Bluffs Park (Ann Arbor) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This park is mostly mature woods and doesn't look very good for birding to me. Road noise from No. Main Street doesn't help (although it's not as bad as the road noise at Dolph Park, which is a good birding area). I didn't find much when I was there on March 8, but you wouldn't expect to find much on that date: Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Dark- eyed Junco, American Crow. I'll probably go back again in April, May, and June to see how birdy the park is then. If others go to Bluffs Park or have other experiences to report, please post to birders@umich.edu. Regarding birds at Bluffs Park, Dea Armstrong says: > I have surveyed Bluff Park for the past two years for our BBS. > I didn't find much in the way of "interesting" birds there > except Wood Thrush, Indigo Bunting and Cooper's Hawk. Dave Borneman says: > All I would add is that I have seen Carolina wrens there, and > I know they've been a regular in the next door cemetery during > recent winter counts. Bluffs Park has no official entrance and no parking area. If you look closely you will see a Bluffs Park sign, however, along the west side No. Main Street a short distance south of Huron River Drive. The sign is 30 yards south of Lake Shore Drive. Along side the sign is a narrow path into the park. Turn onto Lake Shore drive and park your car at Bandemer Park (East). I think there are two other entrances to Bluffs Park, one from a small research park just south of Huron River Drive and one from a residential area that is reached from Spring Street off Sunset (via N. Main St. to W. Summit St. to Wildt St.). I haven't yet looked for these. Bluffs Park is much like Bird Hills Park in character, which is not surprising since it is contiguous almost contiguous to Bird Hills Park. There is one relatively small open area (maybe 100 yards in diameter) at the top of the main entrance trail. The park is mostly wooded, though. It is full of gullies and ridges. The trails are largely either uphill or downhill. The park extends a good distance to the north but not very far to the south and west. It is bordered on the southwest edge by a cemetary that is separated from the park by a chain link fence. To the north you will find a bewildering assortment of winding, crisscrossing trails. I was surprised to find trails in the park since I've never heard of anyone going there. My guess is that kids ride through the park on their trail/mountain bikes. Bruce ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Borneman, Dave" To: "'Bruce M. Bowman'" , birders@umich.edu Cc: Dea Armstrong , "Borneman, Dave" , David Mindell Subject: RE: Bluffs Park (Ann Arbor) Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 21:44:15 -0500 Nice assessment Bruce - the only corrections/additions I would make is to point out that Bluffs Park is actually just the southern half of the entire block of undeveloped land there. Everything north from the main east-west ravine that splits the property in half is part of the much-talked-about "Autumn Ridge" development proposal, which was just re-submitted to the city for review. The current proposal would donate the southwest corner of their property to the Parks Department as an official addition to Bluffs Park, but everything else would be turned into condos. [There's info about development at http://www.hvcn.org/info/bluffs/faq.htm, last updated September 9, 1999. Bruce] Dea can say better than I if there's been any interesting birds reported from there. I know for awhile it was one of the few parks in the city with breeding Wood Thrushes, which I feared would be lost if the large block of habitat were further fragmented. Finally, we do have a need (long-term) to create better access to the park. I think the only official entrance now is the one near the sign on N. Main. Ask if you have any further questions about this, or any other city park. -dave Dave Borneman, Coordinator Natural Area Preservation Division Ann Arbor Department of Parks and Recreation 1831 Traver Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48105 PH: 734-994-4834 Pager: 734-797-4834 Cellular: 734-355-6658 FAX: 734-997-1072 dborneman@ci.ann-arbor.mi.us ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date sent: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 09:07:12 -0500 From: David Mindell Subject: Re: Bluffs Park To: "Bruce M. Bowman" Bluffs is mostly woods, but there is a section of it that is an old gravel quarry, which now has many prairie plants. It might not be very interesting now, however, because we burned that part a few weeks ago. If you get into the woods, you should be able to find a trail that goes around the hill, and see more evidence of our attempted prescribed burn. I am not exactly sure where the trail comes out on Main Street, we actually just cut in through the woods. You can get to the other end of the trail in the Elks' Lodge parking lot around the corner, but I don't think they want people parking there. sorry I can't be more help! Amie