ADDISON — The 11th Dead Creek Wildlife Day, a family-oriented daylong celebration of the remarkable wildlife of the Champlain Valley, takes place Saturday, Oct. 6, in Addison. Most of the events are held at the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area headquarters, on Route 17 one mile west of Route 22A.
Activities begin at 7 a.m. with bird banding at the Route 17 Dead Creek crossing boat launch. From 10 a.m. on, multiple events take place through the day until 4 p.m. These include fun events for youngsters as well as nature walks and informative presentations by Vermont’s most capable biologists, natural historians and sportsmen.
People can build a bluebird nest box with their children, carve a wooden decoy or a soap sculpture, learn to recognize and control Vermont’s invasive exotic plants, navigate with a GPS unit, watch retrievers and a rescue dog in action, help band birds, mark butterflies, or take a beginners’ bird walk, see live Vermont animals up close, learn what owls eat by taking apart an owl pellet, and many more activities.
Featured this year are presentations on Vermont’s turtles, grassland birds, black terns, and bats. Lend a hand at The Big Sit, attempting to see 50 or more bird species from a 17-foot circle through the day.
Continuous free shuttle bus service runs between the headquarters and the starting location of field events through the day. The Addison School PTA provides a healthy lunch at reasonable prices.
Dead Creek Wildlife Day concludes with an Owl Night at Grants’ Sugarhouse at 1681 Route 17, a half-mile east of Route 22A on Route 17 on Saturday evening starting at dark. Rodney Olsen and his students will host this highly popular event, which features a demonstration of netting and banding migrant saw-whet owls and possibly other owl species.