Podcast: Wild About Utah

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Sound Can Brighten the Dingy Days

Red-winged Blackbird Male Courtesy Pixabay, Nichole Linzmeier, Contributor
Red-winged Blackbird Male
Courtesy Pixabay, Nichole Linzmeier, Contributor
For many of us who love the outdoors, the first half of March is a least favorite time of year. It’s a drizzly season. In northern Utah’s urban valleys, the lingering patches of snow are tinged with dirty gray that mirrors the dingy sky. Winter has lost its cleansing power, yet the budburst and first blooms of springtime are still weeks away. But if we close our eyes and listen, nature still can brighten the dingy days. A week or so ago, my wife and I stopped by a wetland we like near the Great Salt Lake. It had snowed the day before, and the marsh was half frozen. The remaining open water was packed with wintering waterfowl – pintails and coots and gadwalls and geese. We rolled down the car window to listen, and were greeted by the glorious cacophony of red-winged blackbirds.

That’s the bright side of early March. It’s a time when the early songbirds start to exercise their vocal chords. You might hear the complex warbling of a house finch, or the sweet piping “hee-did-it” of the black-capped chickadee. But to me, nothing says springtime like a blackbird’s song in an awakening marsh. It’s not a pretty sound, but it’s boisterous and exuberant. It embodies the joy of springtime.

But why now? Why not wait till things warm up a bit? And how do they know, when the nights can still be frigid and the days can still be dreary, that it’s time to gear up for spring?

The answer has nothing to do with temperature or precipitation. It’s a trick of the light. Or more specifically, the length of the day. For birds, that’s the most reliable calendar. When the time between sunrise and sunset reaches a certain number of minutes, photo-receptors in the avian brain trigger the production of hormones. That stimulates their sexual organs, telling the male blackbirds it’s time to get feisty. They begin to stake out nesting territories, singing their superiority to brothers and cousins. By the time the females arrive a few weeks later, they’ve sorted things out and are ready to mate and raise babies.

Unfortunately, not everything in nature uses daylength as an alarm clock. Plants and insects respond better to temperature. As the world’s climate changes, tree leaves emerge earlier, and so do the creatures that love to eat those tender spring shoots. The downside of change is exemplified by the plight of the European pied flycatcher. These birds spend the winter in Africa, flying north when daylength triggers the urge to migrate. For centuries they’d arrive just as caterpillars were emerging to feed on new foliage – a perfect source of protein to feed their hatchlings. But since daylength hasn’t changed while the climate has, now the flycatchers’ timing is off. Food is scarcer. Fewer nestlings survive.

Scientists have a name for this: phenological mismatch. We’re seeing more and more examples in nature where the timing of life events is off. It’s likely that a few species will adapt. Birds that get antsy early – jumping the gun on migration – will be favored by natural selection. But evolution takes time, and many species will suffer. In the meantime, we can take heart in knowing we can still count on songbirds to brighten this dreariest of seasons.

I’m Mark Brunson, and I’m wild about the sounds of Utah nature.

Credits:

Images Courtesy Pixabay, Nichole Linzmeier (Linzmeier1), Contributor https://pixabay.com/photos/bird-red-winged-black-bird-red-5276962/
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections and J. Chase and K.W. Baldwin. https://upr.org/
Text: Mark Brunson, https://www.usu.edu/experts/profile/mark-brunson/
Additional Reading: Lyle Bingham, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading

Faherty, Mark, Never mind the temperature, increasing photoperiod means birds are singing louder and longer, CapeandIslands.org owned and operated by the WGBH Educational Foundation (“WGBH”), February 21, 2018, https://www.capeandislands.org/in-this-place/2019-02-20/never-mind-the-temperature-increasing-photoperiod-means-birds-are-singing-louder-and-longer

Larese-Casanova, Mark, Blackbirds in our wetlands, Wild About Utah, May 26, 2011, https://wildaboututah.org/blackbirds-in-our-wetlands/

Birds on the wing, Living on Earth®, World Media Foundation, March 19, 2010, https://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=10-P13-00012&segmentID=6

Early spring is causing a mismatch of food, News, Cardiff University, April 30, 2018 https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/1168289-early-spring-is-causing-a-mismatch-of-food

