Shipley celebrates spring

In recognition of countless hours of volunteer toil in the soil, Saturday was a day of celebration at the Shipley Nature Center.

The center staged its first Spring Festival, showcasing the beauty of the grounds alongside educational activities.

“Basically, the purpose of the festival was to celebrate the recent accomplishments at the center,” said Steve Engel, president of the more than 1,000-member support group Friends of the Shipley Nature Center. “It’s a day of recognition, to show the public just what the center is all about.”

Activities included a California native plant sale and an information fair with displays set up by nature-friendly organizations such as Amigos de Bolsa Chica, the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy and Inside the Outdoors, an environmental science program within the Orange County Department of Education.

Inside the Outdoors brought along a box turtle, tiger salamander, hissing cockroaches, a millipede, a bearded dragon, a rose-hair tarantula, an opossum, a gopher snake named Riverside and a male red-tailed hawk named Apollo, who was handled by Dave Raetz of Inside the Outdoors.

The dedication of an ecosystem diorama ? a three-dimensional model showing animals one might spot on the grounds ? was held inside the center’s interpretive building.

The highlight, however, was the dedication of the Demonstration Gardens, five separate gardens featuring various species of drought-tolerant California native plants.

The dedication also paid tribute to the Metropolitan Water District, which donated $20,000 toward the building of the gardens.

The Huntington Beach REI store, a retailer of outdoor equipment, also presented the center a check for $10,000 Saturday.

“It was a great day to honor all the hard work by volunteers and the support given us by partner organizations, as well as show the public what Shipley Nature Center has to offer,” Engel said. “It was a great setting.”

Nature complied with the celebration, too.

As festival goers scanned the center’s grounds, a blue heron gracefully glided overhead, darting through the trees’ canopy. In the distance, you could hear the song of the woodpecker and warbler. There was even a winged fairy walking the grounds.

A winged fairy?

Yes, Cynthia Milenkovich donned the costume of a queen fairy, as she passed out fliers announcing the staging of, “A Faery Hunt! O.C.,” a live children’s interactive adventure that will take place at the park Saturday.

The show, which begins at 10:30 a.m., lasts anywhere from 40 to 55 minutes, is a preview benefit show, with proceeds benefiting the Shipley Nature Center. Reservations are recommended.

The interactive hunt allows children to join fairy guide characters, cousins Elise Wright and Frances Griffiths, in search of fairies and other mysterious creatures spotted throughout the north side of Central Park.

“This show has been running in L.A. for more than a year, but it’s extremely portable,” said Milenkovich, a Costa Mesa resident who is producing the show. “This is our first pilot program in Central Park, and it teaches children about courtesy, kindness and self-esteem.

“In the show, they will also learn that the fairy queen has lost her fairy light. As the story plot develops, they meet up with a troll and Symury, which is a half-man, half-bird creature.

“We want the kids to dress up and pretend with us. The show and characters are based in actual fairy lore, but it’s more about fantasy, and having a great time in the park.”

Milenkovich said that shows have been booked on Saturdays in the park through June.

Also Saturday, the Shipley Nature Center will be one of the featured stops on the 2006 Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour. The center will be open for the tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and donations received will benefit The Sheepfold, a shelter and refuge for abused women and their children. hbi.04-happs-2-CPhotoInfoU31QIIVB20060504iynvq3nc(LA)Noemy Ariza of Huntington Beach, age 13, paints a design on a clay pot during Saturday’s first Shipley Nature Center Spring Festival at the Shipley Nature Center in Huntington Beach. Ariza is part of the Community Service Program, Inc. Youth Leadership Program. hbi.04-happs-1-CPhotoInfoU31QIIV720060504iynvopnc(LA)Huntington Beach resident Jessi Moon touches a tiger salamander while holding her son Luka Moon, age 20 months, during Saturday’s first Shipley Nature Center Spring Festival at the Shipley Nature Center in Huntington Beach.hbi.04-happs-3-CPhotoInfoU31QIIVE20060504iynvroncPHOTOS BY MARK DUSTIN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Top, Noemy Ariza of Huntington Beach, age 13, paints a design on a clay pot. Above, Dave Raetz of the Orange County Department of Education’s Inside the Outdoors program holds up a Red Tail Hawk.