Blue Heron Nature Preserve

🔍Look closer! That's not a firefly, that's a Pale Bordered Field Roach (Pseudomops)! 🪳

These little mimics are native to Georgia, and disguise themselves as lightning bugs, which are toxic to predators. Though these bugs are far from popular, the 44 subspecies of Pseudomops Roaches are by far the most pretty.

🎉We're so psyched to hear that Kids Out and About Atlanta has nominated us! Voting is going on right now, and it ends on June 20th. Make sure to cast your ballot for the preserve!

Vote directly here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KOAASurvey2026

Or visit them on their website: https://atlanta.kidsoutandabout.com/

Junior environmental stewards to the front 🙂‍↕️Our campers 'Clam Cleanup Crew' pulled out dozens of invasive freshwater clams from the creek!

The Asian Gold Clam, or Corbicula fluminea is a species that originates from East Asia. These clams hitched a ride on industrial shipping boats, and unfortunately now can be found all throughout North and South America. If you've ever walked by a creek bed or in the woods and found small, yellowish-brown shells, it's more than likely it was a Gold Clam. They're resilient, and impact our waterways and native benthic's very negatively. They remove huge swathes of phytoplankton biomass (a key food source for other species), they unbalance concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous in the water, and profoundly influence the dynamics of our aquatic communities

All that to say, these campers did a wonderful job for our creek and had a great time doing it. One of our campers found a group of clams in the shallow water, and before you could blink a clam removal squad was assembled. Some were taken back to home aquariums, some will be fed to a campers chickens, and a select few will be participating in a "Grow the Biggest Clam" Contest! The goal is to get one to at least an inch, but the largest overall wins! Big thank you to our young stewards! These campers are the biologists of the future 🌿

Fort building is a must during summer camp! These campers put so much time, creativity and whole lot of digging into an awesome underground fort. What started as a big hole in the ground quickly transformed into more; soon, walls were reinforced around the fort, then a roof of a few larger sticks, then layers of sand, pine needles, and dead leaves to insulated it! With how much work went into building it, we're betting it'll last the whole summer. Teamwork makes the dream work 🪏!

🌊 Summer camps off with a splash! The weather finally let up and we had cool sunny days all week. We had so much fun during Creek Week, we climbed trees and dug in the dirt, waded in the water, and enjoyed everything nature had to offer! Our campers have built one of the best forts we've seen so far, all of the counselors are impressed. We're also proud of our junior environmentalists who pulled invasive Asian Clams (Corbicula fluminea) out of our waters and into home aquariums. These campers will make great biologists one day!

Now we're gearing up for next weeks theme, Art in Nature! Just a reminder, our discount code COUP26 and slots for Week 2 are still available! 🎨

This Spring, we had some amazing volunteers come out to the Preserve ❤️

On April 22nd and 23rd, Southern Company group came out and mulched the Children's Garden and added liner to fencing, which has been so beneficial we've adopted it as a general practice! They installed some new planter boxes for strawberries, and were a huge help at our community garden, which received a much needed de-weeding and sprucing up!

On May 14th, Cox Enterprises volunteers joined us to spread mulch, clean up litter, assemble a compost bin for summer camp, and most exciting, helped repair some patches in our deck and fence. Volunteers tackled that challenge headfirst, and we made major headways in replacing old boards, reinforcing the Children's Garden fence, and filling in cracks and small holes in the boards.

A couple days later on May 18th, we had volunteers from Aprio jump right in to our preserves maintenance; Our native garden was mulched with a undyed natural wood, to ensure the health of our plants and critters, and they took over completing the deck and fence repairs! We reinforced fence posts and trimmed overgrown bushes. We also spent some more time cleaning litter, and our woods and walkways are looking squeaky clean.

With our preserve free of litter, cleaned, trimmed and repaired, we're more than ready for Summer fun! From the bottom of our heart, thank you so much to everyone who spent their time out here! Our preserve relies on volunteers like you, we couldn't do it without you.

Poke!

Just a reminder; All new camper registrations (4-12 yrs) for Week 2 and Week 6 are 25% off when you use code COUP26 at checkout! For our new Little Blue Herons (4-6 yrs), you also get 25% off Week 5.

T-minus 10 days! Save your spot there while openings are still available.
https://bhnp.org/summer-camps/

‼️ Attention all nature-loving, adventure seeking kids (and parents who want them outside)‼️

To celebrate another exciting season of Summer Camp, we have a special treat for our newcomers :D

All new camper registrations (4-12 yrs) for Week 2 and Week 6 are 25% off when you use code COUP26 at checkout! For our new Little Blue Herons (4-6 yrs), you also get 25% off Week 5.

We're officially at the two week countdown till camp begins! Save your spot there while openings are still available.

https://bhnp.org/summer-camps/

It's Luna Moth season!✨🦋

While not as common as Polyphemus Moths or Sphinx Moths, these beautiful moths can still be spotted around Georgia. Keep your eyes open on the trails at the Preserve, and you just might get the chance to spot one!