Walker Nature Center
A LOOK INSIDE • Reston BioBlitz 3 • Calendar 4 • Kids’ Corner 6 • Spring Festival 8
Nature Notes MARCH By Sharon Gurtz
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Forsythia and Wood Violets bloom. Spring Peepers and Wood Frogs are calling. Maples have red blooms. Wood Ducks return to area lakes.
APRIL • • • •
Eastern Bluebirds are building nests. Bloodroot and Trillium bloom. Look for turtles near ponds and lakes. Dogwood and Red Bud trees bloom.
MAY • • • •
Wild Geranium, Foamflower and Wild Columbine bloom. Spring Azure and Tiger Swallowtail butterflies are in flight. Garter Snakes and Copperheads emerge from winter hideouts. Eastern Box Turtles lay eggs.
BRANCHING OUT Walker Nature Center – What Really Happens Here? By Susan Sims
The Nature Center offers environmental experiences for Reston residents and visitors to increase knowledge and foster good environmental stewardship. Seventy-two acres of forest, two streams and educational programming make the Center an important natural and community resource. But what really happens here?
The Corn Snake is partial to thawed mice while Dozer the Eastern Box Turtle’s favorite food is strawberries, followed by a warm bath. After the animals are well cared for, Mark ventures into the gardens and up to the pond for his habitat maintenance duties like weeding, watering and cleaning the filter on the waterfall’s pump.
A Day in the Life
While Mark keeps the facility in good shape, Environmental Educator Abby gathers parttime Teacher Naturalists to meet a bus full of local school children. The Nature Center offers science field trips that support Virginia Standards of Learning and develop an appreciation for nature. Subjects include habitats, geology, earth cycles and insects. When the field trip wraps up and the students are done with their lunch,
As the sun rises over the Nature Center, a Red Fox zips down the trail, back to its den after a night of hunting. Birds and squirrels descend on the feeders for a black oil sunflower seed breakfast, and the blossom of the Virginia Spiderwort closes in the sun. Spring at the Nature Center is a busy time, not only for flora and fauna, but for staff too! Morning starts with Caretaker Mark inspecting Nature House and its surrounding trails, then whipping up a tasty lunch for the animal ambassadors that live inside Nature House.
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Spring 18 Volume Twenty