Registration Required by Thursday, May 16     

Park Forest, IL—(ENEWSPF)—May 3, 2013. Calling all young people age 9 to 12!   Thorn Creek’s Junior Ecologists Club offers fun-filled nature activities each month for young people.  They will explore the woods, track seasonal changes and discover woodland plants and animals.

The next monthly meeting of Junior Ecologists Club will be Saturday, May 18 from noon to 3 p.m. at Thorn Creek Nature Center.

JEC in May will be all about birds.  Learn how to use binoculars and how to identify birds at the bird window.  Out on trail JEC will search for birds and their nests. Young people will begin keeping track of observations in a Nature Journal and learn about characteristics of birds, especially raptors found in Thorn Creek Woods.

Last month’s Junior Ecologists Club explored the creek looking for frogs and following tracks of mammals.  They explored off trail to see one of spring’s “early risers”, Skunk Cabbage, a strange plant that smells like rotting meat and whose unusual reddish-purple flower emerges through snow and ice before the leaves emerge.  They investigated the early wildflowers blooming along the floodplain.

Be prepared to get a little muddy, wear boots you don’t mind getting dirty. Bring extra top layers in case it’s chilly. Participants should be able to walk approximately 2 miles outdoors on natural surface trails across uneven and possibly wet and/or muddy terrain. Junior Ecologists Club is a free program.  Registration is required by Thursday, May 16.

For more information, contact Thorn Creek Nature Center, 247 Monee Road, Park Forest, at 708-747-6320 or  [email protected].  Trails are open daily from dawn to dusk and the nature center is open Friday-Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.