Do this Nature Scavenger Hunt in your Backyard or Neighborhood!
- sjcoccia
- Jul 24
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 3
What if one of the greatest nature adventures was waiting just outside your front door?
Grab this Nature Scavenger Hunt and head into your backyard or neighborhood to discover places where birds are nesting, caterpillars are munching, and wildflowers are blooming where you've never noticed them before. Nature is full of hidden stories—we just have to slow down and look.
Whether you're exploring with your children, your grandchildren, or simply rediscovering your own sense of wonder, I hope this scavenger hunt helps you see the natural world with fresh eyes.
Find Elusive Natural Wonders
Do you know where a bird might build its nest in your neighborhood? They aren't always where you'd expect to find them.
What about finding a place where a butterfly might lay her eggs?
There are so many hidden wonders waiting to be discovered right where you live. Better yet, helping children connect their everyday surroundings with the natural world—and fostering that sense of awe—has tremendous benefits for childhood development (see How Moments in Nature Help Kids Thrive and The Role of Interaction with Nature in Childhood Development). Those awe-inspiring moments may be just a few steps outside your door.
Nesting Birds
You might find birds nesting in the birdhouse you placed in your yard, or notice the same pair of cardinals returning to the shrub outside your window each spring. But have you ever discovered a nest somewhere unexpected?
Look inside the hollow of an old tree. Scan the tall reeds bordering a wetland. Or, in winter, when the leaves have fallen, notice how nests suddenly appear in shrubs and trees where you never realized they had been hidden all summer.
Spend some time searching for a new nesting spot near you—or simply brainstorm places that would make excellent homes for birds.
A friend of mine, Sarah Sutton from Spicebush Swallowtail Native Plants, experienced exactly this. After the leaves had fallen one autumn, she discovered a beautifully woven American Goldfinch nest tucked safely within a patch of goldenrod in her yard. The birds had likely spent the entire summer feeding on insects among her native plants while raising their young, yet the nest remained perfectly hidden until winter.
Sometimes nature has been quietly thriving around us all along—we just hadn't noticed.
Native Flowers (New York State)
Maybe you're already growing Black-eyed Susans or Purple Coneflowers. Or perhaps, like me, your yard is filled with volunteer Common Milkweed that faithfully appears every summer.
But when was the last time you took inventory of the plants growing around you?
Do you have a difficult area in your yard that always seems too wet, too dry, too sandy, or packed with heavy clay?
One of the wonderful things about native plants is that they have evolved to thrive in the many different microhabitats found throughout New York. Think of your yard as a puzzle—there's likely a native plant that's the perfect piece for every challenging spot.
Native flowers are especially rewarding because they don't just give us beautiful blooms—they also support butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and countless other pollinators.
Some of my favorites include:
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) for wet soils or rain gardens. Its brilliant red blooms are irresistible to hummingbirds.
Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis), a lovely option for part shade that can also help suppress weeds or invasive groundcovers like vinca.
Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) and the less common Giant Yellow Hyssop (Agastache nepetoides) for sunny, drier locations. Both are outstanding pollinator plants and are generally deer-resistant.
Butterfly Eggs!
Have you ever searched for butterfly eggs?
Most are incredibly tiny and are often tucked beneath the leaves of a butterfly's host plant.
One of the easiest to identify is the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) egg, which is found exclusively on milkweed. When Monarch caterpillars hatch, they immediately begin feeding on the leaves. In doing so, they ingest compounds produced by the milkweed that make them distasteful to many predators—a remarkable example of nature's defenses (see Milkweed and Monarchs, National Park Service).
While gently turning over milkweed leaves in our own front yard, we recently discovered a tiny Monarch egg. We'll be checking back over the coming days to watch it hatch into a first-instar caterpillar as it begins nibbling its way around the leaf. With a little luck, we'll even get to witness it transform into a chrysalis before emerging as a beautiful butterfly.
Adding New Habitat to your Backyard
Creating habitat for native birds, butterflies, and other wildlife is often much easier than people think.
One of the simplest ways is to plant a native species that isn't already growing in your yard. If you have a favorite bird or butterfly, look up the plants it depends on—whether that's a host plant for its caterpillars, a nectar source, or a shrub that provides shelter or nesting materials.
You can also add habitat by incorporating natural features like sticks, bark, rocks, or logs into your garden beds. These create valuable hiding places for frogs, toads, salamanders, beneficial insects, and many other small creatures.
Another fun project is creating a butterfly puddler.
Simply turn a terra cotta pot upside down, place its saucer on top, and fill the saucer with pebbles, coarse sand, and a small amount of water. Butterflies and other beneficial insects will use these shallow puddles as a safe place to drink and gather important minerals.
Small changes can make a surprisingly big difference.
Practice the Art of Finding Inspiration Everyday!
Spending time in nature does amazing things for our brains.
Research continues to show just how beneficial time outdoors can be. Nature helps reduce stress, restore our attention, improve our mood, and even strengthen our connection to the world around us. If you'd like to learn more, I highly recommend Kristen Weir's article, Nurtured by Nature.
The wonderful thing is that we don't have to travel far to experience these benefits.
Wonder is waiting in our own neighborhoods.
In fact, let your child be your guide. They'll probably notice things you've walked past dozens of times without ever seeing. Peek beneath a leaf. Follow the texture of tree bark with your fingertips. Get eye-level with an ant carrying a crumb many times its size.
I almost guarantee you'll discover something new every time—and your mind and body will thank you for slowing down long enough to notice.
Happy Exploring!
I hope you have fun completing this backyard Nature Scavenger Hunt together.
If you discover something exciting, I'd love to hear about it! Share your discoveries with friends, neighbors, and family, or tag Verdant Gardens on social media so we can celebrate the incredible biodiversity that's thriving right outside our doors.
When we begin looking at our yards with curiosity and wonder, we start to see them not simply as landscapes, but as living ecosystems filled with fascinating plants, animals, and tiny moments of everyday magic.
Happy exploring!
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