(Rudy) Next on NatureScene we visit Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, within sight of Denver, Colorado.

We look at land that's being reclaimed, look mainly at prairie habitat, also some wetlands, and mule deer galore.

[ocean waves breaking] (Presenter) NatureScene is made possible in part by a grant from Santee Cooper committed to protecting and enhancing the environment by introducing green power: electricity produced from renewable sources and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you, members of the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

♪ (Jim) Hello and welcome to NatureScene at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Denver, Colorado.

I'm Jim Welch with naturalist Rudy Mancke.

We're surrounded by thousands of acres of rolling terrain, rich with wildlife, yet so close to a city of two million people.

(Rudy) That's going to be the most interesting thing we can see and talk about, is the connection between wild places and lots of people.

This is a perfect place to see that.

It's a wonderful time to talk about the Great Plains.

This is about as far west as you can go on the Great Plains.

This used to be shortgrass prairie, but we're going to see it's been changed over a long period of time by the hand of man.

We'll see how nature really has kind of held its own.

Even now with the help of the refuge here, nature is making a comeback.

When you're standing on the edge of the Great Plains, you want to turn around and look at the Rocky Mountains behind us and the faulting that occurred here in the past.

Probably 50, 60 million years ago, the uplift occurred, and, boy, that changes everything.

Rock, way, way up, exposed, eroding down, forming this shortgrass prairie we're standing on.

(Jim) This is the Front Range, the easternmost of the Rocky Mountains.

(Rudy) You see in the haze the big buildings, tall buildings in downtown Denver.

It's clear enough now -- look off to the left.

That's Pikes Peak in the distance, named after one of those early explorers that was amazed with this area.

But you think about 50, 60 million years ago, it sounds like a long time, but compared to mountains in the East, these are very young mountains.

Relatively steep here, and that's magnificent in the distance.

I wish the haze was gone, but you can see the rock sticking up, totally different environment there than you would expect here.

That creates a bit of a rain shadow here, so there's not a lot of rain on this shortgrass prairie, maybe 10 inches or more.

At least it's not a desert, but it is fairly dry here.

You can hear the sounds of human activity.

You see all the buildings that tell us about changes that have occurred on this shortgrass prairie.

(Jim) The Army came here in 1942 and built this munitions plant, that was for 40 years munitions.

Then chemical companies came in.

So people consider this, after those happenings, to be very toxic, but it's coming back.

(Rudy) Some old farms too.

The little groups of trees, probably many of them associated with the small farms that were here in the past.

This has been modified pretty heavily.

Standing on a little ridge like this, a hill, there is the Denver Airport in the distance.

That's an interesting look.

We still are modifying the world, and yet look at what nature is doing.

You think shortgrass prairie, you think grasses.

Really, the Great Plains, you think grasses.

Look at a number of them here.

The most common one, the one everybody would know, is blue grama.

You can see the flowers and fruit sticking off the side there, pretty widespread, good food source for lots of animals that would roam through this area, which used to include bison and pronghorn.

That's a good one.

Side-oats grama is another one.

You can see all the flowers and fruit aligned on one side, so side-oats grama, a pretty good common name for it.

Prairie sand reed is another one.

You can see it's taller than these with some fruit on it.

Grasses take over.

These are native species.

There is one non-native species that really has taken over the West.

It's everywhere.

Cheap grass is one of the common names.

It's Eurasian.

It's also found in north Africa, but it has taken over the West.

That's a plant that's really a frustration.

You see the yuccas too.

(Jim) Is that a narrow-leafed yucca?

(Rudy) Yeah.

Spanish bayonets is a good common name.

Very narrow leaves on it, sharp spine on the end.

You would expect it here.

It's typical; it's common.

In a sense, it's protecting its investment of food and water with the stickers.

Then speaking of stickers, prickly pear, pretty common.

You see the stickers, those flattened stems that look like leaves and then the fruit on the top that's pretty obvious.

When you've got lots of grasses, look at the lubber grasshoppers in front of us, two of them together.

The larger one is the female.

The male is on her back.

