Not a Lazy Saturday: Kiwanis Aktion Club Workday

Volunteers from the Kiwanis Aktion Club, reporting for duty!

Saturdays are lazy days for many people…days to sleep late, eat a leisurely brunch, potter around the house, and enjoy a little much-needed R&R after a busy work week.  For members of the Kiwanis Aktion Club, however, last Saturday (February 26^th) was anything but a lazy day!  Over a dozen volunteers from the Club’s local chapter convened at the Carolina Children’s Garden for a special Garden Workday.  Enthusiastic participants tackled several important tasks—removing giant longleaf pine cones from the play areas, painting the fence around Mr. McGregor’s Garden, fertilizing the tea olives in the Reading Garden, raking pine straw, and stuffing our friends, Mama and Baby Bear, with fresh sphagnum moss.

The Three Bears' Crew stuffs Mama Bear with fresh sphagnum moss

We at the Carolina Children's Garden are very grateful to the Aktion Club for their service--the Garden would not exist without the hard work of volunteers like you!  Thank you!

Great Backyard Bird Count 2011

 Last Saturday, a large crowd gathered in the Carolina Children's Garden for the second-annual Sandhill Rally of the Great Backyard Bird Count!  The weather was perfect and the birds were very active.  In approximately one hour of birding, our three groups of birders saw 28 different species of birds, and every group saw at least two bird species that no other group saw.

The Children's Garden would like to send a special "thank you" to all the volunteers who helped make the event a success--the Richland County Master Gardener Association, South Carolina Midlands Master Gardener Association, Columbia Audubon Society, Kiwanis Club, Woodley's Garden Center, and Wild Birds Unlimited--and, in particular, to the bird guides--Patricia Voelker, Judy Hurley, and Arlene Marturano (above, pictured with Brian Welte of Wild Birds Unlimited).  

For more information about the GBBC, visit http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/. 

Species Counted at the 2011 GBBC:

American Crow

American Goldfinch

American Robin

Blue Jay

Canada Geese

Carolina Chickadee

Carolina Wren

Common Grackle

Dark-eyed Junco

Double-crested Cormorant

Downy Woodpecker

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Phoebe

Great Blue Heron

Mourning Dove

Northern Cardinal

Northern Flicker

Northern Mockingbird

Pied Bill Grebe

Pine Warbler

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-tailed Hawk

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Tufted Titmouse

Turkey Vulture

White-throated Sparrow

Wood Duck

Yellow-rumped Warbler