10,000 Boy Scouts!

A few weeks ago REGI was invited to attend the centennial celebration of scouting at a huge Jamboree. The event was extremely successful! Over 10,000 scouts from the Great Lakes region gathered to attend the event, which was held at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Grounds in Oshkosh, WI. There were hundreds of booths and fun activities for the scouts to attend. It was wonderful to see so many environmentally friendly booths there helping to teach responsible ways for people to interact with nature.

It was a long, but fun filled day! I thankfully had a wonderful volunteer helping me out at the event. Jeff Rice (see above) was so excited to attend the Jamboree. He is an Eagle Scout and was an active boy scout growing up which made him a great person to have along for this type of event!

Over the day REGI's booth had around 700 visitors gather around our table to see the beautiful raptors. We brought 5 fun feathered educators along including a Red-tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, American Kestrel, Barred Owl, and Saw-whet Owl. The boys had a great time watching our Red-tailed Hawk show off her impressive wing span, listing to the famous call of the Barred Owl, and touching our many educational skulls, feathers, and bones!

The boy scouts are one of my favorite groups to present to. They often have spent a lot of time outdoors and always have the most interesting and thoughtful questions about the birds.

Here you can see me with our American Kestrel and an owl skull teaching about the differences between falcon and owl eyes. If you look close you can even see the saw-whet owl peeking his head out of our educational stump! The log stumps are a great educational tools to help show a cavity nester's habitat and they help the birds feel safe and comfortable at large events.

I had a great day with all the Tigers, Wolves, Bears, Webelos, and Scouts troops that stopped by to say hi! Keep up the good work on your way to becoming an Ealge Scout and thank you for taking the time to care and learn more about Wisconsin's beautiful birds of prey.

Nicole Swanson
Director of Education