The second half of our trip took us south along the coast of Texas to South Padre Island where we saw a great number of ducks, wading birds, and butterflies. Next we moved inland and along the Rio Grande river, where the bird life picked up even more. We ended in Laredo before heading back to Corpus Christi to complete our 1100 mile trip where we saw 179 different bird species! What a great trip to witness this very important wintering site for many of our native birds, butterflies, and so much more.

Enjoy the album below of some of the amazing sights we witnessed.

-Bob

Here we are at last, birding the Rio Grande Valley and the Texas South Coast!

Our travels will take us to some of the finest birding localities in the most bird-rich state in the union including: the vast salt marshes and bays of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the sandy barrier beaches of hundred-mile-long Padre Island, the subtropical Rio Grande Valley, and the South Texas Plains.

We safely arrived in Corpus Christie on Wednesday afternoon and promptly began our Texas birding adventure: 40 species of birds in 2 hours!

Thursday we visited the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, first by boat, where we saw 19 federally endangered whooping cranes – whoo hoo! Then we checked out the land portion of the refuge and saw a many other birds and a few alligators. Later, we saw a black-legged kittiwake, and a gull from Alaska who apparently had gotten a little lost!

More adventures ahead, I’ll check in again soon.

Bob

Black-legged Kittiwake
Photo credit: Bernie McHugh

Wow! What an amazing session this has been. I just came in from our closing ceremony, where there were lots of smiles, hugs, and tears of joy. They came together and became one group, laughing, playing and supporting each other. It was truly wonderful to be a part of.

This second week of the session is where it all began. After the campouts returned, you could really feel something special was happening. Any lingering uncertainty vanished, and everyone was singing and having a great time together. All of this, while we learned a bit more about the natural side of Wildwood too. Lots of birds, butterflies, reptiles and amphibians, flowers and more.

We were really able to push the envelope with our programming too. Take a look at some of the photos below where you’ll some really cool stuff;

Our special event day – Time Warp, where we had really cool activities through the ages. We ended that night with the movie “Back to the Future” played on the side of the showerhouse, while campers laid in their sleeping bags in the field.

Andy introduced us to old-thyme shaving at the Old New Ipswich Barber Shop, and the Taking Flight IG built wings and took off from the dock today!

Last night was Zombie Night at dinner and we had some really cool looking ghouls.

What a great way to finish up our overnight sessions here at Wildwood! Thanks so much for dropping off such terrific kids! We’d love to see them stay…but they can’t, so we’ll see you in the morning!

Thanks to Andy, Welch, Ali, and Peter for helping me with these photos.

Best, Bob

Hi Everyone! Here’s to some really great weather – some of the best days of summer. The mornings are a bit cooler, but it warms up pretty quickly and gives us an amazing day.

All of our overnight camping trips went really well. We saw some rain here and there, but these kids are built for that. All tents were up, and dinners were cooked and eaten before it rolled in, so all was well. It was probably the best weather for Monadnock that we’ve ever had. It was bright and calm, but a bit cooler – just ideal for climbing. Everyone made it to the top!

So now we’re really into the second week with new IGs and some crazy cool DGs too.
Tonight is our second “Bring a letter to dinner” night, so you may be getting another letter in the mail very soon. Tomorrow is our special event day, and we’ll be out getting pictures of all the neat stuff happening.

I hope you’re enjoying your time at home, because before you know it, you’ll be back picking up your camper – but not just yet!

Here are a few pictures from the day’s activities here at Wildwood – enjoy! We’ll be back again soon! Thanks Andy and Welch for getting the pictures today!

Bob

Hello Everyone out there in the real world. I hope you’re having a good time – we are!

We’ve had a couple storms overnight, which have cooled down the air a bit, and that’s just fine with me! Yesterday it rained for a good part of the morning, but we managed just fine and welcomed the sun in the afternoon. This morning the last of the rain ended just before our PBJ – Polar Bear Swim, so campers were able to get up early and hit the pond – before breakfast! The rest of the day has been splendid and it looks like our night will be equally great tonight.

We are all preparing for our overnight weekend which begins tomorrow, when the Abbey and Dillard units head to Mt. Monadnock, while the younger groups head over to first and second point here at Wildwood. While the girl’s units are out camping tomorrow, the Thoreau unit will take control of camp during Guys Night In! Sure its gets pretty wild, but then the next night it really gets wild when the girls come back and switch places for Girls Night In! It will be a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, you’ll have a chance to see some of the great activities we’ve been involved with over the past couple of days in the photos below.

Wow, it’s hard to believe that we’ll be saying goodbye to our LITs on Saturday, but its been three weeks already. They returned from a terrific three days in the White Mountains yesterday and they told me they really had a great time together. They have been a really great bunch of leaders!

So, we’ll check back in after the weekend to let you know how the overnights went. We wish you a really good weekend too!

Best, Bob

Hello Everyone! We are off and running here at Wildwood – Session 5. A couple of really nice weather days started us off on the right foot. In the mornings we are really having a lot of fun in our IGs, followed by some fun DGs and OATs in the afternoon. What do all these acronyms mean? Well, it our way of spelling great camp times!

Our 2nd year LITs are in their final week, and spending one more day in the White Mountains to celebrate their time together. They’ll be back in time for dinner tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to hearing about this adventure. They’ve been a terrific group, and we’ve really enjoyed having them assist here and there at camp.

