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Exploring Outdoors

Social Distancing and Staying Local

As the community is observing the stay at home order and practicing social distancing, here are some activities you may find interesting to participate in with your family that you can do at home or within walking distance from your home:

MassWildlife wants to remind everyone to reconnect with nature to reduce stress and improve your mood! MassWildlife has complied a list of online resources that can help you and your family gain some willdife knowledge! Stay Connected with Nature:

  • Go fishing.  Fishing on your own or with a family member is a perfect way to enjoy a day outside while social distancing. Learn more about freshwater fishing and start planning a fishing trip.
  • Explore a Wildlife Management Area.  All MassWildlife Wildlife Management Areas remain open to the public. Please remember to stay 6 feet apart from other visitors and keep pets leashed. If crowded, choose a different location or time to visit. Find a WMA near you.
  • Observe. Use this Wildlife Viewing Guide to get tips to help you view wildlife while spending time outdoors this spring.
  • Teach and learn.  MassWildlife's  Education Coordinator suggests the following resources for kids and families to use while learning at home:
  • Project WILD offers great content and resources for parents and educators.
  • Nature writer Mary Holland’s blog, Naturally Curious, contains seasonal observations and notes from the field with engaging photographs.
  • The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers complete science and nature activities for indoor and outdoor learning.
  • Tune in.  Check out MassWildlife’s YouTube channel for clips on anything and everything, from turtle crossings to restoration projects. Share your favorite videos with your friends and chat about what you're watching! Go to the channel.
  • Browse the library.  Learn about Massachusetts wildlife by visiting MassWildlife’s virtual library. Get the facts and learn how to coexist with animals you might encounter in your backyard.
  • Watch falcons.  It’s nesting season for peregrine falcons! Tune into one of Massachusetts’ peregrine falcon nest cameras and see live streaming video of the fastest birds on Earth.
  • Color.  Check out these wildlife coloring pages. Grab your crayons and learn about some threatened and endangered wildlife in Massachusetts.

Other Conservation organizations and professionals are also providing resources to assist in at home learning, exploring and staying active during this time.

inaturalist is hosting another social distancing BioBlitz! This will be a reoccurring event every three weeks due to the success of the first. 

Walden Woods Project offers Thursdays with Thoreau, a series of 1-hour virtual conversations on different topics: April 9—Solitude; April 16—Friendship; April 23—Society. (Presented at 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.)

Essex County Greenbelt offers a collection of Family Nature Resources, including several “I Spy” games.

The Trustees are offering a full slate of online programming on art, gardening, nature topics, and more.

Grow Native offers a video of Nature’s Best Hope, a 1-hour lecture that discusses simple steps that each of us can take to reverse declining biodiversity.

New Hampshire Public Radio produces an outdoors-themed podcast called Outside/In.

On April 15, Boeing and Discovery Education will present an ecoAction Virtual Field Trip so students (K-12) can meet STEM experts who are working on sustainability in the air, on land, in the water, and in the handling and reduction of waste.

Nature Bingo, Nature at Home by Mass Audobon