They'll mate soon, and she'll lay eggs in this sandy soil.

They'll develop into new grasshoppers.

This species doesn't have long wings.

See those little, small wings and modified back legs for hopping.

Then one other insect, a close relative of the lubber grasshopper, one of the mantises.

See it, the brown?

(Jim) Oh, sure!

(Rudy) On the yucca!

The front legs are modified.

These insects have six legs.

Sometimes the front are modified.

Sometimes the back are modified.

That's a predator looking for other insects to recycle.

I see one other thing that's interesting.

We're on a hill.

Most of this is sandy soil.

Look at these rounded pebbles all over the place.

Probably the precursor of the Platte River, the southern fork of the Platte River, that's near here today.

Probably used to be out here, left these deposits and moved on.

♪ (Jim) Seventeen thousand acres here at the refuge.

Many think of it sometimes as a very toxic place, and yet the diversity of animals is wonderful.

(Rudy) This is great.

Good variety of plants too.

Habitat diversity is important, also.

Oh, my goodness, down here, look right here!

(Jim) Oh, my gosh!

(Rudy) Prairie rattlesnake, common name.

Western rattlesnake, sometimes it's called now.

It's coiled.

Normally it's pretty quiet, but look at it and listen to that rattle.

[ rattling ] (Rudy) You see a number of segments on the rattle and the way they vibrate as it shakes its tail.

(Jim) Makes goose bumps on my arms.

(Rudy) It wouldn't usually be so loud, but we stumbled upon it as we came down the hill.

One of the venomous snakes -- that is the common venomous snake in this part of the Great Plains.

Prairie rattlesnake, implying that prairies, open places, are pretty good for it.

Feeds on birds and mammals, but it takes lots of lizards, too, reptiles.

Look at the side of the face with the stripes on either side of the eye.

One of the pit vipers, so the pit is very obvious.

The tongue just lolling out, picking up odor particles out of the air.

(Jim) Poisonous, best to leave it at its distance.

(Rudy) Usually it just doesn't move, but when you scare it, it starts backing up to defend itself.

We're too big for it to eat so it's a defensive mode now.

That's a beautiful animal, even though it is a venomous snake.

It's good to be aware that they might be in grown-up areas like this.

They love secondary growth, areas where there is lots of stuff popping up, because there is plenty of food there.

Why don't we ease down that way and leave him doing whatever he wants to do.

Couple of plants here.

(Jim) Very noticeable, beautiful lavender-type flowers.

(Rudy) Rocky Mountain beeplant is one of the common names.

All we've got to do is just look at it, and there are going to be bees and other insects coming to it.

Tremendous amount of nectar and pollen that's available here.

You see clusters of flowers on the top.

Pretty widespread, it is a native species that you would expect to be here.

Not only are the flowers interesting, look at the fruit hanging down there.

Looks like it's a wonderfully fragrant flower, but when you crush the leaves, it doesn't have a very good smell.

(Jim) The refuge staff does seeding, but these seeds drop by themselves as well.

(Rudy) That's one of the native species here.

I see another one.

Prickly poppy, common name for that thing, and prickles all over it -- all over the calyx on the flower, and the fruit, the leaves, the stem.

You see the white, floppy petals on that thing.

Prickly poppy, good common name.

Native plant, widespread on the plains and gets up into the flatter areas, up against the mountains too.

(Jim) Look up at the pole, one of the hawks, a big hawk.

(Rudy) Swainson's hawk sitting up there overlooking everything.

Oh, what a nice bird!

It doesn't really seem to mind us.

Preening a little bit.

You can see the markings on the chest there, the look of the bird.

That's a magnificent animal.

(Jim) A migrater, long distance?

(Rudy) Look at him, slipping off now and beginning to fly around.

You can see the wingspread, how broad-winged that is, and moving away.

One of the predators that finds prey here.

Here's another predator, smaller bird.

Look at the loggerhead shrike right there.

Gray and black and white, and that interesting beak gets lots of insects.

It would take lubber grasshoppers, for instance, or other grasshopper species, and feed on them.