Red-winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, Profiles, UtahBirds.org, http://utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesL-R/RedWingedBlackbird.htm
    Photo Gallery: http://utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsL-R/RedWingBlackbird.htm
    ID & Song: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/id

Red-winged Blackbird – Agelaius phoeniceus, Fieldguide, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah Department of Natural Resources, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=agelaius%20phoeniceus

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Stop. Look. Listen to the voices of our young people

Which Side of Air Quality do You want to Live on? Courtesy: 2025 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest Copyright Maria Yellowman, Artist, of Whitehorse High School (part of the Navajo Nation)
Which Side of Air Quality do You Want to Live on?
Courtesy: 2025 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest
Copyright Maria Yellowman, Artist, of Whitehorse High School (part of the Navajo Nation)

Smoke Thru Drive-Thru When You Eat Out Courtesy: 2025 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest Copyright Sander Ounesonepraseuth, Artist, Granger High School
Smoke Thru Drive-Thru When You Eat Out
Courtesy: 2025 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest
Copyright Sander Ounesonepraseuth, Artist, Granger High School

“Please, Please, Please” parody of Sabrina Carpenter, Courtesy 2025 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest, Copyright Lila Mortensen, Artist, Ridgeline High School Please, Please, Please Don’t Idle by Me, “Please, Please, Please” parody of Sabrina Carpenter
Courtesy 2025 Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest
Copyright Lila Mortensen, Artist, Ridgeline High School

Each fall, for the last 10 years, a challenge has gone out to Utah and Southern Idaho’s high school students to create a poster that sends a strong message to the rest of us that the air we breathe is dangerously dirty and we need to do something about it. Judges were called in, and by February the more than 1,000 entries were whittled down to 61 finalists. These posters were then taped to the glass walls in the foyer of USU’s art museum for all of us to come see.

The first poster that stopped me in my tracks was a drawing of our round planet teetering on a steep incline. The planet was split into 2 halves – one with blue water, green lands, a leafy tree, a bicycle. On the other half, all black and white, a car, a cigarette, a dead tree. A rope tied to the planet was wound around the chest of a young boy, who was straining to hold the globe at this dangerous tipping point. I felt the tension in the rope and the uncertainty of the outcome. There was no one in the poster coming to help the boy.

I moved on to the poster of a kid sitting at a bus stop, waiting, while a car passing in front of him was spewing clouds of exhaust. I felt a sharp pang – this kid seemed so vulnerable. We now know that over 50% of the dangerous particles trapped in our winter cold air inversions is caused by emissions from gasoline powered cars. And although it is unreasonable to ask people to stop driving, we can ask people to turn off their engines whenever possible.

“Stop Idling” was in fact the main message presented by these posters – in many incredibly creative ways.

In one poster a troubled young child stared out at us from a car creeping along in a fast-food line-up. Up ahead we saw another car, license plate IDLE, spitting three messages out the tailpipe: “permanently altered,” “whole world,” “seems to change.” Overhead the sign read “Smoke-Thru- Drive-Thru. And at the pick up window, next to the picture of fries, was the shocking message: “These fries are to die for.”

Another poster showed a kid playing a video game in his home. Outside the window you could just make in the hazy atmosphere a car warming up in the driveway, tailpipe puffing away. The message running along the bottom of the poster read, “Turn the Key B4 It’s Game Over.”

Another poster showed a close up of the mirror on the side of car. A kid in a gas mask was emerging from a thick cloud of black smoke, along with the reminder: “Objects in the rear-view mirror are closer than you think.”

Certainly the football player in another poster looked a lot less glamorous in a gas mask.

And finally, a picture of a girl with long blonde hair showed her turning to say something to us, but her face was hidden behind a thick plume of smoke. Her words, however, came through loud and clear:” PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, Don’t Idle by me.”

