Sad. My kids watch Peter Schriemer’s Nature shows. He often promotes the Howell Nature Center. One of my sons LOVES nature, animals, and birds so we thought this might be a very fun place to take him for his birthday.
About two months before the trip I called to ask some general questions so I could adequately plan the trip. I spoke to an older woman (Kate?) who answered my questions and seemed friendly. We excitedly began planning our “Birthday Experience” trip.
Three days before the trip we visited a nature center near our home. All the birds had been pulled from their enclosures and put inside due to the dangerous bird flu. I am very understanding of this situation but began to wonder if that would be the case at the Howell Nature Center. So, two days before our trip I called again to find out if their birds were even outside or able to be seen. We live two hours away and my son specifically loves birds. If they were going to not be visible, maybe we would want to change our plans. I spoke to the same person as before. She went into great detail about how their enclosures were set up in a way that made if safe for the birds to stay outside. She began to go down the list of all the birds that were outside and interrupted herself and said, “All the birds are out.” Great!
Upon arrival we were told about the bird flu and that no feeders were full, etc. We happily began our adventure. We were extremely sad that about 7 enclosures at the very beginning were empty. Birds and animals weren’t there. I don’t mean they were in their little shelters and we couldn’t see them, the enclosures had nothing in them. We eventually did see some animals and some birds, but we were sad about missing so many.
I thought about how kind and loving all the people at the nature center near my home are and decided, maybe someone here would care about the fact that I specifically called in advance, we had driven two hours, and it was my son’s birthday. He really wanted to see the sandhill cranes and the wood ducks. Now, I completely understand if it isn’t safe for them to be outside (that’s why I called in advance) and maybe there had been some kind of misunderstanding on the phone so I thought I would call (from the play area) to see if there could be any way we could get a peek at them. I spoke to the same woman again and she was EXTREMELY RUDE! I was so sad! She told me that I was told about the bird flu when we arrived and when I asked if we could somehow see them, instead of saying something like, “Unfortunately we can’t do that because blah, blah, blah,” she snapped at me and said, “NO, I TOLD YOU THEY WOULDN’T BE OUT!” She was very rude about the whole thing.
So, I had called twice in advance to make plans, drove two hours, had a very disappointed child, and then was not shown any compassion but was instead treated very rudely. I completely understand if the birds can’t be seen for their own safety but I don’t understand being lied to and treated rudely.
We have seen lots of videos about the Howell Nature Center and I am not even going into any details about how incredibly run down the place was.
I am saddened about the whole experience because the person I spoke with and dealt with is the person who works in the “Welcome” center and answers the phone. How sad. It’s also sad because the place has very good potential for being a nice place.
In the photo we are holding the head onto the eagle statue (yea it's...
Read more
Learn more insights from Wanderboat AI.