That's a nice, little bird, a pretty widespread species.

Speaking of widespread species, here are two that are not native that are very common here.

Russian thistle is one of the names for that little plant with stickers on it, thistle-like, and it's an introduction that has taken over the western United States.

Then the dominant one here, the one that's obvious because it stands up so much, greater mullein is the common name for it, European species, brought over and has taken over certain areas.

You see the leaves, kind of cabbage-looking leaves, real fuzzy, and yellow flowers.

That's typical of that species.

One other pretty flower, look here low, clumping, and here's another native one.

Gay feather is one of the common names for that.

In the eastern United States, you'd call that blazing star.

Liatris is the genus name.

That's a nice clump.

Look at those flowers, glorious flowers!

That's doing nicely here, as is the mule deer.

Look at the mule deer looking at us!

(Jim) Oh, my goodness!

A buck in velvet.

Look at the rack, and bouncing, moving away.

You can see the black on the end of the tail.

Healthy animal -- populations are pretty high on this refuge for mule deer.

Turning around and looking at us.

Oh, man, that's a nice beast, and easing away behind the willows.

That was nice.

Under the trees over here!

Those are cottonwoods, I guess, over there.

How about that for a crowd!

(Jim) Look at that!

They say some 700 mule deer here.

(Rudy) All of those bucks.

A few hundred white-tailed, but these are all mule deer and healthy, big animals, some of the best in the West.

(Rudy) All are in velvet.

(Jim) They are.

(Rudy) Getting a bit of shade under the plains cottonwood.

(Jim) Big mule-like ears.

♪ (Jim) Different types of habitats here at the refuge.

This, Rudy, has been very cleared, which demonstrates an active town of sorts.

(Rudy) This is a prairie dog town.

They do a lot of clearing, gives them a better view of predators that might be sneaking up.

You can hear them as we walk up.

There's one yipping at us.

[ prairie dog yipping ] (Rudy) It's like a dog calling, so prairie dog is a good common name for them.

The black-tailed prairie dog is the specific species here.

You can see the dark tail kind of jerking when he yips.

Nice little mounds, wonderful burrowers and really nice communities.

Prairie dog town is a pretty reasonable way to say this.

Three to five young are born to that animal.

One of the rodents and mainly eating grasses, but they've taken the grasses away here and maybe some of the forbs too, but mainly they're looking at grasses to recycle into prairie dog.

They eat insects sometimes too.

(Jim) A very social animal and has certain structures within the town.

Warning us, of course.

(Rudy) Look at the rabbit right here.

Here's an animal that to me seems out of place.

That's the eastern cottontail rabbit.

You can see the long ears and a little brown at the nape of the neck.

That's another animal that does nicely here.

Really doesn't do any burrowing, probably hides in some of these prairie dog holes, though, just to escape predators.

(Jim) They get along with the prairie dogs?

(Rudy) Yeah, and it's not a rodent.

That's a lagomorph, one of the rabbit group.

It's not one of the true rodents.

Both serve as a food source for coyotes and hawks and other things.

(Jim) Perhaps argue over a burrow now and then.

(Rudy) Yeah.

Another thing that looks like a prairie dog mound, harvester ants, and that's one animal that does nicely here and seems to enjoy the open space.

It's a common resident of these prairie dog towns.

(Jim) Looking at it, I guess the name harvester comes from the material they bring up.

(Rudy) They are going out and harvesting what they can find and bringing it back in, bringing up little pebbles, piling them up.

You can see the mound and the activity there.

All of those female workers running around doing business.

Social insects.

It's the females that do the digging and do the working.

Here's what I wanted to see, burrowing owl.

Look at it standing up!

(Jim) You would expect one (Rudy) Skinny legs.

in a prairie dog town.

Look at the eyes there, twisting, swiveling his head around.

Oh, that's a neat animal!

They can dig, too, but usually they take over old burrows.

(Jim) About the size of a pigeon.

(Rudy) Yeah.

They're an insect eater mainly.

They would never be a threat to the prairie dogs.

They can take small mice sometimes, but, oh, that's neat.

