Slime, slugs, swallows part of refuge experience

Deer Creek kids dig Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

By Barbara Sherman

The Regal Courier, Jun 24, 2010, Updated Jun 24, 2010

Barbara Sherman / Regal Courier

A DAY IN THE REFUGE — Students compare paw prints on the ground to ones in their workbooks to figure out what kind of animal made them.

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The weather was cold and rainy on June 10, but it didn't put a damper on the enthusiasm of Deer Creek Elementary students who were ready to enjoy an end-of-the-year field trip at the nearby Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.

Natalie Meeuwsen and Dan Fuglee both teach second/third-grade blend classes and teamed up to take their students for a walk on the wild side.

After the short drive to the refuge, located along Pacific Highway between King City and Sherwood, the kids got an introduction to the refuge from Gary Fawver, a volunteer/naturalist.

"What is a refuge?" he asked, and the students answered that it is a safe place for birds and animals.

"How is it different from your school and back yards?" Fawver asked. After the kids gave some answers, he said, "The word 'free' is very important. A refuge is a place where animals can roam free. Our motto is, 'Wildlife first.'

"That's why we don't allow dogs - we don't want the wildlife to be scared away. And people can't eat their lunch here because we don't want aluminum foil and bottle caps left behind that the animals might eat."

He asked what kind of animals the kids thought they would see, and the answers included foxes, coyotes and skunks.

"Why do animals' ears go up?" Fawver asked. "It is so they can hear better. Different animals have better senses - hawks and owls have both good sight and hearing, and deer have good ears. As we walk, we want you to zip your lips and point at something you want everyone to see."

Fawver also gave a lesson in refuge etiquette: "Here is how to conduct yourselves," he said. "I've not seen any animals shuffle their feet on the trails, so you shouldn't either."

The two classes were divided into four color groups, and Fawver led one of them away from the visitors' center out into the refuge.

The kids were armed with notebooks and pencils so they could record what they saw and also play "Nature Bingo."

Fawver pointed out swallows swooping and flying in the air, saying, "Swallows fly with their mouths open to catch bugs."

Farther along, a boy pointed out a pile of poop on the path that looked like it had been left by a large dog.

"That's coyote poop," Fawver said. "We call it scat. You found a nice big pile of it."

Pretty soon the kids were seeing other birds, including flickers, plus slugs, fungus and all kinds of plants.

Fawver pointed out white daisies growing in the meadow. "Those are called ox-eye daisies," he said. "When the settlers came across the plains, they said they looked like cow eyes."

Next along the trail were tree protectors - cylinders put on young trees to protect them from being eaten by rabbits, nutria, beaver and other animals.

Meeuwsen explained that the students had been studying birds for the previous two months as part of their life science benchmark.

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