Everywhere you looked, there were wagging tails and smiling faces at the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation’s (CVHF) recent Sunday at the Sanctuary event, called Waking Winter Wildlife, that took place at Reed Intermediate School on February 10.

The free workshop focused on educating the more than 120 attendees on the types of animals that do not hibernate or migrate in the winter and about what happens to different plant life as spring approaches.

Representatives of Horizon Wings, a raptor rehabilitation and education group; the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport; and The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk gave presentations that delighted crowds.

Red Leash Rescue, an adult/senior dog rescue in Fairfield County run by Diane and Andy Holcombe and Ms Holcombe’s sister, Nicole Simonelli, was also onsite to introduce guests to three adoptable dogs: Max, Einstein, and BeBe.

Each pooch took turns happily greeting visitors and engaging in play as Red Leash Rescue volunteers shared what each dog was looking for in a forever home.

There was also a wide variety of activities for children and adults, including creating animal track artwork with stamps and identifying birds with the free eBird and Merlin Bird ID app — just in time to prepare for the Great Backyard Bird Count scheduled for Presidents Day weekend.

Exploring The Sanctuary

During the last hour of Waking Winter Wildlife, CVHF naturalist Henryk Teraszkiewicz took more than 50 people on a guided tour through the sanctuary grounds at the end of Old Farm Road.

As the group hiked and explored the property, Mr Teraszkiewicz helped everyone discover signs of winter wildlife around them.

“We found a huge number of owl pellets that we were able to examine and understand what they have been eating this winter,” he explained after the tour.

While most of the pellets had small rodent skeletons in them, like mice and voles, one in particular had much larger bones, potentially of a squirrel.

“We also discussed the history of the trail environment by ‘reading’ the trees around us, which suggested the existence of a cared-for field area with mature trees present, eventually left to the wild about 50 years ago, as evidenced by younger trees that grew straight up, competing for sunlight, unlike the wide growing field trees,” Mr Teraszkiewicz added.

By doing those examinations, he said the group was also able to discover high mouse nests in shrubs and “evidence of pileated woodpeckers that pecked deep holes into standing dead trees that provided homes to cavity nesting birds and mammals.”

One of the pecked holes even showed what he believes was a red squirrel cache, due to the size of the hole, the hickory nuts found inside it, and the size of the tooth marks on the hickory nuts.

Make sure to visit the CVHF’s next Sunday at the Sanctuary event, called Stone Walls for Wildlife. The free workshop will take place Sunday, March 24, from noon to 3 pm, at Fraser Woods Montessori School. Adoptable animals from BeCause 4 Paws will be attending and looking for their forever home.

For more information about the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation and its upcoming events, visit cvhfoundation.org.