This summer, campers are Rock Watching and learning about the environment as part of this year's theme -- "My Environment and Me''.

The camps choose a different focus each year.

"This is the first time we've gone with an environmental theme,'' said Miss Kiwana Hill at the Department of Youth and Sport, organiser of many day camps.

Camps scheme director Mrs. Dorothy Trott, said the theme was chosen because school representatives realised children "didn't really know all that much about the environment''.

A theme song was composed by teachers Mr. John Duncan, Mr. John Woolridge and Mr. Brian Herbert, and they went around the camps teaching the children, Mrs.

Trott said.

The activities were sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, KBB, and the Department of Works and Engineering.

The Elliott Summer Day Camp, as part of its environmental programme, collects trash regularly in an area behind the Bermuda Squash Club in Devonshire.

"Every week we come down here and you should see the amount of cans and bottles,'' camp supervisor Mrs. Valerie Williams said.

Her campers are also competing in two teams -- Rock Watchers and Recyclables -- in a quiz competition about Bermuda and its environment.

Mrs. Williams said some of her young environmentalists were from an after-school service which worked on similar projects.

This year, a pilot project will see a few day camps offering activities for three weeks after the regular five-week programme ends.

PITCHING IN -- Junior Rockwatcher Tristan Mosley, 7, collects trash with the Elliott School Day Camp.