Category: Vertebrates

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Winged Bullets of Beauty

Adult Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) mid-air, passing food to a juvenile Courtesy Pixabay, Premek Hajek (hapr80), Contributor
Adult Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) mid-air, passing food to a juvenile
Courtesy Pixabay, Premek Hajek (hapr80), Contributor
My morning outing was bedazzled by masters of their aerial universe. Their agility is beyond imagination, capturing their prey with a gaping maw while flying at maximum speed, winged bullets ripping through the air. The swallows and swifts are truly marvels of aerodynamic design, with a pilot whose abilities know no bounds. They rival bats and dragonflies in their ability to capture insects while in flight: barn swallows, tree swallows, cliff swallows, violet green swallows, bank and rough wing swallows, white throated swift, all found in our beautiful Utah.

I watch them drink while in flight, as I have hummingbirds, another remarkable aerialist, skimming the water surface with beak scooping in. If you rarely see them on the ground, they will be resting on their stomachs, lacking abilities to stand, hop, or run. Their legs atrophied from spending most of their lives on the wing.

Barn Swallow Nest with Chicks and Feeding Adult Courtesy US FWS, Lee Karney, Photographer
Barn Swallow Nest with Chicks and Feeding Adult
Courtesy US FWS, Lee Karney, Photographer

Cliff Swallow Nest with Chicks Courtesy US FWS, Jacob W Frank, Photographer Cliff Swallow Nest with Chicks
Courtesy US FWS, Jacob W Frank, Photographer

Bank Swallows Flying Over Bank Nest Cavities Courtesy US FWS, Lee Karney, Photographer Bank Swallows Flying Over Bank Nest Cavities
Courtesy US FWS, Lee Karney, Photographer

Tree Swallows in Flight Courtesy US FWS, Ron Wrucke, Photographer Tree Swallows in Flight
Courtesy US FWS, Ron Wrucke, Photographer

Annas Hummingbird (Calypte Anna) Courtesy US FWS, Robert McMorran, Photographer Annas Hummingbird (Calypte Anna)
Courtesy US FWS, Robert McMorran, Photographer

Two species of swallows construct elaborate nests from mud. If you visit a bridge, you may find a long row of cliffs, wallow gorge-shaped nests attached to the bridge underside above the water. The nest opening is near the same diameter as the bird’s girth. Young birds may be slightly larger than adults, making their maiden flight a bit difficult as they squeeze through the narrow exit. Their mud nests are made of 1000s of BB-sized pellets glued together with a mix of bird saliva and mud. Both add plant fiber, strengthening their adobe nests. Barn swallows construct cup-like nests on flat surfaces, oftentimes above a door, which makes it a bit tricky to avoid getting nipped by a parent as one passes through.

Swallows engage in elaborate aerial courtship displays to attract and bond with a mate. The male will pursue the female in flight, often performing swoops, dives, and glides to showcase his flying skills. If interested, the female may reciprocate by mirroring the male’s maneuvers. The pair may continue these synchronized flights throughout the breeding season to strengthen their pair bond.

Swallows hold significant cultural symbolism in various native traditions, often representing renewal, hope, and transformation. They are featured in numerous myths and stories, reflecting their importance in spiritual and ecological narratives.

Beyond swallows, incredibly important natural pest control, their presence is also a key indicator of environmental health, reflecting the condition of wetlands, grasslands, and open habitats.

Swallows by day, bats by night, both critical for controlling insect populations. With our crashing insect numbers due to insecticides, habitat loss, and a rapidly changing climate, my concern for the future of this specialized bird family continues to rise.

Climate change, with rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and increased frequency of extreme weather events, are disrupting ecosystems. This impacts the availability of food and nesting sites, altering the timing of insect emergence, potentially creating a mismatch between the availability of insects and the breeding season of swallows. As temperatures rise, suitable habitats may shift northward, forcing populations to relocate or face extinction.

This is Jack Green for Bridgerland Audubon Society. I’m wild about these winged bullets of beauty.

