American Kestrel in my Front Yard

Last Saturday was a beautiful day! The sun was shining brightly and when I went on my run after completing a PLT workshop that afternoon, I was able to go in shorts and a t-shirt. Yes, it was indeed February.

As I was drinking some water, resting, and cooling out on my front porch, a swarm of LBB's (little brown birds) was flying down my street. As they got closer, weaving in and out of houses and around trees, I noticed a larger bird chasing them. Usually this happens in the spring time when the magpies are wreaking havoc on the other neighborhood birds, but this time it was an American Kestrel.

Soon, the Kestrel caught one of the LBB's. It was an amazing and a little disturbing site to watch the Kestrel carry the bird off. The LBB squawked and squealed for about 10 seconds and then it was gone. The Kestrel landed on my neighbor's roof, where it plucked the feathers from the bird and devoured it in less than two minutes.

According to the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources, American Kestrels are common throughout all of Utah. "Nests are made in natural holes in trees, abandoned woodpecker holes, cliffs, and nest-boxes. Usually four or five eggs are laid and incubated, mainly by female, for 29 to 31 days. Young are tended by both parents and leave the nest about 29 to 31 days after hatching. Young may stay with the parents for an additional four weeks or more. If a clutch is lost, a pair will readily lay a replacement clutch. In summer, this hawk feeds mainly on insects, especially grasshoppers and crickets, and small vertebrates. During the winter, its foods are mainly birds and mice. American kestrels often hover while foraging, and are frequently seen using this technique along highways."

Sometimes I think we believe we need to go out deep into the wild mountains or deserts to see these kinds of events and interactions, but even when living in downtown Salt Lake City, there is plenty of nature to see! Sometimes you can find it when you're looking for it, and sometimes it happens right in front of you. We just have to pay attention.

Photo Credit

Help Utah’s Black Bears- Clean up Your Campsite!

Photo Credit

By Alaina Caudillo (USEE Intern)

It started on July 1st, only two weeks ago. The first Black Bear of the year was shot and killed by a citizen at a campsite after following his nose to some tasty food scraps, most likely left behind by previous campers. This is the time of year when the weather is warm and more people are getting out into Utah’s mountains to recreate and enjoy time with their families and friends.

In the past two weeks, four other Black Bears have been killed; three of the five incidents involving campsites. Bears have an extremely strong sense of smell, and are drawn to things like soap, perfume, and food items and their residues such as grease from your hamburgers, and fish heads or skins. By keeping our campsites cleaner and properly storing food, either in bear containers or suspending items 12 feet high from a tree, we are doing our part to protect these magnificent animals.

Keeping things tidy upon your departure from designated camping and hiking areas also helps to protect other Utah families that camp after you, from these unexpected visitors. Listed below are some tips from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources about staying safe in bear country.

• Don’t leave food and scented items, such as deodorants and tooth paste, out where a bear can get them.
• Keep your campsite and cabin area clean.
  
• Don't toss food scraps and other trash around.
• Don't keep any food in the same area where you're sleeping.
• If an item has a strong smell to it, consider leaving it at home.
• Never feed a bear.
• Black bears can be discouraged by a counter attack so fight back if a scuffle ensues.

For more info about black bears, click here.

Utah "Blueberries" Discovered on Mars

-by T.J. Adamson

I recently went hiking in Snow Canyon State Park near St. George, Utah. Surrounded by sandstone rocks, the park is perfect for a great hike or scenic drive. My favorite part of hiking the area is finding what I like to call “sand-marbles.” Ranging from the size of a pea to that of a golf ball, these rocks are known as hematite concretions and are formed when underground minerals are precipitated from flowing groundwater. These little rocks are pretty much native to Utah and can be found in many of Southern Utah’s state and national parks including Zion, Capitol Reef, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and in the Moab area.

So why am I telling you this? Well, in 2004, NASA’s Opportunity Rover discovered the same rocks on Mars. They call them “blueberries” because it reminded one of the scientists of blueberries in a muffin. Since their discovery, many geologists and NASA researchers have tested the sediments and formation conditions of the rocks found in Utah and compared them with the rocks found on Mars. Many believe that the discovery of hematite rocks on Mars suggests signs of water and thus possible life on Mars. “On Earth, whenever we find water, we find life — in surface or underground water, hot water or cold water — any place there is water on Earth there are microbes, there is life,” said Bill Parry of the University of Utah emeritus geologist to the UCR-News. “That’s the bottom line: hematite is linked to life.”

