Hitchcock Center for the Environment

Leadership Training Camp
2022-08-02 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-08-01 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-29 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-28 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-27 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-26 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-25 08:45 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
Entering grades 7-9, only
Session 2: With Monya Relles and Katie Koerten
Session 4: With Peter Lamdin and Monya Relles
Mondays-Fridays, 8:45am-3pm
Session 2: July 5 – 15 (two weeks – No camp July 4)
Session 4: July 25 – August 5 (two weeks)
Session 2: Tier A: $906 Tier B: $725 Tier C: $544 Tier D: $362
Session 4: Tier A: $995 Tier B: $795 Tier C: $600 Tier D: $400
LTC is where new leaders can develop their skills as naturalists, activity leaders, outdoors people, and community members, and returning leaders can strengthen the skills they’ve been developing. This is done through our “spiral” system, with spirals representing your experience in LTC (spiral 1 for first year campers, spiral 2 for second year campers, etc.) and each spiral holding different expectations and skills. While camp will, by necessity, look different this year, we plan to continue with the same spirit of fun, trust, learning, and skill building that are the hallmarks of LTC. We’ll find ways to adapt favorite games, challenges, and activities from years past, and to develop new ones.
Leadership Training Camp is jam-packed with outdoor adventures, group challenges, nature hikes and discussions on what makes good leaders. We offer up a combination of games and songs with leadership skills you can use as a Hitchcock Junior Counselor, at school, and just in life! We plan to incorporate some of our favorite activities from previous years, such as rock climbing, ropes course challenges and our camping overnight, along with new activities, challenges and field trips. We’ll take time to develop as a group, to work with the younger campers to put what we learn into practice, and to be campers ourselves: playing in the woods and learning about and exploring nature.
LTC is an active camp, but time is also spent listening and learning from each other by sharing knowledge and talking about our experiences and how they help us become better leaders. It is designed for all Hitchcock campers entering grades 7-9 looking to learn what it takes to lead others in the outdoors. It is designed for those who may want to be a Counselor-in-Training or Junior Counselor at Hitchcock or other camps, who want a chance to develop leadership skills that can apply to other parts of their life, or who just want to learn new skills and have some fun. Please note that drop-off and pick-up times for LTC may change on some days depending on our schedule for that day.

Nature Summer Camp: No Place Like Home
2022-08-02 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-08-01 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-29 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-28 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-27 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-26 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-25 08:45 - 15:00
Young Naturalists: Entering grades 1-2
Eco-investigators: Entering grades 3-4
Nature Explorers: Entering grades 5-6
Mondays-Fridays, 8:45am-3pm
Session 4: July 25 – August 5 (two weeks)
Tier A: $900 Tier B: $725 Tier C: $545 Tier D: $365
Explore the interconnectedness of our lives and our community by diving into our local habitats! We will build our sense of place as we investigate where our food comes from, how our ecosystems work, and who has resided on this land across time. Field trips to local mountains and rivers will allow us to investigate our ancient past with hands-on exploration. We will also investigate how our home has changed over time, examining the effects of climate change on our environment. There is so much to learn about the special place we live, and we’ll do so while singing, exploring, playing games, and learning from one another!

Chickadee Camp
2022-08-02 08:45 - 13:00, 2022-08-01 08:45 - 13:00, 2022-07-29 08:45 - 13:00, 2022-07-28 08:45 - 13:00, 2022-07-27 08:45 - 13:00, 2022-07-26 08:45 - 13:00, 2022-07-25 08:45 - 13:00, 2022-07-22 08:45 - 13:00 and 3 more dates
Age 5 (must be entering Kindergarten in fall 2022)
Mondays-Fridays, 8:45am-1pm
Session 1: June 27 – July 1 (one week)
Session 2: July 5 – 15 (two weeks – No camp July 4)
Session 3: July 18 – 22(one week)
Session 4: July 25 – August 5 (two weeks)
Session 5: August 8– 12(one week)
1 Week Sessions: Tier A – $344 Tier B – $275 Tier C – $206 Tier D – $138
Session 2: Tier A – $625 Tier B – $500 Tier C – $375 Tier D – $250
Session 4: Tier A – $688 Tier B – $550 Tier C – $412 Tier D – $275
For the first time ever, the Hitchcock Center is offering a summer program for 5 year olds! Each morning we will have circle time before playing at our favorite Hitchcock places: the mud kitchen, the Discovery Yard, Root City, Ferns and more! Each day has a playful nature theme and we will make nature projects, sing songs, and play games as well as have story and snack, and end with lunch. Space is limited. Children must be five years old and entering Kindergarten in fall 2022 to be eligible to participate.

