Scouts and their leaders pass plastic owl and rat models in a race to see which creature is the fastest.

Jane Seitz displays Spud the great horned owl during the reading of the story. Owls, corresponding with owls mentioned the story, were displayed for scouts.

Diary of a Restoration

8th Installment, October 27, 2003

The Halloween "Spooktacular" was the largest educational program ever hosted at the Illinois Raptor Center. Incorporating Halloween made it fun, and spooky, for scouts. It also allowed us to sneak in some natural history education without the kids even knowing it!

The evening started with team building and cooperation exercises. Next, the more than 100 scouts divided into four groups. Scouts rotated between a hot dog roast, haunted trail hike and mad scientist's laboratory where owl pellets were dissected.

The final event of the evening was the reading of a story called "The Man Who Could Call Down Owls." Jacques Nuzzo, dressed as the book's main character who had a special rapport with owls, read the story to the scouts who sat on the hillside. When each owl in the story was mentioned, an Illinois Raptor Center volunteer appeared with the owl for the scouts to see.

Jacques Nuzzo reads "The Man Who Could CallDown Owls" as volunteer Melinda Kraft presents Yeti, thesnowy owl.

Everytime the girl scouts come out to the IRC, for a work day or educational program, the number of participants grows. Since we have many new scouts each time, our programs are designed to introduce the scouts to our project, provide education and hopefully entertain.

While this program was mostly intended to be a fun fall evening in the outdoors, more work is on the horizon. It is hoped that scouts can help us sow some prairie seeds and plant some acorns in the next few weeks. Fall burns are also planned, but those will be handled by adult volunteers.