Tess’ Spring Site Update
Spring is finally making its way through Bluff Lake. The temperature is starting to rise and stay up, and the recent precipitation has helped raise the lake level to capacity. The grassy areas are slowly getting greener, and leaves are beginning to show on the rabbitbrush and willows. With the warmer temps, we are also seeing more wildlife around. The turtles are sunning themselves on logs in the lake, muskrats are swimming around, and a pair of geese and their goslings have made a hang out spot right on the trail (make sure to give them space as the parent geese will hiss at you if you get too close)!
Two muskrats and a red-eared slider
The warmer weather has allowed us to do more on the site, and we’ve been busy with a wide variety of projects. Several groups have come out to volunteer for trash clean ups around the site. Partnering with the Nature Conservancy, a group from Wells Fargo came out for a clean up along Sand Creek, and the Graland Country Day School has had multiple groups come out to work on a clean up around the outfall as a service learning project. As Bluff Lake is stormwater fed, unfortunately a lot of trash comes into the site from the surrounding neighborhood and business areas through the stormwater outlets. This trash can negatively impact the plants and animals on site, so having these groups come out to help makes a large positive impact.
A volunteer group from Wells Fargo in partnership with The Nature Conservancy helping pick up trash along Sand Creek
Mile High Youth Corps (an Americorps program) has been visiting Bluff Lake once a week to assist with a variety of projects, from preparing and deploying materials for wildlife surveys, to maintaining the nature play station areas, digging up invasive weeds, and assisting with environmental education during morning field trips.
Mile High Youth Corps members in front of the burrow nature play station after adding more dirt to combat erosion
Our most consistent habitat restoration volunteer group, the Weed Warriors, started back up for the season at the end of March. So far, we have been focusing on removing poison hemlock, cutleaf and common teasel, common burdock, houndstongue, and curly dock rosettes as the plants begin to grow. All of these plants are invasive species, which means that they are not native to Colorado, and “behave” in such a way that outcompetes our native plants and can often contribute to a decrease in biodiversity and lessen the value of certain habitats for wildlife. We are excited to see so many returning faces, and to welcome several new faces. If you’d like to get involved with Weed Warriors, please email me at tess@blufflake.org for more information! We meet on Friday mornings from 9am-12pm in the spring and fall, and 8 am-11am in the summer to beat the midday heat.
Young houndstongue
Common burdock rosette
As we see more and more humans visiting the site, we’re also seeing an increase in animal activity with the warmer weather! Red-tailed hawks are nesting at Bluff Lake, and just recently we’ve begun seeing Swainson’s hawks, which are back in Colorado after spending the winter in South America! We love seeing visitors birding at Bluff Lake, and we want to make sure the birds are just as happy to see us. Please remember to give birds their space: don’t leave trails to approach birds and their nests. As a wildlife refuge, we want to make sure that the species that live here are able to carry out their natural histories without too much interference from us humans. If you get a great photo of a bird or other animal from a safe distance, we’d love to see it submitted to eBird or iNaturalist, or you can email it to us at info@blufflake.org. Happy wildlife viewing!
While the great horned owl doesn't appear to be nesting in the same area they have been for the past couple years, they are still around! This footage was captured on April 3 on one of the game cameras deployed around the site.
