Family Camp
July 13 – July 18, 2025 &
July 20 – July 25, 2025
Registration is open now for the 2025 Camp season! All campers must agree to the Camper Guidelines and Cancellation Policy. Please read this policy before registering.
The National Audubon Society is in the process of updating our health forms for the upcoming season. You will receive a notification from Camp Docs and Hog Island when health forms, required for attending Hog Island, open in February.
The deadline to pay your tuition in full and complete your registration forms is April 1, 2025.
REGISTER NOW
Find answers to frequently asked questions about lodging, transportation, schedules, packing lists, meals, and more here. For technical support with CampDoc, please visit their help page or contact support@campdoc.com.
If you are in search of an unforgettable family experience this summer, then look no further than Hog Island’s Family Camp. This program is designed for a family unit consisting of at least one child (age 8-13) and one adult (18 and older). All family group combinations are welcome! Bring your grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or cousin!
This action-packed week is full of exploration, learning, arts, and play. During the day, your talented and enthusiastic team of instructors will guide you through the wonders of Hog Island: tide pools, marshes, bogs, streams, and spruce woods. You’ll wade through the water in search of critters, sing and play with your new friends, build tiny abodes in the woods for whimsical friends, and immerse yourself in the lush moss-lined trails of the spruce woods. Campers will venture out into Muscongus Bay in search of seabirds and seals (and of course, puffins!). After your exploring is done for the day, we will come back together each night for campfire songs.
This is a unique opportunity to unplug, relax, and enjoy nature together with your family. Come join the welcoming community of nature-loving, tree-hugging, dancing, jolly family campers! You won’t want to wait on this one, since registration tends to fill out fast.
Pricing:
- Adult: $1725
- Child: $1285
The base registration fee includes meals, housing, instruction, and all boat trips.
Family groups will be housed together and have access to shared bathrooms. Please let us know if your child is not okay with sleeping in a bunk bed.
We have a limited number of rooms with private bathrooms available for an additional cost. Rooms with private bathrooms only house two people. These accommodations are suitable for one adult and one child or for two adults that are part of a larger family. If available, the price for this arrangement is an additional $300 per adult. Please be sure to make a note in your registration if you would like to request an upgraded room, and we will notify you if we are able to accommodate.
There are several different scholarship opportunities available to help participants attend Hog Island sessions! Please see our scholarships page for more information about Hog Island Scholarships. You should also check with your local Audubon chapter or bird club for additional opportunities.
Requirements: There are no prerequisites for this program! Birders of all skill levels are welcome as are less experienced/enthusiastic partners, friends, or family.
Family Camp at Hog Island
Quotes from former campers (from camp evaluations):
"I learned so much I might burst. Most of all, I learned that, even though there is a lot wrong with the world, there are some good things."
"I have to say this is the best thing I could have possibly done with my summer."
"This was the best thing I ever did in my life."
"I don't think you can realize the impact you had on my life. Those two summers confirmed my belief that I want to learn and work to save the environment. You sparked my interest in ecology."
"I love how there are lots of fun and enjoyable activities, and though you learn from them, they aren't like school lessons."
"The counselors were so knowledgeable and they seemed to really enjoy being with us. They helped us learn and feel at home."
"I saw for the first time puffins, eagles, seals, least terns, piping plovers, carnivorous plants, and starfish."
"Keep it this way for the next generation. Show them how to love this world as you have shown me."
Director
Colleen Noyes was a naturalist at the CT Audubon Society for over 25 years. Currently she is enjoying teaching Earth Science in her own classroom at the Unquowa School in Fairfield CT. She is hoping to inspire the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders to love science.
In 2012, Colleen was introduced to the magic of Hog Island as a camper during Educators Week. That experience led to many volunteering for many years and eventually of getting the honor to share her knowledge as an instructor and director on Hog Island. She is proof that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.
Colleen is an avid music lover and was in a trio called Small Noise. During the height of the pandemic, the group was formed and wrote and recorded many original songs. On weekends Colleen can be found hiking or jamming with other music lovers. This love of music has become a popular part of evenings at Family Camp. Many of the incredible instructors are also musically inclined and lend their talents to the weekly band. A few of our band names over the years have been “Guillemottly Crew”, “The David Buoy’s”, “Grebe Day”, and “Van Heron”! In her spare time, Colleen can be found hanging out with her daughters Fiona, Eleanor and son-in-law Moll. She also has a sassy young Airedale terrier named Bright. He keeps her active, fit and happy!
Instructors Week 1: Lisa Monetti, Katama Murray, Nathaniel Sharp, Dane Ward
Instructors Week 2: Karen Acton, Lisa Monetti, Katama Murray, Nathaniel Sharp, Dane Ward
Karen Acton is a classically trained artist and naturalist with over 31 years of experience as an art educator. Growing up in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey, she developed a deep reverence for nature, which fuels her commitment to conservation and education. Acton has created programs for educators to integrate nature and art into their curricula.
She volunteers for Return the Favor, rescuing horseshoe crabs to protect migratory shorebirds, and is illustrating a children's book promoting panda bear conservation. Acton teaches nature journaling at Drexel University’s summer program at the Lighthouse Center in NJ. Her passion for documenting natural history grew through studying under John Muir Laws. On Hog Island, she feels connected to the land, water, and sky, and is grateful for her association with Hog Island Audubon Camp.
Katama Murray (she/her) is an artist, educator, naturalist, and business owner from the Blue Hill, Maine and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, now residing in Deer Isle, Maine. Her mixed media work and company, Teach Peace Prints, are inspired by place-based making and our interconnectedness to the environment. Utilizing locally foraged natural materials, she layers print and fiber processes to visually communicate ideas, observations, and perpetual experimentation. Through hands-on techniques, Katama teaches regional workshops focused on versatile methods that encourage exploration and foster life-long learning. Katama is also the Handworks Teacher teacher at The Bay School and Visual Arts Educator at the Blue Hill Harbor School. Katama has a BFA in Printmaking from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, and an MFA in Printmaking from Indiana University-Bloomington.
In 2013, Katama visited Hog Island for the first time as a camper, attending the Coastal Maine Bird Studies for Teens session thanks to a scholarship from Downeast Audubon. It was then that she fell in love with the island and its special community, as well as her husband and fellow instructor, Nathaniel Sharp, and is thrilled to return as an instructor each year since 2022. With a passion for slow, multidisciplinary making, she strives to learn and teach together with people of all ages, hoping to inspire others to become more connected to the earth through the power of art and community.
Nathaniel Sharp is a naturalist educator and birder based in Deer Isle, Maine. Nathaniel graduated from the University of Vermont with a BS in Wildlife Biology in 2018 and has worked as a staff biologist with the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, banding Bicknell's Thrushes on the peaks of Vermont and surveying for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators to support state-wide biodiversity monitoring projects. Nathaniel now provides guided birding walks and nature connection experiences with a focus on biodiversity in coastal Maine.
NOTE: Audubon reserves the right to alter itineraries, instructors and particular arrangements, or to substitute similar itineraries or arrangements, at no penalty. If Audubon cancels a session, it will issue full refunds of all deposits or payments to the paid participants.
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