Dig In! Volunteer Garden Day is scheduled for Saturday, March 24 from 10am to noon. Join us at the Museum for a morning of light work in the garden. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about native plants, pollinators, and xeriscaping. Families and folks of all ages are welcome, volunteer waivers will be signed before work begins. Please RSVP by emailing Jen@santacruzmuseums.org. Please note that rain will cancel this event.

Happy trails to Matt Miller! Our outstanding Sandhills Coordinator is taking a sabbatical to attend the UCSC Ecology and Conservation in Practice Field Quarter. We are very proud of Matt for winning a spot in this competitive program, and we will miss his vibrant energy here at the museum. Luckily, our amazing intern, Zach Deutch-Gross, will be stepping up to coordinate the Sandhills Program this spring. The Sandhills Program provides local seventh-graders with field explorations featuring geology, fossils, and habitat restoration.

Students from Tokyo, Japan visited the Museum today! Fourteen students from the Consortium Institute in Tokyo visited the Museum to learn about Santa Cruz history and ecology. The ninth and tenth graders enjoyed exploring the Tide Pool Tank and even contributed to our wildlife spotting map that asks, “How have you connected with nature lately?”

Our Ohlone exhibit has a new interactive element. The next time you visit, check out the Ohlone cards and find new ways to connect with the exhibit. The cards invite you to find characters in the mural and investigate to find details about how the Ohlone people lived a few hundred years ago. These are especially fun for kids who like experiential learning.

The museum seeks an experienced IT volunteer to help us troubleshoot some of our computer systems. If you have computer networking skills, we would love a few hours of your time. Please email Jen@santacruzmuseums.org if you are interested in donating some time to the technological advancement of the Museum.

Our Bees are Back! After a long, bee-less winter, our volunteer beekeeper, Jeff Perez, has installed a  brand new observation hive with a new colony of bees. This new hive should make it easier to see the queen (who is bigger than all the other bees). So be sure to hunt for her the next time you visit the Museum. If you want to learn more about bees, watch the video Bees: Tales from the Hive at our mini movie theater in the Book Nook.

The San Lorenzo River mouth is getting a facelift. Heavy rains and tidal influences have caused the San Lorenzo River to migrate from it’s usual course. It has taken a sharp right turn and is running dangerously close to the Boardwalk. Crews have been working all week to carve a new trench and redirect the river straight out to see. Check out the Sentinel article on the subject.

We’d like to thank all of our winter interns for the awesome work they have done to help the Museum Education Program. Jordan has assisted in managing Neary Lagoon field trips, Dana compiled a plant guide for Neary Lagoon docents, Desiree created education kits on local plants, Brianna assisted in the Museum school tour programs, and Zach has been training to become the Sandhills Program Coordinator. We are excited to welcome back some of these interns in the spring quarter, and welcome new interns aboard as well. Learn more about our Internships here.

Our Pollinator Garden is loving the rain we have received this week. New flowers are in bloom, and seedlings are popping up. Next week, we welcome you to Dig In! Volunteer Garden Day on Saturday, March 24 from 10am to noon. Join us at the Museum for an afternoon of light work in the garden. This is an excellent opportunity to learn about native plants, pollinators, and xeriscaping. Families and folks of all ages are welcome, volunteer waivers will be signed before work begins. Please RSVP by emailing Jen@santacruzmuseums.org.

The Buzzz is now automated! Each time we publish the Buzzz, it will now go straight to your inbox. This means you can manage your subscription more easily, and anyone who visits the Buzzz online can subscribe using the handy form on the right-side column. I apologize for the technical difficulties in the delivery of last week’s Buzzz, causing the email to be sent to list members several times. I am actively working out the kinks. If you have any questions, please feel free to email jen@santacruzmuseums.org.

Thanks to all the volunteers who came out on a beautiful Monday to help collect new specimens for our tide pool exhibit! Our tank is now full of active hermit crabs, bright-colored sea stars and a wide array of intertidal plants. The animals in our tide pool tank change every two months so be sure to come by and visit its newest inhabitants.

