Wild About Utah: Thrushes

Utah is blessed with many melodious songbirds, but which one sings most beautifully of all? I vote for the haunting, achingly beautiful melodies of our two common thrushes, Swainson's Thrush and Hermit Thrush. These birds have been leisurely migrating northward from the tropics since early spring. By June, males are singing on their forested territories.

Thrushes are a bit secretive, but if you're lucky, you'll see a bird a tad smaller than a robin clothed in rich brown back feathers that contrast with a pale breast sporting descending lines of fat brown spots the size of raindrops. Both thrush species look much the same, however. To distinguish them, you need to listen. Their haunting melodies arise deep in their chests, in the syrinx. Their syrinx works something like our larynx, using vibrating membranes that can be stretched taut or relaxed to produce different notes. Unlike our larynx, the bird's syrinx sits where it's two tracheae meet the windpipe. The most skilled songsters, like these thrushes, can work the two sides of their syrinx independently to produce two simultaneous notes.

The song of the Swainson's Thrush always ends in a spiral of ascending notes.

Now listen to the song of the Hermit Thrush. It ends with a warbling flourish that alternately rises or falls in pitch.

It helps me to remember the song of the Hermit Thrush as being a lonely hermit talking to himself in two different voices, one ending high, the other low.

The glorious songs of thrushes grace our woodlands all through the weeks of early summer. So listen carefully and see if you too can now distinguish the song of Swainson's Thrush from that of the Hermit.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.


Credits:
Photos: Courtesy Fish and Wildlife Service Online Digital Media Library
http://www.fws.gov/digitalmedia/
Audio: Dr. Kevin Colver, www.wildsanctuary.com
Text: Jim Cane & Jason Pietrzak, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Community Discussion Groups

Want to learn about food choices, living a more simple life, or climate change? How about some place-based education or how the choices you make as a parent affect your children? If any of these sound interesting to you, read on!

USEE is starting another round of Community Discussion Groups! Community Discussion Groups are run like book clubs where your group meets after you read each section of the book and discuss the themes that arose. If you are interested in participating, please RSVP by June 15. For more information about what each book is about and to RSVP, visit USEE's Community Discussion Group page.

Here are the upcoming classes and their start dates:

• Menu for the future- June 25, 6:00 pm-7:00 pm
  
• Global Warming- June 23, 6:00 pm-7:00 pm
  
• Healthy Children Healthy Planet- June 22, 6:00 pm-7:00 pm
  
• Discovering a Sense of Place- June 23, 6:00 pm-7:30 pm
  
• Voluntary Simplicity- June 23, 4:00 pm- 5:00 pm

These classes are a lot of fun and really get you thinking. Want to know more about the voluntary simplicity course? It was featured on the news a couple of weeks ago, so if you didn't catch the boadcast, check it out here.

Forests of the World

Project Learning Tree (PLT) has a new secondary curriculum, Forests of the World, and last night Andree' did the first training for the new book at USEE's May Green Bag lecture. PLT describes the course as:

"Forests of the World provides formal and nonformal educators with a series of activities to help students and educators gain an increased understanding and appreciation of the diversity of world forest environments, with an emphasis on the human interaction with and dependence on those environments. The module activities provide students with opportunities to apply scientific processes and higher order thinking skills while investigating world forestry issues and conducting service learning action projects."

What do you know about the forests of the world? Take a glance at these questions from one of the Forests of the World activities and test your knowledge!

How much of Earth's land area do you think is covered by forests?
a. 5%
b. 10%
c. 30%
d. 50%

Which three countries have the most forest land?
a. United States, Australia, Peru
b. Russia, Brazil, Canada
c. China, Canada, United States
d. Russia, Canada, China

Some things to think about:

What are 5 ways that your everyday life in connected to forests?

What is a forest that you have been to or have heard about? How are you connected to this forest?

How do you think humans have affected forests locally or globally in the past 100 years?

Answers: c,b.

If you are interested in the Forests of the World training or any other secondary or K-8 PLT training contact Andree' today by calling 801-328-1549 or by emailing andree@usee.org!

Take a Break Friday!

Take a break, it's Friday! We don't normally post things like this on the blog, but this story is definitely fun and provides some interesting insight into what, exactly, is an educator?

