Maya McFadden Photos
Students tell Ranger Harry the stories of their tracks.
Tree hollows, a raccoon track, and red-tailed hawk scat were all found by young New Haveners with the help of Ranger Harry as they practiced their tracking skills in Edgewood Park while on spring break.
That was the scene at and around Edgewood Park’s Coogan Pavilion Thursday morning as the Youth and Recreation Department hosted its week-long “vacation camp” for New Haven students looking for a spring break activity.
The Youth and Rec vacation camp ran Monday through Friday this week for students aged 5 – 12.
Around 10 a.m Thursday morning, 18 kids made tracking badges out of string and a laminated info card that they wore around their necks, looking to it to identify different types of mammal and rodent tracks.
Park Rangers Harry Coyle and Leeane Marvin led the students through activities focused on animal tracks.
For the first activity, students used a blank sheet of paper, ink pads, and resin animal tracks to create stories on paper using replicas of the animals’ tracks.
The replica tracks ranged from an opossum and a fox to a bobcat and a hawk.
“Tracking is very important; it tells a story and tells where something is,” Coyle said.
He told the students that tracks lose their definition over time because the sides collapse. Muddy days like Thursday are good days to track, he added.
Several students crafted stories — using the tracks — about predators chasing prey.
Throughout the week, students have taken vans to Trowbridge for day-long outdoor activities with the rangers. During downtime, students color and play board games.
Recreation Supervisor Regina Wicks said the annual spring break camp has had a deeper focus in recent years on getting students detached from electronic devices, moving outdoors, and meeting other young people.
After familiarizing themselves with animal tracks on paper, the students then headed outside for about ten minutes while the Thursday drizzle halted.
The students walked an Edgewood trail in search of tracks with the rangers. Students guessed that animals like rabbits and squirrels lived in the park tree hollows and that the raccoon was sleeping above their heads, finding its track in the mud near a tall tree.
For the final day of the camp this Friday, the students will have a “Fun Friday” with a pizza party, Uno card tournament, and outdoor activities.
Coyle shows students a raccoon track found Thursday.
What an awesome activity for young people! I hope more nature and science programming can be made available during school vacations and summers to give young people something fun to do outdoors together without their internet connected devices or TVs. And they’re learning while having fun at the same time.