Wait, look at this!

Isn't that another one?

(Jim) Another hole!

(Rudy) Sticking his head up out of the burrow.

(Jim) They use the burrows to raise their young in.

(Rudy) Sure.

I didn't even see that.

He's listening to us.

He's looking a bit more closely.

They love situations like this.

That connection with prairie dogs is very direct.

Here's another animal that likes open spaces, all over much of the United States.

Killdeer, common name for it, walking right toward us.

Looks like he's picking up some food.

(Jim) Two black belts across his breast.

(Rudy) Yeah, and a little more wet.

It's lower there, so maybe there's a little more food.

Feeding on invertebrates as it's coming toward us.

(Jim) Killdeer are very widespread.

Prairie dogs, of course, are here in the western plains.

(Rudy) Yeah.

That's a neat animal.

But a town with lots of residents, and not all of them are prairie dogs.

(Jim) Here's one closer, Rudy.

It's very close to us.

Look at it!

(Rudy) The burrowing owl.

He probably was there when we came up and ducked down.

You can see the face so nicely.

You can see the eyes and the little beak.

It's a small bird but particular to the plains.

This is absolutely the right habitat for it.

Thank goodness they are trying to protect this kind of habitat because most other places it's being lost, and when the habitat is gone -- look at him pop down -- so are the owls.

♪ (Jim) There are three primary types of habitats: the woodlands, grasslands, and wetlands.

This is Lake Mary, constructed about 1960 by the officers, and this boardwalk put in by refuge staff.

(Rudy) Different habitat, standing water, great blue heron out there.

(Jim) Oh, yeah!

(Rudy) Not really affected by us, just standing and looking.

(Jim) That's the way they hunt, (Rudy) Yeah.

so solitary.

Long neck, stiletto-like beak, widespread species.

It would not be here if it were not for this particular habitat.

It's in the perfect place for it.

(Jim) Another heron over here.

(Rudy) That's a nice one.

That's one not quite so commonly seen.

Black-crowned night heron is the common name for it.

It's right up in those -- looks like willows from here.

Willows love wet places, but the bird is nice, all the lighter color and then the black crown, which gives it the common name.

Usually a lighter feather coming out of the side of the head.

Night heron because they are more active on overcast days, or at night, or dusk and dawn.

That's a nice bird to be here, perfect place for it.

(Jim) Look at the birds flying around.

(Rudy) There are lots of swallows.

Those are migratory birds, so they're gathering together, and pretty soon they'll be heading away.

Mainly those are cliff swallows.

Nested somewhere else, coming here to get water or maybe to catch insects flying over the water.

A couple of barn swallows in there too.

Those are really nice.

That's what you would expect at situations like this, and there they are.

Cattails all over the place.

It's so nice to see them scattered around wet places.

They love to have their feet wet.

Look at the little dragonfly right here, pied skimmer.

(Jim) Pied skimmer?

(Rudy) Yeah, and a male.

Look how brightly marked.

The black and white on the wings is so typical.

That's a species that kind of stakes out territories here.

You expect them right in this situation.

The females would lay eggs in the standing water.

That's a widespread species.

(Jim) What tree is this?

(Rudy) One of the willows.

Look at the movement on the branch that's been broken.

There's sap oozing out, and lots and lots of insects are coming.

I see yellow jackets and flies, but look at the butterfly that's right there.

Goatweed butterfly is the common name for that one.

You can see an orangy coloring on the hind wings.

See almost like a little tooth on the hind wing that sticks out?

That's the way you identify it.

That's not a species I see a lot, but it feeds on a little plant called goat weed, which is one of the Crotons.

(Jim) Kind of a coppery color.

Here's another butterfly, the red admiral?

(Rudy) Red admiral is the name for that.

The tongues are out on those butterflies getting sap that's oozing out of that tree.

That's probably energy.

It's sugar that the tree is producing and the butterflies are taking.

That red admiral, doesn't even look like a scale is missing, which is absolutely spectacular.

Again, on the seepage out of the willows.

You expect to see that.

That connection is a real one.

(Jim) Right below us.

