As with all children, members of the Naturalist Club at Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Slatington grew and went off to jobs or colleges.

Consequently, a Junior Naturalist Club was formed.

Fifteen children registered for the first meeting, however, a few additional children came with their parents.

"Wow, we have lots of people. This is a great problem to have," said Center Director Dan Kunkle, as he brought extra chairs.

Kelci Knirnschild, Nathan Cunfer and Wyatt Trantham from the Naturalist Club returned to help form the new club.

Adults Deb Siglin, Doug Burton and Barb Egerton are the leaders for the club.

The agenda for the day was scheduling and activities, said Kunkle.

Meetings would be once a week on summer evenings and one Saturday a month during the school year.

Each Thursday around 10 a.m. there is a 4-B Nature Walk: Butterflies, Bugs, Birds and Blooms which is open to anyone.

There will be field trips for which parents will be requested to provide transportation.

What do you want to learn about in nature? asked Kunkle.

The answers came quickly and included trees, birds, spiders, amphibians, rivers and ponds, reptiles including turtles, berries, bats, mammals, bacteria and plants.

"We'll try to hit as many of those as we can and maybe include a pretty long hike and see what we find along the way," said Kunkle.

He had bird books by Bill Thompson.

The book was recently updated and the old ones were to be thrown away by the publisher.

Instead, some were given to places like the Center.

The youthful Junior Naturalists each received one.

There was also a tree book for each.

Everyone received Swarovski binoculars and had a lesson in using them before dividing into three groups to see what they could find along the trails.

Caddisflies were everywhere because they were just emerging from the river.

They could be recognized because they form a tent with their wings.

Everyone found tree swallows, which were active that day.