Kids Event Reports Archives - Waterloo Region Nature

WRN Kids – Unwanted House Guests

Saturday, April 4, 2026Saturday, April 4, 2026 by paul

Unwanted House Guests

Saturday, March 28, 2026

March’s outing was a presentation about humane wildlife removal by Ryan Rainville from Skedaddle Humane Wildlife Control. Spring is a busy time for wildlife removal as mother squirrels and raccoons search for the safest and coziest places to have their babies. Sometimes this is in our homes.

Racoons can bend metal and pop up fascia by wedging themselves in corners and pushing with their backs to access a house’s attic. Squirrels can chew their way in through plastic vents and rotting corners of a roof. Ryan showed us videos of baby racoons and squirrels hunkered down in attic insulation. He also showed us videos of the damage these animals can do to roofs, insulation, wires and wood.

Home owners often hear sounds in the attic and Skedaddle works like a detective to figure out how the animals got in and to find the babies. Then, they remove the babies and put them outside near the opening in a heated box. The entrance to the house is fitted with a one-way door so that the mother can get out if she is still hiding in the attic and then she can gather her babies and move them to a better location.

Raccoons and squirrels have multiple dens / nests that they can use. Both raccoons and squirrels are masters of finding food and shelter and that is why there are so many in cities.

When a bird builds a nest in a vent, the nest is removed along with eggs or chicks and a stronger vent cover is installed. The nest is put into a box using the old vent cover as an entrance and the box is mounted to the wall right near the original vent. The bird easily finds the nest and carries on raising their young. When they fledge, the box is removed.

Tips to keep wildlife outside of your home:

Keep your gutters clear to help keep your roof in good condition
Screen up brick vent holes to keep rodents out.
Install heavy gauge wire covers over vent holes.
Bird seed will attract mice and rats.

Call a professional to humanely remove the animal and do repairs to keep the animals out. Trapping an animal and relocating it doesn’t solve the problem. A new animal will just move in.

Reported by: Rachelle

WRN Kids – Snowshoeing

Saturday, March 7, 2026 by paul

Snowshoeing

Saturday, February 28, 2026

For our February outing, we went snowshoeing at rare Charitable Research Reserve. Lauren from rare led the outing and we were all excited to try snowshoeing!

We started out learning about snowshoes. The oldest known snowshoes are 3000 years old. Lauren showed us two styles of snowshoes – one that is long and pointy at the back that is used in deep snow in open areas and another that is shorter and rounder that is made for forest areas where you need to get around trees and other obstacles.

Snowshoes help you stay on top of deep snow by spreading out your weight so instead of all your weight being poked into the deep snow by your feet, it is spread out over a big snowshoe that doesn’t sink into the snow as far. The snowshoes we used had metal points on the bottom to grip the ice. It was very icy and slippery on the trail, and we would not have been able to walk in just our boots.

Walking on the icy trail was noisy, and Lauren remarked that while we might scare animals away with all the noise, if we look and listen, we can get clues about which animals live there. We spotted footprints that were made by squirrels and dogs. We decided that the prints were canine because we could see the claws. Feline claws are retractable and when they walk, the claws are not out so they don’t leave claw prints in the snow.

We passed through different tree areas and noticed the difference between a naturalized forest with different ages and stages of growth and a plantation style of forest where the trees were planted in rows. The plantation trees were all the same species and age. This results in fewer varieties of other plants and animals that can live there.

We saw a very funky looking dead tree that has a second life acting as a home for other species like woodpeckers, owls and fungus. Lauren told us that to find owls in the forest one tip is to look for holes or crevices in trees that face west as owls like to sunbathe in the afternoon sun.

By the end of the hike, we could all feel that walking in snowshoes takes more energy that walking in boots but less energy walking than walking in deep snow.

Reported by: Laura and Rachelle

WRN Kids – Bones!

Saturday, February 14, 2026 by paul

Bones!

Saturday, January 31, 2026

In January we went to RIM Park where the Eastside Library branch is. It was really really cold and snowy but we were inside for most of it this month!

We learned about bones! We built a skeleton and tried to identify skulls. Fraser taught us about animals that eat different things, and how it changes their skull and body.

Carnivores have sharp pointed teeth for tearing meat, herbivores have more flat teeth for grinding up plants. Rodents have two big teeth on the top and bottom at the front and then a space before their back teeth. Lagomorphs look a lot like rodents but they have two little teeth behind their big front teeth. Mostly rabbits and hares are lagomorphs, they aren’t rodents at all! Omnivores have both sharp and flat teeth because they eat both meat and plants, and their skulls can be tricky to identify.

It’s important to know how to identify bones you might find in the wild so you know what animals have been in your area and what predators you need to watch out for.

My favourite part was building the skeleton! It was really fun to try and figure out how all the bones connected and fit together. And I liked working in a team with my friends to do a bone puzzle.

