Young Naturalists
is a conservation education program started by the Saskatoon Nature Society in 1968, with an emphasis on helping kids learn about the science of monitoring wildlife. The program is active all year round. In winter there are bird counts, including the popular Christmas Bird Count for Kids.Photo by Andrea PatelBirds are relatively easy to count, but figuring out the secretive creatures which share our environment sometimes takes a little detective work.
In summer, we learn about butterflies and other insects. The fall is all about bird migration. We get up close and personal with some northern saw-whet owls at the local banding station and try to get close to the magnificent sandhill cranes as they pass through the Saskatoon area. Our main conservation project is the Mary Houston Bluebird Trail. You may have seen birdhouses on fence posts in rural Saskatchewan. Some are set up in a line called a bluebird trail. The Saskatoon Bluebird Trail was started by Mary Houston and the Young Naturalists in 1969 to give bluebirds and tree swallows a helping hand. These birds were in decline due to habitat loss and competition for nesting sites from introduced European species like the house sparrow and starling.
The idea behind putting up nest boxes sounds good in theory, but would it work? That is the question the kids wanted to know, and there was only one way to find out. So, during each nesting season in June, the Young Naturalists are responsible for monitoring the 250 nest boxes along the Mary Houston Bluebird Trail to determine the species nesting and how many offspring they are producing.Greg Fenty is a member of the Saskatoon Nature Society and he co-ordinates the Young Naturalists program.
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