In front of us!

One of your friends.

I saw it too.

Plains garter snake.

There is a snake that is absolutely in the right place.

We're on the edge of the Great Plains.

You see how obvious that central stripe is.

That makes identification pretty easy.

You can still see the stripes on the side.

(Jim) Not very big.

A young one?

(Rudy) That's a young one, smaller individual, nonvenomous snake.

You would figure it would be feeding on frogs and tadpoles and small fish, whatever it can get.

It doesn't seem too bothered by us, but there he goes, moving away.

Those stripes you see -- it's hard as it's moving to get a view of the whole body.

It sort of blends in well with the striping.

(Jim) Great diversity here.

Right across the way, Canada geese, which are across the country by now.

They go all over the United States.

(Rudy) They don't do as much migrating as they used to but coming out of the water a lot of times to get green material to recycle.

They're active right there.

That's probably the most well-known goose in the United States.

Look up high here against the sky.

That's nice up there!

White pelicans wheeling around, hardly even moving their wings.

You've got your binoculars.

You can see the black even with the naked eye on those wings.

(Jim) Black tips on the wings.

When they turn, what a beautiful sight, turning and wheeling.

(Rudy) Playing with warm, rising air.

♪ (Jim) One of the roads leads right through the cottonwood trees.

Great trees all around us.

(Rudy) I love them.

They also signal water.

Plains cottonwood is the name for this particular one.

Often associated with home sites too.

Look right over here!

Look at the coyote moving away!

Moving away from us with the tail down, ears up, and sort of reddish on the nape of the neck.

That's an animal that you figure would be here, usually secretive enough not to be seen, but that's one predator that gets lots of animals and changes them into coyote.

(Jim) Prairie dogs and young fawns.

(Rudy) Just looking at us as he moves away from us.

A lot of activity here.

Look on this side over here, white-tailed deer.

That's not mule deer.

Doe...out in the field nibbling a little grass, not as common as mule deer, but they really like those woods.

I see something else moving.

Mammals are popping out all over the place.

The squirrel here would be a fox squirrel.

Look at that one up in the dead tree, stripping off the bark and rolling it up in a ball to take back to line its nest.

(Jim) Either the woods nest for the winter or the summer nest.

(Rudy) Yeah.

Really doing a lot of work.

You see that bushy tail kind of keeping him in position.

Then under the cottonwoods, look at that group of mule deer, Jim.

Look at the large antlers on a couple of those males.

I even think there's a female or two in that bunch.

(Jim) This refuge does prize itself on great herds of mule deer.

(Rudy) Yeah.

Those are great animals, eating leaves, too, reaching up and taking those plains cottonwood leaves, changing them into something else.

Pretty soon they will be separating.

The males will be on their own.

(Jim) Look at the beautiful monarch butterfly, again showing the great diversity of wildlife here.

(Rudy) Sitting on a thistle.

You see the tongue going in and out from flower to flower.

That's a nice connection, and when you think of that butterfly, the old name for it was milkweed butterfly.

Look at the stand of showy milkweed easing out just beyond the shadow of the trees with some fruit on it, too, this time of year.

Look under one of the leaves there... shed skin of a cicada, large enough to see from here.

Spending a lot of time underground sucking sap out of roots of the plains cottonwood, coming out, shedding its skin and flying away, living a couple weeks.

You can hear the sounds of the cicadas all around us.

[ cicadas calling ] What a great place to study nature, to look at nature and observe, here at the Arsenal.

And see how the hand of man affects natural areas and how nature, when you give her a chance, can come back.

Shortgrass prairie, this part of the Great Plains is going, going, almost gone.

It's great when you protect areas like this and actually reclaim them.

Twenty-seven square miles of beautiful, beautiful nature preserved for almost 60 years, just a central core of the industry.

This is Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Denver, Colorado.

Thanks for watching and join us again next time on NatureScene .

♪ A production of... NatureScene is made possible in part by a grant from Santee Cooper committed to protecting and enhancing the environment by introducing green power: electricity produced from renewable sources and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by viewers like you, members of the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.