Field Trip

Today, a few parents and I accompanied our kids on a school field trip to Consumnes River Preserve. I was surprised that several of the parents, and the two teachers had never been to the preserve!



The last time I was there was in the fall and the wetlands were filled with water and there were lots of water fowl and migrating birds. Today the wetlands are pretty dried out. The birds that live in the wetland vegetation were still there, but there were very few water fowls.



It was not easy to keep a big group of K-3rd grade kids together! The fact that we had to walk along the concrete path and the walkway helped to keep the group together. I was busy taking pictures of the wild flowers and whatever caught my eye, and had to catch up with the group.

I was surprised that the teachers did not make more stops along the way and point out things of interest to the kids. The one thing I noticed that really excited the kids were the bird nests. They seemed to notice the bird nests, on the ground, in the trees or between the reeds.




This lizard really caught my eye. I was intrigued by the turquoise coloring on its body. One of the girls wanted to pick it up, and of course, we stopped her.



This was about the only water fowl I noticed in what little water that was left in the wetlands. I was fascinated by the long, curving beak. And the long legs so it could wade in the water and feed on whatever was in the water.

The first grade teacher wished she had been better prepared for the trip. It was mainly organized by the second and third grade teacher, and the first graders decided to tag along. The preserve has a website dedicated to it and there is much information about the vegetation and wild life there.

I think the kids should make another visit to the nature preserve in the future.