Sandy Creek Nature Center

It's a beautiful day for a bike ride on the Greenway. And thanks to a donation from the HUB Bicycles, we now have this fantastic bike repair station at the Nat...ure Center! With a pump, a stand to hold your bike, and tools, you're all set if you need a quick repair. Now get out and enjoy the day! #hubbikes See more

Even Bernie is waiting for the Nature Playscape to open! Getting closer - should be sometime next month.

Sandy Creek Nature Center's very own Wes Garrison presents a lovely turtle joke for you all to enjoy. As always, go outside and enjoy nature. We hope these jokes bring a smile to your faces.

Individual membership to SCNC, Inc.? $25. Family membership? $35. The knowledge that you're a member of an organization that has supported Sandy Creek Nature Center for almost 50 years? Priceless! Join today! https://www.sandycreeknaturecenterinc.org/membership

Don't forget to register for our upcoming owl prowl. Learn about the different types of owls we have in Athens. Then spend the evening searching the property for owls. Register now through 1/28.

Join us for Virtual Critter Tales at 3pm tomorrow on Facebook Live. The story combines two of our favorite things: Christmas and poop!

Cecile Riker, Stormwater Education Specialist with Athens Clarke County provides us with a little water education in her Nature Funny segment. The joke is waterfull and I laughed so much. Don't forget to protect the water and spend time outside. Thank you Cecile for the nature funny today.

Nature Funnies Intern Britni Hendrickson and Park Assistant Jane McGrath want to remind everyone to go outside and take a hike. As naturalists we always want people to get outside as much as possible. The next time you are having a bad day or if someone makes you angry go take a hike and practice the psychological exercise of shinrin-yoku. May the forest be with you today and make you smile.

It's time to get outdoors and look for treasures in nature with our Nature Treasure Hunt! It is a photo scavenger hunt so take pictures as you find items this month. Once you have found all that you can, make a collage and send it to us to share. Send photo collages through Facebook Messenger.

Saturday looks like a great day for a hike! Sign up to join us for the Naturalist Walk this Saturday. This program is free and open to all ages but you must pre-register because of limited space. Note: Leisure Services is using a new software system called MyRec so please create a new account before registering. https://accgovga.myrec.com//activiti/program_details.aspx

Meet the astronauts training for the Artemis missions. One of these astronauts may be the first woman on the moon.

Happy Halloween, look up in the night sky. You will have a treat to see the Blue Moon (it's not really blue, just the 2nd full moon of the month), Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. Many myths to follow along with a blue moon on Halloween. We just hope you get to be outside and enjoy the night sky.

Nature Funnies: Today's joke is from Kendra Houghton, Wellness Coordinator with Athens Clarke County. These jokes are meant to make you smile, Kendra and I met at Sandy Creek Park and she picked a hill to run. After the joke she took off on a run through the trails. I'm encouraged by her all the time and we wanted to say thank you for helping us out. Enjoy your Friday and we hope you find a little happiness today.

Good news for North Atlantic right whales: 2 mom/calf pairs reported recently off GA/FL! These are the first 2 live calves seen this winter in the SE, the only known calving grounds for these imperiled whales. DNR, NOAA & other partners are looking for more.

Nature Funnies: Kendra Houghton is helping us spread laughter by encouraging everyone to go outside. Thank you for everyone who is helping us spread laughter through nature. Be safe, support local, laugh and enjoy nature in your own way.

A reminder, since Cedar Waxwings are arriving back into town... Nandina berries can be deadly to birds. Consider removing them from your yard, or at least trimming the berries and disposing them in the trash.

Here's a unique photo taken around 2:30 pm Monday, Oct. 19, 2020 with Sandy Creek Nature Center's Coronado Personal Solar Prominence Telescope by Dr. Maurice Snook. This special telescope allows one to view the sun in the wavelength of glowing hydrogen gas at 656 nm which is in the red part of the spectrum. Solar prominences are huge gaseous plasmas (ionized gas) ejected from the sun and sometimes form loops following the sun's magnetic field lines. They frequently arise n...ear sunspots although we are currently just coming out of a sunspot cycle minimum. Sunspot cycles last 11 years. The prominence in the picture is many times larger than the earth. (Estimated to be about 50 earths across!) Before the invention of these specialized telescopes, the only way to see prominences was during a solar eclipse. Some may have seen them during the 2017 eclipse if you were in the path of totality. Technical details: 1/25 sec exposure, f/5.6, ISO 1600, 18-55 mm zoom lens set at 55 mm. Camera hand held at the eyepiece. See more

Laurie Loftin, the Water Conservation Coordinator with Athens Clarke County Water Conservation Office is full of puns. This is a bright start to any Friday and we love all the puns in this clip. A huge thank you to Laurie Loftin for all the puns and as always we hope this makes you smile. Don't forget to go outside and enjoy nature. Find something that makes you happy!

Field trips look really different these days. Kate and Brittany, naturalists at Sandy Creek Nature Center, are leading virtual field trips for 3rd & 4th graders... in Clarke County School District. Students have been learning about habitats, ecosystems, & frog calls this fall. Kate and Brittany are splitting time between the classroom at the Nature Center and Claypit Pond. Students, teachers, & naturalists all get to interact in real time to answer questions. When challenges come, we try to find a way to continue to serve the Athens community. Technology has been helpful but we are excited for the days of in-person field trips again!

Watch NASA's attempt to gather samples from an asteroid this afternoon!

On Saturday, volunteers from the UGA Arnold Air Society/Silver Wings helped out with the nature center trails. We checked them all for issues from the flooding earlier this month & performed basic maintenance as well. Volunteers make a huge difference at Sandy Creek. If you'd like to be a trail maintenance volunteer, you can become a TrailKeeper and adopt your own trail. Contact us for more details.