
Feature/General
Nature Hikes
By John McKinney
April/May 2003
Living in north Georgia, we’re surrounded by forested areas
with walking/hiking trails. Take advantage of the locale by going
on a nature hike. You won’t need to cover a lot of ground
to find lots of interesting stuff and get your kids excited about
the outdoors.
Pick a sunny day, toss some snacks and water in a daypack and head
to one of the nearby state or local parks. You may even want to
purchase a local guidebook that identifies plants and animals and
take it with you. Stop along your hike and try to figure out the
birds, trees, wildflowers, etc. that you run across while on your
journey. Bring along a small sketchpad and draw what you see. And
remember to leave what you find in the forest. After all it may
be a part of an animal’s home or diet.
Here’s a short list of things to search for the next time
you’re out for a walk.
- Find a wildflower of each color of the rainbow.
- Spot a wild animal. Small ones like squirrels, songbirds and lizards
are common. Larger, more secretive animals are a rare find
so also...
- Look for animal tracks in the mud. After a rainy night, you may
find the footprints of deer, raccoons, bobcats, turkeys and
others.
- Explore different types of trees. Compare the needles and seed
cones of pines to the broad leaves and thick-shelled nuts of
hickories and oaks.
- Listen for different bird songs.
-
Bring a plastic bag and pick up trash that you find and pack it
out. This will make the next person’s hike even more
enjoyable.
-
Look for turtles basking on logs and rocks at the water’s
edge.
- Search for animal homes, like woodpecker holes in standing dead
trees and bird and squirrel nests in branches overhead.
- Turn over a dead log to uncover salamanders, beetles and termites.
Turn it back after looking.
- Learn to identify poison ivy and how to avoid it. Compare it to
other common vines like Virginia creeper and muscadine grapevine.
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