Summer Fun
EcoCamp 2025
Join us in some outdoor, fun in the sun (and shade) !
Seven Weeks of Summer Fun!
Give your child the gift of nature with a week of EcoCamp at Pickering Creek Audubon Center. EcoCamp provides children with the freedom to explore and experience the outdoors in a safe and fun environment. EcoCamp encourages curiosity, exploration, and investigation that can lead to a greater understanding of the natural world and a lifelong appreciation for our environment. Each day is filled with fun activities like swimming, dip netting in the pond, marsh mucking, hiking, games, canoeing, fishing, meeting animals, and birding that take campers on adventures all over Pickering Creek’s 450 acres.
REGISTRATION FOR 2025 ECOCAMP BEGINS at 10 AM on MARCH 3rd.
Who?
Each of the seven weeks of camp being offered in 2025 are open to all age groups.
Fledglings (campers entering K-1st grade in Fall 2025)
We guide our youngest adventurists around Pickering at their level – literally! Short hikes pause frequently to turn over logs, look under leaves, and examine a new treasure with magnifying lens in hand. We will fish, get wet, search for animals in our pond, and explore like the older campers but everything we do is adjusted for them, with plenty of opportunities to focus our activities on new questions and discoveries that always come up with this curious age group. Fledglings will have a quite time after lunch so they are reenergized for the second half of the day.
Larks and Shrikes (campers entering 2nd-7th grade in Fall 2025)
Larks and Shrikes weeks are filled to the brim with games, hikes, shelter building for frogs to people, swimming, canoeing, and fishing. We start each day prepared to keep this energetic age group engaged. Campers will end each week with new knowledge of our local environment and how to explore it while keeping themselves and wildlife safe.
What?
Camp Hours and Length: Each camp is held from 9-4, Monday through Friday and lasts one week. There is no camp on June 19 in observance of Juneteenth.
Staff: Our dedicated staff is experienced in teaching and is safety-certified and science educated. They transform Pickering Creek’s expertise in school-based programming into fun, hands-on activities that keep your camper learning throughout the summer. Our staff gets many helping hands each week from our volunteer Junior Naturalists; these teens have graduated from EcoCamp into our yearlong nature-enthusiast club and bring a variety of experience and fun ideas.
Group Sizes and Ages: Each group of ~12 campers is led by one college aged or older Camp Counselor with help from 2 to 3 Junior Naturalists. Larks & Shrikes groups may contain several grade levels.
Cost: $315 per camper per week. The week of June 16-20 is a four day camp week, and is thus prorated at $255. All weeks require a $90 non refundable deposit each.
Scholarships are available. For more information, see Camp Scholarships below.
As our camp grows in popularity, we want to be able to reach as many families as possible. We will adjust registration rules accordingly. Thank you for helping us introduce more kids to nature!
2025 Camp Themes and Dates
Each week has a broad topic so you can select a theme based on your camper’s interest. The staff will be able to make adjustments within the theme based on campers’ questions with plenty of room for unscheduled curiosities to turn into hours of fun exploration.
Click on Camp Theme for more information.
Pollinator Power (June 16-June 20) 4-Day week- No Camp on June 19
Dragonflies are buzzing, and the butterflies are fluttering! Explore the world of pollinators as the summer flowers bloom all around us. Along with exploring and water days, enjoy games and activities that show how important pollinators are to the world we live in and observe the beautiful varieties that call Pickering Creek home; from the bright Tiger Swallowtail to the bee-utiful honeybees!
Science Explorers (June 23- June 27)*
Science? Boring? Not at Pickering Creek! Scientists who explore nature and the animals and habitats they live are called Naturalists. Along with water days, classic camp games and hiking experiences, campers will explore nature through messy outdoor experiments and games. Dig through an owl pellet to decide what it ate; keep count of animals we see in our habitats and discover the biodiversity all around us. Join us for a week of discovery and hands-on science fun!
Secret Forest (July 7-July 11)
Walk where few have walked and explore the lesser-known spaces of Pickering Creek. Campers will find spaces where the wild things are, the trees are taller, and the mud is deeper! We’ll try to spy new wildlife and use wayfinding skills to make maps and keep track of the places we explore. Campers will visit off-trail parts of the New Forest, yet to be explored by any camper!
Nature Ninjas (July 14- July 18)*
Stealth, preparedness and the ability to stay calm are just a few traits of a ninja… and fox, and bird, and possum? Learn the ways of nature ninjas. We’ll practice the art of camouflage, close observation. Answer questions like: What kind of wildlife lives here, how can we tell, what does it eat? We’ll learn how to be calm, quiet, and prepared. We will be “One with Nature” and learn to activate our quiet mind.
Unhuggables (July 21- July 25)
They may not have fur and whiskers to woo you into hugging them like SOME animals do, but salamanders, frogs, snakes and insects have many traits that are equally as cool. This week we will explore our forests in search of salamanders and beetles, our wetlands to find frogs and crayfish and our creek front in the hopes of finding fish and turtles! Join us as we celebrate all the creatures that call Pickering Creek home.
Wet & Wild (July 28- Aug 1) *
It’s hot! Make like a muskrat and explore the muddy freshwater wetlands, look for little streams and puddles to play in and fish in Pickering Creek. Campers will spend time playing water games and cooling off in all the different kinds of water at EcoCamp while learning about the aquatic wildlife that calls Pickering Creek home. Be prepared to get wet and muddy as we wade through these habitats collecting and watching wildlife, creating dams and new pools, and learning how water is the center of all habitats – big and small.
EcoCamp Village (Aug 4- Aug 8)
Imagine a home-away-from-home. If we lived in the wild, how would we live? This week we will make useful items with vines, gather acorns and walnuts and build shelters. As we go seine netting in the creek, we will learn about all the animals that depend on the fish in the water for food. Skills like knot-tying, way finding, signaling and wayfinding will abound as we learn to work together in our exploration of Pickering Creek!
*Transportation is offered