Chapter News & Announcements

From the Director

Posted on Author Emma Vasicek

Volunteers are the backbone of our organization. I am constantly blown away by the dedication and support that is embodied in each and every one of our volunteers.

Skeleton of a flicker (bird) posed on a branch, sitting on a table, with a tag attached to the branch. Skeleton has a big beak and a long neck. There is another large beak in the background - maybe a heron?
Northern Flicker Skeleton (photo by Emma Vasicek)

Last week, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) with a group of volunteers; this event was coordinated as a “thank you” to our Nature Center volunteers for the contribution of their time and energy over the course of the year.

We had a tour of the ornithology collections in the museum, along with a behind-the-scenes visit to the processing lab; this incredible experience was led by Andrew Doll, Zoology Collections Manager at DMNS. One of the highlights of the trip was viewing the collections cabinet that contained extinct animals – some preserved from the 1800’s.

Three people looking at a draw in a big white cabinet. There are Passenger Pigeon skins and a Passenger Pigeon mount under glass in the drawer. The pigeons are brown and black and wearing toe tags. The people are two men, one dressed in black with salt and pepper hair; one in a red, white and blue plaid shirt and white hair and a woman wearing a navy blouse and taking a photo with her phone.
Passenger Pigeon drawer.

We saw specimens of Passenger Pigeons, Carolina Parakeets, and eggs from a bird I had never heard of, the Elephant Bird! The Elephant Bird was almost 10 ft tall and laid the largest eggs in the world – these eggs have a capacity of up to two gallons! It was a fascinating tour filled with many excited exclamations and engaging stories from our guide.

This is a funny photo of four men standing around chatting, outside a big storage unit, with a bunch of taxidermy scattered here and there. There is a corner of a U-Haul straight truck on the right side of the photo. One man is drinking coffee. You can see the tail of a mountain lion and also a taxidermy fawn. There is a pick-up truck and a car in the background.
Will It All Fit? (Photo by Ann Dodson)

My appreciation was reinforced the very next day when a group of volunteers showed up to help us deconstruct and move out the Nature Center exhibits. We moved everything in record time and had the entire center moved to storage within just two hours! This amazing feat was due to a combination of some innovative new ideas (for example, we rented a U-Haul truck for the move!), multiple hours of organizing and packing prep earlier in the week (again with an abundance of volunteer support), and a highly motivated group the morning of the move.

Ten people, men and women, standing outside a storage locker that is filled with boxes and some taxiderm. All are dressed in jackets and jeans and all but one are wearing baseball caps. One woman is holding a disposable coffee cup. One man behind the group, just barely visible.
Thank you to the Evergreen Nature Center moving crew! (photo by Emma Vasicek)

Thank you to the following volunteers for all of your help with the Nature Center move: Carol Burdick, Jon Deppe, Ann Dodson, Ed Dodson, Ed Furlong, Steve Garman, Rachel Hutchison, Kathi LaTourette, Melissa Leasia, Bryan McFarland, Lynn Montgomery, Rick Noel, Dwight Souder, Jordan Vasicek, Holly Winters-Deppe, and Larry White! And, of course, a huge thank you to Mattie McFarland, our seasonal naturalist, who shows up whenever we need her.