Fraser was really nice and funny. I’m glad he came to teach us about animals bones and show us his collection. It was so cool!

Reported by: River

Afterwards a smaller group went outside to look for animal tracks in the snow. We found an extensive deer bedding area with lots of places where a deer had made their bed. We also found quite a bit of frozen deer scat.

WRN Kids – Maps at GeoTime Trail

Sunday, January 4, 2026 by paul

Maps at the GeoTime Trail

Saturday, November 29, 2025

On Saturday November 29 Nature Kids met at the GeoTime Trail in Waterloo. The weather was cold but sunny and there was lots of snow.

Nature Kids volunteer Laura talked to the group about maps and what kinds of things we might see on maps and how to orient ourselves on one. We did a short practice with a small map she had drawn of our immediate area, then Laura gave us a bigger map.

Laura had drawn a map of part of the GeoTime trail with landmarks like trees, rocks, signs and paths along with control points. The control points were cards posted on trees or stumps or rock walls and marked with different symbols.

Using the map, we headed out to find and record all twelve control points. The fresh deep snow made it more difficult to walk and the woods were beautiful. We recorded each point we found by drawing the symbol shown on posted cards.

Laura wasn’t sure if we would be able to hike to find all the points as the deep snow made walking more difficult and tiring, but we were up for the challenge. We found all 12 points! Many people were tired by the end.

This was a fun and challenging activity, and we learned about following a map.

Reported by: Rachelle

WRN Kids – Trail Trimming at SpruceHaven

Saturday, December 13, 2025 by paul

Trail Trimming at SpruceHaven

Saturday, December 13, 2025

WRN Teens had invited WRN Kids to join them in trimming trails at SpruceHaven. The day was overcast and the wind was cold out in the open spaces, but in the forest it was almost cozy. The snow was quite deep and Teens coordinator Anita definitely got her exercise while breaking trail at the head of our line.

At a couple of places Anita mounted a trail camera, to later see which animals might go by during the winter. She explained that animals like to use trails just like humans do, in order to conserve their energy.

Adults, Kids, and Teens all worked at trimming branches. It was hazardous work, because snow could get dumped down your neck at any time. Finally, when we were tired and had all the branches that we could carry, we headed back out from the woods.

Thanks go to Anita and the Teens group for inviting us. There will be houses with some attractive greenery displays during this holiday season.

Reported by: Paul

WRN Kids – Squirrels at Breithaupt Park

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 by paul

Squirrels at Breithaupt Park

Saturday, October 25, 2025

Our October outing took place at Breithaupt Park in Kitchener. We learned about red squirrels and grey squirrels. Grey squirrels can be either grey or black in colour. Both grey and red squirrels gather food to hide to eat in the winter, but grey squirrels hide their food in many different places while red squirrels hide their food all in one place. This might be why red squirrels are more aggressive in defending their food hiding spot. If something finds the red squirrels food hiding spot, they could eat all the squirrel’s food, and the squirrel would have none for the wintertime.

We also played a game in which we were either a grey squirrel, or a red squirrel and we had to find and hide food. Then, we could steal each other’s food just like real squirrels do.

When a fox was added to the game, it became even more challenging to gather food and store it while trying to not get eaten by the fox. There were a lot of tired squirrels by the time the game ended!

Finally, we divided into two groups and went walking in different directions to tally up how many squirrels we could find. One group noticed many squirrels across a field and headed there. It became obvious why so many squirrels were there – oak trees with many acorns!!

In total the two groups observed 80 squirrels!

It is fun to learn more about an animal that we see so often in our daily lives.

Reported by: Rachelle

WRN Kids – Insects at Bechtel Park

Tuesday, October 7, 2025 by paul

Insects at Bechtel Park

Saturday, September 27, 2025

We went to Bechtel Park to learn about insects. The weather was cool but warm as well, and it was pretty sunny out.

We looked for insects and named the ones we found.

Owen from Nature Teen Club came and he showed us all the different kinds of insects around.

There were lots of Hickory tussock moth caterpillars, an inch worm, some spiders and some beetles.

We also looked for other cool stuff like curled leaves that were made by spiders.

We saw some damage made by Emerald Ash Borers inside a dead ash tree, it looked cool but it was sad to see our native trees dying.

We also learned about why insects are important. If we don’t know where bugs are or what we’re doing to them we might hurt them, and we need insects! My favourite part was finding moss and mould growing on fungus, and a cute little brown inch worm.

Reported by: River

WRN Kids – Earth Day Community Cleanup

Thursday, June 12, 2025 by paul

Earth Day Community Cleanup at Bechtel Park

Saturday, April 26, 2025

In April, we went to Bechtel Park to pick up garbage for Earth Day.

At first there was not much garbage on the trail.

Then we got to a place where there was lots of garbage! It was right next to the river. We started picking up garbage, lots and lots of garbage.