Speaking of assisting at camp, our Junior Counselors continue to help out all over camp too. Tonight they are all helping out with Unit Nights, where each unit chooses something special to do together. Let’s give a quick shout out to a couple of JCs that had to leave us this past weekend – Hey Becca, Katie, and Nick – we miss you!

Tonight was bring a letter to dinner night, and letters we got! We’ll be sticking them into the mail tomorrow, so expect to see them sometime soon. Please keep your coming too – we like to keep the local post office busy!

Scott was kind enough to get out this morning during IGs to capture some of the action. See below some of the pictures he took. Mouse over to see what activity it was a click on it to see it bigger. We’ll be back again later in the week for another edition. Enjoy the week!

Best, Bob

If you’re registered for Family Camp 3: August 26-29, you should have received a reminder postcard directing you here! (Thanks for checking out the blog, and supporting our efforts to send you less paper!) Continue reading →

Good Evening Everyone – Wow, did this week go by fast! It was a busy week, and that’s probably part of it, but it was a great week too. The weather was fairly warm and humid, but great weather for being outdoors, especially by (and in) the pond!

We had our cookout lunch at noon today, but shortly after that, the clouds rolled in and delivered some well-needed rain and thunderstorms. We still had a great time though in Arts and Crafts and also in the Dining Hall. Tonight is our closing campfire, and even though the rain continues, we’ll have a great time in the Dining Hall with plenty of songs and skits.

Boy, it seemed like I was pretty unavailable to take many pictures during the daily programs, but I did manage to get out to see a few things – pictured below. You’ll see shots from our “Mustache Lunch”, Heffalump Hunt, some really cool watercolors, and a group shot from every unit taken this afternoon. Thank you Peter for helping with these too!

Our JCs are in full stride, doing all sorts of great stuff all over camp. What a terrific help they continue to be for us. Similarly, the Second Year LITs have been a very busy group too. Helping at Wildwood and on the road to various projects and fun destinations. One of the cool things they did this week was build a bridge across a wet spot at one of the town’s conservation areas. The previous LIT groups had done some great work there earlier in the season, and this group left their positive mark there as well. See the picture below. They have one more week to go, and we’re glad that they’ll be with us a bit longer.

The Adirondack trek pulled in this afternoon after a great week exploring the Lake George and Lake Champlain region. It sounds like they saw first hand the result of a summer of low rainfall, finding some of the creeks and tributaries virtually dry! This is a beautiful region and I’m glad we have been able to add this new trip to our menu for future years.

Our Maine Wilderness trip will be back tomorrow, and although we haven’t heard much from them, I know they will have some great stories of their visit to the Katahdin region of Maine.

It’s hard to believe we’ll see you tomorrow for pick-up. We’re really enjoying these campers and we hate to see them go! Our closing ceremony will begin at 10:00, so come on in anytime after 9:30 and we’ll meet at the amphitheater.

Let’s all enjoy some cooler air tonight!

Bob

Hello out there in the real world! We are off to a terrific start here at Wildwood Session 4. Another gorgeous day here with lots of great stuff going on. Just walking from the office to the dining hall today I’ve seen toads, newts, butterflies, dragonflies, crickets and more! Really cool stuff.

The torrential downpours that you were a part of on Sunday afternoon during drop-off, didn’t last very long, and we were able to have our opening campfire outside that evening. We had some more gentle rain overnight, but we woke up to clear skies the next morning, just in time for our early morning bird walk. See photo below.

Today, the waterfront opens up at OATs, and I’m sure it will be a busy place along with the nature center, arts and crafts, the camp store, and the field.

I got out for a few pictures today – to see some really cool art inspired by nature and by artist Andy Goldsworthy. Also, I saw some campers preparing for tie dye, and some others in archery and a cool leadership activity. Tonight is “Bring a letter to dinner” night, so be on the lookout for some mail in the next couple of days. Please keep your letters coming too!

I hope you see someone familiar – there will be more coming soon! Click on a picture to see it full size.

Enjoy this beautiful week!

Bob

Hello Everyone! Wow, what a great week this has been so far. The weather has been fantastic and the programs and activities have been really great too.

We are now in the second week, after our overnight camping trips that took place over the weekend. Yes there was some rain, but not as much as they were calling for. Everybody got out and the group at Monadnock was able to climb the mountain to the top and descend again before any of the real rain began.

Tomorrow is our special event day and we’ve chosen the theme Olympics. We have all kinds of neat events taking place. It will be lots of fun. Speaking of fun, yesterday was “Twin Day” at lunch, so campers and staff dressed up as twins. You’ll see some of the great participation below. I also made it around to all the units during today’s siesta to get a group shot of everyone. Take a look below for those too.

Our new group of LITs arrived on Sunday, and they’ve been busy getting to know each other and helping around with various activities, like last night’s game of Nature’s Wrath. We’re so glad we’ll have them for a total of 3 weeks! Also joining us over the weekend was a new group of Junior Counselors who have also been busy with various activities and areas on camp. Most of them will be here until the end of our overnight sessions late in August.

So, our plan is to just keep having a great time here. We are looking forward to seeing you on Saturday, but we still have a lot of camp to go before then! Thanks for the letters and packages – we love them!

Enjoy the pictures!

Bob