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

Credits:
Photos: Courtesy Mary Heers,
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Shalayne Smith-Needham,
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

USU Extension Celebrates 10 Years of Clean Air Contest With Exhibits, Community Art Day, Utah State TODAY, Utah State University, January 29, 2025, https://www.usu.edu/today/story/usu-extension-celebrates-10-years-of-clean-air-contest-with-exhibits-community-art-day

Utah High School Clean Air Marketing Contest, USU Extension Sustainability, Utah State University, https://cleanaircontest.usu.edu/

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Waldo the Wildcat

Waldo the Wildcat with the WSC Cheerleaders and Marching Band Courtesy: Special Collections and University Archives, Weber State University.
Waldo the Wildcat with the WSC Cheerleaders and Marching Band
March 22, 1968
Courtesy: Special Collections and University Archives, Weber State University.
A week ago I received the Weber State University Alumni Magazine that released a flood of memories and emotions. “Waldo celebrates 60” with Waldo’s cartoonish face on the cover. Waldo was not a cartoon, but a genuine lady bobcat and Weber State College mascot, a gorgeous animal that stole my heart!

Wildcat WSU Alumni Magazine Winter 2025 Cover, Courtesy WSU Marketing & Communications, Copyright Weber State University
Wildcat WSU Alumni Magazine
Winter 2025 Cover
Courtesy WSU Marketing & Communications
Copyright Weber State University
She was in my life as her temporary caretaker for a year from 1966-67. She was a beautiful, lively, highly intelligent being, who loved playing fetch, chasing dogs, and pouncing on my back.

When I first picked her up, I was forewarned she didn’t like riding in a vehicle and should be sedated and placed in her cage, which was loaded in the back of my old pickup truck. I didn’t wish Waldo to be tranquilized and wanted her in the cab with me to avoid injury. Her caretaker was quite concerned for my safety.

She calmly sat beside me as her handler waved us away. From that moment, things spiraled down quickly. When I started the engine, she crouched with ears back emitting a low growl. Reaching for the floor shift, Waldo attacked my arm. Luckily, her canine teeth and front claws were removed when a kitten, so damage was minimal.

We rocketed away with the cat screaming and jumping between me and the passenger side window. While waiting for the light to change at a Washington Blvd. intersection, Waldo was wound up tight, emitting wildcat screams once we began moving again. Being a hot summer day, I had cracked the windows. Her caterwauls and thrashing about attracted considerable notice by drivers and those on nearby sidewalks. We finally made what seemed an interminably long drive to her new quarters. Once the truck engine was off, Waldo settled.

On numerous occasions in the year that followed, Waldo showed me her uncanny intelligence, strength, and agility. The challenge of getting her into the dog run cage was never easy. While playing fetch, it dawned on me that she would follow the ball into her cage! This worked once. The next time I threw the ball into her cage, she ran to the door, sat down, looked at me with an expression “You think I’m stupid?” One trick that always worked was tossing a hunk of raw meat into the cage- she couldn’t resist!

Another favorite game was dropping from the eight-foot-high open rafters in the garage onto my shoulders as I walked below. Waldo could effortlessly spring from the garage floor into the rafters, disappear into the shadows, and drop on my shoulders with mouth lightly pressed against my juggler “Gottcha!”, spring off and repeat this horrific act of terror against her victim.

We had our moments with the law. When neighbors saw a wildcat chasing their dog, soon after the Ogden police would appear, giving me the ultimatum to control the cat, or have it released into the wilds, which would spell doom for habituated Waldo without canines and front claws. She would soon starve, be hit by a car, shot, or lost to a predator. When her caretaker returned, it was a difficult parting, when I left Utah to continue my studies in Michigan.

This is Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society and I’m Wild about Utah Wildcats!

Credits:
Image: Wildcat WSU Alumni Magazine Winter 2025 Cover, Courtesy WSU Marketing & Communications, Copyright Weber State University. (Digital copy made available by Utah Digital Newspapers), https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=21945988
Image: Waldo Celebrates 60, Cover, Wildcat, WSU Alumni Magazine, Winter 2025, Courtesy Alumni Magazine Staff, Copyright Weber State University
Featured Audio: Courtesy & © Anderson, Howe and Wakeman
Text: Jack Greene, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/
Additional Reading: Jack Greene & Lyle W Bingham, Webmaster, Bridgerland Audubon, https://bridgerlandaudubon.org/

Additional Reading:

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

Johnson, Marian, He’s a She!, Signpost, Weber State University Student Newspaper, https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=21945988

Bobcat – Lynx rufus, Fieldguide, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, https://fieldguide.wildlife.utah.gov/?species=lynx%20rufus

Harris, Kandice & Winston, Jaime, Waldo Celebrates 60, Wildcat, the WSU Alumni Magazine, Weber State University, https://www.weber.edu/wsumagazine/waldo-60-anniversary.html

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Nature Journaling: A Steller Idea!

