By Lindsay VanMieghem

As winter fast approaches the Wood River Valley, the fresh snow provides new and exciting ways to get outside and explore all that nature has to offer. Over the next few months, the ERC will once again be partnering with two local experts in birding and tracking to offer the community opportunities to better understand the wildlife that live in their backyards during the winter.

Poo Wright-Pulliam is a local birding extraordinaire who will be sharing her expertise over three Winter Bird Walks. Two of the sessions will include a lecture portion at The Community Library and the Hailey Public Library which will be followed by birding walks in Ketchum and Hailey respectively. Another session will take place at The Nature Conservancy’s Silver Creek Preserve, which is an amazing location for spotting winter birds.

Expert tracker, Ann Christensen, will once again be leading the ERC’s Winter Tracking Workshops and sharing her decades of experience with the community. Each workshop will begin with a short classroom portion at the ERC to familiarize participants with different animals that live in the valley during the winter and how to identify their tracks. This will be followed by a snowshoe adventure to put those tracking skills to the test and uncover the stories left in the snow.

For more information about the specific dates and times of each program view the Winter Birding Flyer and the Winter Tracking Flyer.

The ERC will be open during the SVGA Gallery Walk on Friday, December 28 from 5:00PM-8:00PM to showcase a wildlife photography exhibit by local photographer RJ Turner. If you are unable to make the event, stop by the ERC in January, weekdays 9:00AM-5:00PM, to see the exhibit.

January will  also bring the winter session of Science After School at Alturas Elementary School.

We hope you will join us this winter in exploring the beauty of the Wood River Valley as it is covered in snow!