The Dig Box is back! Our geology exhibit has returned to the Museum for the month of March, and with it comes the opportunity to “play paleontologist” and unearth buried fossils. We have also added a new participation station to the Museum, allowing you to answer the question, “How have you connected with nature?”

Check out our new Collections Close-Up case. Every month we will be displaying rarely seen artifacts from our collections. This month, we have unearthed these two ladies from our Jed Scott collection of geology specimens. Where did they come from? What are they made out of? Stop by the Museum to learn more about these two!

The Public Estate Sale of Sibley (Dee) Bush will be held on Friday, March 2 from 10am – 4pm and on Saturday, March 3 from 8am until all items are gone. Dee Bush was docent and long-time supporter of the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum, and net proceeds from the Estate Sale directly benefit the Museum. Come to 1023 Escalona to find art, antiques, Chinese pottery, jade, furniture, and more than 1,000 household and decorative items.

Witness Hummingbird Days at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum this weekend, March 3 and 4 from 10am – 4pm. The seasonal migration of Allen’s Hummingbirds is in its peak, and the Arboretum is a fantastic place to view these fascinating pollinators. There will be bird walks, plant tours, lectures, food, and fun for the kids. Learn more about Hummingbird Days.

Volunteer tide pool collection is planned for Monday, March 5 at 2:30pm. Meet us at the Hook (where 41st Ave. meets the ocean) and bring water shoes or wading boots. We will be there with buckets and lots of marine biology geeks seeking out new creatures for our Tide Pool Tank at the Museum. This is a great opportunity to learn about marine animals and plants in their native habitat.

Read Deborah McArthur’s recent article in the Sentinel, Making the Connection.

And please vote for us as the “Best Place to Learn New Things” in the Good Times Best of Santa Cruz County.

Connect With Nature this Saturday at the final lecture in our winter series. At 10am on February 25th, UC Berkeley Professor, Gordon Frankie, will present Bees and Flowers: A Love Affair. Come learn about native Northern California bee diversity, flower types native bees prefer, and creating bee habitat gardens. Online preregistration recommended. If you like, you can stay after the lecture to help us tend to the Museum Pollinator Garden!

Volunteer in our Pollinator Garden this Saturday, February 25th from 12pm to 2pm. We will be weeding the native and ornamental gardens around the museum. Also, the Pilkington Creek Clean-Up Crew will be removing invasive plants along the creek, and creating space for the emerging native plants introduced last fall. This is a great opportunity for children, families, and people of all ages to learn about our native California plants.

Dee Bush was a enthusiastic supporter of the Museum, and a Docent for over 20 years. He was a model citizen and community service volunteer. The sale of the Dee Bush estate to benefit the Museum is scheduled for this Saturday, February 25th, from 12noon-6pm at 1023 Escalona. All members were sent an invitation with full details in the mail. The invitation or your Museum membership card gets you into this exclusive members-only sale. A public sale of the remaining items will be held next Saturday. Full details in next week’s Buzzz…

Strong-armed volunteers are welcome to join us February 27th from 10am – 1pm as we take down the Coastal Lagoons exhibit and resurrect the geology exhibit in our center room. We are so thankful for the volunteers who have already offered to help, and a few more hands would make for light work. Please email volunteers@santacruzmuseums.org if you’d like to volunteer for this or any other opportunity with the Museum.

Volunteer Tide Pool Collection is planned for March 5th at 2:30pm. Join us as we return our Tide Pool Tank critters back to the waters and search for new, interesting plants and animals to vacation with us in the Museum for a few months. Meet us at the Hook, where 41st Avenue meets the ocean. We will provide buckets and a few marine biology nerds to help identify what we find. Come learn about these fascinating creatures in their native habitat!