Fall Birding Course Registration Opens
2022-07-29 09:00 - 17:00
Join the Hitchcock Center’s beloved Fall Birding Class with birding extraordinaire, Scott Surner. This fall class will consist of ten field trips to various locations in the Connecticut River Valley, plus three coastal areas. Scott will help you work through the confusing plumages of fall warblers, and the streak and unstreaked plumages of fall sparrows. Our trips to the coast should provide us with an opportunity to study the different plumages of adult and juvenile southbound Shorebirds, Herons, Gulls, Terns, and with a little luck, some pelagic birds (Shearwaters, Storm-Petrels, and Jaegers) off the beaches of Cape cod. All trips depart from the Hitchcock Center and car-pooling will be encouraged. The class will be limited to fifteen observers.
Scott has been birding for more than forty-five years all around the Connecticut River Valley, Canada, and North and Central America. Scott just finished up a very successful Spring Class that traveled to more than thirty-six different locations and encountered 201 species of birds!
Course is limited to 15 participants and will be outdoor only for COVID Safety.
Participants must be vaccinated and willing to carpool.
Sliding Scale Pricing; $700, $650, $600, and $550.
FALL BIRDING REGISTRATION

Registration opens Friday, July 29 at 9:00 AM.
Course is limited to 15 participants and will be outdoor only for COVID Safety. Participants must be vaccinated and willing to carpool.
Field Trip Dates and Details:
Aug 20: 5:00 AM – all day. Plum Island or another coastal location within a two-hour drive. This trip’s primary focus will be migrating Shorebirds from their breeding grounds in the Arctic.
Sept 3: Local. 7:00 AM -12:00 PM. Fall Warblers/Shorebirds of Hampshire & Franklin County.
Sept 10: Local. 7:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Warblers, with a special focus on locating the elusive Connecticut Warbler.
Sept 17: Local. 7:00 AM -12:00 PM. Warblers, Vireos, Flycatchers, etc.
Oct 1: Local. 7:00 AM -12:00 PM. Sparrows & Late Warblers.
Oct 15: Local. 7:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Prime time for migrating Sparrows!
Oct 21 – 23: Cape Cod Weekend. We’ll explore areas from Chatham down to Provincetown. More info after signing up. If accommodations are hard to come by, we may do a one-day trip to the Connecticut shore.
Oct 29: Local. 7:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Waterfowl & Sparrows
Nov 5: Local. 7:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
Dec 3rd: 5:00 AM – all day. Last class, back to the MA Coast. Probably Cape Ann (Gloucester/Rockport area) Sea ducks, Grebes, and more.
All trips depart from the Hitchcock Center and car-pooling will be encouraged.

Nature Summer Camp: Making and Tinkering
2022-07-22 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-21 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-20 08:45 - 15:00, 2022-07-19 08:45 - 15:00
Making and Tinkering
Young Naturalists: Entering grades 1-2
Eco-investigators: Entering grades 3-4
Nature Explorers: Entering grades 5-6
Mondays-Fridays, 8:45am-3pm
Session 1: June 27 – July 1 (one week)
Session 3: July 18 – 22 (one week)
Tier A: $480 Tier B: $385 Tier C: $290 Tier D: $195
This session we are back to tinkering, building, and engineering! Campers will get unstructured exploration time with simple machines, circuitry, batteries and motors. We’ll challenge ourselves with design and build projects like marble runs and model rainwater captures. Of course we will also build and test chain reaction machines (a.k.a. Rube Goldberg machines). While we will use our “Living Building” classrooms for some of our work, we will be based in our outdoor classrooms with games and nature exploration being an integral part of our day. There will be no field trips this session.
