Category: Birds

Posted on

Golden Eagles

Golden Eagle
Golden Eagle
Aquila chrysaetos
Courtesy USDA Forest Service
Dave Herr, Photographer

On a recent Christmas Bird Count, my team witnessed an amazing feat of flight. We parked in a subdivision cul-de-sac to walk into the sagebrush foothills. Overhead we saw two Golden Eagles meet in a talon lock and tumble towards earth. They disengaged moments before crashing and flew off in opposite directions. A minute later and we would have missed it all. So what were they up to? I am not quite sure.

Golden Eagles are supreme flyers. In both courtship and territory displays they steeply dive and swoop upward. During a pendulum display, they dive and rise in one direction then turn and retrace their path. Pairs often play with an object in the sky, repeatedly dropping and retrieving it. The talon lock display is rarely seen, but it too is used both for bonding between pairs and in territorial disputes. We saw the display in December and the birds separated immediately, so we probably witnessed a territorial defense. Golden Eagles require a territory anywhere from 20 to 200 square miles depending on prey abundance. As with most wildlife, loss of habitat is a prime threat.

Three quarters of recorded Golden Eagle deaths can be traced to humans. In treeless areas, power poles provide a convenient perch. When their 7 foot wingspan touches two wires, they are electrocuted. New designs and retrofits for power poles eliminate this problem and the resulting range fires, but many of the older designs remain. Wind farms also kill eagles, but again, new designs and more careful siting are helping to alleviate this problem.

The Golden Eagles’ favorite meal in the West is jackrabbit. However, they are opportunistic foragers and will dine on carrion. If the carcass they feed on was shot, they may ingest fragments of bullets or buckshot that contain lead. Lead poisoning is an excruciating way to die. Carcasses with lead fragments are eaten by many carnivorous birds and mammals who are then poisoned. This winter, 8 Bald Eagles died of lead poisoning at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. We must remedy this problem so we can insure that our skies will always be graced by the grandeur of soaring eagles.

Our theme music was written by Don Anderson and is performed by Leaping Lulu.

This is Linda Kervin for Bridgerland Audubon Society.

Credits:

Image: Courtesy USDA Forest Service, Dave Herr, Photographer
Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson as performed by Leaping Lulu
Text & Voice: Linda Kervin, Bridgerland Audubon Society

Additional Reading:

Linda Kervin’s pieces on Wild About Utah

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/golden_eagle/lifehistory

https://www.hawkwatch.org/component/content/127

https://www.peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/Golden_Eagle#sthash.Gqowt1G0.gFqVfifi.dpbs

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865596763/Lead-blamed-for-latest-bald-eagle-deaths-in-Utah.html

Posted on

Echoes of Lake Bonneville

Echoes of Lake Bonneville: North Spring, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah. Courtesy Utah Geological Survey
North Spring, Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, Utah. Courtesy Utah Geological Survey

Leland Harris wetlands, Snake Valley, Utah, Courtesy Utah Geological SurveyLeland Harris wetlands
Snake Valley, Utah
Courtesy Utah Geological Survey

Least Chub, Courtesy and Copyright Mark C. Belk, PhotographerLeast Chub
Courtesy & © Mark C. Belk, Photographer
Echoes of Lake Bonneville

Hi, I’m Holly Strand of the Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.

Deserts are dry by definition receiving an average of less than 10 inches of precipitation a year. In Utah’s cold West Desert, this skimpy amount of moisture slakes the thirst of sagebrush, saltbush or greasewood, but not much else. However, just like the Sahara, the West Desert has its oases. In certain lowland valleys you’ll find complexes of pools and marshes. There isn’t enough rain to form these freshwater sanctuaries. The water comes from giant underground aquifers.

Underneath the West Desert, the aquifer system acts as a storehouse for runoff from the surrounding mountains. As rainwater or snow melt enters or “recharges” the aquifer system, water pressure can build up in some areas. This pressure moves water through cracks and tunnels within the aquifer, and sometimes this water flows out naturally in the form of springs.

These desert springs–and the resulting pools and marshes–permit concentrations of animals and plants not possible under normal desert conditions. You’ll find sedges, rushes cattails and many other wetland plants. Both migratory and year round birds congregate here. There are even a couple of frog species—the Colombian spotted frog and the northern leopard frog.

But most remarkable are the desert spring residents that have survived from the days when the West Desert formed the floor of giant Lake Bonneville. Surveys have revealed a number of relict snails and other mollusks that still persist from that time. Some, like the Black Canyon Pyrg exist at a single spring complex only; they are found nowhere else on earth.