Credits:
Winged Bullets of Beauty
Picture: Courtesy Pixabay, Premek Hajek (hapr80), Contributor
Additional Images Courtesy US FWS, Photographers noted for each image, Jacob W Frank, Lee Karney(2x), Ron Wrucke, and Robert McMorran.
Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/
Text: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Lyle W Bingham, Webmaster, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

Jack Greene’s Postings on Wild About Utah, https://wildaboututah.org/author/jack/

Swallows Nesting in Nuisance Locations, Division of Migratory Birds and Habitat, Pacific Southwest Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, https://www.fws.gov/story/nuisance-swallows

Barn Swallow, Natural Pest Control, BirdNote, https://www.birdnote.org/show/barn-swallow-natural-pest-control

Barn Swallow:
Barn Swallow, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barn_Swallow/id
Barn Swallow – Hirundo rustica, Profile, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/Profiles/BarnSwallow.htm
Barn Swallow, Migration and Annual Cycle, JourneyNorth, Arboretum, University of Wisconsin-Madison, https://journeynorth.org/tm/swallow/News.html

Bank Swallow:
Bank Swallow, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Bank_Swallow/id
Bank Swallow – Riparia riparia, Profile, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/Profiles/BankSwallow.htm

Cliff Swallow:
Cliff Swallow, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cliff_Swallow/id
Cliff Swallow – Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, Profile, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/Profiles/CliffSwallow.htm

Tree Swallow:
Tree Swallow, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tree_Swallow/id
Tree Swallow – Tachycineta bicolor, Profile, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesS-Z/TreeSwallow.htm

Violet-green Swallow:
Violet-green Swallow, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Violet-green_Swallow/id
Violet-green Swallow – Tachycineta thalassina, Profile, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesS-Z/VioletGreenSwallow.htm

Northern rough-winged Swallow:
Northern rough-winged Swallow, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Rough-winged_Swallow/id
Northern rough-winged Swallow – Tachycineta thalassina, Profile, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesL-R/NorthernRoughWingSwallow.htm

Purple Martin:
Purple Martin, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Purple_Martin/id
Purple Martin – Progne subis, Profile, UtahBirds.org, Utah County Birders, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesL-R/PurpleMartin.htm

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Connecting Classroom Learning to the World

Birding-Class-Families Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Birding-Class-Families
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Ever since I started centering my entire 2nd-grade classroom instruction around a bird theme, one of the most important benefits I’ve seen is how learning at school suddenly becomes important and valuable to students outside the school walls, and because of that, students become advocates for learning to their families.

Male Bullocks Oriole (Icterus bullockiorum) Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Male Bullocks Oriole
(Icterus bullockiorum)
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer

Female Belted Kingfisher-(Megaceryle alcyon) Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer Female Belted Kingfisher-(Megaceryle alcyon)
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer

My birding classroom goes well beyond a few fun birding crafts or cute bird stickers. My students study a bird each week with reading passages, complete bird-related math activities, go on weekly field trips to find birds while keeping an ongoing writing journal about those experiences, and create their own birding guide over the course of the year about the birds they’ve studied.

Students can also send in bird sighting photos from home, and then we as a class, try to identify what bird they saw. Here points to one piece of evidence that kids are engaged outside of the school walls, with their families, in a special way. Just this year I had over 500 bird photo submissions from my 25 students. Each of these submissions in an independent, outside of school action that kids take – necessitating technological support from family – to make a connection from nature to the classroom. This type of connection is magical and indicative that learning at school is spreading beyond its walls, and that the students involve their family in the process.

Additionally, I receive emails from parents of students in my class saying things like “…ornithology prompted likely a lifelong love for birds in Jasmine, and has spread to our whole family. She even takes her little sisters on birding walks around the block to see what they can find.” or “Denis brought the whole family up Logan Canyon this weekend so we could look for birds!” Never before in all my years of teaching did I have families sharing how the work we did in class directly impacted the engagement of the family with nature outside of school. Now, kids are advocates to their families for engagement in the natural world.

