The Sherburne National Wildlife refuge held their fall Wildlife festival Saturday at the Oak Savannah learning center. This event was sponsored in part by the Friends of the Refuge.
There were many fun outdoor activities to participate in as well as a presentation from renowned photographer Sparky Stensaas. The festival started off at 10 a.m. with the K-12 photo contest award presentation. This was a fun activity for kids to do during the summer months. To enter the contest kids had to take a wildlife picture anywhere at the Refuge, print the photo and mail it in.
The top two pictures from each age category were chosen and awarded a first or second place ribbon as well as the top three overall pictures.
Kindergarten through 2nd grade winners: 1st place Rhema Knudson, 2nd place Dylan Doherty. 3rd through 5th grade winners are, in 1st place Ashley Matvick, 2nd place Izabell Newman.
6th grade winners, 1st place was Lindsay Lewis, 2nd place was Brooklyn Karel.
7th grade-10th grade winners are 1st place Lukas Karel, 2nd place Harper Hultman.
1st overall was Luke Wacholz, 2nd overall was Hope Konkol and 3rd overall was Alyssa Eckstein.
At 11 a.m. Nature’s Niche program from the Audubon Center of the North Woods helped participants explore specific adaptations and the way animals interact with both the living and non-living components of their Eastern Deciduous forest habitat. Event-goers were able to learn about four different live animals including a salamander, snake, porcupine and hawk.
The next scheduled program was a presentation from Sparky Stensaas who is a renowned photographer, author and naturalist from the north woods of Minnesota. He is also the co-owner of Kollath-Stensaas Publishing.
During his presentation he disclosed some of his best-kept secret, tips and trick for getting the perfect wildlife shot.
Throughout the festival there were lots of activities to participate in including: Archery by the MN Bow Hunters Association, dip netting, face painting, habitat management/wildlife discovery, Monarch information and migration game, NWTF Jakes BB gun shooting range, wagon rides and much more.
There was also a silent auction from 10 until 2:30. The proceeds will go to help support Refuge programs.
At the hospitality tent there was hot chocolate, coffee, cider, and cookies. Event goers could also purchase a hotdog or brat lunch for $3.
One of the most popular things to do at the festival was the horse drawn wagon rides. Mel Klein with Diamond K Percherons and his brother Gary each had two horses pulling a wagon.
Mel talked about the breed of horses and explained that these types of horses were used by knights back in the day. Because the percherons were so big they could hold the knights with all of the armor and could even put armor on their horses.
During the past year Gary and Mel participated in an even along with many other horse owners to set a new record for the Guinness Book of World Records.
The record was to have the most number of horses plowing in a field at the same time. They beat the record as they had 120 horses plowing at one time; the old record was 84 so it was quite an accomplishment.
The Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge fall festival was a hit and left event goers with lots of knowledge of plants and animals and many folks already looking forward to next year’s fall festival.
