on wildflower seeds, bird houses, furs, and casting for fish activities. New this year was a Worm Watch station to describe and continue the newest citizen science project undertaken this fall at the refuge. The Pollinators group that provided a well received May event came back to show their materials and offer crafts to children during the festival. Especially well received was a day long station with Birds of Prey offered by the Raptor Center and the T.I.P. Trailer of Shame collection of poached animals for display.
Two presentations were given by Carrol Henderson, Naturalist and author. First, The remarkable success of the Trumpeter Swan recovery in Minnesota. Following this was The Sandhill Crane Story, again a success story with numbers increasing from only 3 dozen nesting birds decades ago. In between the presentations Mr. Henderson was available for book signings at the Headquarters building.
Last years Wildlife Festival was the last centered on the Old Schoolhouse. We found through success at the Winterfest event earlier this year that we have new challenges in staging these public events, but we can still have enjoyable and entertaining activities for all. We had over 800 visitors come out to the festival and at the end of the day some newly hatching Blandings Turtles were found to be exiting their nest right at the edge of the horse drawn wagon ride site. This created quite a stir as people watched over 20 baby turtles start their life by attending our festival.