Take a look at these pictures. Check out how similar Utah’s hematite concretions, or sand-marbles, are compared to the pictures of “blueberries” on Mars taken by NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars.

Hematite concretions or “earth Blueberries”,
from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.
Photo Credit: Brenda Beitler

Marble like rocks, or “Blueberries, taken by the Opportunity rover on Mars
Photo Credit: NASA

Hematite concretions, or “earth Blueberries”, on the surface of

Navajo sandstone at Grand Staircase-Escalante
Photo Credit: Brenda Beitler

Formed millions of years ago, the Utah rocks (left) are similar to “blueberries”
discovered on Mars (right), hinting clues about the history of water on Mars.
Photo Credit: NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Cornell University

My pictures of Snow Canyon hematite concretions, or “Earth Blueberries:”













In this picture, you can see the rocks forming on the surface of the sandstone.

Photo Credits: T.J. Adamson

Frary Peak and Oolitic Sand

Over the weekend a friend of mine and I went for a hike out on Antelope Island. We decided that it was a perfect day to try the highest point on the island, Frary Peak. The hike is about 8 miles round trip and provides many beautiful views of all sides of the lake. We were pretty tired after the trek up to the 6,600 ft peak (a climb of over 2,000 vertical feet from the trail head), so as we were driving home we decided to head over to the other side of the island for a quick wade in the lake.

View from the top of Frary Peak (looking South)
We didn't have a camera, but this is similar to what we saw.
Photo Credit

I had never swam in the Great Salt Lake before, which seems kind of strange since I've lived here all my life. It was good to get that checked off the list. As we were there wading in the water, my friend was telling me about the sand on the beach.

It's called oolitic sand, and it's apparently fairly unique. It's only found in a few other places around the planet and is different from regular sand in the fact that it is smooth and rounded, while regular sand is very angular. Oolitic sand at the Great Salt Lake is unique because it is not mineral fragments that were washed down from higher ground like sand in most places, but was formed within the Great Salt Lake:

"An oolite has a shell of concentric layers of calcium carbonate that precipitated around a nucleus or central core. The nucleus is usually a tiny brine shrimp fecal pellet or a mineral fragment. Oolites form in shallow, wave-agitated water, rolling along the lake bottom and gradually accumulating more and more layers." - Utah Geological Survey

Photo Credit

Urban Wildlife

For the first time, I am starting a garden. I live in a small apartment without a lot of yard space. Most of the places I've lived have been like this and in the past I've tried container gardens, but have never been all that successful. One of my good friends lives a few blocks from me and has a large yard full of grass. So, I am starting a garden in her backyard. I am very excited. Yesterday we got to work and after a couple of hours finished digging up all of the grass.

As I was leaving her house, I heard what sounded like an owl hooting not far off. I listened for a bit and every 5-10 seconds another series of hoots would come. I ran inside to get my friend and we listened for a while. We tried to find it, and we might have, though I'm not sure. There was a small spot in a neighbor's tree two or three houses down that could have easily been the little owl, or it could have just as easily been a bird's nest.

We wanted to find out what kind of owl it was. I had a few resources up my sleeve, and after about five minutes of searching through the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Conservation Data Center to discover what owls live in the region, and also through the Western Soundscape Archive to identify its call, we found out that the owl was a Western Screech Owl.

To hear the Western Screech Owl's call, click here!

Photo Credit: Courtesy and Copyright of Tim Avery

A Yellow Flash of Happy

There is a noisy bunch of birds that live, or at least seem to "hang out," in the Cottonwood tree across the street from my apartment. The tree is massive, easily dwarfing everything else around it, except for a few other Cottonwood trees in the area. These birds habitually inhabit that tree and make a racket in the process. Not that I mind, except nearly every single one of those birds are European Starlings...an invasive species that wreaks havoc on local bird populations. But earlier this week, as I was checking the mail, I heard a call I hadn't heard before rising above the usual chatter. There in the flowering plum tree in my neighbors yard was a brilliant bird I'd never seen before.

