The Faerie Houses of Aullwood Have Returned!

The ever popular Faerie Houses of Aullwood have returned for 2025! Check in with Guest Services at the nature center's front desk and pick up a questionnaire, then take an easy stroll around the paved Cardinal Trail to search for six brand new faerie houses. This year, visitors will be guessing faerie hobbies. Each small faerie house is designed with many clues on and around it, giving you hints as to what hobby each faerie enjoys. Find each house, look for clues and put down your guess as to the hobby of the faerie who lives there. When you have completed your walk, return your questionnaire to the front desk and you may get a prize!  

The faeries have been building their dainty houses at Aullwood since 2014. As you may guess, building a house is a tremendous undertaking for a tiny faerie, so they get a lot of help from Aullwood’s Designing Divas: Kathy Anderson, Jaqueline Gazda, Jill Gordon, Judi Hill and Karen Offenbacker. The faeries and Designing Divas are quite creative! Old stumps, gourds, recycled materials and natural elements found in the woods are some of the items used to build the houses. The artistic inspiration the faeries and Designing Divas get from nature to create these tiny wonders is always amazing.

The Faerie Houses of Aullwood exhibit is open during Aullwood Audubon's regular business hours; check our Upcoming Events calendar for holiday closings or other schedule changes. Members of Aullwood, National Audubon Society and ANCA affiliated organization enjoy the Faerie Houses of Aullwood exhibit at no cost; nonmembers pay regular Aullwood general admission fees, which are free for children 3 and under, $8.00 for children 4 to 12, $12.00 for adults 13 to 64, and $10.00 for seniors age 65 and over and active duty military members. 

The Faerie Houses of Aullwood exhibit will be only available to enjoy through Labor Day, September 1, so be sure to join us for some woodland magic before the faeries depart for another year!

Faerie Houses of Aullwood June 2025 and 2021 Photos: Aullwood Audubon / Ken Fasimpaur.

Housing in Our Pastures

(Daniel Carey, Senior Farm Assistant)

We all want to see our animal ambassadors here at Aullwood Audubon Farm thrive and live their best lives; to do this, we have begun the process of constructing shelters for our animals to allow them proper protection from weather and heat while they graze our pastures. The first structure we built is a 10-foot wide, 12-foot long, 8-foot high slanted 3-sided shelter in the pasture along our accessible pathway near the outdoor classroom, as shown on the map below.

Currently, this new shelter houses the three Tunis ewes, Teresa, Tuna, and Bunny you see here. Inside the shelter you can see they have water and a feed trough we constructed using repurposed pallets we had here at the farm, as seen below. We made sure to make the shelter large enough to house the sheep, but we also have enough space for our horses and cows to take shelter there when we do our rotational grazing!

Our next step in this project is to engage the local scouting community and collaborate with these young men and women for the conservation service hours needed for rank advancement and building shelters for Eagle projects. We look forward to this engagement opportunity and bringing these new installations to the farm for the betterment of our animals and pastures. We hope you enjoy these shelters as much as our animal ambassadors and we do!

Illustrations and Photographs: Aullwood Audubon / Daniel Carey

Aullwood Audubon Open Limited Hours on July 4

Join us for a little peace and quiet on the holiday! Aullwood Audubon's Nature Center, Farm Discovery Center, facilities, trails and property will be OPEN LIMITED HOURS on the Independence Day holiday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, July 4. Last admission on July 4 will be at 2 p.m. Our trails will close at 2:45 p.m. and our gates will be closed and locked at 3 p.m. Come on out and enjoy summer at Aullwood! 

Bench along trail at Aullwood August 2024 Photo: Aullwood Audubon / Ken Fasimpaur

Upcoming Events Calendar

• ONGOING: The Troll That Hatched an Egg: An Exhibition by Thomas Dambo (Farm & Center)
• THROUGH SEPTEMBER 1: Aullwood Audubon is a Blue Star Museum (Farm & Center)
• THROUGH SEPTEMBER 1: The Faerie Houses of Aullwood Exhibit (Center)
• JULY 3, 10, 17, 24, 31: Member Adult Discovery Walk, 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. (Center)
• JULY 1, 8, 15, 22, 29: Long Term Butterfly Monitoring, 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (Center)
• JULY 4: Aullwood OPEN LIMITED HOURS for the July 4th Holiday, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Farm & Center)
• JULY 5: 36th Annual NABA '4th of July' Butterfly Count, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon (Center)
• JULY 19: NEW DATE: Let’s Go Birding Together Pride Walk, 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (Center)
• JULY 23: Chipmunk Adventures for Preschool Children: It's Sweet in the Creek, 10:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. (Farm)
• AUGUST 5, 12, 19, 26: Long Term Butterfly Monitoring, 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (Center)
• AUGUST 6: Chipmunk Adventures for Preschool Children: Track Detectives, 10:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. (Farm)
• AUGUST 7, 14, 21, 28: Member Adult Discovery Walk, 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. (Center)
• REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: Summer Earth Adventures Summer Camps through August 1

Member-Only Hour at Aullwood

Beginning July 1, membership will have more rewards! Members-only hour at Aullwood Audubon will be from 9 AM to 10 AM Monday through Saturday. It’s another perk of being a member, along with discounts at the Aullwood Nature Store & Gift Shop, free or reduced admission at 150+ nature centers via ANCA, and more! Get all the details about membership at https://aullwood.audubon.org/membership any time.

Let's Go Birding Together!

