Wild About Utah

A few years ago, I agreed to take care of my cousins’ dog Molly while they went on a trip. When they dropped Molly off, they mentioned she was “ball crazy.” They took out a tennis ball and threw it over the house. Molly took off like a shot. Two minutes later she came trotting …

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Our lovely fall cricket symphony finally went silent as temperatures dropped, an indicator that winter isn’t far off. I must confess that I have a love/hate relationship with insects. Early years in Michigan exposed my tender flesh to a full suite of biters and stingers- black flies, deer flies, no-see-ums, gnats, horse flies, and clouds …

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The distinctive calls of the Northern Flicker announce the arrival of fall here in northern Utah, and on cue, to too does the arrival of at least five subspecies of Dark-eyed Juncos. I’m always a little sad to see the last of what I think of as the bird-friendly coffee plantation birds of summer – …

Continue reading "The Return of the Juncos Signals Fall Bird Feeding Time!"

Camping in the High Uintah’s is never easy. Due to the rugged landscape and high elevations, every trip offers its own unique adventure. On this occasion, my long-time hunting buddy and two labs, after a 4-mile hike with 2000 feet of vertical climb, were setting up tents in the dark with pelting graupel, lightning, and …

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In the wild, a swarm of bees looking for a new home will often settle into a hollow in a tree. In some Cache Valley backyards, however. some bees will be quite content to move into a white 12×8 inch box sitting a few inches off the ground. This is how my friend Richard got …

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“Dad, what kind of bug is this?” Normally, I try not to get distracted when going up as steep an incline as the Wellsville Mountains—stopping and starting again is as much work as slowly plodding on—but, I decided that a side quest to look at a bug might give me an excuse for a much-needed …

Continue reading "A Close Encounter of the Cricket Kind"

You’ve heard the phrases, “Don’t move a mussel,” (spelled m-u-s-s-e-l) and “Stop aquatic hitch hikers.” If you have ever transported a watercraft, ranging in size from a paddle board to wake surf boat, you’ve probably been annoyed by the inconvenience of stopping at mandatory boat check stations for invasive species watercraft inspections. The threat is …

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Awhile back, I was riding my bicycle along country roads in Cache Valley, when suddenly 6 unusual looking chicks ran across the road in single file right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes just in time as the chicks disappeared down the farmhouse driveway on the other side of the road. I …

Continue reading "A Surprise visit with Cache Valley’s distant bird relatives"

My morning outing was bedazzled by masters of their aerial universe. Their agility is beyond imagination, capturing their prey with a gaping maw while flying at maximum speed, winged bullets ripping through the air. The swallows and swifts are truly marvels of aerodynamic design, with a pilot whose abilities know no bounds. They rival bats …

Continue reading "Winged Bullets of Beauty"

Ever since I started centering my entire 2nd-grade classroom instruction around a bird theme, one of the most important benefits I’ve seen is how learning at school suddenly becomes important and valuable to students outside the school walls, and because of that, students become advocates for learning to their families. My birding classroom goes well …

Continue reading "Connecting Classroom Learning to the World"