What is an Educator?

According to a news report, a private school in Washington was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lip stick, they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every night the maintenance man would remove them, and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the 12 year old girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. There are teachers ... and then there are educators.

Happy Memorial Day weekend and be safe during any travels you may be embarking upon!

Wild About Utah: Riparian Habitat

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

When you think of Utah, a number of iconic landscapes come to mind. The arches, buttes and mesas in southeastern Utah's red rock country, the snow-capped mountains of the majestic Wasatch Range, the endless horizon of the Bonneville Salt Flats, and the immense expanse of the Great Salt Lake. But the most critical ecosystem in terms of life support for Utah's plants and animals is not always recognized. I'm referring to riparian zones. These are the ecosystems that occur along the banks of streams and rivers. They are most recognizable in the desert where they occur as distinctive green strips of vegetation along waterways. But they also occur in grasslands, shrublands and forests, albeit with different compositions of plants and animals.

Riparian areas provide all the basic needs of life - food, water and shelter from predators - in a surprisingly compact space. Intact riparian zones are physically complex, with a layer of grass, then shrubs, then upper canopy trees. This structural complexity creates a number of biological niches. That's why the highest levels of biodiversity are consistently found there. Average bird densities are approximately twice as high in riparian areas as in adjacent upland areas. And more wildlife species use riparian areas than all other habitats in Utah combined. Even fish populations are higher in streams adjacent to riparian areas. Fish use woody debris as shelter, and the vegetation stabilizes stream channels and reduces temperature fluctuations in the water.

Riparian areas only cover about one half of one percent of Utah's total land area. Above 5500 feet the dominant woody plants are willow, cottonwood, water birch, black hawthorn and wild rose. Common animals include the northern river otter, the beaver, American dipper, smooth greensnake and the rubber boa.

Lowland riparian areas represent one of the rarest habitats in the state-covering only 0.2 percent of Utah's total land area. Fremont cottonwood, netleaf hackberry, velvet ash, desert willow and squaw-bush are the most visible plants here. The exotic tamarisk and Russian olive are now frequently part of the lowland mix. Mollusks, broad-tailed hummingbirds, canyon treefrogs, Allen's big-eared bats, yellow-billed cuckoos, and many other animals depend on lowland riparian habitats. My personal riparian favorite is the belted kingfisher that patrols the green-lined waterways in search of tasty fish.

Humans were originally riparian creatures. But once we learned to pipe and move water at will, we were free to settle elsewhere. Nevertheless, we are still attracted to aquatic landscapes. So Utah's riparian areas have taken on a recreational function for many of us. They offer great fishing, they cool us off as we paddle or float, and they provide a quiet sanctuary to enjoy the sight and sound of water. Best of all, riparian areas offer an excellent opportunity to catch a glimpse of Utah's amazing wildlife.

Thanks to the USU College of Natural Resources for supporting research and development of this Wild About Utah topic. And thanks to Frank Howe of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and Charles Hawkins of USU's Watershed Science Department for their help with the scientific content of this piece.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Text: Stokes Nature Center - Mary-Ann Muffoletto, Frank Howe & Holly Strand

Photos:

• High Creek, an upper riparian area - Courtesy & Copyright © 2006 Stephen Peterson
• Lower Calf Creek: A lower riparian zone - Courtesy and Copyright © Charles Hawkins
• Invasive Tamarisk(Salt Cedar) populates a lower riparian zone in Professor Valley along the Colorado River - Courtesy and Copyright © 2009 Holly Strand
  

Utah Project for Excellence in EE Update

Yesterday, USEE met with non-formal and formal Environmental Educators from all over the state to discuss the findings from the 18-month long Utah Project for Excellence in Environmental Education and the future of EE in Utah. We would like to thank all of you who participated!

In the next couple of years there will be some major things happening for EE in Utah! Many goals have been set by USEE and meeting participants to further EE in the years to come. Some of USEE's projects include:

• An extensive EE Clearinghouse/Database;
• A Statewide Environmental Literacy Plan;
• Furthering the findings from this project by helping other organizations meet the goals they set yesterday at the meeting and by working with the Utah State Office of Education and the Governor's office to increase EE awareness.

