The Audubon Docent Guild’s Titmouse Club is designed for preschoolers aged 2 ½ to 5 years old. We meet on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings during the school year, mid-September to mid-May, 10:00-11:00 AM. We take a week off at Thanksgiving and three weeks off around Christmas and New Year’s.

(In case there’s the slightest uncertainty in any mind, a titmouse is a small gray bird with a white breast and a perky gray crest on its head, hence its full name "tufted titmouse." Titmice hang out with chickadees year-round in most of Houston’s wooded parks and yards.)

An adult must stay with each child or family at Titmouse Club. You’re welcome to bring your younger children with you as well – just try to keep them from disrupting the program. We would greatly appreciate your attention to the program, also. The noise of moms socializing during the program is very distracting to both the children and to the docents presenting the program. Please help us create a pleasant educational environment for your children.

Each week’s Titmouse Club sessions feature a different nature theme, focusing on our own Houston area’s animals and habitats. We’ll enjoy nature stories, a related craft or activity and a short walk in the woods, all led by our volunteer docents each week. Tuesday and Wednesday sessions in one week will present the same nature topic.

Normally we ask Titmouse attendees to park in the west parking lot of Memorial Drive United Methodist Church and enter the nature sanctuary through the marked gate in the chain link fence just off Memorial Drive. During the fall of 2007, however, the Harris County Flood Control District will be using that parking lot for the heavy machinery needed in a project to repair the erosion along the banks of Rummel Creek within the sanctuary, so Titmouse attendees will not be able to park in the Methodist lot until sometime in early 2008, when the project is completed. Fall 2007 Titmouse Club attendees will have to park in: 1) the Audubon log cabin’s small parking lot at 440 Wilchester Blvd., or 2) the Tosca Lane cul-de-sac just south of the sanctuary entrance along Wilchester, where there is another gate into the sanctuary, or 3) along the curb on Wilchester Blvd. itself.

No reservations are necessary for Titmouse Club. The cost is $4.00 per participating child per session. We sell cards for five prepaid sessions for $20.00 – or you can just bring the correct change every time you attend. Any checks should be made payable to the Audubon Docent Guild, please.

Even though docents are in charge of each session, they can hardly be expected to drop the story they’re reading to chase after your child who is headed for the pond. Please keep an eye on your own children.

Also, encourage your child to leave your lap and sit up close around the storyteller so each child can hear well and see all the pictures shown. This may take a few weeks for the younger Titmice to accomplish, but it’s a good goal.

We hardy Titmice carry on even when it’s cold and rainy, so don’t let bad weather scare you off. We gather outside whenever possible, but we always have the heated log cabin for cozy shelter. We have some mighty good programs scheduled for those gray days in December and January.

Here’s the schedule we have planned for 2007-2008 – some repeated favorites and some new material:

Hope you enjoy being Titmice as much as we do!

- Bethany Foshee, Guild Coordinator