What I do all day

Although common in western North America, black-billed magpies are often viewed as exotic by visitors to the area because of their iridescent colors and long flowing tail feathers. Like most corvids, magpies are smart and their complex nests are intricate works of art designed to keep the chicks safe by making it almost impossible for predators to raid. 

While there are constantly new things to discover in the wild lands of Wyoming, it seems the biggest changes of the year occur in those magic months of the spring season. Winter visitors are leaving the plains for higher elevations as snowbirds make their way north to birth and raise their offspring in sagebrush flats and mountain meadows. In this episode, Kathy discusses some of the ways in which the landscape looks different as temperatures warm and days grow longer.

While some people have gnomes on their lawn, Kathy occasionally shares her outdoor living space with a herd of several hundred animals, each weighing in at around 700 lbs. In this episode she talks about the elk that winter on a back pasture and move down onto the flats for a few weeks each spring before following the green wave up the mountain to graze verdant meadows during the summer months. 

Even though pinyon jays are common in certain parts of the Rocky Mountain West, they are often overlooked or mis-identified as bluebirds. Their antics make them a fun species to observe and their vocalizations are sure to bring a smile to the listener's face. 

In this episode, Kathy talks about pronghorn, an iconic species of the American West and the only member of the family Antilocapridae. Not only are pronghorn the fastest animals in the Western Hemisphere, they are the only ones in the world that can maintain high speeds over considerable distance and time. 

Feral pigeons, also known as rock doves,  are the birds city dwellers often love to hate but they are a fascinating species that has a definite role to play in the natural world. In this episode, Kathy recounts stories of the local population of pigeons and how they interact with other residents of the ecosystem. 

While the opportunity to see a wild animal in its native habitat is exciting, it is not always possible. That is where the knowledge of how to identify animal tracks comes in handy, permitting the viewer to experience the thrill of knowing that a wild creature shares the land, even if the animal itself goes unseen. In this episode, Kathy talks about some of the tracks she has followed and recounts the stories that those trails have told. 

Just seeing golden eagles is a rare treat but in Kathy's case, she gets to observe their antics on a near daily basis. In this episode, we hear about the eagles that have shared the landscape of her home and about some of the threats that face these golden warriors of the sky. 

Barbed wire fences are ubiquitous across the plains of the American West, so much so that we often ignore their presence. But what about those wild animals that rely on freedom of movement to travel across the landscape in order to survive? In this episode Kathy talks about some of the changes that are taking place as we learn more about the need for wildlife friendly fencing and some of the organizations, like the Absaroka Fence Initiative,  that are stepping up to make it happen.

Many people have never had the opportunity to see rosy-finches but for the last decade, Kathy's home has served as a winter time bed and breakfast for the hardy little birds that spend their summers above tree-line, high up in the alpine.