Category: People

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’Tis the Season for Counting Birds, and We Hope You Will Give it a Try!

Cardinal in Snow Courtesy Pixabay
Cardinal in Snow
Courtesy Pixabay
(A Very Rare Bird in Logan. However reported to eBird in 2010, Ivins, UT.)

Cache Valley (Logan) Utah Circle, 124th Annual Christmas Bird Count, Visit BridgerlandAudubon.org Cache Valley (Logan) Utah Circle
December 16, 2023
124th Annual Christmas Bird Count
67th Local Bird Count
Visit BridgerlandAudubon.org

Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb 16-19, 2024, Courtesy Cornell Lab of Ornithology & Bird Canada, Sponsors, GBBC Great Backyard Bird Count, Feb 16-19, 2024
Courtesy Cornell Lab of Ornithology & Bird Canada, Sponsors, GBBC. For more information visit BridgerlandAudubon.org

Count Winter Feeder Birds for Science, Project FeederWatch, Short-eared Owl, Courtesy Project FeederWatch, Walt Cochran, Photographer Count Winter Feeder Birds for Science
Project FeederWatch
Short-eared Owl, Courtesy Project FeederWatch, Walt Cochran, Photographer
For more information visit BridgerlandAudubon.org

The National Audubon Society invites novice and expert bird watchers to participate in the Annual Christmas Bird Count. This is an opportunity to contribute to a long-standing tradition of inviting everyone to play a role in Conservation by observing and counting birds.

The Christmas Bird Count is an annual 24 hour bird survey which takes place in pre-designated 15-mile diameter Watch Circles between December 14 and January 5. Participation is free, but pre-registration is required.

Dedicated bird lovers face the elements for a full day of trekking and observing along familiar routes, in organized teams, following mapping protocols and a daylong commitment, but anyone who lives inside a Watch Circle can stay cozy inside observing birds through the windows.

It’s important to remember that time spent watching is counted – the total effort is counted even if there are zero birds observed. And, if you think you spotted a rare bird, be sure to take photos for confirmation. Birds will linger longer where they can perch and shelter in trees and shrubs, and especially if they find treats such as Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, White Proso Millet, suet, and of course, fresh clean water!

Whether or not you live in or near a Christmas Bird Count Watch Circle, be sure to mark your calendar for the mid-February Great Backyard Bird Count, which is an easy event for everyone everywhere, and only requires participants to count birds in their own backyard for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish).

In fact, when it comes to counting birds, every day can indeed be like Christmas, with the option to use the eBird smartphone app developed by the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, allowing birdwatchers to log their data directly into a growing searchable database.

Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count is a prime example of how everyday observations from first-time volunteers and experts alike can make a big difference in understanding changing patterns in our world. One advantage of the staggered schedules is that you are welcome to participate in as many circles as you wish.

Find out more about watch circle events near you, including early morning Owling, and After School and pre-count Scouting Bird Walks. For more information visit BridgerlandAudubon.org, that’s Bridgerland A-U-D-U-B-O-N dot org.

I’m Hilary Shughart with the Bridgerland Audubon Society and I am Wild About Utah, and Wild About the roughly 100 species documented in our Annual Christmas Bird Count in Cache Valley since 1955!

Credits:
Images: Red Cardinal, Courtesy Pixabay
    Cache Valley (Logan), Count Circle, Courtesy Bryan Dixon, 2015
    Great Backyard Bird Count Courtesy BirdCount.org, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon, and Birds Canada
    FeederWatch Courtesy BirdCount.org, Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections/kevin-colver and Friend Weller, Utah Public Radio
Text: Hilary Shughart, President, Bridgerland Audubon Society
Additional Reading: Hilary Shughart and Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

WildAboutUtah pieces by Hilary Shughart, https://wildaboututah.org/author/hilary-shughart/

Utah Birds list of Regional Christmas Bird Counts

Worldwide Christmas Bird Count Map, Zoom in to locate the closest to you, National Audubon, https://gis.audubon.org/christmasbirdcount/

