November is for Nature Appreciation With Farmingdale's Scouts

 Recently, Bethpage State Park hosted Farmingdale Girl Scouts for a fun-filled nature event in our Picnic Area. This marked the second year we had this troop visit in autumn, which offered another seasonal, colorful kind of day!

To kick off our event, I started the group off with a sensory experience in our Picnic Pollinator Garden! Finding dried out flower heads and seedpods atop the stems, the scouts learned that the fluff part of the seed is an adaptation that helps with its dispersal. We picked some milkweed pods that noticeably had this fluffy feature, discussed how it took over in some areas of the garden and why continuing to plant and protect milkweed was so important! 

 

This segued us into our next topic: the Monarch butterfly's lifecycle and their magnificent migration to Mexico for overwintering. I was impressed the girls knew quite a lot about this species, their needs, and their journey. It seems we have ourselves some butterfly enthusiasts (and possibly future entomologists)! 

After, we embarked on a nature walk along our Children's Trail. I handed out field guides and photos to familiarize the scouts with different native bird species. We listened for bird calls and then, without even asking, the girls creatively came up with a song of their own to remember the Black-capped Chickadee (a clear fan favorite).        

While walking and talking, I made the point that Bethpage State Park does not just value and protects wild spaces, but also takes action in creating supplementary habitat too. For instance, we leave large collections of tree logs and branches. Also called brush piles, these created areas help small mammals (chipmunks, rabbits, mice etc.) seek safety from predators in the woods. In the garden, one way we have created extra habitat is installing bee homes; this establishes extra nesting space for native, solitary bees. The girls learned that it is here that mason and leafcutter bees will nest and lay their eggs to ensure the next generation of bees for the following year. 

   Lastly, no nature day is complete without some sort of interactive activity and so, the next portion of the event I had the troop partake in a leaf scavanger hunt game! This focused their attention on the different colors of autumn. As we searched for leaves, I explained how this time of year, changes in temperature and hours of sunlight brings about transformations in leaf color. Less sunlight means plants are not completing photosynthesis but storing energy instead. As a result, chlorophyll breaks down and the green pigment in leaves fade. When this happens, the leaves shift into orange, yellow and red mode, as anthocyanins and carotenoid become the new pigments visible. 

 

The scientific term for this color shift is leaf senescence! 

 

 The troop seemed to enjoy learning about this process and finding leaves of different colors. After about 20 mins, I had them show each other their findings and use the leaves to create something bigger! 

Here are the girls having a nature arts-and-crafts session, where they agreed to create one big tree with their various leaves.

  

  Overall it was a fantastic day of learning and creativity. To troop got to use all their senses, to fully experience the joy of autumn once again. I wish to turn this into a yearly tradition and also welcome more seasonal, nature programing for the future.

 

 Thank you to all the scouts who attended!

Also Kathy Pirrone, the Scout Mom, that helped make it possible. 

 

 Hope Ya'll had a Happy Fall!

 

Post photography and writing by Yael Weiss