Trailblazers Summer Camp, July 2026
Aug 6
5 min read
Trailblazers Summer Camp was our third and final session of the summer of 2026! Of the three sessions we offer, Trailblazers Summer Camp is catered to our youngest students; this is a half-day camp where we are on site the whole time at Concord Elementary School’s Nature Trail. Our hope is that we provide an exciting environmental education experience for students entering 1st-6th grades, and we also hope it prepares them to join our Adventure and High Adventure sessions when they are old enough to join them in future summers. Even without field trips, we still got in a ton of great hiking and birding: we tallied a total of 34 species of birds and hiked 5.2 miles throughout our four days together!
Our first day of any Trailblazers camp always begins with the review of expectations and itinerary for the week. After this review and a brief snack, we went for a full hike of the Concord Elementary School Nature Trail! As we entered the trail, we were immediately greeted by an Eastern Phoebe. We also had great up close looks at a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. Up in the sky, Purple Martins and Chimney Swifts soared overhead. When we made it to the pond, we observed what we called “Caterpillarmania:” loads of caterpillars were dangling from the edges of leaves and eating them! We then hiked into the forest to get a closer look at Webb Creek. We had great practice at identifying Poison Ivy along the trail. We also had fun using the app Merlin Bird ID to identify the bird songs around us! When we made it back up the trail, a Gray Catbird preened in the open for everyone to see! We ended our day with a little recess yard fun before we closed out the day with our final reflection activity. Each day, we like to end with our “Thorns and Roses;” roses meaning something you liked about the day and thorns meaning something you wish went different about it.
Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly American Robin Gray Catbird Gray Catbird American Robin American Robin Caterpillars Caterpillars Caterpillars Song Sparrow Cicada American Robin Willow Flycatcher
Our second day of camp was really done on the fly (pun intended!) The weather forecast was calling for rain all day so we anticipated having an indoor day of camp. However, the rain never came; only overcast skies, which kept things cool. We decided to try some birding around the parking lot and lawns of Concord Elementary School to experience a different habitat! We had great looks of Mourning Dove as a pair landed on a light post right in front of us. We also saw an Eastern Kingbird perched on a tipped over soccer goal. We also had great looks at Chipping Sparrow and American Robin. Since the weather felt so nice, we continued to walk up and around the Garnet Valley Middle School track and then walk back down the GVE Trail. We had a dead mouse along the path, which caused quite a stir among the students! We also spent some time studying the difference between bird songs versus bird calls as we observed a male Northern Cardinal along the path. When we got back to school, we enjoyed snack and watched the Duckumentary: a Trailblazers favorite! The rest of our day was spent getting our energy out on the playground before we closed our day out with Thorns and Roses.
Mourning Dove Unidentified Moth. Any ideas?
Our third day of camp took us on quite an adventure! The students packed their backpacks with their snacks, water bottles, and binoculars, and we hiked from Concord Elementary School up to Concord Township Park for the whole morning! Once we made it to the park, we enjoyed snack in the pavilion before we did a birding loop around the paved path. Right away, we had Barn Swallow flying low over the grass catching bugs. We also had great looks at Gray Catbird and American Robin perch just off the edge of the trail! We looked in the distance and saw a Turkey Vulture spread its wings while perched atop the radio tower; a bird more often seen flying than perching with Trailblazers! We looked on the sports field and saw a strange object… As we got closer, we discovered it was a dead White-tailed Deer carcass! As we entered the wet meadow section of the walking path, we ran into a trio of Eastern Bluebirds who put on quite a show for the whole group. When we got back to the pavilion, we ran into our friend Mrs. Ellis before we made our way back to school. Along the way, the Trailblazers students noticed how much trash there was around the GVMS track. We spent part of our hike back doing a trash cleanup around the area so we can leave the space cleaner than we found it! Finally, as we walked down the driveway back to school, an Eastern Box Turtle walked out of the brush! Everyone had great looks at the turtle, and it was the perfect finale to our gorgeous day together at the park.
Eastern Box Turtle Eastern Box Turtle Eastern Box Turtle Eastern Box Turtle White-tailed Deer carcass Eastern Box Turtle Eastern Bluebird pair Eastern Bluebird Eastern Bluebird Eastern Bluebird Turkey Vulture Gray Catbird Song Sparrow Gray Catbird American Robin American Robin Chipping Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Turkey Vulture Carolina Chickadee Red-eyed Vireo
Our final day of the session is our annual creek day: a day where we spend pretty much the whole morning exploring Webb Creek! As always, Creek Day did not disappoint. We had an absolutely gorgeous day weatherwise! The students had a blast cooling off in the creek and looking for critters. Although we didn’t see many animals, the students really enjoyed flipping over rocks, rolling over logs, and using nets to try to catch animals throughout the creek. Once we wrapped up, we hiked back to school and got changed in our dry gear. We were preparing to do our final Thorns and Roses of the session when all the sudden the fire alarm went off; we had to exit the building and the parents were there waiting for pickup! Not the way we expected
to end our session and summer!
Barn Swallows on CES
Overall, we had a phenomenal final session of the summer with Trailblazers Summer Camp! We have a lot of people to thank for such a successful summer. First, we would like to thank all the paraprofessionals and nurses who helped work with the students this summer. Also, we would like to thank Ryan, our GVHS Trailblazers Guide, for volunteering her time in leading the group and keeping everyone safe. Also, we need to thank the Transportation Department of Garnet Valley School District for taking us to all the great places we went this summer (and for navigating tricky roads and dealing with dirty buses!) Of course, we need to thank both Bethel Springs Elementary School and Concord Elementary School for hosting us this summer! Most of all, we need to thank Trailblazers families for their continued support of environmental education here in Garnet Valley.
To some, we will see you at the start of this school year. To others, we hope you take what you learned at Trailblazers wherever you go when you enjoy the outdoors. To everyone, we hope to see you again down the trail!
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