Bridgerland Audubon CBC Toolkit https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/our-projects/cache-valley-christmas-bird-count/

National Audubon Data: Annual Summaries of the Christmas Bird Count, 1901-Present https://www.audubon.org/content/american-birds-annual-summary-christmas-bird-count

Tips from eBird on How to count large flocks of birds:
“Big numbers of Moving Birds. Their are two ways to count large flocks of moving birds: either by blocking off a group of individuals, counting them, and then extrapolating to the whole of the flock; or by counting birds per unit of time.”
Team eBird, Bird Counting 101, eBird is a project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://ebird.org/news/counting-101/

General Tips for Bird Identification:
Mayntz, Melissa, Bird Bill Parts, The Spruce, Updated on 08/01/22, https://www.thespruce.com/bird-bill-parts-387362

Project FeederWatch: November-April
Project FeederWatch Background on BridgerlandAudubon.org: https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/birding-tools/birding-events/project-feederwatch/
FeederWatch.org, the official site: https://www.feederwatch.org/

The Great Backyard BirdCount, February 16-19, 2024
GBBC Background on BridgerlandAudubon.org: https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/birding-tools/birding-events/great-backyard-bird-count/
BirdCount.org, the official site: https://www.birdcount.org/

eBird Resources
eBird Background & Reports on BridgerlandAudubon.org: https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/birding-tools/ebird/
eBird Resources: https://ebird.org/about/resources
eBird.org site: https://ebird.org/

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Wuda Ogwa

Wuda Ogwa: A Labor of Love and Healing at Wuda Ogwa, Courtesy & © Mehmet Soyer, Photographer
A Labor of Love and Healing at
Wuda Ogwa
Courtesy & Copyright © Mehmet Soyer, Photographer

A moment of reflection, Shoshone tribal leader Darren Parry at Wuda Ogwa, Courtesy & © Melanie Parry, Photographer A moment of reflection
Shoshone tribal leader Darren Parry at Wuda Ogwa
Courtesy & Copyright © Melanie Parry, Photographer

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Bear River Massacre where on a frigid winter morning in January, 1863, over 400 native lives were lost, mostly women, children, and elderly, slaughtered by the U.S. government. I’ve become well acquainted with the site where this horrible tragedy occurred, a beautiful reach of the Bear River a few miles northwest of Preston Idaho. I’ve volunteered to record birds on their near 600 acres of land, which the Northwest band of Shoshone’s had purchased several years ago. Diversity of bird species is an excellent indictor of the habitat health they rely on.

Tribal elder Darren Parry is hoping to acquire funds for a cultural interpretive center which would tell the story of this sacred land and its people, along with an amphitheater for powwows and other educational and traditional activities. Wuda Ogwa, Shoshone words for Bear River, will become an outstanding education center woven into it’s cultural and spiritual significance.

Darren has gathered many nontribal interests as well, to bring the land back to what it may have been before various agricultural practices caused radical changes from what it once was. Exotic Russian olive trees have invaded many acres of the flood plain. The Utah Conservation Corps has removed substantial amounts, some burnt down and pyrolyzed to form charcoal to be used as a soil amendment. Cattle grazing will be phased out to allow better control of exotic species.

As I approached an open field cleared of Russian olive, hundreds of seedling native plants had been strewn over the open ground awaiting for shovels and spades. Cottonwood, willow, dogwood, golden current, choke cherry, service berry, wild rose. It was overwhelming. How could such an immense quantity of plants ever find a hole? And we were only a small part of the land to be treated.

As I scanned the fields, it became apparent this might just be possible. Hundreds had come- Ogden, Salt Lake, Provo, and our own valley, an army of very different colors from that of 163 years ago. We had come to heal the land, to offer some retribution for those whose bones had once littered some of these same grounds.

