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Get ready for springtime fun

The warm weather sure has people aflutter, and no doubt we’ll soon see more wildlife moving amongst and between the habitats around us. With both our fingers and toes crossed, we’re hoping this is our last season of offering strictly virtual programs about wildlife and habitat (may as well knock on wood, too).  But we’re making sure our virtual programs go out like a lion!  Join us in April and May for a special spring at home in Maine, featuring themed weeks of virtual programs and events.

We’ll have online programs most weekday afternoons and evenings, and we’ll suggest outings for you to explore on your own. Themes include amphibians, watersheds, birds, and trees.  We’ve spent a year developing our virtual and asynchronous teaching chops, and we can’t wait to roll out new videos, Zoom tricks, and DIY activity guides.

We’re thrilled about the program lineup, and especially the list of presenters and partners. Our friends at Center for Wildlife just moved into their brand new facility and will join us, along with several of their wildlife ambassadors, for programs about Big Nights and birds. We’ll have visits from some of our conservation heroes including John Banks and Doug Tallamy. Our amazing educators are hosting trivia challenges most weeks, too.

First up is Big Night Week, a celebration of amphibians on the move throughout Maine the week of April 5–9. Watch from the comfort of your home as experts share their findings from the middle of rainy April nights.

Watershed week is April 26–30, and will focus in part on the internationally renowned Penobscot River Restoration Trust, a multinational and cross-sector project to remove dams and install fish passage for species such as endangered Atlantic Salmon, and the communities and ecosystems which depend on them. We’ll talk about the new book From the Mountains to the Sea and much more at the April 29 program.

The first half of May is all about birds for us, especially migrating warblers and shorebirds. We’ll be right there next to you on the hotspot, but we’re sticking to only leading birding programs via the screen through May. Use your final month(s) of pandemic lockdown (fingers still crossed) to bone up on your Maine bird records with Birds of Maine, and check out the new habitat restoration project going on in Portland.

Did you know that the third week in May is Maine Arbor Week? We didn’t either, but now that we do, we are thrilled to showcase some of the incredible experts we are lucky to know. We’ll learn how trees work and all that they do; we’ll take a big tree tour of Maine’s largest city; we’ll learn about the single best thing everyone can do to help baby birds (spoiler alert: plant an oak tree); and we’ll join efforts to save American Chestnuts (pictured above).

Check our Events Calendar for information and to register. (Most events are free, but registration is required.) We hope to see you on a screen this spring!

P.S.  Thursday April 22 is Earth Day!  We’re hosting our annual screening of a special mix of films put together by our friends at Maine Outdoor Film Festival. Join us!