These are some very big projects and we looking forward to tackling them soon. Now we need to wrap up this project which includes getting all of this information online for other EE organizations, teachers, and the public to see what we've accomplished so far. We are very excited to finish up this project so we can use this information to undertake the next projects we've outlined. Stay tuned for final reports, websites, and future plans based on what we've found throughout the past year and a half. For more information, please visit the Utah Project for Excellence in EE website. If you have any questions about this project, the meeting we held yesterday, or the future plans from this project, please contact me at nicole@usee.org today!

Clean the Air Challenge

The USEE staff has joined together and created the Utah Society for Environmental Education Clean the Air Challenge Team! By accepting this challenge, USEE is doing its part to help improve air quality and make Utah a better place to live for us all and for future generations. On the Clean the Air Challenge site we are going to track how many trips in the car we are eliminating each day by walking, biking, carpooling, taking public transportation, working from home, or other endless possibilities.

You can take the challenge too! Register at www.cleantheairchallenge.org and invite your friends, family members, and coworkers to join you.

Don’t have a team, but would like to participate with other EEers? Join the USEE team by selecting the Utah Society for Environmental Education under “join an existing team.” Good luck and happy air-cleaning!

I'm a Star!

I'm totally famous. People from friends parents in Idaho to my step daughters preschool teacher have been telling me how they saw me on Fox 13 news last night and this morning. Well, though I do enjoy being in the spotlight, this one really wasn't about me.

We (the Utah Society for Environmental Education) run a program developed by the Northwest Earth Institute in Portland Oregon that gets groups of people together in book club type groups to talk about various topics ranging from healthy children to living simply. The Voluntary Simplicity course was something Fox 13 was interested in highlighting (with the economic times and all), so Cath Edvalson (Nicole's mom) and myself were interviewed after we finished up our discussion group.

Simplicity has many meanings and can range from buying less, gardening, eating lower on the food chain, eliminating stress to raising chickens. Whatever it is that simplifies your life and makes you happy, go for it!

Check out part one below and click here for part two highlighting Cath.

USEE on the News Tonight!

Attention Utah Readers! USEE is going to be featured on Fox 13 News tonight on the 9:00pm broadcast. This is a 2 part segment featuring USEE's Voluntary Simplicity Discussion Group where Andree' is giving the low down on what voluntary simplicity is, what it means to her, and how you can get involved. (Her chickens will also be featured!) One of the class participants was also interviewed and she'll tell her story about what changes she's made because of this class.

So check it out tonight at 9:00pm on Fox 13!

Bronco, BBQ, and Teriyaki in the Backyard Barnyard
Andree' Walker-Bravo

Voluntary Simplicity Highlight

As many of you know, USEE just finished up the Voluntary Simplicity Community Discussion course that we offer. From this course the we have all been trying to implement different ways that we feel make our own lives more simple from not purchasing new items to growing our own veggies. We all have differnt styles of choosing simplicity, but for the most part I think one way we are all implementing simplicity into our lives is through the awareness of how we spend our time.

For me, this has mostly been about being conscious of the time that I spend doing different activities in my life, incorporating more of the things that make me happy, and asking myself, "what is important for me today?" For instance, I am spending more time with my friends and family, more time playing my guitar, more time cooking (I just recently finished a bread baking class and I have enjoyed employing my new skills), more time exploring my neighborhood, and more time reading. I am starting my first garden I have really enjoyed learning about plants and gardening and also being outside in the sunshine. I spend less time in front of the TV and the internet. If I decide that I want to watch a movie, I make sure that I'm making a conscious decision that it is really what I want to spend that part of my day on, rather than just passively turning something on because I'm bored. I feel that I have grown tremendously from this experience and lead a happier life for it.


USEE and our Voluntary Simplicity Course is being featured on the news tomorrow night! The story is going to be on the local Fox News at 9:00pm. The story is going to be part of their sweeps week, so it is going to be the overarching theme throughout the whole newscast. Andree' will be featured through much of it as well as two of the people who took the course and have made some drastic changes (read about their journey) in their lives.

The nice thing about voluntary simplicity is that it means something different to everyone. In the context of a community discussion course, you can easily explore what those different meanings are and learn from them. Contact us today if you are interested in starting or joining a Voluntary Simplicity Community Discussion group and don't forget to catch us on the news tomorrow night. How are you simplifying your life?