“Yesterday, we met as a group of 400 people who took part in another step of the process. We planted thousands of trees and plants that were once sacred to the area. We took a giant step towards healing as a People, as a community, and as a nation. We could not have done this alone. We will continue to hold these events for the next few years to come.” Darren Parry
I look forward to seeing the fruits of our labor, to see a flourishing forest and meadows of native plants, and a flourishing community of Native people to celebrate the rebirth of their ancestors in the living tissue of these new arrivals, which in turn will provide a rich habitat for birds and a plethora of additional life forms.

This is Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society, and I’m wild about healing wild spaces and the souls they nurture.

Credits:
Images: A moment of reflection, Shoshone tribal leader Darren Parry at Wuda Ogwa, Courtesy & © Melanie Parry, Photographer and
A Labor of Love and Healing at Wuda Ogwa, Courtesy & © Mehmet Soyer, Photographer https://chass.usu.edu/sociology/directory/mehmet-soyer
Audio: Courtesy & © J. Chase and K.W. Baldwin, https://npr.org/ and Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
Text: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle W Bingham, Webmaster, and Jack Greene, Author, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Other Wild About Utah Pieces by Jack Greene

Marchant, Brock, ‘Knowledge keeper and storyteller’: Darren Parry selected as The Herald Journal’s 2022 Resident of the year, The Herald Journal, January 27, 2023, https://www.hjnews.com/news/local/knowledge-keeper-and-storyteller-darren-parry-selected-as-the-herald-journals-2022-resident-of-the/article_d64af090-9ebb-11ed-b7f8-73242930a463.html

Parry, Darren, The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History, Common Consent Press, November 29, 2019, https://www.amazon.com/Bear-River-Massacre-Shoshone-History/dp/1948218194/

Wuda Ogwa, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, https://wudaogwa.com/
Boa Ogoi (Wuda Ogwa) Cultural Interpretive Center, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, https://www.nwbshoshone.com/boa-ogoi-cultural-interpretive-center-1/
Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, https://www.nwbshoshone.com/

“This site has also been known as the Bear River Massacre, and as Boa Ogoi. The tribe officially uses the term Wuda Ogwa, a direct translation of Bear River.”

[Last Paragraph: Gilbert, Lael, Reclaiming Sacred Space: QCNR Students Assist in Restoration at Wuda Ogwa Site, Today, Utah State University, November 09, 2023 https://www.usu.edu/today/story/reclaiming-sacred-space-qcnr-students-assist-in-restoration-at-wuda-ogwa-site“

Utah Insight: Water Restoration Project, PBS Utah

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Gratitude for Naturalists

"Paralyzing Berries" Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer
“Paralyzing Berries”
Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer

Janet Ross & Shannon Rhodes on the San Juan River, 2022 Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer Janet Ross & Shannon Rhodes on the San Juan River, 2022
Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer

Once upon a time my family met what we now call ‘paralyzing berries’ on a hillside hike. I still don’t know the common name, let alone the scientific one. I sure could’ve used Naturalist Jack’s plant identification and probable warning not to taste those tart wild berries that day. I’ve had the good fortune though to spend time with Wild About Utah’s Jack Green discussing the Wilderness Act walking among the Mt. Naomi wildflowers and along the Lake Bonneville Shoreline. It reminds me of a scene Kenneth Grahame wrote in “The Wind in the Willows” that captures the relationship between a naturalist and a naturalist’s companion: “Absorbed in the new life, the scents and the sounds and the sunlight…it was so very beautiful that the Mole could only hold up both paws and gasp, “O my! O my! O my!” Water Rat was paddling and chattering on as one extremely familiar with, yet not desensitized to, the magic of the place. Sometimes now I find myself a Rat because I was once a Mole.

Let me explain. Three years ago I wrote a page in my nature journal and a related Wild About Utah piece titled “I Notice, I Wonder” as I sat soaking up the smells and the sights sitting alone in the Cache National Forest. Although I was able to in solitude concentrate on wellness amid the pandemic, I wonder how much more rich my experience might have been with a knowledgeable naturalist guide at my side. The third part of this beloved “I Notice, I Wonder” awareness activity outdoors is “It Reminds Me Of…”

Passing some wild berries just this week reminded me of the afternoon 30 years ago my friend Allan Stevens, biology professor at Snow College, taught me about dwarf mistletoe and led me to research the difference between it and witches broom rust in conifers. I’ve never enrolled in one of Allan’s courses, but that’s the best part of having connections to naturalists. They teach you even when you are just out for a drive in the canyon. They have invested time to know how to read nature, they know the names and relationships in an ecosystem, and they usually have the answer to any question you could ask. Dozens of times since then I’ve answered that same question about the thick-growing growth in the trees as others have looked to me for clarity.

