No, I did not hear the owl call my name—meaning my number is up and death is imminent according to some native tribes. But I do hear them call. The great horned owl is also referred to as the “hoot owl.” There are few owl species that hoot in our area, and those who do so are extremely rare. Great horned owls are great in stature, second only to great grays among northern American owls. Further, they are fierce predators and valiant protectors of their young. Don’t mess with their nest! Due to

THUNK! We have all been startled by the loud thunk of a bird hitting a window. In the United States window collisions kill an estimated 1 billion birds a year with 44% of bird window collisions occurring at homes throughout the year. So, changes made around your home can help maintain our bird populations.

Sometimes I have a hard time coming up with fun or fancy things to say for the radio. It’s just a thing that happens.

‘Remote’ is not a characteristic I would assign to the city center, a major metropolis like where I grew up. But I also remember summers spent high in the crown of our old magnolia tree, where my 8 year old self may have begged to differ. There, I found wildness—forgot about time and place and the civilization that occupied them.

Back in October 2019, the ranger at the Great Salt Lake State Park began to notice a white mound forming on the sand flats behind the visitor center. The white mounds turned out to be hydrated sodium sulfate, known as mirabilite, which was being carried to the surface by the upwelling of a fresh water spring.

If it flies like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, but there’s hundreds in a maelstrom whirlpool whose torrent of wingbeats make your ears mute and skull hum, it must be a Great Salt Lake tornado a la duck.

Oft have we, my friends and I, Left cares of home, and work day woes To find a haven, there cast a fly; And where we’ll camp–God only knows.

It all began so innocently. Let’s bring over a few European starlings to add authenticity for a Shakespearean theatrical. That was 1890. Today, North America has about half of the world population of starlings, approaching a few hundred million.

Before installing our permaculture gardens at Utah State University, Moab, the only birds I observed from my office window were Eurasian Collared Doves and crows.

The fresh morning snow teaches me things I didn’t know, and reminds me of that which I had forgotten after a long year living once more with dark, firm soil.