Spring Spectacular Challenge
The Highlands Center for Natural History is commited to staying engaged with our community and continuing to encourage and provide positive, outdoor experiences. Participate in this friendly sightings challenge, sponsored by Findlay Toyota, to discover the wonders of nature.
For the next several months, the Highlands Center for Natural History extends an invitation to our community to participate in a “fresh air” opportunity. Whether you are a student out of school, a member seeking to stay engaged, or a resident of the Central Highlands with a little more time to observe our natural world, join us in this friendly sightings challenge.
To participate, find examples of all the spring and summer nature activities listed below. Once you have found everything, fill out and submit the checklist form below. For every sighting, list the location, date, and sighting or evidence. For example, “Highlands center, 4/20/2020, bird nest” or “My backyard, 5/22/2020, gardened until sunset at 7 pm”
Successful completion of the challenge will result in your name being submitted for a raffle drawing. All check-lists are due by August 1st, with raffle drawing and announcements soon after. To increase your entries in the raffle, email photos, videos, poems or stories about your spring sightings to enixon@highlandscenter.org. The winner of the raffle will receive a Bluebird Nesting Box.
Share your findings along the way on our Facebook! We will be posting some of our findings and encourage you to comment, or post photos and videos. Email enixon@highlandscenter.org if you have questions.
Complete These 15 Spring Spectacular Challenges:
1. Sight a tree that is “leafed out”. Remember, some trees have leaves out all year, so explore and observe before picking your evidence.
2. Sight a plant in its “first bloom”.
3. Sight a pollinator pollinating.
4. Share evidence of the spring or summer night-time sky in the Central Highlands. This can be related to planet sightings, constellations, or perhaps a certain full moon.
5. Share evidence of an increase in the hours of daylight
6. Sight an amphibian in our area by or in the water.
7. Sight a reptile basking in the heat of the sun or avoiding it in the shade.
8. Sight evidence of a mammal playing a role in seed distribution.
9. Sight evidence of a mammal expending energy.
10. Sight evidence of the return of butterflies or moths to our ecoregion.
11. Sight evidence of an invertebrate playing a role in the energy cycle.
12. Sight evidence of an invertebrate that lives a portion of their life cycle in water.
13. Sight evidence of a bird rearing young or preparing for offspring.
14. Sight evidence of bird migration in our ecoregion.
15. Share your favorite part of spring or summer, our warmer months.
