​Have you met Wilder yet? Half yeti and half mountain goat, Wilder is your kids' new amazing outdoor friend! As GOCO's Generation Wild mascot, he is on a mission to help your kids rediscover all the benefits waiting for them just outside your door, where things are a little wilder, a little happier, and a whole lot healthier.

Friends of Youth and Nature (FOYAN) will be hosting Wilder at a summer fun kickoff celebration in Montrose on May 30th. Bring on the Summer Outdoor Fest is an afternoon of outdoor games, sports, nature exploration, art, and music! Activities begin at 11:00 am at Riverbottom Park in Montrose, and continue until 4:00 pm. This is your chance to encourage your kids to try a new outdoor activity or a nature challenge. Starting at noon, there will be ducky races, soccer and basketball skills sessions, strider bike instruction, multiple short river paddles, a life jacket scramble, gelly ball games (similar to paint ball), art projects, relay races, disc golf, and pie and water melon eating contests. The Montrose Regional Library book bike will be there with an assortment of youth books for summer reading. Once again, Finesse will be offering free youth haircuts for the summer! All these activities are free, so bring the family to Riverbottom Park for the afternoon. 

An outdoor festival isn’t complete without music, food and drinks. MC Angel D "El Maza" and DJ MLOD Pro will keep up the energy. Delicious kid-friendly food and a selection of drinks for the thirsty folks will be available. “This is an opportunity to bring our community together and be outside enjoying games, food, and music. There is something for everyone and every age group," said Anita Evans, Chair of Friends of Youth and Nature. 

The festival is the primary fundraiser for FOYAN. All proceeds will help FOYAN cover the cost of getting more kids outside to support mental health, resilience, healthy lifestyles and outdoor education in coordination with staff from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Montrose Recreation District, and many other partners. 

"It isn’t always easy to get kids to turn off the computer or put down the game controller, so this festival is a way to show your kids what's outside for them. We are lucky to have a variety of local options for kids to do in the summer as well as so much public land surrounding our communities to explore and enjoy,” added Evans. One of FOYAN's goals is to remove barriers for local youth to participate in outdoor experiences. FOYAN helps cover the cost of school district field trips including bus transportation, provides scholarships for kids (particularly underserved youth) to attend camps, helps offset school costs associated with nature learning events, and continues to expand outdoor gear items for the free gear library available for youth partners in Delta, Montrose and Ouray Counties. 

​"This will be the third annual Bring on the Summer Festival. In the past 2 years the event has drawn between 1,500–3,000 youth and families so we are hoping for another great turnout!" added Anne Janik, FOYAN event organizer. We are very fortunate to have generous sponsors who support FOYAN’s mission including Colorado Health Foundation, Western Colorado Community Foundation, Colorado Outdoors, Colorado Trust, City of Montrose, and many more.
Are you still wondering why your kids should play outside? Their curiosity grows stronger. Their self-reliance grows stronger. And so does your kid! Please consider supporting our mission of getting more kids outside.
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Bring on the Summer Flyer 2026
​Schedule of Events 2026

​​Identifying birds can be challenging for even the most patient adults. Getting kids interested in birding is even more challenging. Luckily, most kids are natural explorers and generally eager to be outside, so that’s a great place to start. 

A simple way to start birdwatching is to point out a bird you see or hear with your naked eye. Next, invite children to take a closer look. Then, ask your children simple questions about it such as, “What do you think that bird is doing down there in the grass?” This will help them begin to observe, question, and discover birds in the air, on land, and in water, beginning with the most common birds around. It's often easiest to start watching birds from your yard, patio, or even through a window. Next, observe birds that live nearby—in nature centers, parks, nature reserves, and other outdoor spaces. This can be especially fun during migration periods in the spring or fall.

For most active kids, staying still and quiet for even a few minutes can be a challenge. It helps to point out an attention grabbing bird—something big, colorful or one with an unusual call. Many water birds are often colorful and obvious. While walking along a lake, you are sure to see larger birds floating, feeding, or preening (cleaning their feathers). Encourage observations by asking your child about the bird they see, the color of an eyepatch, the size or shape of the beak. Many geese, ducks and other water birds (mergansers, egrets, herons) have distinctive feather patterns especially in the spring when they have arrived with fresh colorful feathers to attract a mate during breeding season. Take a few moments to watch the bird. Look for the long wispy plumes on the necks of herons and egrets. Mallards have iridescent green feathers on their heads and are often commonly referred to as greenheads. Ducks with rusty head feathers are called Redheads. What are they doing? Are the ducks diving for food (a full on dive below the surface) or are they dabbling (only dipping their heads to sieve the surface water for bugs)? The feeding strategies of ducks split them into two different categories: divers and dabblers.  

Another large common bird near water are great blue herons. Ask your children to describe the color of the body feathers, or any other unique feature of this bird (long beaks, long legs). All these features give clues as to what the bird eats. In the case of herons, they spear fish, frogs and mice with their long sharp beak. 