Certain native fish were also left high and dry by Lake Bonneville’s recession. The least chub is a good example. Now the sole member of its genus, this 3-inch long survivor is an unassuming but attractive little minnow. It is olive-colored on top and sports a gold strip on its steel-blue sides. It swims in dense but orderly schools in either flowing or still water. It can withstand both temperature variations and high salinity. The ability to tolerate different physical conditions has undoubtedly helped the least chub survive the post-Lake Bonneville millennium. Even so, the least chub was hanging on in only six different locations until Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources reintroduced it to several more sites within its historic range. The Division and its conservation partners are still working to reduce threats to the least chub, to other spring residents and to the spring habitats themselves.

For more information and pictures go to www.wildaboututah.org

Thanks to Chris Keleher of Utah’s Department of Natural Resources for his help in developing this Wild About Utah story.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Theme: Courtesy & Copyright Don Anderson Leaping Lulu
Image: Least Chub, Mark C. Belk, Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University
Image: Wetlands, Courtesy Utah Geological Survey https://geology.utah.gov/
Text: Holly Strand, Quinney College of Natural Resources at Utah State University

Sources & Additional Reading

Bailey, Carmen L., Kristine W. Wilson Matthew E. Andersen. 2005. CONSERVATION AGREEMENT AND STRATEGY FOR LEAST CHUB (IOTICHTHYS PHLEGETHONTIS) IN THE STATE OF UTAH Publication Number 05-24 Utah Division of Wildlife Resources a division of Utah Department of Natural Resources https://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/fish/least_chubs.pdf

Jones, Jennifer, Rich Emerson, and Toby Hooker. 2013. Characterizing Condition in At-risk
Wetlands of Western Utah: Phase I UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY a division of Utah Department of Natural Resources,https://geodata.geology.utah.gov/pages/view.php?ref=8364

Nature Serve entry for Least Chub: https://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Iotichthys+phlegethontis

Hanks, Joseph H. and Mark C. Belk. 2004. Threatened fishes of the world: Iotichthys phlegethontis Cope, 1874 (Cyprinidae) in Environmental Biology of Fishes, Vol. 71. N. 4., Kluwer Academic Publishers. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10641-004-1030-x

Sigler W. F. & J. W. Sigler. 1996. Fishes of Utah, A Natural History. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. 375 pp. https://www.amazon.com/Fishes-Utah-A-Natural-History/dp/0874804698

Wasatch Front Canyons Geologic Tour, Virtual Tour created from Published Booklet (pdf) Geologic Guide to the Central Wasatch Front Canyons, Utah Geological Survey, State of Utah, https://utahdnr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=5cf1570b998346d98478a5abd50bf096

Geologic guides to the central Wasatch Front Canyons, Utah Geological Survey, 2005, https://geology.utah.gov/popular/utah-landforms/virtual-tour-central-wasatch-front-canyons/ [updated January 2024]

Posted on

Til Death Do Us Part

Tundra Swan Pair
Cygnus columbianus
Courtesy US FWS
Tim Bowman, Photographer

Hi, I’m Holly Strand.

Each year we celebrate Valentine’s Day by expressing our love and devotion to a significant other. While humans are the only species that actually celebrate it, we aren’t the only animals who bond together as couples. Monogamy–or long term pair bonding as animal behaviorists call it–is practiced by over 90 % of birds. Along with a modest number of mammals, including wolves, beavers, voles and gibbons. Even a few fish pair up.

Monogamy may have evolved for different reasons among different groups of animals. For some, female dispersal may have played a role. If females are few and far between–as is the case with white tail ptarmigans–there is a tendency to pair up. Perhaps additional potential mates are too far away too bother. For males, monogamy can save a lot of time and energy. Monogamous males don’t have to fight over females or bother with first time courtship rituals. And by closely guarding a single female , males can protect their genetic investment.

There are advantages for females too. With a mate, you can get a little assistance around the nest or den. Male partners can help incubate eggs, guard against predators and help feed the kids. The fact that male and females are equally suited to care for chicks may explain why monogamy is so much more common among birds. The male improves his chances for reproductive success by investing in just one female’s little ones. The situation is different in mammals. Mammal males just can’t step in and help as much with gestation and lactation. So perhaps that’s why only 3% of mammal species form pair bonds.

The offspring of monogamous pairs tend to be pretty helpless at birth. Having two caregivers means that the you can take more time to mature. This long, slow development leads to larger brain sizes. Humans demonstrate this phenomenon very well as we parent our children longer than any other species on earth!

The tundra swan is Utah’s best example of monogamy in the wild. Young tundra swans date around a bit when they are young, but they eventually settle down with a single mate for life. They build and defend a nest together and raise the kids. But then they stick together the rest of the year as well. Greetings and courtship rituals such as head bobbing and dipping and ritual bathing strengthen their commitment toward each other.

