It is always hardest to wake up on Mondays. And we are diurnal humans! Because of the sleepy nature of Mondays, SPREE spent this past Monday learning about the nocturnal and crepuscular animals that roam our city and state when the sun goes down.
We started off the day by defining the words diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal, and then brainstorming animals that fit with each word. Diurnal refers to animals that are awake during the day and sleep at night such as squirrels, songbirds, and humans. Nocturnal animals sleep during the day and are awake at night such as racoons, owls, bats, and skunks. Crepuscular is a tricky word because it isn’t always learned, but it turns out that most of our City’s critters fit in this category. Crepuscular animals sleep through most of the day AND night! Crepuscular animals are awake and active during dawn and dusk. Many Denver animals fit in this category such as beaver, muskrat, deer, and rabbits.
The River Ranger high school interns had an incredible opportunity to learn to snowboard at Vail ski resort this Saturday.
Our day started long before the sun rose, as we met up with Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) and drove up into the Rocky Mountains. Our 10 interns engaged in lessons alongside students from ELK, as part of SOS Outreach’s SnowCore program. This program provides youth with a one day snowboard trip that includes professional instruction, equipment rentals, lift tickets, and lunch.
On Friday, SPREE took advantage of the beautiful weather and a day-off of school to run our Neat Nesters Holiday Camp. We spent the day learning about Denver animals that make nests- and we found out that plenty of species are nesting creatures! At its most simple definition, nests are places built by animals to provide safety and shelter, especially for their young. With this definition, it is hard to think of an animal that DOESN’T build a nest.
We started our camp day by learning about the animals most commonly thought of when discussing nests- birds. We are lucky in Denver, because there are many unique birds that nest in our City. Campers learned about a few different bird species and the distinct nest types they make. Some Denver nesters include killdeer, flickers, red-tailed hawks, and Cliff Swallows. After learning about where to look for these bird nests and how they are constructed, campers transformed themselves into mini red-tailed hawks and constructed some nests of their own using recycled papers. Some campers got so into the activity, they made some baby birds that can “hatch” out of eggs in their nests!