It was pretty chilly out but we kept going until the whole area was almost fully cleaned up.

We hung out for a while seeing how much everyone found. And there were prizes for whoever found the most of each kind of trash!

It’s important to clean the earth up so that nature is still here when we are grown-ups.

Reported by: River

WRN Kids – Pond Study

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 by paul

Pond Study at Huron Natural Area

Saturday, May 31, 2025

We went to the Huron Natural Area in Kitchener for our pond study. The weather was pretty cool.

We went to a pond there and went netting.

We had buckets of water to put our creatures that we caught in. We came across nymphs, frogs, different sizes of tadpoles and a big dead fish.

We had an id key of different pond invertebrates to help us id them. I was able to id one of the nymphs to be a damselfly nymph.

The best find was a large leech!

At the end we went back, had some snacks and talked about what we found.

Reported by: Hunter

WRN Kids – Predator Prey Game

Tuesday, April 8, 2025Tuesday, April 8, 2025 by paul

Predator Prey Game at Huron Natural Area

Saturday, March 29, 2025

What was the outing and where?

At Huron Natural Area in Kitchener. We went down a big path and then we came to a big circle of rocks. Then we played a Survival game.

What was the weather like?

Windy with a small drizzle of rain that went on and off.

What did you learn, or what was new to you?

The game Survival was new to me. And I learned to not go near the water at the pond.

What was your favourite part?

Being rabies during the Survival game. I liked that I was working together with Aspen, Indie, and Alana to attack other animals.

Reported by: Gus

WRN Kids – Winter Birding

Sunday, February 23, 2025Sunday, February 23, 2025 by paul

Winter Birding at Riverside Park in Cambridge with David Gascoigne

Saturday, February 22, 2025

We went to Riverside Park to learn about birds, and feed them!

We learned that when chickadees say “chickadee” they’re happy, and when they say “chickadee-dee” they’re a bit upset, and when they say “chickadee-dee-dee-dee” they’re really mad.

We learned that female ducks are less colourful because they have to sit on the nest. If they were bright like the males all the predators would find them. The river was all frozen and the ducks were swimming through the snow on top of the ice.

We learned that woodpeckers are a keystone species because they make holes for other animals to live in. Chickadees, sparrows, bluebirds, swallows, blue jays, and squirrels all use old woodpecker nest holes.

All the food for the birds is buried under the snow and it’s really hard for them to get enough to eat. Chickadees are very small and need a lot of food to keep warm. If they don’t get enough food in a day they can die overnight when it’s very cold. Winter is very dangerous for birds. So we fed them lots and lots of birdseed!

We made a cafe for the birds on our hands and called it the Bird Feeder!

We saw chickadees, sparrows, mourning doves, crows, blue jays, cardinals and woodpeckers, and a lot of bunny poop.

Reported by: River and Isla

A list of birds that we saw:

Mallard
Mourning Dove
Ring-billed Gull
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
House Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal

WRN Kids – Winter Survival

Wednesday, February 12, 2025 by paul

Winter Survival

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Nature Kids met at rare Charitable Research Reserve to learn about wildnerness survival led by Istafa from rare.

We discussed the things necessary for survival like shelter, water and fire.

Istafa showed us a snow shelter that Athabaskan people make with snow that is called a quinzee.

To build our own quinzee, everyone helped to shovel the snow into a big pile.

While the snow sintered (settled and refroze), we tried fire starting using a flint and steel striker to make sparks into dryer lint. Once the sparks started burning the lint, we carefully added paper and small twigs to feed the fire. It was hard to get the fire going and very satisfying when successful.

Istafa built a bigger fire, and we added our small ones to it. We cooked smores, banana boats and warmed up apple juice over the fire.

When we were done eating, it was time to carve out the quinzee.

We took turns making an opening and scooping out snow to make the interior of the quinzee. It was hard work. When we were done, the inside was big enough to lay down in and noticeably warmer than outside.

It was a fun morning!

Reported by: Rachelle

WRN Kids – Huron Natural Area

Wednesday, December 11, 2024 by paul

Huron Natural Area

Saturday, November 30, 2024

We went to Huron Natural Area. It was snowy and cold.

We looked for footprints in the snow.

We watched ducks and geese.

We tried to feed chickadees, but there were none.

We found two cool dead trees, one was standing and the other was laying down. The one laying down was NINE people long!

And finally we went to a cool stick fort. I had fun playing in the forest.

Reported by: River

WRN Kids – Focus on Nature

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 by paul

Breithaupt Park

Saturday, October 26, 2024

We started out with a presentation by Taryn from Focus on Nature on what to look for when choosing subjects to photograph and how to compose the pictures.

We learned about the seven components of the Elements of Design – line, shape, form, space, texture, tone, and colour. We also heard about the rule of thirds and SCUFI (Shoot Close Up For Impact).