Wild About Utah

Earning national recognition as a birding hotspot the “Lytle Ranch” is a destination for birders from across the nation and beyond. But that is only a portion of what this ranch offers to me or anyone else with an interest in nature. When I visit the ranch, located in the extreme Southwest corner of Utah …

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Winter is a season when most of us spend more of our time indoors. But wild animals don’t have that option. Not only must they find ways to keep warm all winter, but they have to work harder to find food. That’s why so many songbirds take advantage of the seeds and suet supplied by …

Continue reading "Tiny Brain, Big Memory"

I first time I came face to face with a living, breathing reindeer was a few weeks ago at the Reindeer Express hosted by Utah State University vet students. Two vets from the Mt. West Animal Hospital near Provo had brought two of their reindeer with them to Cache Valley and were standing by to …

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I’m so ready for snow to cover our lower canyons which allows me to ski near our canyon home! I’m not alone on this wish. Thinking of those little furry critters that use snow to protect them from hungry predators- hawks, owls, coyotes, fox, cats, etc. With the grasses lying low to the ground, the …

Continue reading "Rough-legged Visitors"

I’m sitting here today with first grader Nora Baggaley and USU student teacher Ashlyn Prince. Just steps away from where we spend our days at Edith Bowen Laboratory School on the campus of Utah State University, we find Swenson Park, built on the lot where May’s childhood home once stood. She spent her elementary school …

Continue reading "Mourning Cloaks and Witchy Skies"

When the winter chill sets in, that’s my cue to start filling the suet feeders, plug in the heated bird bath, and keep the Black Oil Sunflower Seed in stock for the grand variety of birds which visit my home through the Winter. I feed the birds because I know that my visitors will have …

Continue reading "The Christmas Bird Count is a Most Wonderful Time of the Year!"

When I started teaching at Preston High School, one of the first books my English class read was The Diary of Anne Frank. I remember asking the class if they had any family stories of their own to share about those war years. A young woman raised her hand and said her grandparents had a …

Continue reading "Sugar Beets and German POWs in Cache Valley"

Leaves have fallen and are falling- it’s Fall!! Their beauty, crunchiness, and odors excite my senses. Consider the leaf, these lovely little solar collectors! How can any device imagined by the human brain collect light energy from the sun and convert it to food and oxygen while sequestering carbon? A tall order, even with AI! …

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I lost a beloved friend and mentor two weeks ago in a fluke canyoneering accident in Zion National Park. I first met Eric Jones when I was four years old. My family had just moved to Sugarhouse, in the Salt Lake Valley. I rode my red, yellow, and blue Big Wheel Speedster down the sidewalk …

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Marie and Her Yellow Jacket. Today’s story is in both Spanish and English. To hear an English version listen on Monday Morning after 7:41 am and again in the 8 o’clock hour, or online here and at UPR.org Hemos pasado dias de calor, en los cuales hemos podido disfrutar de rios, lagos, piscinas, pero lo …

Continue reading "Marie y su chaqueta amarilla."