I stared at it for a while, watching and listening, trying to remember all of it's features so I could get online and figure out what it was. Turns out it is a Lesser Goldfinch, and it sure has a pretty call. I wonder if this guy lives around here, or if he's just passing?


"The lesser goldfinch, Carduelis psaltria, occurs throughout the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America, as well as in portions of northern South America. In Utah, this bird can be found statewide at mid to low elevations, but most predictably in the southern half of the state. Utah breeding populations generally withdraw south in winter, with the exception of birds in the southwestern corner of the state, which are year-round residents of the same area. This bird prefers scrub woodlands, such as scrub oak and pinyon-juniper habitats."

Credits: Text and Photo from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Be Safe and Have Fun: The Importance of Being Prepard in the Wilderness

Being prepared in the wilderness is something that comes up frequently, whether it's posted on a trail head sign, being touted by forest rangers, or on the news when Search and Rescue had to pull someone off the mountain. Being prepared when hiking, camping, or doing other activities in the back country is not only a safety issue, but it also determines how the experience unfolds.

A few weeks ago Jason, Mark (Chair of the USEE Programs Advisory Council), and I went down to Cedar City to do some outreach and for a Focus Group meeting we had in the area. Our meeting got out early and we had some extra time, so we decided that it would be great to do a little exploration in Color Country. Little did we know, we were (or at least especially I was) extremely unprepared. We had plenty of water and warm clothes, but in Cedar City it was a beautifully sunny day. There sky was free of clouds and the weather was the warmest I've felt since September.

We decided to try Kolob Canyons. The scenery is picturesque and classically Southern Utah. What we didn't anticipate, however, was the amount of snow there would be on the trails. Cedar City was so gorgeously warm, with no snow to be found, but as we ascended the road to the trail head, the snow kept getting deeper. Mark was smart enough to bring along some gaiters to cover his shoes and pants and had a fine time. Jason had some boots that went up pretty high on his ankles, and seemed to do okay in the deep snow. I, on the other hand, had my hiking boots (which are really more like shoes rather than boots) and not-warm-enough socks. I am also considerably shorter than Mark and Jason.

Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park
Photo Courtesy of Mark Larese-Casanova

The snow was 3 feet or more deep. There had been a snowshoer on the trail recently before us, so we opted to follow in his tracks. The scenery was beautiful. There's nothing quite like snow gracing the steep walls of the red rock canyons. I had a hard time following the guys as the snow was from my knees to almost my hips every step of the way. We trudged along, laughing at our unpreparedness, telling stories of similar times when we'd been unprepared, and listening to Mark tell us of his encounters with mountain lions. Inevitably, my shoe got stuck deep in the snow. I stood there on one foot bending, flailing, and reaching into the hole where my shoe was lodged, my face mashed against the melting snow as I stretched down, all the while the snow packing into my empty boot. My socks, shoes, and pants were soaked and we were all tired from wading through the crunchy, sinking snow. We decided to head back. I gather that the whole excursion was barely longer than a mile, if even that.

Canyon Overlook
Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park
Photo Courtesy of Mark Larese-Casanova

The canyon was breathtaking, and the event itself was even fun, but mostly the whole situation was quite comical. What's the lesson I learned that day? Just because it's warm in the valley and Zions National Park is in the "desert" doesn't mean that it will be snow-free and dry. A little preparation and planning would have changed the whole experience. Snowshoes, anyone?

Mark, doing fine with his gaiters, and Nicole struggling to keep her balance in the snow.
Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park
Photo Courtesy of Jason Taylor

1st Photo: Pinyon Pines and Snowshoe Hare Tracks, Kolob Canyons, Zion National Park. Photo Courtesy of Jason Taylor.

Big Birds, Little Birds and Owls

While hiking in Zion National Park last weekend with my wife Maggie, I rounded a corner and came face-to-beak with North America's largest land bird, a California Condor. Now normally I'm not all that interested in birds but I was excited that #75 clearly fit into my complicated bird classification system: big birds, little birds and owls. With a wing span up to 9ft. and a weighing in at 20 pounds, I'll easily place #75 as a big bird. After a little bit of research it looks like #75 is a male condor hatched in 2002. I knew about the Condor rehabilitiation program at the San Diego Zoo but had no idea just how rare these birds are; as of November 2008, there were 328 California condors in the world, over half of which lived in the wild. These 328 came from 22 birds captured in 1987.  