Wild About Utah: Snowbank Mushrooms

Hiding beneath and fruiting near the retreating snow banks here in the western mountains of North America are legions of mushrooms. Collectively known as snowbank fungi, this diverse group of fungal species is found only in the high elevation forests of our mountains were snow lingers into the summer months. These species are found mostly in the spruce-fir zone in mature forests were there is abundant litter and woody material on the forest floor and the snow pack is deep and lingers in the deep shade the trees provide. Many of the species found in such conditions are found no where else, while others are found elsewhere in the world, but not under these unique conditions.

This diverse group of fungi was first reported by Wm, Bridge Cooke in 1944 from Mt. Shasta, California. Here along the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, the snowbank fungi are a predictable lot and diverse and often abundant enough to wow even the experienced mushroomer. Some species are strictly decomposers that break down the forest litter and woody debris that carpets the forest floor while others are mycorrhizal forming those ecologically important beneficial relationships with the area plants.

The species found range from silver-gray gilled species to colorful cup and jelly fungi. At an otherwise drab time in the forest blue-stained orange cub fungi litter areas were squirrels have cached conifer seeds and cones; pale orange jelly-like poor man’s gumdrops drops dot woody debris on the forest floor. Large logs and stumps play hot to the deep orange sponge polypore with its deep ragged teeth, hidden on the forest floor is the black champagne glass-shaped Plectannia nannfeldtii, while the pale-brown, gilled Clitocybe albirhiza is rather widely scattered on the forest floor it is easily distinguished by the copious white root-like projections at the base of the stem just below the soil surface. Slime molds are found fruiting as is the edible wood ear, beneath the soil are several false truffles attracting the squirrels with enticing (to them) aromas.

So why wait for the snow to melt to enjoy the high forest? These and many more wait to be discovered just under the melting snow.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:
Photo: Lentinus montana.; by Don Johnston, © 2009 Intermountain Herbarium
Text: Michael Piep, Intermountain Herbarium, Utah State University

Plant Anatomy 101: Artichokes!

Have you ever thought about what an artichoke actually is? It's such a strange looking vegetable. A friend of mine once told me that it was a flower, so I wanted to delve into this idea a little bit more and really get at the heart of the matter:

Artichokes originated in the southern Europe, mainly in the Mediterranean region. The plant of the artichoke can grow to be 6 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet tall. Artichokes are also in the thistle family and my friend was partially right when she said that an artichoke was a flower. Artichokes are actually the bud of a flower that has yet to bloom. Inside the bud is the meaty heart, which is protected by rows and rows of petals. The bases of the petals, the heart, and the entire stem are the edible parts of the plant while the rest of the petals and the feathery 'choke' are inedible. If the bud goes unharvested, it will eventually bloom into a purple or dark blue flower, which is also inedible.

The artichoke is definitely one of the most interesting vegetables, or flowers, that we eat! Teachers: visit the California Artichoke Advisory Board kid's corner web page for a fun crossword puzzle to teach your students about Artichokes!



Credits:
Artichokes Photo
Artichoke Anatomy Diagram

Artichoke Flower Photo

Wild About Utah: Spring Migration

Hi, I’m Holly Strand from Stokes Nature Center in beautiful Logan Canyon.

As temperatures warm and spring flowers appear, Utahans will hear an increasingly diverse choir of twitters, whistles, chatters, and coos filling the air. Continuing over the next few weeks, thousands of migratory songbirds will mingle with our year-round avian residents in fields, forests, and wetlands.

No road maps or GPS units guide these migrants to their desired destinations. Scientists continue to marvel at how the birds know exactly where to go. There is evidence that magnetic fields of the Earth, landmarks, the Moon and stars—even specific odors-- may guide their flight.

Most songbirds migrate during the night. Cooler air helps keep the birds from overheating. Also, night air tends to be less turbulent, so birds are less likely to be blown off course. Just like humans stuck in an airport, birds can be grounded for hours or days during bad weather. Birds may die of hunger, fly into objects, or be eaten en route. Obviously the benefits of the destination must outweigh the risk of travel or birds simply wouldn’t bother.

