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Summer Fun

EcoCamp 2026

Join us in some outdoor, fun in the sun (and shade) ! 

REGISTER HERE
Information for Registered Campers

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 2026 ECOCAMP BEGINS at 10 AM on MARCH 2nd. 
Scholarship information can be found in the right side column of this page.

Who?

Each of the seven weeks of camp being offered in 2026 are open to all age groups. 
Fledglings (campers entering K-1st grade in Fall 2026)
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 2026)
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: $350 per camper per week. The week of June 15-19 is a four day camp week, and is thus prorated at $280. 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!

2026 Camp Themes

Discover the wonderful world of flight. From bats to dragonflies, we will take a look at all sorts of winged creatures and the adaptations that allow them to fly. Create crafts, experiment with movement, and design your own wings inspired by nature. Aquatic macroinvertebrates start their life cycle in the water, so we’ll go in search of them as well, exploring the habitats that things with wings require on the ground!
Spend the week on a sensory safari discovering the fantastic five senses and how both animals and people use them to explore their world and survive! How do they work, why are stronger than others, and how do animals use their senses differently than we do! From chewy bubble gum and yummy ice cream to sunny days and stinky socks, our senses help us understand the world around us. Campers will see nature through a whole new lens as they go on textures treks as racoons, hearing hikes as owls, and smelling searches as foxes to discover the sights of Pickering you can only find without your vision.
How can a butterfly help out a bluejay? What does a turtle have to do with a grizzly bear? We’ll look at all the ways animals are interconnected and learn more about the importance of biodiversity. We’ll focus on local wildlife in our forests, meadows and wetlands through hands-on science, art, and more to get a closer look at the living creatures who call our great open spaces home.
Splish, splash, and experiment with the power of water in H2…OH! Can you make water flow uphill? Build a dam? There’s more water around us than just what we see in ponds and rivers. In this camp week, we’ll learn about other places where we can find water, as well as how different animals find and use water. We’ll experiment with water while discovering the science behind one of Earth’s most essential elements. This camp is all about water- after all, it makes up 70% of the earth’s surface and 60% of our bodies!
Curiosity and creativity collide as campers become mad scientists this summer. Step into a world filled with wild experiments, mind-bending discoveries, and explosive fun designed to spark your love for all things science. Budding naturalists and scientists can collaborate with fellow campers, think critically, and explore the fascinating “whys and “hows” behind everyday phenomena— like why do marshmallows get bigger when you roast them? How do white fluffy clouds hold water? You will be sure to ignite your passion for discovery!
Dive into the world of predators and prey as we learn about food chains, teeth, and beaks. Be on the lookout for various animals throughout the sanctuary. Are they a predator, prey, or both? Examine owl pellets and look for clues in various habitats around the center to see if we can discover “hoo’s been hunting who!” 
Worms, slugs, leeches, mud, slimy frogs, scat. Do any of these things make you say “Eeewww!?” (sort of) If so, then this is the camp for you! There are quite a few things in nature that may seem gross, but when you really take the time to learn about them, you’ll find they are extremely fascinating, and often adaptations that make complete sense!

*Transportation is offered

How to Register:

Registration for EcoCamp 2026 is scheduled to begin on March 2nd at 10 AM.  
In preparation for registration, it is recommended that you, log in to your existing account (use Forgot Password, it you have registered for EcoCamp before) OR if you are new to EcoCamp, sign-up for an account.  Whether you are logging in for the first time, or using an existing account it is highly recommended that your confirm your address and payment information in CampDoc prior to March 2nd 10am. You are welcome to call Susanna at 410-822-4903 if you have questions prior to March 2nd.
If you are unable to be available online at 10AM on the 2nd, you must find a proxy to do the registering for you. To be fair to all and due to the speed at which EcoCamp fills up, we will not be available to assist registrants before 10:15 AM on March 2nd

Camp Scholarships

Scholarships are available for students in need to attend this year’s EcoCamp thanks to charitable donations from community members like you. Scholarships only cover a portion of EcoCamp tuition and do not include the $90 non-refundable deposit required upon registration.
Registration begins at 10am on March 2. You must register for a spot, and pay the $90 deposit on March 2nd. It is preferred that scholarship applications are submitted prior to March 2nd, however they can also be submitted following registration. Find the scholarship application here.
If you plan to submit an application, have questions, or need assistance completing one, please call 410-822-4903 or email sscallion@pickeringcreek.org.

* Transportation

We typically offer transportation Monday – Friday during the following weeks: June 22-26, July 13-17 and July 27-31. Transportation is available to EcoCamp from Easton each morning (8:30 am pickup) and afternoon (4:15 pm drop off). 
Transportation is $35 per camper, per week. If you reserve camp transportation and decide you don’t need it, or you cancel your camp reservation, funds will be refunded through May 31st, 2026. Van space is extremely limited. A spot can be reserved as you complete the registration information

Important things to know about Registration

1. Reservations cannot be made over the phone. Spots are reserved on a first come, first served basis and many weeks fill up quickly. You will have an option to sign-up for a wait list.

2. Camp spots will be reserved only after an $90 non-refundable, non-transferable deposit is received, for each week of camp. You may only register for 3 weeks per camper.  You may join the waitlist or register for additional weeks AFTER April 15th. This allows for those who do not receive spots at all at the start of registration, to be AHEAD on the waitlist of those who already have spots in other weeks of camp. 
3. Full payment and completed online health forms for all camp weeks are due on June 1st at which time the full amount of camp tuition is non-refundable.
4. If you have medications coming to camp with your camper, please have these forms completed to accompany the medication on the first day of camp. Medical Administration Authorization Form (Haitian-Creole, Spanish) and Asthma Action Plan.

About CampDoc

We partner with CampDoc.com to better serve our camp families. 
The security and privacy of your camper’s health information is important to us. The CampDoc.com site is secure, encrypted, and password protected. Only Pickering Creek Audubon Center staff will have access to camper health information.
Once you sign up for a CampDoc.com account, you will be able to register your camper and make payments online. Afterwards, you will receive more information on how to complete your camper’s health profile.
CampDoc.com sends out periodic reminder emails for outstanding balances and incomplete health information. These notifications will come from campdoc.com, so please add this to your safe sender list to avoid accidental delivery to junk and spam folders. We don’t want you to miss important notices about EcoCamp!
CampDoc offers insurance for the unlikely event your summer plans change or illness occurs, and is offered during registration.  Pickering Creek receives no benefit from the cancellation insurance offered by CampDoc, and has nothing to do with its decisions or processing refunds. Any questions about the insurance or using the insurance must wholly be handled between the purchaser and the insurance agency. 
Please note that CampDoc.com supports the current and previous major releases of Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari which provide improved security and performance for health information.
Click here for FAQs about using CampDoc.  You can also call us at 410-822-4903.
If you need to send medications with your camper to camp, please download, print, have your physician complete and bring completed forms with your on the first day of camp. DO NOT EMAIL THEM.
Medical Administration Authorization Form (Haitian-Creole, Spanish) and Asthma Action Plan.