Finally, you know something special is happening when families sacrifice their precious time outside of school and work hours to engage in learning. One hectic Monday in April, I sent out an impromptu email to my families that said “Let’s go birding! Meet at 5:00 PM on Thursday at Maple View Park, bring your family, and let’s see what we can find!” In my mind, a few of my passionate little birders would show up for the adventure. In reality, over 30 students, adults, and siblings, bustled into the parking lot ready for their binoculars and for the exploration! The group consisted of dads with spotting scopes, a family dog named ‘Tate,’ and lots of eager and inquisitive minds thrilled to look for birds in a new environment. The two hours went by in a flash, and nature didn’t fail to stun with the bright orange, black, and white of a Bullock’s Oriole; and the chattering Belted Kingfisher, frustrated that we had disturbed his evening fishing routine.

In the end, centering classroom instruction on this real-world theme of birds has made classroom learning something that is no longer bound within the school walls. It has become something that students need, use, and apply to the world around them in their everyday lives. Furthermore, their eagerness to make these classroom-to-world connections quickly draws their families into the same type of engagement. As a teacher, I could only ever hope that my impact would have such a reach, where kids go back to their families and become advocates for learning, advocates for awareness, and advocates for nature.

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:

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Falconry Terms

Falcon on Forearm Courtesy and Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer
Falcon on Forearm
Courtesy and Copyright Mary Heers, Photographer
In 1962, Rachael Carson rocked the bird watching world with her book Silent Spring. She identified the commonly used pesticide DDT as the culprit responsible for declining populations of eagles, falcons and hawks. Rachael was able to prove that once DDT got into the food chain, it fatally weakened the eggshells of these birds. DDT was banned the following year.

Would the raptor populations be able to respond? The answer to this question was spearheaded by Hawk Watch International. They recruited volunteers to camp out near Mendon Peak which overlooks a major flyway for migrating birds in the fall.

Armed with pencils and paper, these volunteers checked off each raptor that flew by. It was a tough camp, because once the snow melts, any water on top had to be carried up there. Sometimes my family and others would hike up and give them oranges. Every year the news got better. The raptor populations were rebounding. In 1999 they were officially taken off the endangered species list.

At this time, for most people in Utah, getting a close look at a raptor required a trip to the Hogle Zoo to see the bird show. COVID shut down these shows. But luckily, a young volunteer at the zoo, Nick Morris, stepped up, got the licensing needed to own raptors, and created a traveling show called Long Wing Inc.

When I was able to meet Nick on his home turf, he told me that in Shakespeare’s time, most every man owned some kind of raptor. The kings owned eagles. The nobility owned falcons. It was no accident that talk of falcons worked its way into the spoken language.

For example, falconers kept ankle bands on the bird’s legs attached to short study strings. Before flying their birds, falconers held these strings in a tight fist with their thumbs pressing down hard. This is why we say we keep things “under our thumb.”

Falcons were always easier to handle while being transported with a hood slipped over their heads. This led to our saying today that when someone does not see something clearly, he is “hood winked.”

Morning chores were underway when I showed up at Nick’s house. He carried each bird out into his driveway and put a piece of quail on a sawhorse. The bird was happy to hop over and eat it. Nick then put a piece of quail down the driveway on top of his fence. This was a chance for the bird to spread his wings and fly to the treat. Everything was going to plan until one bird took off and settled on the roof of the house. There were a few tense minutes. Nick admitted to me he had once had to chase a runaway bird all the way to Evanston.
Shakespeare captures a moment like this when Juliet is on her balcony and Romeo has walked away.

Juliet says, “Oh for a falconer’s voice to lure this tassel-gentle back again.” Once we know that a “tassel” is Shakespeare’s word for a male falcon, we can see that Juliet is seeing Romeo as a noble and beautiful creature. Juliet sees herself as the falconer, hoping that Romeo will return and possibly be tamed by her.
Just as Romeo ran back to Juliet, Nick’s bird came down from the roof.

Nick explained how falcons were not pets in the traditional sense. Falconry is an ancient sport going back thousands of years. In Shakespeare’s time, it was a way of putting food on the dinner table.