The Connect With Nature series will continue in the spring with the Art of Spring Wildflowers field trip on Saturday, April 28th. More details in the next Buzzz…

And don’t forget to…

Please vote for us in the Good Times Best of Santa Cruz County. While there isn’t a “Best Museum” category, we encourage you to chose us for the “Best Place to Learn New Things”. Thanks for taking the time to vote!

And please vote us “Best Museum” in the the Santa Cruz Weekly Gold Awards.

The Slawinski Auction Company is having a grand opening tonight that will benefit the Museum of Natural History! Join us at the company’s new Scotts Valley location on Friday, February 17th from 6 – 8pm. The auction will offer the estate of Mr. Dee Bush, a long-time Museum docent, supporter, and collector of Asian antiques. All net proceeds from this event will benefit the Museum. Download this Slawinski Auction 2012 for more information.

Explore local geology this Saturday, February 18th, as Naturalist Fred McPherson presents the the third talk of our Connect with Nature lecture series. This presentation will combine physical and biological science as Fred guides us through the “Geology and Ecotones of the Santa Cruz Region.” Learn how the movement of land over time has affected our local communities.

Shhhh! Members only! The Dee Bush estate sale to benefit the Museum is scheduled for next Saturday, February 25th, from 12noon-6pm. All members will be receiving an invitation with full details in the mail. If you are not yet a member (or you are a docent working to earn your membership) and you would like to attend this event, please become a member and/or call the Museum at 420-6115.

This is the last week to see our featured exhibit, Coastal Lagoons: A Closer Look through Art, History, and Science. February 25th will be the last day that museum-goers will be able to interact with this temporary installation. On February 27th, volunteers will help take down the exhibit and re-install our geology exhibit for March. Email volunteers@santacruzmuseums.org if you’re interested in helping with this or other Museum projects. Our next featured exhibit will be The Art of Nature, April 7 – June 3.

Vote for us in the Good Times Best of Santa Cruz County! While there isn’t a “Best Museum” category, we encourage you to chose us for the “Best Place to Learn New Things”. Thanks for taking the time to vote!

And vote us “Best Museum” in the the Santa Cruz Weekly Gold Awards.

Announcing the Museum’s new logo! And you, our faithful Buzz followers, are the first to see it! The professionals at Capitola Design worked with our board and staff to create a new logo that conveys our mission of connecting people with nature and inspiring stewardship. Be on the look-out for the new logo as we phase it into the Museum website, literature, and public presence. We welcome your feedback about our new logo – leave a comment here on the blog.

This week’s Connect With Nature lecture topic is “California’s Keystone Predators: Pumas” presented by Zara McDonald, Founder and Executive Director of the Felidae Conservation Fund. Join us at the Museum this Saturday, February 11th at 10am for an engaging and inspiring presentation about the work currently underway to study and protect our local big cats. Preregistration available.

Join us at the Migration Festival, this Saturday, February 11th from 11am – 4pm. Natural Bridges State Beach hosts the 38th Annual Migration Festival to emphasize the importance of habitat protection and connected corridors for migratory species. The Museum will host an educational booth, so stop by to learn about the fascinating migration we will highlight.

The Slawinski Auction Company is hosting a grand opening that will benefit the Museum of Natural History! Join us at the company’s new Scotts Valley location on Friday, February 17th from 6 – 8pm. The auction will offer the estate of Mr. Dee Bush, a long-time Museum supporter and collector of Asian antiques. All net proceeds from this event will benefit the Museum. Download this Slawinski Auction Flier for more information.

Check out our new program, Nat Time – Natural History Storytime – each Thursday from 3:30pm – 4pm. This special afternoon storytime series offers fun and educational stories featuring puppets, songs, and museum artifacts. Nat Time is geared toward children ages 3 – 6. Families of all ages are welcome.

Vote for us in the Good Times Best of Santa Cruz County! While there isn’t a “Best Museum” category, we encourage you to chose us for the “Best Place to Learn New Things”. Thanks for taking the time to vote!