This was our fifth year to enjoy a week at the Tyler Place, but our first time to check out the nature walk at Proper Pond with Nature Dave.
We had heard of the legendary Nature Dave who has been guiding children (and often their parents) in their discoveries of frogs, turtles, fish, salamanders, snakes and more for more than 16 years, but we had never signed up for the famous walk at Proper Pond.
Fortunately we signed up and even made the draw because, as is usually the case for anything with Nature Dave, many more than can be accommodated sign up and it always has to go to a draw to see who actually gets to go.
Our nine year-old explained that he had already been on enough nature walks, so we left him behind and loaded up our seven-year-old boy and five-year-old girl.
We caravanned the three minute drive and were met with supplied water bottles and insect repellant.
We followed Nature Dave into the woods and soon every child had his or her own walking stick, picked up along the way.
“That’s because we are all hunters by instinct,” nature Dave explained to my husband and me as we watched the kids gripping their sticks and peering through the bushes. “That’s what kids all over the world instinctively do.”
As we walked the two minute ‘hike’ to the pond, I asked Nature Dave about fishing with the Tyler Place children through the years. We had heard tales of his patience and knowledge in helping the children catch fish. Each of the kids groups has its turn for a fishing with Nature Dave session.
“Last summer we estimated that we helped about 2,000 kids catch fish,” he said. “We have about 25 lines dropped at once off the boat, so it stirs up a lot of action for fish of different sizes,” he continued.
Once we got to the pond, walking sticks were exchanged for fishing nets and one of the parents told his son to wait to hear what Nature Dave had to say.
“Oh no,” Nature Dave said. “Just let them go explore. They do enough waiting and listening at school.”
Off the kids and parents went, in search of slimy, slithery nature. And it wasn’t long before we had our first catch, a deep green frog.
“See this, hold it like a popsicle,” Nature Dave said, explaining how to hold the frog.
Soon there were more frogs, a salamander, tadpoles, a butterfly and turtles caught, inspected and released. Nature Dave also showed us a snake, and after explaining to the children to not seek out snakes at home, allowed a few kids to hold the snake.
The pond was set up perfectly for nature observation and scooping, with a wooden platform running near the edge, so kids could scoop on the muddy, grassy side or on a side with just muddy water that reached farther into the lake.
The kids loved it. The grownups loved it, but probably no one more than Nature Dave, who was teaching kids all about nature by letting the kids be the explorers and just filling in interesting details about whatever they caught.
And he has a lot of interesting details to share.
If you visit Tyler Place, I highly recommend signing up for anything hosted by Nature Dave… and then cross your fingers when it comes to the draw.
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