Winter Nature Scavenger Hunt
Get outdoors with a nature scavenger hunt at Gabis Arboretum at PNW. Build natural environment awareness and try to find nine natural winter objects. No matter how many objects you find, your participation helps with health and wellness.
Program participation is free. Arboretum admission fees apply for non-members.
Dates
Jan. 2 to March 19, 2025
What Are You Looking For?
See if you can find the following natural objects at Gabis Arboretum! Need a hint on where to look? Just click the accordion to learn more.
You can find acorns under oak trees. We have many oak trees at Gabis Arboretum, so even if you can’t identify an oak tree, you will still find acorns under the canopy of our woodland.
Many oak trees have dropped their leaves, so you can find them on the ground. You can identify oaks by their deep lobed leaves. Oaks with pointed tips are in the black oak family, and leaves with rounded tips are in the white oak family.
Look for fresh or dried berries that have remained on shrubs and trees into the winter. Animals will eat these berries to survive.
There are many animals homes present at Gabis. Some are more hidden than others. The easiest ones to see are squirrel nests in trees, a beaver’s log or a bird’s nest
You can look for animal tracks on fresh snow or in mud. Try looking next to the muddy bank of a stream.
Moss can be found growing on the northern side of a tree, on the woodland floor or on rocks.
Look for fungi growing on dead wood or along the ground. The fruiting bodies of fungi are mushrooms.
Confiner trees are usually evergreen, but there are some conifer trees that lose their needles. These can be found growing in heron ponds.
There are many birds that don’t migrate and can be seen year-round. Cardinals, blue jays, white-breasted nuthatches, red-tailed hawks and many others can be seen all year at Gabis Arboretum.