Educators Week at Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine

Next in line in the "catch up" posts is this past week's great adventure at Hog Island's Educators Week.

I've been privileged to be an instructor on the island for five years now. It's one of my favorite places, staffed by some of my favorite people, and visited by some of the most dedicated educators you'll ever meet.

I take very few photos during camp... our schedules are chock-a-block and I just never think of it. But here are a few highlights from some of my sessions, at least, in no particular order:

Arrival: We had a full house this week... about 60 educator/campers.
Everyone's just starting to make friends and find their feet the first night.

How can you not get comfortable with a view like this?

Making journals in the Queen Mary lab on the only rainy morning of the week.

Chatting and making found object weavings in the shade on our all-day island hike.

View of camp from the narrows.

Summiting on the cross-island trail. Elevation? 98 feet. ;-)

Intertidal exploration

Internet sensations, the Hog Island osprey nest (with three soon-to-fledge youngsters)
can be watched online at explore.org. There are puffin and guillemot cams to
be found there, too. Just sayin'.

Workshop participant Sue takes time out to make a journal entry.

The most spectacular naturalist I know, Ted Gilman (left), celebrated
his 40th anniversary with Audubon during camp. Yay, Ted. Love you.

Yep. It's pretty hard to take island life.

Lots of other things happened, too, of course... including a boat tour to Eastern Egg Rock to see puffins, a pond exploration, bird workshops, photography workshops, astronomy, geology, nocturnal marine creatures... but I don't have photos! (And did I mention the lobster feast on the last night of camp?) You'll just have to join us next year and take your own.

If you are an educator or know an educator, check out the program website. Registration for 2015 will probably begin some time in October, and scholarship opportunities and applications will ramp up about then, too. Maine in the summer... what's not to love?