Last fall, three intrepid adults commuted from the north to take part in the 12-week Wenatchee Naturalist course:  Darlene Schoenwald arrived from Withrop, Don France traveled from Manson, and Christy Nielsen drove down from Chelan.  Here is a look at each of their final projects.

Darlene Schoenwald proved herself to be a lyricist for a familiar “covered” holiday favorite, The 12 Days of Christmas. She begins, “On the 1st week of class, Susan gave to us; An overview of the Wenatchee Naturalist.”

Darlene’s field site was along the Twisp River, where she walked from her home.

She traveled to Loop Loop Pass to explore a higher elevation forest to compare characteristics of several native conifer species

Her 12/3/18 included an adult bald eagle and a study of a non-native Eurasian collared dove.

Christy Nielsen applied her natural history learning to her expert skills as a wildlife photographer.  She is featured as a Bird Photographer Extraoirdinaire in the fall edition of Lake Chelan Magazine .

Snowy owls are her speciality and the magazine features her remarkable captures.

After watching non-native California quail, Don France grew curious about a lesser known native Northwest species – the Mountain Quail.  He dove into the research and wrote a lively summary – A Tale of Two Quail – of their known distribution, habitat preferences, and on-going research questions.