Category: People

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A Friend to Guide the Way

Red-tailed Hawk, Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Red-tailed Hawk, Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
“Look, up on that pole! There’s a huge bird! I think it’s a hawk!”

A storm of students put their half-eaten PB & Js down, grabbed binoculars, and raced to get a better view. One of my 2nd-grade students, while eating lunch under the King’s Nature Park gazebo, had spotted the special visitor.

Students bustled around with their binoculars trying to get a better look at the far-away hawk. Excited fragments of observations eventually started ringing out.

“Look at that sharp beak!”

“I can see a red tail!”

“It’s mostly brown with some lighter feathers on the chest!”

“It looks like it’s watching us!”

Jack Greene guided our students, Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Jack Greene guided our students
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Eventually students returned binoculars, wolfed down their remaining bits of food, and found their instructor for the afternoon learning centers. About 25 kids made their way to me and Jack Greene, an expert naturalist. My group strapped on their binocular harnesses, left the gazebo, and started off on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. We had one objective; to observe and wonder about nature.

We forged a 6-inch trickle of water – the endeavor being met with laughs, screams and giggles, proceeded higher onto the bench where the remnants of a recent fire still blackened the hillside, and made our way along the trail to a choke cherry bush which was to be the turning point. The students happily watched and listened to Black-Capped Chickadees and House Sparrows playing fall games in the crackly bramble. We all turned and started our journey back to the gazebo.

“Everyone, look up there! Soaring high above us! That looks like the huge hawk we saw at lunch! I think it’s following us!” came the shriek of an excited young girl.

Intrigued students looked up to see the large, soaring hawk far above, lazily drifting circles toward the gazebo. Naturally, the kids couldn’t let it get away. The unrestrainable naturalists raced down the gravel trail in the direction of the hawk.

The hawk did get too far away. We all rejoined and continued our walk back. No more than 5 minutes later, a shout echoed out: “It landed! That hawk that has been following us all day landed! I kept a close eye on it and it landed up there on a post!”

The hunt was afoot. We picked up our pace to get close to the big hawk that had landed on an electrical post a few hundred yards ahead of us. We crept up and it posed for the eager kid eyes and hasty teacher cameras. But little voices aren’t quiet, and the hawk launched from the post and took flight before many could get a good look.

We had to get back. After Jack gave a mini-lesson about the length of a Black-Billed Magpie tail indicating approximate age, we hustled to return to the gazebo.

Our group of hot, sweaty, and energized naturalists arrived back at the gazebo and gathered for a final closing discussion. We huddled close, and amidst my parting words, a boy loudly interrupted and pointed to a nearby telephone pole. “Everyone, look! The hawk came to say goodbye!”

We all turned, and perched on the pole was the same hawk that had followed us that day; our guide, our companion, our friend. It took off and slowly, methodically, made low circles above our head, as if to say “Now you can see me, I am your friend. Goodbye, little ones. We had a special journey together.”

I am Dr. Joseph Kozlowski, and I am wild about outdoor education in Utah!

Credits:

Images: Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer, Used by Permission
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections/kevin-colver and including contributions from Anderson, Howe, and Wakeman.
Text:     Joseph Kozlowski, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University https://edithbowen.usu.edu/
Additional Reading Links: Joseph Kozlowski & Lyle Bingham

Additional Reading:

Joseph (Joey) Kozlowski’s pieces on Wild About Utah:

Red-tailed Hawk, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/overview

Black-capped Chickadee, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-capped_Chickadee

House Sparrow, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Sparrow

Black-beak Magpie, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-billed_Magpie

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Solar Calendars

This [observatory in Chacho Canyon, NM], is constructed of three large stone slabs [.https://wildaboututah.org/wp-content/uploads/sdagger_s1.jpg] wedged upright with smaller stones. On the day of the summer solstice, a dagger of light cast by the rising sun bisects a spiral carved into the rock behind the stones. On the winter solstice, two daggers of light frame the spiral. https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/suntime/images/sdagger2_s.jpg
This [observatory in Chacho Canyon, NM], is constructed of three large stone slabs wedged upright with smaller stones. On the day of the summer solstice, a dagger of light cast by the rising sun bisects a spiral carved into the rock behind the stones. On the winter solstice, two daggers of light frame the spiral.
Courtesy NASA Solar Science
https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/suntime/talk1.stm
High on a remote butte on the Colorado Plateau, two spirals were etched into the rock centuries ago by Ancestral Puebloans. The petroglyphs are tucked discreetly behind three sandstone slabs that lean against the bedrock wall. The play of light that reaches through the gaps in the slabs bisect the large spiral on summer solstice near noon. On winter solstice, two ‘daggers’ of light bracket the large spiral perfectly. The smaller spiral is bisected with another shaft of light on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. This is not accidental.

