Nature Nook Offers a Valuable Family Resource

As the weather gets warmer, many young people are sure to visit the and see some animals there for the first time. However, that adventure doesn’t necessarily include only young people.

“I had one family visit a few years ago … originally from Germany … and they could not get over our squirrels,” said naturalist Laurel Zoet. “They kept saying they would not see that kind of nature so up close as we have here, from that part of Germany. They just loved it.

"It’s refreshing, because it reminds you not to take for granted what we view as so common," Zoet said. "It could be exciting and unique to someone viewing it for the first time, like a child.”

The Nature Nook at the Activities Center will host open hours Saturday and Sunday, during which it will have on hand two well-qualified docents. The docents, as well as Zoet, will help monitor 10 “action stations” to teach various lessons in the second- through fourth-grade science curriculum. Zoet stressed that the role of the docents and parks staff was not to teach the curriculum, nor to serve as a baby sitter for children. Instead, efforts have been taken to ensure that parents can be engaging.

“People usually wander in (to the Nature Nook at the Activities Center), and their first look is, ‘Wow, what a neat room.’ Then they say, ‘I didn’t even know this was here!’ Then, they get this look on their face like they don’t know where to start,” said Zoet.

“So, there are directions on each station to explain what you’ll need and what you’ll do," she said. "We try to make it simple and straightforward.”

The stations, which include an arts and crafts activity designed to promote environmentalism and help identify animal tracks at the same time, as well as a hands-on activity designed to teach the capabilities of earthworms, are accompanied by nine “animal ambassadors.” The mix of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds help transition families from the Nature Nook to Zoet's “favorite classroom, the great outdoors.”

Learning doesn't stop outside

“In choosing the animals, we tried to focus on examples of local wildlife … our docent program just began six months ago, but we’ve hit the ground running, and we can explain a lot about what you see,” Zoet said of the animals who live at the Nook, including five species of turtles, an Eastern tiger salamander, a rabbit and an Eastern screech owl.

“I think the Nature Nook should be a place where people get their bearings about local resources and then get out into the resources," she said. "In the future, when we have open hours and families drop in, we hope to have two volunteers on staff — one to stay back and monitor the room and one to lead a short, guided nature walk,” she said.

Zoet will lead one such walk April 15 through the West Bloomfield Nature Preserve to listen to frogs calling. She said the Rouge River Watershed at the is home to eight of the 12 species of frogs native to Michigan, including:

• Wood frogs
• Western chorus frogs
• Northern spring peepers
• Green frogs
• Bullfrogs
• American toads
• Northern leopard frogs
• Gray tree frogs

Zoet said the Nature Nook, which has been active in West Bloomfield since 2006, welcomes many regulars from local senior centers and schools as well as first-time visitors from throughout Oakland County. Groups tend to stay for an average of 45 minutes to 90 minutes, Zoet said, which tells her that families are not bored at the Nature Nook.

“If you’re a family with a 2-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old, there’s something for everyone inside of here. However, if you’d like to go outside, there’s 70 acres of trail to walk,” Zoet said.

“It’s rather muddy right now, but that makes it interesting for seeing animal tracks in the mud. We hope to see frogs come out next week, but given the weather, there’s no guarantees. Nature just works on its own," she added.

The Nature Nook is free and open from 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. The frog hike at the Nature Preserve will begin at 7:30 April 15. Registration costs $5 for residents and $6 for nonresidents up to the week preceding the event. The week of the event, registration costs $10 for residents and $11 for nonresidents.

For more information, contact West Bloomfield Parks and Recreation at 248-451-1900.