So where are these migrant birds coming from? Well, not unlike some Utahans, many birds spend the colder months in Arizona or New Mexico. Others overwinter south of the border in Mexico or Central America.

Bobolinks have one of the longest annual migrations of any North American songbird. These Neo-tropical migrants travel over 12,000 miles from their North American breeding grounds to their "wintering" grounds in Argentina or Paraguay. This means they spend about half of each year in migration. They typically arrive in Utah in early to mid May. Even after such a long flight, there’s no time for rest. The weary, soon-to-be-parents must busily prepare for the arrival of hungry offspring. Then around mid August or September it’s time for the long flight back to the southern hemisphere.

No longer common, bobolinks are now spotted in isolated patches primarily in the northern half of the state. Look for them nesting or foraging in wet meadow and grasslands, and irrigated agricultural fields.

Frank Howe and Mary-Ann Muffoletto provided text and background information for this piece. Thanks to the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation and the USU College of Natural Resources for supporting research and development of Wild About Utah topics.

For Wild About Utah and Stokes Nature Center, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:
Text: Stokes Nature Center: Holly Strand with text from Mary-Ann Muffoletto, Frank Howe
Photo: Bobolinks by Michael Brown

Become a Citizen Scientist

From counting toads, to observing plants bud, to reporting bird sightings, citizen science is taking off across the country (there was even a recent story about it on CNN) .

In a nutshell, citizen science is the process of using individual volunteers to collect scientific data on specific species and issues. These programs offer great opportunities for teachers and parents to directly involve children in learning about the process of science and data collection. Most citizen science projects also offer great background resources and suggestions to help get started.

Here's a list of Projects to get you started:

Project Budburst (my favorite)

Join thousands of others in gathering valuable environmental and climate change information from across the country. Project BudBurst engages the public in making careful observations of the phenophases such as first leafing, first flower, and first fruit ripening of a diversity of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses in their local area

eBird

A real-time, online checklist program, eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

Monarch Watch

Note: Monarch Watch only deals with butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains. See The Monarch Program below for details.

Monarch Watch is an educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas that engages citizen scientists in large-scale research projects. This program produces real data that relate to a serious conservation issue. Monarch Watch gets children of all ages involved in science.

The Monarch Program

The Monarch Program deals with butterflies in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Regions of the United States. Their program is very similar to Monarch Watch, however they serve everything West of the Rocky Mountains while Monarch Watch deals with butterflies that are east of the Rocky Mountains. Thanks teacher and reader RH for the tip!

Wild About Utah: A Bird for All Seasons

You are walking alongside a swiftly-flowing mountain stream when you notice a slate-gray bird, tail cocked up jauntily like a wren’s, but a bird of a size nearer to that of a robin or large thrush. He is doing continual knee bends: bobbing up and down unceasingly. He (or is it she?) is perched on a rock drenched with spray from rapids. Your attention is arrested.

Suddenly the bird plunges into the foaming water as it rushes over rocks. Surely you will next see it (if at all) a bedraggled wreck surfacing way down stream, swept along to destruction by the raging torrent.

But no, he surfaces in a bit of calm water between rapids and swims nonchalantly to shore where he goes back to his bobbing routine, singing joyously all the while. What is this phenomenon you have stumbled upon?

You page through your field guide. Ah, here he is, the American dipper, also sometimes called a water ouzel. Yep, the bobbing is mentioned, along with the likelihood of his being found near rapidly flowing mountain streams in the American West. You also learn that he swims––no web feet but he swims––and better under water than on the surface, his wings assisting.

This bird was born almost literally of these waters. His parents built a mossy nest on a ledge of rock in the spray of the stream. His mother laid eggs looking like bubbles of foam. From one of these he emerged like Venus coming forth out of the sea.

He never strays far from these waters and seems impervious to the vicissitudes of weather––undaunted by snow and ice (after all his habitat flows too swiftly to freeze in the coldest weather), undeterred by heat (he has continual mist and frequent bathing to keep him cool).

So, the next time you are out––in summer’s heat or snowshoeing in coldest winter––keep an eye out for a nondescript little bird bobbing on a slippery or ice-coated rock beside a fast-moving mountain stream. You can report that you have sighted an American dipper.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Text: Norman Davis, with thanks to Dorothy Egan, Bridgerland Audubon Society