The Dahlem Environmental Education Center

06/05/2026

Come say "Hi" to Christi and Hannah at Dahlem's booth! They will be participating at Ella's Art, Beer & Wine Festival on June 6, 2026

06/03/2026

Next week, June 8-12 has one open camper spot available for ages 4 & 5 year old. Register today to claim it. www.dahlemcenter.org

06/03/2026

Outdoor Adventure Summer Day Camp session 1 started on Monday, June 1st. It's off to a great start and great weather. Here are a few photos.

Our young campers are learning to use their tools (eyes to see, ears to hear, nose to smell, hands to feel, and... tasting is for snack time!). And learn about Michigan mammals, birds, frogs & toads, and insects & mini-beasts. It's a full week of fun and educational lessons. Daily trail walks, story time, and Playscape games. We love day camp 🥰

05/29/2026

05/27/2026

You can tell what a bird eats by looking at its face for one second. The bill is the tool. The shape is the job description.

The cardinal's thick conical bill is a seed crusher — built to crack sunflower shells with force. The chickadee's thin pointed bill is a pair of precision tweezers — picking caterpillars and spiders off leaves one at a time. Same feeder. Completely different equipment.

🌿 The nighthawk is the one that stops people. Her mouth opens wider than her head — a scoop that catches moths in mid-flight. She's not pecking. She's flying with her mouth open and filtering the air.

The heron's bill is a dagger. She stands still for twenty minutes, then strikes faster than you can track — spearing fish, frogs, and mice from the shallows. The woodpecker's bill is a chisel, hammering into bark to extract larvae hidden inside.

The crow's bill does everything adequately and nothing perfectly — seeds, fruit, insects, garbage. The generalist tool for the generalist bird.

Eight bill shapes. Eight diets. The bird at the feeder already told you what she eats — you just have to look at the tool she brought 👀 🤔

05/26/2026

A handy trick for a ground-nesting bird!

05/20/2026

The honeybee gets the attention. These eight do most of the work.

Native bees pollinate earlier in spring, fly in cooler weather, and visit flowers honeybees skip entirely. Most of them nest in the ground or in hollow stems — not in hives. Most of them can't sting you. And most of them are in your yard right now without you knowing it.

The metallic green one on the coneflower is a sweat bee. The one cutting perfect circles from your rose leaves is a leafcutter. The large one hovering near the deck is a carpenter bee — and the males can't sting at all.