Noticing love is in the air
Groundhogs, mink, opossums, coyotes, and skunks begin breeding this month.  Don’t be surprised to see that red-winged blackbirds are returning to the center’s wetland/prairie areas.  Males arrive first and set up territories; announcing the event with “konk-la-ree.”  Wood ducks are arriving back from migration. Look for them near the center’s wood duck nesting boxes.

Owl Prowl
Family Program – Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 7:00pm. 
Join us at the Ballard Nature Center for a program all about owls. We will begin the program with a fun presentation about these night hunters and their amazing characteristics; then we will sneak through the trails to see "whoooo" is awake. Hot chocolate & owl cookies will warm us up after the hike. This program is for adults and children ages 5 and up. Call to register at 618-483-6856..

Family Science Night – "May The Force Be With You"
Family Program – Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 6:00pm. Pre-registration is required.
Gravitate to Ballard Nature Center for family science night! There will be many hands-on stations with fun experiments that explain the principles of motion, energy and force. Volunteer students from EIU will be assisting at the stations. Our own Yoda, Mr. Brian Poelker will start off the evening by making a "light saber" and performing the "figure-skater-chair demo". You will not want to miss it.

Hearing the spring heralds
On an evening walk you may hear several species of frogs calling from the cold waters of the wetlands and vernal pools.  First to call in the spring is the western chorus frog. This frog’s call seems to mimic the sound of running your fingernail down a comb.  Soon the spring peepers join in with a high-pitched “peep,” and then leopard frogs sound off like a bunch of laughing ducks.

Frog Follies
Family Evening Program – March 16, 2012 at 6:00 pm. 
Call (618) 483-6856, You Must Register

Seeing the hustling and bustling
Buds are bursting open to reveal shiny new leaves. See pinkish-red oak leaves or pale green hickory leaves. Take a stroll to view ephemeral beauties; yes, colorful spring wildflowers are popping up through the brownish leaf litter on the forest floor. You’ll find Virginia bluebells, Jacob’s ladder, wake robin, bloodroot, and more!  Look for Dutchman’s breeches, whose white flowers resemble a pair of puffy pants hanging upside down.  Listen to the birdsong. Say “Howdy” to the many migratory birds that are returning, but say “See you later” to the juncos, also called snow birds, who are departing for Canadian breeding grounds.

Feeling an aura of excitement
Out in front of the center a group may happily be gathered around the naturalist-educator. Chances are it's a field trip.  Discovery is the assignment for the day, "find a salamander under a log," "listen to hear a frog," "spot the camouflaged praying mantis," "imitate that bird's song," etc.  The kids think it's just for fun, but when they do the activity "Dancing Like Birds," they are learning about communication; or when they do the stamping of animal pictures on the woodland scene, they’re learning about habitat.  It’s an exciting time for wildlife too; for example, birds’ nesting activities peak this month.  The songs of diverse warblers fill the air as they migrate through Illinois.

Exploring wetlands without getting wet
Stand on the boardwalk and look for a green darner, a large green and blue dragonfly with huge eyes and transparent wings. Listen for the deep “ba-rum” calls of bullfrogs boom from the kids’ fishing pond. See turtles, snapping or painted or slider, basking on logs.  Turtles are laying eggs this month.  The females excavate nests in soft or sandy soil and deposit eggs and then cover them with the soil, but often raccoons, skunks, foxes and other mammals find those nests and eat the eggs or hatchlings.  Look for evidence of such digging as you walk the wetland trail.

Surveying the prairie
See the prairie wildflowers blooming in every color of the rainbow. Be entertained by the butterflies fluttering among them.  Easy to spot is the tiger swallowtail with wings bedecked in yellow, striped black.  Prairie forbs in flower include blazing star with its tall spikes of purplish blossoms, coneflowers with daisy-like flowers, rattlesnake master with light green globes as blooms, and compass plant with bright yellow flowers at the tip of tall stalks (some up to eight foot tall).  Compass plant’s deeply divided basal foliage is one of the largest leaves in the prairie.  You may spot bees buzzing, caterpillars munching, and goldfinches beginning to gather thistledown for their nests.

Discovering that BNC is cool in more ways than one
Even in the hottest weather, Ballard Nature Center is so cool.  Sitting in the cool shade of the center’s front porch, visitors are likely to see hummingbirds.  These busy little birds begin their migration in late summer and often congregate more readily at feeders then. Down in the deep cool waters of the Kids’ Fishing Pond, there are channel catfish, bluegill, and redear sunfish loafing. Just gather up the kids, the sunscreen, the worms, and the poles. Make it a family outing, and spend a lazy afternoon trying your luck at fishing.  In the air-conditioned display room, there are lots of cool things to do.  For example, just say “Periscope up” and push on the handles of the USS Clagg exhibit to see underwater and above-water wildlife scenes.

Summer Camps
During the first weeks of August, children are Budding Biologists, Young Explorers, Junior Naturalists, or Eco-Explorers, and the naturalists are still enthusiastic educators!

Meeting the decomposers
If you happen to think you’ve spotted a kid’s softball lying way out in the woods, look again. It is probably a puffball, a globe-shaped mushroom so named because of its tendency to spout out spores when tapped as if it were puffing out smoke.  Like all saprobes, these mushrooms subsist on dead organic debris and expedite decomposition. A fall rain shower may induce fungi to produce fruiting bodies or mushrooms.  Look for black trumpets arising from mossy beds or oysters growing on rotting logs. Maybe you’ll see a bright orange jack o’lantern mushroom with gills that sometimes glow in the dark.

Wandering in the woodland
Under foot, there will be a variety of acorns from the tiny acorns of the post oak to the large bur oak acorns adorned with fringed caps.  Your shoes will roll over walnuts and hickory nuts.  Catch a glimpse of a squirrel, woodpecker, or a chipmunk who all cache acorns for winter use.  Try to spot a cedar waxwing picking the dark bluish berries of a nannyberry bush or a blue jay tasting the dark red berries of the choke cherry bush or a cardinal lifting the bright orange red berries of the interpretive garden’s Winterking Hawthorn.

Trying to explore quietly
Shhh! Groundhogs are sleeping soundly in underground burrows. Yet, most animals are as busy as ever.  If you are too loud, you’ll have to say “There’s been an animal on that stump; see the gnawed acorns and hickory nuts,” but if you’re quiet, you’ll see the squirrel having lunch.  Look high in the trees for dreys, the leafy homes that the industrious squirrels have been making by gathering twigs and leaves. Deer may be out and about during the day because they are in rut (mating season), but if you don’t spot one, then look for scrapes on the forest floor where bucks have pawed away the leaf litter.

Christmas Break Program: "Tree-mendous" Oaks
December 28, 2011, 1 – 3 p.m.
Ballard Nature Center is offering a program for children in grades 1st – 4th. The oak is such an amazing tree, providing shelter and food to countless woodland creatures! Come find out how many creatures eat acorns, whoo reuses an old hawk nest, and why flying squirrels like woodpeckers. Pre-registration is required by calling 618-483-6856. There is a $2.00 fee per child.

Tracking wildlife in the snow
If you are lucky enough to visit after an otter has toured the area, you might see paw prints and a narrow long depression which means the otter has been traveling in the snow by alternately running and sliding. You might find a tunnel beneath the snow having been made by a prairie meadow mouse.  Ask the center’s naturalist for information about signs of animals and then challenge yourself to find the tracks of rabbits, squirrels, white-tailed deer, foxes, and coyotes.