Indigenous people in the far reaches of the planet, constructed monuments with intention that mark the position of the sun on the solstices and equinoxes—the pyramids of Egypt, the moai on Rapa Nui (the most isolated island on earth), the temples of Chichén Itzá, Stonehenge, and numerous others.

These solar calendars where created thousands of years ago, before airplanes, satellites, space shuttles, and smartphones. They were likely constructed without any knowledge that other people in other parts of the world were doing the same. Each of these monuments are distinctive in their approach, a testament to both human curiosity and creativity.

Solar Calendar and Sundial Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell
Solar Calendar and Sundial
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Mount Logan Discovery Solar Calendar

Solar Calendar - How it Works Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Solar Calendar – How it Works
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Solar Calendar Design Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Solar Calendar Design
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Observing From the Solar Calendar Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Observing From the Solar Calendar
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Completed Solar Calendar Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Completed Solar Calendar
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Solar Calendar Near Solstice Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Solar Calendar Near Solstice
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Solar Calendar Layout in the Snow Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Solar Calendar Layout in the Snow
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Observations: The Shadow Grew Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Observations: The Shadow Grew
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Mount Logan Discovery Human [Analemmatic] Sundial

Human Sundial, Pre-Installation, Month Stone Layout Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Human Sundial
Pre-Installation
Month Stone Layout
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

Students Install the Solar Sundial Month Blocks Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell Students Install the Solar Sundial Month Blocks
Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell

When I started teaching 6th grade science at Mount Logan Middle School (in Logan, Utah), in 2003, state curriculum standards required me to teach why we have seasons, why we have night and day, and the basics of the solar system. The science textbook would put insomniacs to sleep. I struggled to figure out how to teach these concepts in ways that would captivate my students’ attention and allow them the chance to construct knowledge through project-based learning.

I was explaining my fascination with ancient solar calendars to my sixth graders in class one day and in the moment I said, “Hey, we should build a solar calendar at our school.” My students cheered a loud “Yeah!” and a new project was born.

I did some research, wrote and received a $500 grant from the Logan Schools Foundation for materials, ruffled a few feathers, and set to work with a simple plan that involved my 6th graders at every step. We cemented a metal pole in the ground on the edge of the soccer field, decorated with student art representing the four seasons. We surrounded the pole with a circular pattern of paver stones, enlisted the sand blasting services of a local headstone company, and then we started marking the shadow of the tip of the pole throughout the year. We had no idea how it would turn out.

What I thought would be a year-long project became a five year project. The shadows cast by the pole were not always easy to observe with storms and cloud cover. Cache Valley inversions—that trap fog and smog in the valley—made marking winter solstice shadow lines especially illusive.

We would mark the tip of the shadow throughout the day and then connect the dots to trace and identify the patterns. On the spring equinox a curious thing happened—we discovered the shadow line makes a perfectly straight line that runs exactly west to east. The same is true for the autumnal equinox. We did some research and confirmed our findings. This is something you can try anywhere. This year the autumnal equinox occurs September 22nd. Mark the tip of the shadow of any pole or post throughout the day on fairly level ground in your yard—an hour or two apart if you want, but the intervals don’t really matter. Then connect the dots and see what happens.

The solar calendar at Mount Logan Middle School marks the time of year and is our evidence that the earth’s axis is tilted.

We added an interactive sundial, with a human gnomon. When you stand on the correct month stone, your shadow falls on the time of day. The human sundial is our evidence that the earth spins on its’ axis.

Outside of school hours, you can find and interact with the human sundial and solar calendar on the soccer field at Mount Logan Middle School, located north of the sand volleyball court. Even though I no longer work there, I visit a couple of times each year. I take my weed eater, a shovel, and a blower and clean up the paver stones that mark the shadow lines of the solstices and equinoxes. I am frequently there alone in the evenings when I do this. While I work, I wonder about the hands that carved those spirals in the Cliff House Sandstone behind the slabs of rock in the New Mexican desert. I always set down my tools for a few minutes and watch with amazement as the shadow tracks along the pathways my sixth graders marked two decades ago.