It's good to get kids to describe the size of a bird by referring to a relatable item, such as one of their small toys or stuffies. The bird may be the size of one small stuffy—a finch, two times the stuffy—a robin, five times—a duck, and so on. Then ask them to describe something else about the bird, maybe the way it is flying: flapping (like geese), gliding (like a seagull), soaring with the wind (like an eagle or hawk), hovering (like a marsh hawk over a field) or a constant flutter of wings (like a hummingbird). Soon you will be able to distinguish different flight patterns.  
Sit quietly for a few moments while enjoying a snack and listen for different bird sounds. Most birds squawk, chirp, and warble, but some of them are more “talkative”—their songs sound almost like a speech. Turning a birdcall into a memorable phrase or pattern (mnemonic) is a great way to learn the song. Many birds already have assigned phrases for their calls. 

• Barred Owls say Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all? It’s often heard near big woods in the late evening and nighttime
• American Robins have a very common whistled series of cheer-ee-up, cheer-ee-o.
• American Goldfinches call out Po-ta-to chips! Look for a small bright yellow finch with a black cap and wings flying nearby. 
• White-throated sparrows have a sweet whistle, singing Oh sweet Canada, Canada.
• A Spotted Towhee says Drink-your-tea
• The Western Wood-Pewee sings its name in a falling pee-wee.

(You can listen to these and many other bird calls at the Cornell Laboratory: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/30-mnemonics-help-remember-bird-calls/)

o make it even more fun for your child, have them make up their own phrases or mnemonics to help them remember the bird! The calls of cranes as they fly over is a very common sound during spring migration described as a rattle but you may come up with a better description. How about the calls of Canada geese? Let your child's imagination take them down that descriptive route. 

You don’t have to identify every bird by the actual name in the bird books. Get crazy and make up your own names for a bird maybe depending on what they are doing.

Inviting children to look for birds begins with finding creative ways to notice these feathered creatures. Getting inventive with your observations is a perfect way to get young ones interested. Observations and collecting data on birds or any species for that matter is what you decide to pay attention to. With this "anything goes perspective" observations are endless. Let your kids decide what they would like to observe about the birds they see such as: how often they preen, favorite branches they frequent, how often an American robin digs its beak into the garden, how often hummingbirds buzz each other at the feeder, how many different feather colors you see in 10 minutes. 

Try a Birding Scavenger Hunt: To see as many birds as possible. For some kids, counting from zero to some arbitrary number—five different kinds of birds, for example, or 20 birds in one outing—will be enough to stay focused and have fun. To fire up kids’ powers of observation, make a list of target birds before heading to the yard or park. Use general categories like ducks and hawks.

If you aren’t seeing any birds, how about looking for signs of their presence such as owl pellets, bird nests, whitewash (poop) on rocks or cliffs—a good indication of raven or eagle perches. 
Binoculars can be very hard for children to learn how to use. The best approach is to focus on staying still and looking for the movements of birds and describing what they see. Sometimes using a phone camera can work as you can zoom into the picture to help see details about the bird. Gradually, with practice they can learn to use and focus binoculars aimed at still objects then slow moving ones. Using binoculars to track an animal takes practice so be encouraging.  
Here are a few opportunities on the western slope to get kids up close and curious about birds:

• Black Canyon Audubon Society offers many field trips with experienced leaders, and even family birding days— check out their website (blackcanyonaudubon.org) for dates. 
• May 9 is World Migratory Bird Day and May 30 is Bring On The Summer fest. This is an opportunity to get your children curious and engaged about birds. Black Canyon Audubon Society educators often help teach children how to use binoculars and participate in some bird friendly activities. (May 30 Riverbottom Park 11:00am-4:00pm) 
• May 23, Western Screech Owl banding (8:30 am) This is a family event and an opportunity to view Western Screech Owls and watch citizen science in action. Treat your children and grandchildren to a close up view of the Grand Valley’s most common owl. The meeting location will be announced May 18 when the nests are located. Check out the Grand Valley Audubon Society website (audubongv.org) or email Nic Korte at [email protected].
• Bird banding at Ridgway State Park occurs the first 2 weeks in September every year. Black Canyon Audubon Society hosts the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory for bird banding. While birds are migrating through the park, many are caught in small mesh (mist) nets. Biologists measure each bird and band them with numbered federal bands that can be tracked with recaptures. This gives the public up close looks at many different species and kids can ask the ornithologist specific questions. Check blackcanyonaudubon.org for details during early September.

​Observing animals, describing, and discussing what they are doing is the first step in getting young children aware of creatures around them. There is such awe when they see furry or feathered critters. Encourage that awe and inspire your child to look around, discover, be curious, ask questions and explore more!
Other resources to get kids interested in birding: 

• https://www.audubon.org/magazine/easy-ways-get-kids-birding
• https://www.audubon.org/get-outside/activities/audubon-for-kids
• https://creativestarlearning.co.uk/nature-play-learning/20-outdoor-bird-games-and-activities/
• https://rhythmsofplay.com/birding-for-kids-bird-watching-activities-and-lessons/ https://www.birds.cornell.edu/k12/