This is Mary Heers and I’m Wild About Utah

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy and Copyright Mary Heers,
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Mary Heers and 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

The Story of Silent Spring, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), August 13, 2015, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/story-silent-spring

The Wellsvilles Hawkwatch Site, Bridgerland Audubon Society, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/our-projects/the-wellsvilles-hawkwatch-site/

Utah’s Hogle Zoo, https://www.hoglezoo.org/

Tracy Aviary at Liberty Park, https://tracyaviary.org/liberty-park/visit/programs/daily-programs-activities/

Falconry, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/main-hunting-page/falconry.html

Falconry terms in the English Language:

  • Bate: In falconry, “bate” refers to a hawk’s attempt to fly off its perch while still tethered. This has become “bated breath” in common English, meaning to be in a state of nervous anticipation or anxiety, according to Wingspan Bird of Prey Centre.
  • Fed up: A falcon that is well-fed has no incentive to hunt, leading to the term “fed up” meaning to be bored or uninterested.
  • Haggard: A “haggard” hawk is one caught from the wild as an adult, often difficult to train. In common usage, “haggard” describes someone looking exhausted or unwell.
  • Under his thumb: In falconry, this refers to the way a falconer holds the jesses (straps) of a hawk to control it. In general usage, it means being completely under someone’s control.
  • Hoodwinked: Originally, a “hood” was used to calm a hawk by covering its head. “Hoodwinked” means to be deceived or tricked, often subtly.
  • Rouse: A “rouse” in falconry is when a hawk shakes its feathers. This has evolved into the general meaning of shaking or awakening.
  • Pounce: A falcon’s “pounce” is its claws, used to seize prey. The word has entered common usage to describe a sudden, forceful movement.
  • Gorge: In falconry, a hawk “gorges” itself when it eats to capacity. This has become the general term for eating to excess.

    • Sources for Falconry terms in the English Language:
    Evans, Andrew, How falconry changed language, BBC. February 24, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20170111-how-irish-falconry-changed-language
    The Language of Falconry, Wingspan Birds of Prey Trust, https://www.wingspan.co.nz/falconry_language.html
    Amy, Falconry terms in common language, Powered by Birds, February 26, 2010, https://www.poweredbybirds.com/falconry-terms-in-common-language/
    Assembled by Google AI https://ai.google.com

    Utah Falconers Association, https://www.utahfalconers.com/

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    I’d Like to Report a Murder

    Pixabay - The American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), Courtesy Pixabay, Alexas Photos, Contributor
    The American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), Courtesy Pixabay, Alexas Photos, Contributor
    Driving the return road from our family’s trip to Goblin Valley, I scoured the lonely San Rafael landscape, searching for something to keep me alert.

    Suddenly, a shadow peeled off the ground and drifted into the sky. Was that an eagle?

    A second later, I sighed. That was no eagle. It was a blasted crow.

    You should know two things about this moment: first, as I would discover later, considering its size, solitary nature, and rural location, I was more than likely seeing a raven, not a crow. The other thing you should know is that at this time in my life I had a festering contempt for any bird of the corvid variety—corvid meaning crows, ravens, magpies … Our troubled past has its roots in walking to my work at Sky View high school and feeling personally targeted by the local murder, the term for a grouping of crows (tell me that your species is despised by the human race without actually telling me).

    This murder lounged on the roof above my classroom and cackled at me in a way that seemed like obvious derision. I reciprocated anytime we went outside and we would heckle back and forth. I’d try to scare them off with some weakly tossed pebbles and sticks.

    It should be no surprise then, that the Raven outside Goblin Valley brought disappointment verging upon abhorrence. Whether on roofs, bare trees in the winter, or even in the middle of nowhere deserts, crows are freaking everywhere I go!

    And that is when it hit me. The only two animal species in this desolate landscape at this moment were humans … and corvids. Perhaps crows, ravens, magpies are so ubiquitous because they are intrinsically connected to one other species: humans.

    Perhaps, just as crows followed humans to a wide-range of environments, they also adopted some of our best and most regrettable traits along the way.

    In spite of those human-like faults, like greed, bickering and pestering, they also reflected some of our better qualities of ingenuity, community, and interspecies regard.

    I begrudgingly saluted the raven, now a speck in the rear view mirror, and decided to reset my views of corvids. I reasoned that if I could not show crows respect, then how could I respect my own human race?

    I decided to track down an expert. Dr. Becky Williams from the Utah State University biology department in the Uintah Basin extension, was kind enough to allow some amateur questions from me.