You can see these beautiful swans in massive numbers twice a year when they migrate through Utah. Tens of thousands of them stop by the Great Salt Lake on their way to either the Arctic tundra or to central California.

For sources, pictures, and archives of past programs, go to www.wildaboututah.org

For Wild About Utah, I’m Holly Strand.

Credits:

Image: Courtesy US FWS, images.fws.gov
Text: Holly Strand

Sources & Additional Reading

Limpert, R. J. and S. L. Earnst. 1994. Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: https://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/089

Mocka, Douglas, and Masahiro Fujiokab. 1990. “Monogamy and long-term pair bonding in vertebrates” Trends in Ecology & Evolution. Volume 5, Issue 2, February 1990, Pages 39–43

Reichard, Ulrich and Christoph Boesch. 2003. Monogramy: mating Strategies and Partnerships in Birds, Humans and Other Mammals. Cambridge University Press.

Schultz, Susanne and Robin I.M. Dunbar. 2010. “Bondedness and sociality”
Behaviour, Volume 147, Number 7, 2010 , pp. 775-803(29).

Schultz, Susanne and Robin I.M. Dunbar. 2010. Social bonds in birds are associated with brain size and contingent on the correlated evolution of life-history and increased parental investment. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Volume 100, Issue 1, pages 111–123, May 2010.

Posted on

Utah’s Rich Skiing History

The ski lift at Snow Park (now Deer Valley) in the 1940s
The ski lift at Snow Park
(now Deer Valley) in the 1940s
Visit Summit County as found on
Ilovehistory.utah.gov

Hi, this is Mark Larese-Casanova from the Utah Master Naturalist Program at Utah State University Extension.

Since the early pioneers, Utah’s mountains have been the basis of important industry and a source of great wealth. Some of Utah’s better-known mountain towns, such as Park City, were originally established as mining camps in the late 1800s. While some silver and gold mining still occurs in Utah, these days we find wealth in the form of another color- white. Snow, that is.

Skiing in Utah is so popular that people travel from around the world to ski here. We’re well known for our light, dry powder, and steep terrain. Each year, Utah’s fourteen ski resorts record several million skier day visits.

But, before skiing was a popular recreational activity, it was an important mode of transportation. For trappers, miners, and other early winter inhabitants of Utah’s mountains, travelling by skis was a means of survival. It was Norwegian immigrants who first brought skis to Utah, and one of the earliest records of skiing comes from the town of Alta, where, in 1870, the postman delivered mail to the town on skis. Ski touring grew in popularity, and the Wasatch Mountain Club routinely led multi-day trips in the 1910’s and ‘20’s. Professional ski jumping events, drawing thousands of spectators, began along the Wasatch foothills around 1930.

Until the Great Depression caused the value of silver to plummet, Alta was a boomtown for silver mining. The abundant snow was troublesome for the miners, and a giant avalanche destroyed half of the town in 1873. It wasn’t until the early 1930s that the mayor (and sole inhabitant of the town at the time) began exploring the idea of promoting skiing at Alta. After all, Alta holds the state record for highest average annual snowfall of 516 inches!

Alf Engen, a native Norwegian who came to Alta in 1935 as a foreman with the Civilian Conservation Corps reforestation effort, was instrumental in helping the US Forest Service select suitable areas for developing skiing. Modern skiing was established in Utah when cable tows started running at Brighton in 1937, and the Collins chairlift fired up at Alta in 1939 and offered rides for only 25 cents each, or $1.50 for the day. The next decade saw development of several other ski resorts, including Snowbasin and Beaver Mountain.

Utah’s ski resorts and backcountry continue to offer wonderful opportunities to enjoy the wintry outdoors with family and friends, to learn a new sport, and to take part in Utah’s rich skiing history. Oh, and for 5th and 6th graders around the state, Ski Utah offers Ski Passports that include three free lift tickets at each of Utah’s ski resorts.

For Wild About Utah, I’m Mark Larese-Casanova.

Credits:

Photo: Summit County on Ilovehistory.utah.gov
Text:     Mark Larese-Casanova

Additional Reading:

Arave, J. Utah Skiing History. Utah Travel Center. https://utahtravelcenter.com/activities/skiing/utah_history.htm

Bowman, Anthony W., “From Silver to Skis: A History of Alta, Utah, and Little Cottonwood Canyon, 1847-1966” (1967). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1642.
 https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1642

Hullinger, J. Alf Engen. Utah History Encyclopedia. https://www.historytogo.utah.gov/people/alfengen.html

Notarianni, P.F. Mining. Utah History Encyclopedia. https://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/mining_and_railroads/mining.html

Utah Ski History FAQs. Alf Engen Ski Museum. https://www.engenmuseum.org/utah-ski-history-faqs