“Welcome Bluebirds” is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon on March 17 at the Audubon Nature Center at Chatfield — just a few days before the spring equinox.
Families are invited to come at 9 a.m. for a presentation about the beautiful bluebirds, which come to visit near the foothills each spring, although they may choose to go higher into the mountains in summer.
The Nature Center has a number of nesting boxes installed on the site and will plan to add more this spring. Kids can also build and paint a bluebird box to take home.
The presentation and tour of the site are free, but there is a charge for the boxes, depending on size — $10 to $25. Plan a return visit soon to meet the birds and other seasonal migrants.
This is one of a number of activities offered by Audubon at its family-oriented center on the south edge of Chatfield State Park, with native gardens and trees and shrubs, trails, bridges and ponds suitable for very young kids to learn about nature, and a great variety of plants and wildlife to enjoy.
Membership is encouraged, but it is open to the public at the very south end of Wadsworth Boulevard, just across from Lockheed Martin’s Jefferson County facility.
Also on the spring schedule:
Beginning Birding Classes will introduce newcomers to one of America’s top hobbies. A classroom session will be April 29 at the center, followed by visits to the best bird-watching sites around Denver with experts Hugh and Urling Kingery. There will also be a visit to the Zoology Department at Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Cost: $150 members; $175 non-members. For information or to register, call 303-973-9530 or e-mail info@denveraudubon.org. Pre-registration is required. Graduates of the class may drop in on a $20 field trip.
A visit to the website (Look for “the Warbler” newsletter) will fill a reader in on other activities from local field trips — to Dinosaur Ridge to look for hawks, for example, or much farther afield: a trip to Brazil in August to seek hyacinth macaws, southern screamers and toco toucans among many other species.
Nearby is the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield, another fine spot for a family outing with hundreds of acres showing several ecological zones from wetland to grassland — and there’s a well-preserved old schoolhouse and a historic farm. (Just north a short distance and west of Wadsworth on Deer Creek Canyon Road, across from the main park entrance).