I am Eric Newell, and I am wild about Utah and equinoxes and solstices.

Credits:
Images: Courtesy NASA Solar Science and Courtesy & Copyright Eric Newell, Photographer and author
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Anderson, Howe, Wakeman
Text: Eric Newell, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University
Additional Reading: Eric Newell & Lyle Bingham

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah Pieces by Eric Newell

http://MountLoganDiscovery.org/ (Hint: Select Projects on the left to find links to the Solar Calendar and Human Sundial pages)
Mount Logan Middle School Solar Calendar and Human Sundial Webpages (Hint: Select Sundial or Solar Calendar below the image.)
Mount Logan Discovery Solar Calendar
Mount Logan Discovery Human Sundial

Archeoastronomy in Stone, National Park Service,
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/archeoastronomy-in-stone.htm

Ancestral Puebloan Sun Calendars
https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm%3Fid%3D4A2A3F5E-7710-4A87-BC20-A8E833CBCE17

Schaefer, Bradley E., Stamm, James, A Case Study of the Picture Rocks Sun Dagger, Pluss a Review of the Intentionality of Sun Daggers, https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2008/PictureRocks_Sundagger_JAHH.pdf

Friday Finishers: Logan landmark, The Herald Journal (HJNews), Jun 28, 2013,
https://www.hjnews.com/allaccess/friday-finishers-logan-landmark/article_7c9554ee-df82-11e2-b142-001a4bcf887a.html

Sundial Registry, Logan, UT Number 804, North American Sundial Society, https://sundials.org/index.php/component/sundials/onedial/804

Making an Analemmatic Sundial, North American Sundial Society, September 22, 2019, https://sundials.org/teachers-corner/sundial-construction/299-making-an-analemmatic-sundial.html

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Birds Foster Community Connections

Academic Focus in the Outdoors Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Academic Focus in the Outdoors
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
I don’t know why, but birds possess a special power to connect diverse communities. You see, birds don’t discriminate; they don’t care who you are, what you look like, where you live, or what you believe; they are always there to offer you their wonder, beauty, and interesting behaviors, so long as you are willing to be aware and curious of their presence; and that awareness seems to bring people and places together.

Three years ago when I first became interested in using Utah birds as a core theme for teaching my 2nd-graders at Utah State University’s Edith Bowen Laboratory School, I had no idea how it would revolutionize my teaching career and connect me and my students with so many different natural and human communities. Personally, I’ve formed connections with people and places I would have never expected, such as: the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Bridgerland Audubon Society, this Utah Public Radio community, various natural resource professors at USU, untold numbers of new beautiful outdoor locations around the state, and even various important state educational stakeholders. But beyond me, I’m most excited to see how an increased awareness of Utah birds has led to my students making connections in their own lives.

My students are starting to experience Utah’s nature community in a new and more powerful way. The main way? By becoming aware. I can’t emphasize enough the power I’ve seen in my students just becoming aware of the natural world around them. Their simple everyday routines become opportunities to notice something going on around them in nature. Something as routine as school recess can turn into an opportunity to notice interesting natural phenomena, for example when a student noticed a European Starling had borne through the school’s siding, created a nest, and had been returning over and over to feed her impatient chirping chicks; or when a hen Mallard had mistakenly laid her eggs in a nest next to the school’s air conditioning unit; or when students found a dead Black-Capped Chickadee who must have unfortunately collided with a school window.

Furthermore, my students leave class and become ambassadors for learning outside of the school walls. They make connections to learning at home and get involved in their local communities in new ways! I’ve had countless students convince their families to get outside and explore a new local nature area in search of birds; I’ve had students who ‘took their siblings on a birding outing right from their house to a nearby nature area to explore new birds’; and I’ve had students who convinced their family they just ‘had to go to Salt Lake City’s Tracy Aviary over spring break,’ to discover new birds. These examples epitomize how birds bridge connections between students’ home and school knowledge; bridge connections between my students and other people in their lives, and bridge connections between my students’ own lives and the natural environment around them.

This is Dr. Joseph Kozlowski, and I am wild about outdoor education in Utah!