Steller's Jay on Branch Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Steller’s Jay on Branch
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
Across my years of exploring the majestic outdoors with young children, I’ve experimented with nature journaling. I always have grandiose ideas. Ideas of what I want their entry illustrations to look like, ideas of what I hope their written words will sound like, and ideas about what memories I hope their journal will encapsulate.

The Steller's Jay we Discovered in the Cemetary Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer
The Steller’s Jay We Discovered in the Cemetery
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer

Steller's Jay in Cemetery Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer Steller’s Jay in Cemetery
Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer

As usual, kids surprise me.

What I think kids should focus on is rarely the object of their attention, and the way their journal ends up, both intellectually and physically, never resembles my lavish intentions.

If you’ve ever tried nature journaling with young children outdoors, you’ve probably realized that instead of the eloquent John James Audubon’s entries with magnificent illustrations of birds and poetic texts, what really manifests – if the child hasn’t lost their writing utensil altogether – is a half torn page, muddy and damp from being haplessly set in the dewy grass, with only the resemblance of barely decipherable images or text.

However, if you can accept the physical condition of the journal, with all its imperfections, you may come to find the true beauty and originality in the children’s thoughts, which usually ascend to places beyond our adult imagination.

The following nature journal entries are from 2nd-grade students (7-and-8-year-olds) and centered on a Steller’s Jay they discovered while birding at the Logan City Cemetery.

Across my years of exploring the majestic outdoors with young children, I’ve experimented with nature journaling. I always have grandiose ideas. Ideas of what I want their entry illustrations to look like, ideas of what I hope their written words will sound like, and ideas about what memories I hope their journal will encapsulate.

As usual, kids surprise me.

What I think kids should focus on is rarely the object of their attention, and the way their journal ends up, both intellectually and physically, never resembles my lavish intentions.

If you’ve ever tried nature journaling with young children outdoors, you’ve probably realized that instead of the eloquent John James Audubon’s entries with magnificent illustrations of birds and poetic texts, what really manifests – if the child hasn’t lost their writing utensil altogether – is a half torn page, muddy and damp from being haplessly set in the dewy grass, with only the resemblance of barely decipherable images or text.

However, if you can accept the physical condition of the journal, with all its imperfections, you may come to find the true beauty and originality in the children’s thoughts, which usually ascend to places beyond our adult imagination.

The following nature journal entries are from 2nd-grade students (7-and-8-year-olds) and centered on a Steller’s Jay they discovered while birding at the Logan City Cemetery.

  • Steller’s Jay Steller’s Jay you are so naughty
    and above your eye you have a spotty
    You steal food; we give food, you with a bad mood
    But rarely I see you because you hide from my view.
     
  • Steller’s Jay Steller’s Jay black and blue
    crest like a mohawk
    in the sun, in the light, in a tree
    flying out on a Thursday afternoon your colors shine
    Steller’s Jay Steller’s Jay what a pretty sight.
     
  • You’re flying, I’m finding
    It’s day but you’re night
    You’re so pretty like flowers
    You’re hiding but I’m still finding
    You can hide but I’ll still find
    It’s getting late so I have to leave.
     
  • Oh in the graveyard you blend in to the night
    Your colors scare any visitors away from the house of the dead.

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:

Steller’s Jay, All About Birds, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Stellers_Jay/overview

Steller’s Jay Cyanocitta stelleri, Utah Bird Profile, Utah Birds, http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/ProfilesS-Z/StellersJay.htm
Other Photos: http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/BirdsS-Z/StellersJay.htm

Rhodes, Shannon, Wild About Nature Journaling, Wild About Utah, June 22, 2020, https://wildaboututah.org/wild-about-nature-journaling/

Kozlowski, Joseph, Simple Suggestions for Kids in the Field, Wild About Utah, February 12, 2024, https://wildaboututah.org/simple-suggestions-for-kids-in-the-field/