(Nenita Lapitan, Senior Manager, Center & Farm)

Now on a new date, rescheduled due to weather! Celebrate Pride with a special event for our LGBTQIA+ community and their allies. You’re invited to our Let’s Go Birding Together walk on July 19 from 1:30-3:00 p.m. Let’s Go Birding Together walks are for everyone who loves birds and the outdoors. We welcome those who identify as LGBTQIA++, allies, families, and anyone who wants to enjoy an outdoor experience that is inclusive. Why do we do this? Because the outdoors has not always been a welcoming place for LGBTQIA++ people and Audubon wants to help change that. Let's Go Birding Together is a birding walk intentionally welcoming of the LGBTQIA++ community. The greater Miami Valley LGBTQIA++ community is invited to join us for our 2nd Annual Pride bird walk and social to celebrate the diversity of our birds in the Dayton area and also our people!

This year we will meet in the early afternoon for some snacks and beverages before heading out on the trails to look for birds and enjoy spending time in nature. Birders of all skill levels and ages are welcome. Bring your own binoculars or borrow a pair from us. We will be led by Sam Romeo (he/him), expert birder and Aullwood Audubon Environmental Educator and Nenita Lapitan (she/her), Senior Manager, Center and Farm.

This event is free, but preregistration is required as the number of participants is limited. Click the button below or visit https://aullwood.audubon.org/LetsGoBirdingTogether to sign up. Please reserve one spot for every participant over 4 years of age. Everyone and all ages are welcome, though we ask that companion animals remain at home for this event. Meet in the lobby of Aullwood's Nature Center at 1000 Aullwood Road at least 5 minutes before the start of the event. The group will cover less than 2 miles over an asphalt trail, wooden boardwalk and some dirt trails. Pace will be slow. Join us and Let's Go Birding Together!

Pride Walk at Aullwood June 2024 Photos: Maddie McGarvey / Audubon

Habitat Healing in the Spring

Last month, we at Aullwood Audubon were happy to welcome Chaminade Julienne Senior Capstone volunteers for our Spring Habitat Healer Day! These enthusiastic volunteers, teaming up with our hard working conservation staff, braved a wet spring day and trudged through the muck to plant 170 total plants of 19 different native species in Muskrat Marsh, our Category 3 wetland.

Our thanks to everyone involved for helping with this important conservation work! Aullwood Audubon is always looking for new volunteers to get involved with our Habit Healer days and other crucial community science efforts! For more information on this and other volunteer opportunities, contact Volunteer Coordinator Julia Smith at julia.smith@audubon.org. Thank you for your support!

Habitat Healer Day May 2025 Photos: Aullwood Audubon / Julia Smith

Get Wild with Summer Earth Adventures Now!

Aullwood Audubon's Summer Earth Adventures classes are over 80% full, but limited spots are still available for some classes! This year's SEA summer camps at Aullwood Audubon run now through August 1, so time is running out. For details and to sign up, visit https://aullwood.audubon.org/SEA today. (Friends of Aullwood members should use the special discount code received via email to receive their special discount.) Each week of SEA features a different exciting theme as campers explore the great outdoors on Aullwood's trails and farm pastures. Don't miss out — click below to learn more and register today, then walk on the wild side with us this summer!

SEA 2022 Photo: Aullwood Audubon / Aullwood Staff

Member Update

Thank you to our valued Friends of Aullwood members! We’re excited to share that Friends of Aullwood membership is evolving to include a formal partnership with the National Audubon Society. This change reflects the long-standing collaboration that has always been part of membership and will strengthen our shared mission – to connect people to nature and protect the habitats that birds and people depend on.

Friends of Aullwood members should have received a separate email recently with more details. The new joint membership will not change the local benefits that are already a part of membership, and no action is needed by members. When your current membership renews, you will automatically see the added benefits of the combined membership, such as more member-only events and a subscription to Audubon Magazine, nationally recognized for award-winning photography and engaging writing about birds, conservation, and environmental issues. We thank our members for their continued support of the many things we do to protect the places we all cherish! Not a member yet? Learn more by visiting https://aullwood.audubon.org/membership today.

Boardwalk at Aullwood June 2025 Photo: Ken Fasimpaur / Aullwood Audubon.

36th Annual NABA '4th of July' Butterfly Count

We need your help spotting and counting hundreds of dazzling butterflies and skippers! Join us on Saturday, July 5th from 10 a.m. to 12 noon to conduct Aullwood’s 36th Annual 'Fourth of July' NABA Butterfly Census. During the month of July, people all across North America will be conducting similar surveys and sending data to the North American Butterfly Association. We will meet at the Nature Center at 1000 Aullwood Road and count around the Aullwood Audubon property.

The North American Butterfly Association has run the Butterfly Count Program in the United States, Canada, and Mexico since 1993. This count will consist of a compilation of all butterflies observed at Aullwood in a one-day period. The annually published reports provide a tremendous amount of information about the geographical distribution and relative population sizes of the species not only in our area, but all across North America. Comparisons of the results across years can be used to monitor changes in butterfly populations and study the effects of climate change and habitat change on butterflies.

Everyone is invited to take part in this fun and educational community science event! There is no admission charge, but there is a fee of $3.00 (for those 13 and over) payable to the North American Butterfly Association. For more information on this program and to register, please contact Sam Romeo at 937-890-7360 x223 or sam.romeo@audubon.org. We hope you can join us for a fun-filled day of observing these beautiful, winged treasures!

Butterflies at Aullwood September 2021 Photo: Aullwood Staff / Ken Fasimpaur

Aullwood Audubon | AskUs@aullwood.org | 937-890-7360 | www.aullwood.org