Events
Migratory Bird Day Walk
May 15 7 AM - 12:00 David Govatski
Join us for a Migratory Bird Day Walk at Weeks State Park. We will meet at the parking lot of the scenic auto road at 7 AM. We will slowly walk up the auto road looking and listening for a variety of migratory birds that are settling in on territories. We expect to see a variety of warblers and flycatchers at this birding hotspot. We also will be looking at Spring ephemeral wildflowers. The walk is 3 miles round trip and ascends 800 vertical feet at an easy pace.
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At 11 AM we will offer an optional visit to Martin Meadow Pond to look for loons, osprey and eagles. Free Migratory Bird Day posters will be available. The program is free and open to the public. Bring binoculars and dress for the weather.
David Govatski is the field trip leader and is an experienced birding guide and naturalist. He is President of the Ammonoosuc Chapter of the National Audubon Society.
Spring Wildflower Walk
Sunday, June 8 1- 4 PM Matt Peters
Spring has sprung and it is time to get outdoors to enjoy the signs of spring. Please join us for this free wildflower walk led by field ecologist and naturalist, Matt Peters, who has over a dozen years of experience studying the flora, fauna, geology and soils of Weeks State Park.
Matt has led nature walks at the park for many years. Meet at the parking lot at the start of the scenic auto road up Mount Prospect at 1 PM. Bring a hand lens and flower guide if you like and dress for the weather. A paper list of common spring wildflowers will be provided at the assembly point. The free program ends at 4 PM.
The Last of the Granite State Rattlesnakes
June 26 7:00 PM Dan Billin
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Rattlesnakes were so common in colonial-era New Hampshire that dozens of places were named for them, ranging from the Massachusetts border to the White Mountains. They were so abundant some settlers could pay their property taxes with the bounties offered for killing them.
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Today, however, Crotalus horridus, the timber rattlesnake, is the state’s rarest native animal—only a handful are known to survive. State law protects them now, but that may not be enough to save them.
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Returning North with the Spring
At winter's end in 1947, driven by the devastating loss of a son killed in World War II, naturalist Edwin Way Teale and his wife Nellie followed the dawning spring season northward in an amazing 17,000 mile odyssey from the Everglades to Maine. Teale wrote about the adventure in the best-selling book North with the Spring. Following in the footsteps of one of the sweetest adventures any American ever took, John Harris demonstrates that the beauty of the American East, even on a warming planet, is still hauntingly deep.
July 10 7:00 PM John Harris
What's Wild
June 17 7:00 PM Eric Orff
A half-century ago, New Hampshire’s Eric Orff got his dream job as the State’s first bear biologist, a “forest ranger who works with animals.” What Orff saw in his 31 years at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, and 15 years with the National Wildlife Federation as a Field Biologist, provides the backdrop for his entertaining book, “What’s Wild.”
Burnt into Memory: How Brownfield Faced the Fire
July 24 7:00 PM Jo Radner
In October 1947, in just a few hours, a terrible wildfire destroyed almost all of the town of Brownfield, in western Maine, including all its churches, schools, post office, and other public buildings. In the face of the fire, Brownfield residents responded with courage, care, and, in some cases, obstinacy. Retired schoolteacher Mabel Stone, for instance, chose to stay home with her beloved dog Woofie and fight the fire with a broom, a bucket of water, and her snow rake. Confronting the devastation after the fire, neighbors ingeniously made do, shared what they had, and rebuilt what they could.
Jo Radner spent a year interviewing people who experienced the Brownfield Fire, and from those interviews, letters, historical photographs, and newspaper reports created a powerful story of terror, courage, neighborly responsibility, recovery, and – yes – even humor.
Extreme Weather in New England
July 31 7:00 PM Mike Carmon
The summit of Mount Washington is a focal point of extremes. The weather and climate on Mount Washington have been studied firsthand for over 90 years by the summit observers of the Mount Washington Observatory.
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In this presentation, learn more about the extreme weather on Mount Washington on a backdrop of the tempestuous New England weather. We'll examine recent regional extreme events, and include recent studies that have analyzed trends in Mount Washington's weather and climate over its 90+ year history.
All About Reindeer
August 7 7:00 PM Jessica Fury
Jessica tells us “All About Reindeer,” from Scandinavia to Jefferson, NH. The species originated in Lapland of the Scandinavian Peninsula. From here wild subspecies traveled to different parts of Europe, North America, and Russia. The Sami people of Lapland domesticated them for herding by 800 AD. Reindeer continue to play a huge role in their native culture, with 900 still active Sami reindeer herders in the region.
Closer to home, Santa's Village has 29 reindeer, all of which were born and raised there. The reindeer are exhibited at the Reindeer Rendezvous show barn (where our next-day field trip will take place).
Field Trip to Meet the Reindeer 3
August 8 8:30 - 9:30 AM
Jessica Fury
Jessica Fury has been the reindeer herd manager for Santa's Village since 2019. She began working at Santa's Village seasonally in high school and college when she was 16 years old. She graduated from UNH with a B.S. in Animal Science, doing her capstone project on reindeer. She continues to network with reindeer owners, experts, and specialized vets.
WSPA Annual Meeting
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The Promise of Sunrise:
Finding Solace in a Broken World
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August 14 6:00 PM WSPA Annual Meeting
Followed by: 7:00 PM The Promise of Sunrise: Finding Solace in a Broken World
by Ted Levin with Jeanette Fournier
Former Bronx Zoo zoologist and award-winning nature writer Ted Levin spent COVID rediscovering his valley and the joys of watching the season pass, day by day by day. The book is a chronicle of his rediscovery of the Thetford, Vermont hillside on which he lived and a recounting of the daily joys of observing home ground as Levin (like many of us) was forced by COVID to stay home for nearly two years.
Flyway of Life
Fall Wildflower Walk
Sunday, September 7 1- 4 PM Brett Engstrom
Fall is here and it is time to get outdoors to enjoy the signs of season’s-end. Please join us for this free wildflower walk led by field ecologist and botanist, Brett Engstrom, who has over a dozen years of experience studying the flora, fauna, geology and soils of Weeks State Park.
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Brett has led nature walks at the park for many years. Meet at the parking lot at the start of the scenic auto road up Mount Prospect at 1 PM. Bring a hand lens and flower guide if you like and dress for the weather. A paper list of common fall wildflowers will be provided at the assembly point. The free program ends at 4 PM.