Explore with Willy

The white-naped crane lives far from the United States, but it might remind you of our local crane species.

With their shades of pink, purple, yellow and white, spring wildflowers usually get the credit for bringing the most color to the preserves. And while their bright colors are beautiful, the autumn season is full of color too! After the leaves start to fall, those colors are not as bright and may be more subtle, but they bring no less beauty to the preserve.  (Photo by Glenn P. Knoblock) In fact, this is one of the best times of year to get outside and count the colors! While

Ever since the first hunter-gatherers sat beside a buzzing log and got a whiff of a sweet honey coming from within, humans have been managing and keeping honeybees. Beehives in winter. (Photo via Shutterstock) The honeybee got its common name from its scientific name, which is Apis mellifera . In Latin, Apis means “bee,” and mellifera means “honey-bearing.” Who’s in the hive?  A beehive consists of three types of bees: queens, workers and drones. The first and most important

Do you feel inspired by the leaves changing color all around you? Let’s make a leaf lantern!

Ways to predict the weather are passed down from generation to generation. Let’s talk about some of these common weather predictions to see if any of them have merit.

Most of us go out of our way to avoid piles of animal poop on the ground, but dung beetles are right at home in all that manure.  And it's lucky for us that they are because these insects do some important work in there.

Coyotes and other canids like to roam, and African painted dogs can cover huge amounts of territory in their range.

Looking for a place to let the kids explore this fall? Check out Hickory Creek Preserve.

Check out this sweet activity to learn how archaeologists dig into the earth to learn about the past.