Dave’s Nature Almanac: April
Nature Almanac: Monthly Menu
Spring is happening right outside your window, and right in your neighborhood!
Western Chorus Frogs start singing in marshes and roadside ditches filled with snow melt. Each tiny frog could sit on the last joint of your thumb. They are colored like brownish muddy moss-covered pebbles and make their song by inflating their throat sack with air.
Black bears are waking up after a long winter hibernation, and they are ravenously hungry after months of sleep.
In spring it's common for mountain lions to come into Boulder and explore – sometimes they spend the day snoozing in trees in people’s yards. Colorado Parks and Wildlife and OSMP conducted a 10-year radio tagging study to learn about Boulder’s lions. Watch a fascinating and enlightening presentation of the data.
-
Look for Early-bird Wildflowers!
Most of our early spring native flowers are tiny so they can shake off crushing wet spring snow storms. Look for the sweet-scented flowers of Oregon holly grape, white four-petaled clusters of Rocky Mountain candytuft, or delicate pinkish-white spring beauties.
Pale purple Pasque flowers will soon poke up through the pine needles. Non-native dandelions and little pink filaree (stork’s bill) flowers will also appear.
-
Bull snakes are harmless to humans
• Blue herons begin nesting in communal rookeries. They build sloppy stick platforms in the tops of trees near water sources.
• Bull snakes break out of hibernation and may be seen mating. They are harmless to humans.
• Rattlesnakes also come out of hibernation and gradually start moving away from their communal winter den. To avoid them, stay on designated trails and keep your dog close. Rattlesnakes and bull snakes are very similar in appearance: look for the rattle and the triangular rattlesnake head – don’t be fooled!