Online Course: Spring Ephemeral Wildflowers with Grace Glynn

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

Wild leeks, trillium, spring beauty: each spring brings an explosion of wildlflowers to rich Northeastern forests. This course will equip you with tools to identify the plants in our spring flora and an ecological understanding of their place on the landscape. Topics will range from etymology of the spring flora to the potential effects of climate change on spring ephemerals and their pollinators.

$65

Paintings by Susan Bull Riley

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

This exhibit is a delightful mixture of moments in nature. A stroll through the gallery evokes the feeling of a summer walk through the Vermont countryside, with all that one encounters along the way. You’ll meet pitcher plants, apple trees, waxwings, and owls between sweeping views of the Worcester Range and quiet moments along a shady creek. These paintings reflect my desire to translate the intensity of my feelings for the natural world into images that speak to others.

Art Gallery Reception – Susan Bull Riley

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

Please join us at North Branch Nature Center for an evening celebrating Susan Bull Riley's inspirational oil and watercolor paintings. Refreshments and a warm fire will be available outside after touring the gallery and meeting the artist. Masks will be required indoors. This exhibit is a delightful mixture of moments in nature. A stroll through the gallery evokes the feeling of a summer walk through the Vermont countryside, with all that one encounters along the way. You’ll meet pitcher plants, apple trees, waxwings, and owls between sweeping views of the Worcester Range and quiet moments along a shady creek. These paintings reflect my desire to translate the intensity of my feelings for the natural world into images that speak to others.

“Spooning” with Nature – Woodcarving with Ken Benton

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

Learn the story behind the wood as we go from log to spoon.  We’ll follow the process covering  tree identification, natural history, ethical harvest and processing from the round into billets. Moving indoors, we’ll learn to read the grain while laying out patterns and carving away all wood that isn’t spoon.  By the end of the day you’ll come away with a nearly finished spoon with a built in story to tell dinner guests while serving food. Bring your own fixed blade knife and come dressed for the weather. Led by NBNC Teacher-Naturalist Ken Benton

$50

ECO Homeschool Program (Ages 6-12) – Winter Session

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

Our full-day ECO Homeschool program provides a meaningful and fun learning environment based in environmental education and a mentorship model. Each Monday, the woods and fields of North Branch Nature Center will be our classroom, where students will engage with the landscape through standards-based lessons led by our talented ECO education staff. Each session will include games, songs, stories, and activities designed to help students engage with our land and the organisms who share it.

$325

Seabirds and Pelagic Birding Boat Trip in Cape Ann, MA

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

Seabirds and Pelagic Birding Boat Trip in Cape Ann, MA March 18  (10 am) to March 20 (3 pm) $550 ($125 single supplement) 7 participants maximum Program will be cancelled in the event of forecasted severe weather or high winds at sea Contact us to register Cape Ann, Massachusetts, is a worldwide destination for winter…

$550

Shorebirds, Seabirds, and Songbirds on Cape Cod

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

After the summer beach crowds clear out, Cape Cod is certainly for the birds. Shorebirds, seabird, raptors and songbirds are plentiful on the Cape, and migration is in full swing. his trip is about watching, enjoying, and studying seabirds and shorebirds among a community of like-minded nature lovers under the leadership of a first-class guide and educator.

$1250

Seabirding Along the Atlantic Coast – Winter Birding in Cape Ann, MA

North Branch Nature Center 713 Elm Street, Montpelier, Vermont

This annual winter adventure is an outstanding opportunity to spend quality time with species rarely, if ever, seen in Vermont. This trip is not only about discovering rare species by land and sea, but about watching, enjoying, and studying seabirds among a community of like-minded nature lovers under the leadership of a first-class guide and educator.

$550