    First, Dr. Williams assured me that crows are “aggressive territorial predators.” One could see how they might see a rooftop on the school and surrounding area as their own domain, and defend it aggressively against intruders! Hard to criticize a bird for that, when there could not be a more territorial predator than our own species.

    When I spoke to Dr. Williams about the versatility of crows—their habitat reaches nearly as wide range of locations and climates as humans—she talked about a big reason being their intelligence. Corvid birds are smart, and that means that they don’t need as perfect an environment because they can come up with clever ways to survive.

    Crows have bigger brains than their fellow fowl. They can remember thousands of different cache locations for seeds or other foods. They can even remember faces. Dr. Williams directed me to a study where crows recognized a unique human mask that researchers used in their interactions with a particular murder. When she told me this, I had no problem confirming what seemed to me a very targeted pestering from the same crows over several years.

    This intelligence, Dr. Williams explained, tended to show itself in social animals: Crows, dolphins, humans … all spend a majority of their time in communities. The complex relationships of those communities causes them to need to remember who is a cooperator and who is a cheater. In other words, they make an in-group of those who work together, and they hold a grudge. What’s more human than that!

    Once this information shifted my views on crows, I knew that I lacked much needed reconciliation. The south Smithfield murder of crows and I had nursed our historic differences, and it was time that I made things right.

    When the murder showed up at their regular spot above my classroom, I tried meeting the crows outside. I wanted them to see my face as I gave them a snack. As soon as I reached into my pocket for a gift snack, they flapped off into the distance. My action of reaching for an object must have seemed familiar to them, as pulling things off the ground or out of my pocket was how I used to scare them off from before. They remembered the old me, and—as I had shamefully trained them—they retreated.

    Just a couple of days ago, after weeks of non-aggressive attempted interactions, one of the more daring crows overcame reticence and dropped to the ground to investigate the unsalted peanut I dropped for them. He looked at it, looked at me, snatched it and withdrew back to the tree.

    I am happy to report that now more of them are feeling comfortable picking up snacks I leave for them.

    Am I looking to create a utopian bond between these crows and me? No. Perhaps dropping an occasional peanut and not yelling at each other will be the best that we can get. But I feel an immense satisfaction in seeing these remarkable animals respond to my overtures and believing that we have mended a divide between us and possibly even cultivated respect.

    One of the biggest differences that I’ve noticed lately, is that when I step outside for my daily walk, no longer am I looking down to queue up the latest podcast with people cackling about political strife, or to take in media designed to ruffle the feathers of indignation of one group against another. Instead, as soon as I step outside, I look up. I’m looking for my new corvid friends—humbled, hopeful, grateful.

    This is Marty Reeder, and I am Wild About Utah

    Credits:

    Image: Courtesy Pixabay, Alexas Photos, Contributor
    Featured Audio: Courtesy Freesound.org): 210701 American Crows, caws calling, sparrows, robin, urban residential, TORONTO, 7am.wav by TRP, Thomas Ryder Payne. Sound designer, composer, musician. Based in Toronto. — https://freesound.org/s/616975/
    License: Creative Commons 0
    Text: Marty Reeder, https://skyview.ccsdut.org/
    Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

    Additional Reading

    Wild About Utah Pieces by Marty Reeder

    Strand, Holly, Crow vs. Raven, Wild About Utah, September 15, 2011, https://wildaboututah.org/crow-vs-raven/

    Kelly, Patrick, Greetings puny earthlings, Wild About Utah, September 28, 2020, https://wildaboututah.org/greetings-puny-earthlings/

    Boling, Josh, Josh’s Raven Encounter, Wild About Utah, June 11, 2018, https://wildaboututah.org/joshs-raven-encounter/

    Kolowski, Joseph, Outdoor Experiences in High-Def, Wild About Utah, June 10, 2024, https://wildaboututah.org/outdoor-experiences-in-high-def/

    Boling, Josh, The Language of Ravens, Wild About Utah, February 19, 2018, https://wildaboututah.org/language-of-ravens/

    How to Tell Crows and Ravens Apart by Sight and Sound, All About Birds, Oct 22, 2024, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/similar-species-crows-and-ravens/