More information on these incredible birds can be found at California Condors Conservation and wikipedia

Surprise Visit

These days it seems to get dark well before I get home from work. The sun starts setting before I leave the office and by the time I get home, it is usually just after dusk. So the other day I left work a little early so that I could go on a quick run before it got too dark outside. When I got back from my run, it was just about the time that I normally get home. There was still a little light out and as I was sitting on the porch cooling off before going inside, a bird that was larger than what I would usually expect to see at that time of day swooped up into some low branches of the Elm tree in front of my house.

The bird was obviously an owl. It was probably about eight inches tall, its body was wide, and its rounded head came straight up from its shoulders. It sat up on that branch for five minutes or so. I walked up underneath it and watched its silhouette as it attentively gazed back down at me. I could see the owl's head turning, going back and forth between watching me and my dog rummaging around out in the yard. Eventually, it quickly flew off into the ivy covering the tree's trunk and encompassing its major branches. I wondered if the owl was hunting something, hiding from my dog and me, or if it has a nest inside, maybe somewhere in the ivy leaves.

I did some research to see if I could pinpoint what kind of owl it was that visited me that day. From the size and shape of the owl and also from where I saw him, in the middle of suburbia, I think it was a Western Screech Owl. According to the Utah Division of Natural Resources, "the western screech-owl is commonly found in suburban and urban areas such as woodlots, orchards, oak woodlands, and riparian woodlands. It is fairly common in Utah, where it can be found along stream-side areas and occasionally in city trees."

I live in an area that, even though it has grown significantly in the past ten years or so, is still fairly rural. My street is an older street and harbors a pocket of farm life and it is common to help neighbors catch their escaped horses, cows, or goats. But even though the farm-life still exists, my street increasingly grows continually busy and every year more and more houses are built on the fields I grew up playing in. When these glimpses of nature surface in the everyday, it is a welcome rejuvenation. It is amazing how much animal and plant life is right in front of us if we only open our senses to see them.

Western Screech Owl
Photo Credit

Perfect for Halloween

This afternoon I took a quick hike on the Shoreline Trial across from the Hogle Zoo and came across a wonderful Halloween time treat. Coming down the center of the trail was a Tarantula! I've had never seen one in the wild and how fitting is it that I see one to kick off the Halloween week. Here are some cool facts about Tarantulas from kidszone....

• Tarantulas are part of the family of spiders called Hairy Mygalomorphs.
  
• These are the spiders that, scientists believe, have been around for millions of years and have not changed much in that time!
  
• There are around 700 kinds, or species, of Tarantulas.
• Tarantulas are nighttime hunters who will pounce on their prey. They eat insects, beetles and grasshoppers.
• Many Tarantulas live in burrows underground. They will either use their fangs to dig them or else take someone else’s burrow-home.
• All Tarantulas have an interesting way of defending themselves. They have hairs on their abdomen (stomachs) that have sharp little barbs, or pokey things, on them. When threatened, the spider will rub these hairs with their legs and shoot them at their predator.
• Not only are they caught as pets; in some countries they are eaten, as well. They are said to have a nutty taste kind of like peanut butter!
  

Autumn Snow Excursions

Two weekends ago I spent a couple of days up in a cabin on the North side of the Uintah mountains with two of my friends. I told of the wonderful weekend during my nature report and promised photos. I'll let them speak for themselves:









Photos compliments of Mallory Platt.

Wednesdays

Here at the USEE office we have our weekly staff meetings on Wednesdays. In some respects, they are your usual, standard, run-of-the-mill staff meetings where we update each other on what projects we are working on, what has been completed since the last staff meeting, what we are intending to do in the upcoming week, and all that staff meeting type jazz. But our staff meetings are also very unique. Part of the ritual of our staff meetings is that we begin (as dictated by the fluorescent pink agenda which must attend every meeting or the meeting just wont be the same) with "Nature Reports."