Similarly, looking at the berries reminded me of the day Utah Master Naturalist’s Mark Larese-Casanova taught me the term krummholz effect, from the German words “crooked wood,” that describes trees deformed from fierce winds. He did this as we stood atop Big Cottonwood Canyon, gazing at lopsided trees’ persistence in adapting to harsh conditions. That memory reminded me of cruising along a lazy stretch of the San Juan River on a raft with another legendary naturalist named Janet Ross. Just before the Eight Foot Rapid, she taught me to notice the holes we were passing. She said that besides the usual stick lodges, a beaver will build a den in the sandy river bank. Fascinating facts from fascinating people. I’m grateful for these and other naturalist mentors in my life.

So, who unlocked the mysteries of nature for you? Was it a relative, a summer camp leader, maybe a teacher? In this season of gratitude you might consider how to better be Rat for the Moles in your influence as you notice, wonder, and remember other illuminations in the wild. Boldly share as a growing naturalist what you know about plants, animals, and wild relationships with others as you encounter them together.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Shannon Rhodes.

Credits:

Images: Courtesy & Copyright Shannon Rhodes, Photographer
Additional Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/
    Courtesy & © Friend Weller, Utah Public Radio
    Courtesy & © Anderson, Howe, Wakeman
Text: Shannon Rhodes, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University https://edithbowen.usu.edu/
Additional Reading Links: Shannon Rhodes

Additional Reading:

BEETLES and The Regents of the University of California. I Notice, I Wonder, It reminds me of. 2020.
http://beetlesproject.org/resources/for-field-instructors/notice-wonder-reminds/
and ​​http://beetlesproject.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/I-Notice-I-Wonder-It-Reminds-Me-Of.pdf

Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. 1908. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/289/pg289-images.html#chap01

Rhodes, Shannon. I Notice, I Wonder. Wild About Utah, August 31, 2020. https://wildaboututah.org/i-notice-i-wonder/

Ross, Janet. A Place Called Home: Quilting a Life of Joy on the Colorado Plateau. September 13, 2023. Colorado: Lost Souls Press. https://www.amazon.com/Place-Called-Home-Quilting-Colorado/dp/B0CJ41XFWH

Strand, Holly. Kissing Under the Dung Twig. Wild About Utah, December 20, 2012. https://wildaboututah.org/kissing-under-the-dung-twig/

Schwandt, John. Fir broom rust. 2005. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5187433.pdf

U.S. Forest Service. Broom rusts of spruce and fir. 2011. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5336985.pdf

U.S. Forest Service. Mistletoes. https://www.fs.usda.gov/r3/resources/health/field-guide/pages/Mistletoes.shtml

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Solar Eclipses-A look into the skies

Solar Eclipses: Mary and Family Viewing the Eclipse Courtesy & © Mary Heers, Photographer
Mary and Family Viewing the Eclipse
Courtesy & © Mary Heers, Photographer

Photo of Her 2013 T-shirt Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer, T-Shirt image Copyright 2012 Betchart Expeditions Inc. Photo of Her 2013 T-shirt
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer
T-Shirt image Copyright 2012 Betchart Expeditions Inc.

Photo of Her 2013 T-shirt Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer, T-Shirt image Copyright 2012 Betchart Expeditions Inc. Photo of Her 2013 T-shirt
Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer
T-Shirt image Copyright 2012 Betchart Expeditions Inc.

