Before summer truly comes to a close, we wanted to thank our Gilsland Farm summer camp families for a fantastic summer and share a few favorite memories. Camp days offer so many different ways to engage with the natural world, learn about wildlife, and have fun with friends. Like learning to use binoculars to observe […]
Environmental Education
Nanotagging Monarch Butterflies — Very, Very Carefully — at Fields Pond
Once inside the front door of the Nature Center, summer visitors to the Fields Pond Audubon Center have been greeted by a display of Monarch Butterflies.� Beginning as either eggs or small caterpillars, we collected these from the plethora of milkweed plants that grow all around the Nature Center.� To date we�ve raised and fledged […]
Big Update on a Successful Piping Plover Season!
Somehow it�s August! The piping plover breeding season is beginning to wind down, birds are taking off from Maine beaches to migrate South for the winter, and Maine Audubon�s Coastal Bird Crew is breathing a little easier. 170 young birds fledged off of beaches from Georgetown to Ogunquit is no small feat for biologists from […]
Dune Grass Habitat: Essential For More Than The Birds
I recently was surveying for some of the last piping plover chicks of the season on Old Orchard Beach when a woman approached me, pointing to the bright green runners of beach grass at my feet. “What type of grass is that?”, she asked to which I replied, “dune grass”, caught off guard by such […]
Summer is a great time to explore
Summer is a great time to explore Gilsland Farm, and we have plenty of opportunities to get your family outdoors and learning about wildlife together! We have several new programs this year, so take a look. Read & Ramble: Join us for an outdoor storytime, geared towards children ages 3-5 and their grown-ups. After reading […]
2021 Piping Plover Census Smashes Last Year�s Numbers, But Not Without Its Challenges�
Over 120 pairs of endangered piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) were recently counted during the annual Piping Plover Census: a combined effort led by Maine Audubon, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Maine Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife, and a diverse network of volunteers. Monitors traveled to 38 sandy beaches throughout the state to tally adult […]
Nature Explorer Backpacks open up a world of wildlife
Make your outdoor family time a science-based experience that fosters environmental literacy with our new Nature Explorer Backpacks. Nature Explorer Backpacks include tools, resources, and activities to encourage deeper exploration of the wildlife and ecosystems found at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth, as well as a few resources to help you continue to explore […]
Tiny But Mighty: Plover Chicks Return To Southern Maine Beaches
At first glance, there is nothing cuter than a cotton ball-sized piping plover chick scurrying about the water�s edge or tumbling through tufts of dune grass. Now imagine staring at the Maine Coastal Birds Crew calendar of 65 anticipated hatch dates for piping plover nests ranging from Georgetown to Ogunquit. We promise those initial feelings […]
Waterfowl Wizardry Runs in the Family for Maine’s Junior Duck Stamp Winner
Some of the nation’s most impressive waterfowl art is created in a single, sunny studio room from a home in Biddeford. There, among the cluttered desks and tables, three women of the Lowell family�mom, Rebekah, and daughters Elektrah, 14, and Ariah, 12�spend their evenings drawing and painting images of nature from their backyard and neighborhood. […]