Every meeting each staff member reports on what we have seen or done out in nature in the past week. We find this to be a very important part of the staff meeting ritual, and no staff meeting is complete without it. Though we spend much of our days sitting at our desks in front of our computers, it is important to recognize and share the times that we are away from the fluorescent lights and out in the fresh air. So every Wednesday we share our nature reports. This Wednesday, however, we did not have a staff meeting because we are all out and about during this busy week. Jason, Andree', and Autumn are off to the NAAEE Conference in Wichita, Kansas. Nancy and I here today, but starting tomorrow I will be at the UEA Conference for the rest of the week and Nancy will be at the Bioneers Conference.

This Wednesday I am going to share my Nature Report with you, reader. Over the weekend I went up past Oakley, Utah, a small town at the base of the north western end of the Uintah Mountains, to my friend's cabin. It was a beautiful weekend where my friends and I sat by the fire, played our guitars, read books, took naps, and ate amazing food. The best part of all this was the hike we took on Sunday morning. It had been snowing all day Saturday and all day Sunday. We went up the road and into pines and aspens and explored the roller-coaster trails that follow the ridge line and down to the cabin. It was cold, and our clothes were soaking with muddy melting snow, but the fire was warm and the tea delicious when we got back.

Later that evening as we were just closing our books and thinking about making dinner, three young mule deer bucks had made their way through the snow and stood staring at us not more than ten feet away. We watched each other through the windows in the shadowy twilight. They kept a watchful eye, nibbled some branches, and bounded away a few moments later. These were the only animals, besides the neighbor's horses that roam the field out front, we saw in the wintry landscape that day. Even the birds were quiet as all creatures adjusted to the the mountain's first storm and the yellow aspen leaves ironically blazing through the evergreens capped in silvery dust.

Photo Credit

Unfortunately, all of the amazing photos I captured this weekend are not on my work computer yet. Photos from my outing will have to be posted another day!

Mountain Ablaze

Have you ever witnessed a natural disaster? What exactly is a natural disaster? According to dictionary.com, a natural disaster is any event or force of nature that has catastrophic consequences, such as avalanche, earthquake, flood, forest fire, hurricane, lightning, tornado, tsunami, and volcanic eruption. Catastrophic consequences. Catastrophic consequences to whom? To the animals, the landscape, the ecosystem? To people?

Yesterday a natural disaster that had catastrophic consequences such as a forest fire struck the mountain just above where I live. Firefighters haven't yet confirmed what started the fire, but it was big and raging.

Photo David Kockerhaer

Photo courtesy of ksl.com

The fire started at about noon yesterday and by the time that I came home from work, nearly the entire mountain beneath Lone Peak had been eaten by the rising flames. Many emotions ensued. Is my family okay? Neighbors? My house is in one of the lower parts of the valley, and though the fire started less than two miles from my home, the wind was blowing away from me and since fire burns in the upward direction, I knew that I was safe. But what about the people that lived even closer to the fire? Evacuations had been taking place all day for dozens of homes. The fire burned all night, and was still burning when I left for work in the morning.

Photo Kevin Nash

Luckily, no homes were damaged and no one was hurt. But the winds were howling, fueling the fire farther and farther out in nearly every direction. As I watched the black mass grow over the mountain I have lived beneath for nearly my entire life, I began thinking of all the trails that I frequent. Would the bridge on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail have to be rebuilt? That mountain is very sandy. There could be mudslides along that whole slope if rains come too soon. The "beauty" of the mountain has been sacrificed in some people's eyes, namely my mom, who displays her emotional reaction in her own blog. This natural disaster has, or could have, catastrophic consequences for humans, to be sure.

Photo Gary Hansen

Photo Jim Mcclintic

But what about the ecosystem of the mountain itself? Now I am no fire expert, but I do know that low intensity fires that don't burn too hot are extremely beneficial for forest ecosystems. Low intensity fires help clear dead underbrush and fallen trees and leave behind nutrient rich ash behind. This process is known as nutrient recycling and is good for replenishing the forest floor with vital nutrients that will be used by new plants beginning to grow back, replenishing food sources for animals. So the question is, how hot was this fire? Did it burn in such a way that a healthy ecosystem may emerge, or did it completely destroy everything in its path?

The forest will grow back no matter what, but a healthy ecosystem depends on nutrient recycling. And as far as ecosystems go, it may be that this fire is a good thing in the end. Forest fires, it would seem, are ultimately catastrophic for humans. But what about the consequences of other forces of nature? Are natural disasters only defined in terms of human reactions? Should they be defined any differently?