Photos by Marie Mccolm

MONTE VISTA — The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge held the Kids Crane Festival on Saturday, Oct. 8.

Lunch was provided and children from the San Luis Valley were invited to attend this special event.

There were different activity booth areas set up for the kids. One booth had coloring pages available for the children, consisting of pages filled with cranes, bunnies, birds, deer, and elk and other forms of wildlife that the children could color, with crayons that were provided on the table.

There were also craft tables set up for children along with a long table set up that had different animal pelts laid out, so that children could touch and feel the animal pelts. There were pelts from beavers, rabbits, racoons, there was also a wing from a sandhill crane on the table, and a hoof from a deer.

One of the children, David River, said, “I have never seen an animal skin like that before, it feels soft to touch its fur.”

River was excited to hold the animal pelt in his hands. His mom and dad said that he wanted to be a hunter when he got older and make himself a winter hat out of animal fur.

Outside of the booth area, heading out toward the scenic area, a man and a woman, named Evert and Tammy Brown, speaking with a group of children about wildlife eggs. They were showing children a box full of different types of animal eggs, including from a hummingbird, a Grackle, a crane, and from a Murre.

The couple also hid realistic looking animal eggs in some shrubs for the children to look for and see how many they could gather.

“The idea behind this egg hunt, is we are trying to teach children how important bird’s nesting sites are,” Evert said. “We would like the children to see how important it is to preserve habitats for bird’s nests.”

Tammy added, “There’s several nests hidden out here for the kids today. We have these pretend eggs hidden in the nests, and we are asking the kids to go out and find one egg from each nest, to show that they found each nest. The kids have a lot of fun and learn something new, too.” 

A children’s archery area was set up. Children lined up to shoot a bow and arrow at targets that were set up several feet away.

District Wildlife Manager Tyler Cerny taught a young boy how to hold a bow and arrow.

“This is just real basic archery instruction,” Cerny said. “We just want the kiddos to come out and have a good time.” 

There was an area where children used binoculars to spot wildlife and Sandhill Cranes. 

For more information on the Kids Crane Festival, visit online slvrefuges.org.