When I looked up at the cloudy sky on October 14, I was dismayed. I was so looking forward to watching the partial solar eclipse, predicted to be at its height at 80% in Cache Valley at 10:15. Now the sun was hidden behind heavy clouds. Refusing to give up all hope, I slipped my eclipse glasses into my pocket and headed up a hiking trail on the Wellsville mountains. At 10:10 I stopped on an open ledge, put the glasses on, and looked up into the sky.

I saw nothing but absolute, total black.

I waited a few minutes. I put the glasses back on.

This time I saw the darkness thinning. And behold! A golden croissant appeared in the black sky.

In very slow motion, the moon continued to slide across this glowing crescent, reducing it to a thin golden semi-circle.

It was spellbinding for me because this partial eclipse was so different from the 3 total eclipses I’d already seen. This time my attention was on the big black moon rock sailing slowly across a spot of light. In the past, watching a total eclipse was all about the sun disappearing.

My first eclipse was in 1961. My high school physics teacher had taken us on an all-night bus ride. In the morning, the bus pulled over in an olive grove. I will never forget how the color drained out of the countryside. The birds stopped singing. We felt the chill as the temperature dropped.

My second total eclipse was on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We were on course to intercept the path of totality when it started raining. The shop’s captain gunned the engines and somehow found a bit of open sky. We counted down: 3,2,1, Zero! The sun disappeared and the stars came out. We took off our glasses. We held our breath. And then a tiny spot of hot sun poked out on the the sun’s aurora, and what looked like a giant engagement ring spread across the sky.

My third eclipse was near the Grand Tetons in 2017. This time I was fascinated by the small crescents of sunlight shadows dancing across my shoes.

In ancient times, the temporary extinguishing of the sun caused quite a bit of fear. The Chinese thought a giant dragon was taking bites out of the sun. They beat drums to drive the dragon away. In other countries, warriors shot flaming arrows into the sky to reignite the lost fireball.

We still have much to learn about the moon, the sun, the stars, and beyond. But what I learned this year was that the sun is 400 times the size of the moon. The moon is 390 times closer to the earth. This allows the sun and moon to appear to us to be the about same size. So, when the moon slides between us and the sun, sometimes it covers it completely. But when the moon is at its farthest from the earth, it leaves the fiery edges of the sun exposed – the Ring of Fire.

It’s a math problem with moving parts, but mathematicians can predict exactly when the next total eclipse will be visible in North America.

Set your calendar for April 8, 2024.

This is Mary Heers and I’m Wild About Utah.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy & Copyright Mary Heers. T-shirt image © 2012 Betchart Expeditions Inc.
Featured Audio: Courtesy & Copyright © Friend Weller, Utah Public Radio upr.org
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’ Postings

“Some Tribes are allowed to view the eclipse while others, like the Navajo and Ute Indian Tribes, do not look at it. This can include reflections (water, mirrors, windows, etc.) or photos.

Please avoid posting videos or photos of the eclipse on social media – some Tribes are forbidden to look at the eclipse, including images and videos…”
2023 Annular Eclipse, San Juan County Economic Visitor Services, https://www.utahscanyoncountry.com/2023_annular_eclipse

Strand, Holly, Ring of Fire, Wild About Utah, May 17, 2012, https://wildaboututah.org/ring-of-fire/

Eclipses, NASA, https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/

2023 Solar Eclipse, NASA, https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2023/

[Future Eclipses] April 8, 2024, Solar Eclipse, NASA, https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/

2023 Annual Eclipse, Bryce Canyon National Park, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/brca/planyourvisit/2023-annular-eclipse.htm

Annular Solar Eclipse, October 14, 2023, Capital Reef National Park, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/care/planyourvisit/annular-solar-eclipse.htm

Atlantic Crossing Total Eclipse 2013, Betchart Expeditions Inc.,
Webpage: https://www.solareclipsetrips.com/europe_atlantic2013.htm
Mailer: https://www.solareclipsetrips.com/pdf_files/atlantic_cros_final_1300_01x.pdf
Memorable Images: https://www.betchartexpeditions.com/trav_atlantic_crossing2013.htm