In a message dated 11/18/2006 11:30:49 AM Eastern Standard Time,  
 writes:

As I was  walking back to the car, Rick Sussman was leading a tour for the 
Backyard  Naturalist and I'm sure he'll have more to  report.




Hi Chris, and all,
 
Actually we had a very quiet morning there as well. Maybe because our group  
was large and noisier than usual, but we had nothing to report.  My group  
this morning did however consist of 4 kids of various ages (with parents and or  
grandparents). The youngest was 6, and I last saw him an his nanna when he was 
a  budding birder of 4! He is going to be a real star one day too, as he's 
into  indentifying everything, especially plants. He has a very curious mind, 
and asks  the most interesting questions (example: after I told him what the 
plant was  with the skinny seed pods, dogbane, he later asked me how all those 
seeds fit  into the dogbane pod). And because he was so low to the ground, he 
found delight  in all the goldenrod galls too.
 
Though we didn't really see anything special, this was a great walk,  
allowing me to show this special place to new people, and was especially fun  because 
of the "younger" group!  I seem to be cultivating a small but  growing youth 
group here in Montgomery County. Hopefully we can continue and  maybe get 
something organized along the lines of the now defunct ANS youth  group. 
 
If you know of any kids interested in birding in ths area, let me  know.
 
Rick Sussman
Ashton,MD