Are you crazy about prairies or at least prairie curious? Do you have a friend or kid you’d like to introduce to the prairie? Are you hungry to learn more about bees or bobolinks? Have you always wondered what that one plant is that you see along the road?

Come join us on July 9 at The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies south of Wood River, Nebraska as we jump back into in-person field days! The event is completely free and open to all ages.

The day will officially start at 8:30am, followed by four sessions that will each provide multiple options for topics. Those topics will include bird identification and ecology, plant identification, wetland ecology, seed harvesting, prairie ecology, small mammals, prairie invertebrates and more. You can choose where to go for each session. We will wrap up the day by about 2:30pm, but you can come and go whenever you like.

If you want to get up extra early, there will be two ‘pre-session sessions’. Nic Salick (The Nature Conservancy) will be leading a bird hike at 7am. In addition, Mike Schrad (Nebraska Master Naturalist) will be – weather permitting – checking his small mammal traps at 7am and welcomes anyone to tag along to see what he catches. In fact, if you’re in the area and want to come out to help him set his traps (live traps) the previous evening, there will be an opportunity for that as well.

I’ll share more detailed information soon, including a full agenda and location information, but for now, please put Saturday July 9 on your calendar and plan to come see us!