Credits:

Images: Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer, Used by Permission
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections/kevin-colver and including contributions from Anderson, Howe, and Wakeman.
Text:     Joseph Kozlowski, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University https://edithbowen.usu.edu/
Additional Reading Links: Joseph Kozlowski & Lyle Bingham

Additional Reading:

Joseph (Joey) Kozlowski’s pieces on Wild About Utah:

The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, https://www.fws.gov/refuge/bear-river-migratory-bird

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/

Tracy Aviary, https://tracyaviary.org/

Bridgerland Audubon Society, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Utah Public Radio, https://upr.org/

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Apricots Feeding Families

Collecting the harvest Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley
Collecting the harvest
Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley

Picking the last apricots Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers
Picking the last apricots
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

Sparky Van Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers Sparky the Harvest Master Van
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

Sparky Van Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley Sparky the Harvest Master Van
Courtesy & Copyright Giselle Bandley

We got there too late Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers We got there too late
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

One of several sharing locations, 'Take what you need. Leave what you can.' Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers One of several sharing locations
“Take what you need.
Leave what you can.”
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

The tree looked like it could also be 100 years old, with some missing limbs and some broken, brittle branches. But the apricots kept coming. Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers The tree looked like it could also be 100 years old, with some missing limbs and some broken, brittle branches.
But the apricots kept coming.
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers

When I started writing for Wild About Utah, I made myself a promise that each piece would be a journey of learning. This meant I had to actually get in my car and go learn something. This month my journey led me to a venerable old apricot tree in a quiet neighborhood in SW Logan. I was tagging along with volunteers from Utah State University’s club Harvest Rescue.

Harvest Rescue is a community engagement club dedicated to harvesting fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste, and then distributing to people in need.
So last week’s journey began with a phone call from owners of a house in Logan who had moved. The new owners had not yet moved in. The apricot tree next to the house was bursting with apricots ready to pick.

Harvest Rescue posted the address on its volunteer page and a note to be there at 7:30 am on July 24. Five pickers showed up. The tree hadn’t waited for us. Lots of the ripe apricots had fallen to the ground. “Not a problem,” said the lead volunteer. “We’ll pick them up and take them to USU’s compost bin.”

The owner of the house had told us the house was built in 1925. The tree looked like it could also be 100 years old, with some missing limbs and some broken, brittle branches. But the apricots kept coming. She had loved to look out her kitchen window at the bright orange fruit nestled up to the green leaves. “I took so many pictures!”

Just as we were finishing gathering the fallen apricots, the Harvest Master van showed up. This van is a real showstopper –bright green with bicycles and dancing vegetables painted on its sides. The van even had a name, “Sparky,” which was emblazoned on the front with the proud words, “I’m 100 % Electric.”

We unloaded ladders and buckets and got to work. In less than an hour we had that tree picked clean. We now had 113 pounds of apricots that we packaged into small paper lunch bags, about twenty to a bag.

It was now time for the second leg of the journey. We drove to a quiet residential street in North Logan and pulled up in front of what looked like an ordinary house. But a closer look revealed a sign saying, “Families Feeding Families.” It was explained to me that food insecurity in Utah is often hidden. Even people working more than one job can hit a rough patch and need a temporary helping hand. Families Feeding Families reaches out to these people by operating four porch pantries in Cache Valley. Their sign says “Take what you need. Leave what you can.” No questions asked.

This house had devoted the entire left side of its wrap around porch to shelves of donated canned goods and other items. Around the corner was a working refrigerator/freezer. We put the apricots in the refrigerator because they were ready to eat.

The next day I couldn’t resist going by the house and peeking into the fridge. Most of the apricots were gone. The Circle of Giving was complete. I felt a little overwhelmed to have been able to witness such kindness and concern for others on the part of the USU volunteers and the community residents.

Then I heard that someone had shared a recipe for apricot sauce on the Families Feeding Families website. This recipe had worked well for her. For me, it was one more reason to smile.

This is Mary Heers and I’m Wild About Living in Utah

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy and Copyright Mary Heers as well as Giselle Bandley
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Anderson, Howe and Wakeman.
Text: Mary Heers, https://cca.usu.edu/files/awards/art-and-mary-heers-citation.pdf
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Mary Heers’ Wild About Utah Postings

Porch Pantry Locations Courtesy & Copyright Utah Families Feeding Families
Porch Pantry Locations
Courtesy & Copyright Utah Families Feeding Families
Utah Families Feeding Families, https://www.utahfamiliesfeedingfamilies.com/

How to Grow Apricots in Your Home Garden, Extension, Utah State University, https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/apricots-in-the-home-garden

Harvest Rescue, Christensen Office of Service & Sustainability, https://www.usu.edu/service-sustainability/