Wild About Utah Archives - Page 38 of 220

July 31, 2023March 4, 2026

Vignettes of a Utah Summer

Disclaimer
What you’re about to hear
Is the opinion of someone who really does care
I oscillate between an optimist
And a pessimist who doesn’t want his dreams to come true
Maybe you’re like me
But hopefully you’re like you

Now I may and often do complain, critique, and crack
But it’s because I want us all to do better
Leaders, followers, neighbors, you, and me
Better nice
Better good

However, with these benevolent intentions
I do freely admit to have a hidden top-secret cryptic agenda:
My hope that we don’t stop at better
But instead be our best
Best nicer
Best gooder

Impossible? No.
Improbable? We’ll see.

I have hope.

Adaptive Palate
The tomatoes ripen quicker
The peach leaves scorch deeper
The neighbor’s grass drinks more
And seeing all this it’s hard not to as well

Hot
Hot
Hot hot
Too hot
To hot

Ambition
Change isn’t a four-letter word
It’s at least five
Six even depending on how you spell it
Three if you know geometry
Unless you’re thinking about cash

July
I can’t hear through the firecrackers
The crickets,
the owls,
My thoughts,
the baby’s breathing

The dogs hide from the booms
The screaming town children joust with screaming Roman candles
Squires ready to blindly defend their k/nights

Baby
My wife and I, but mostly my wife
Honestly exclusively my wife
Had our first child in June
A daughter
Born this spring
Living through this summer
Her first

She’s seen the hottest days since records began
And not just her records
All of them
The hottest weeks
The hottest June
The hottest July
But she doesn’t complain about it necessarily

I do though
My wife does
The dogs do
Our friends do
Not all of our neighbors do
But a lot of them
OK maybe not a lot of them
But at least the ones we talk to
Some of those ones do
The rest are ready for the end
And engorge their lawns in the sun accordingly

While baby sleeps
While baby dreams
While baby has tummy time
While baby gets strong
While baby eats and eats and poops and eats
While baby grows
While baby slowly learns about the world she lives in

Cache Valley Desert
Personally, I can’t wait
Until Cache Valley is a desert
I want those early mornings just outside my door
Those cool desert mornings
When the snakes are in their dens
And the birds are working their plains
I’m ready for crepuscular adventures
Siestas
For the end of the era of turf
And for the beginning of the age of roadrunners
Meep meep!

Humble
Evaporation
Five whole feet
But where are all the pelicans

Four whole feet
But why is there still dust

Three whole feet
But shouldn’t it be more

Two whole feet
But where did it all go

One whole feet
But ten more are needed

But ten whole feet
Isn’t that impossible

It is with that attitude
So let’s change it
Change us
And work

I’m Patrick Kelly and I’m Wild About Utah

Credits:

Images: Courtesy Pixabay, Adina Voicu, Contributor https://pixabay.com/photos/dandelion-sun-backlighting-1557110/
Audio: Courtesy & © J. Chase, K.W. Baldwin and Anderson, Howe, Wakeman
Text: Patrick Kelly, Stokes Nature Center, https://www.logannature.org

Additional Reading

Wild About Utah, Posts by Patrick Kelly

Stokes Nature Center, https://www.logannature.org/

July 24, 2023March 4, 2026

A Mendon Bear Story

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the puppet show is about to begin!

It was Pioneer Day in Mendon, and the puppeteer’s loud cry brought the little kids running to the puppet theater on the town square. They settled down on the grass in a hushed silence as the narrator began:

This is a true story. It took place in early pioneer days in Mendon about 130 years ago.

And now introducing: the bravest man in Mendon, Tom Graham. He was so brave he would grab a rattlesnake by the neck and spit tobacco juice right down its throat.

A hidden water pistol shot a stream of water out into the audience, which caused some oohs and ahhs in the front row.

The Tom Graham puppet took a bow and disappeared

And now introducing: the biggest and baddest bear in Cache Valley at the time, The Big Slough Grizzly!

The puppeteers booed loudly. If there was any doubt that the bear puppet was the villain in the story, these doubts soon disappeared.

A small wooly lamb popped up and the bear pounced on it. Baaaaa went the lamb as it sank out of sight. The same thing happened to a calf and a small pink pig.

It was time for the hero, Tom Graham to take action.

Tom and another puppet popped up. Let’s go find that bad bear, Tom said.

They bobbed across the stage in single file, looking at the ground. Then they saw a bear paw print and they jerked back.

It’s 8 inches wide! And 12 inches long!! Not counting the claw!!!

We need to go get help, they said as they ran off the stage

In the meantime, Tom went down to the watery sloughs below Mendon to get some firewood. Bad luck. He ran right into the Big Slough Grizzly. The bear took a mighty swing at Tom and knocked his head right off his shoulders!

Now the Tom puppet was made out of a leg of panty hose. So Tom’s long neck stretched out a good two feet as his head flew out over the audience before snapping back and disappearing.

This caused quite a sensation in the audience. In fact, I used to judge the success of each show by how high the kids came off their seats.

But the story wasn’t over. After Tom lost his head, every man in Mendon picked up his rifle and headed for the slough. They found the bear’s den. Two very brave men stepped into the entrance and got a couple shots off. The bear did not come out.

Another man pushed his old flea bitten mare up to the entrance. This brought the bear out. The men opened fire.

It got really noisy as two young boys in the puppet theatre shot off their cap pistols like mad. The Big Slough Grizzly keeled over and sank out of sight. That was the end of the story.

This is Mary Heers, puppeteer (now retired), bringing you this Pioneer Day true bear story for Wild About Utah.

Credits:

Photos: Courtesy Pixabay, Angela-AMBQUINN, Photographer, https://pixabay.com/photos/bear-grizzly-bear-grizzly-7860673/
Featured Audio: Wagner Hoedown, Courtesy & © Sons of the Pioneers, https://sonsofthepioneers.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

Grizzly Bear, FWS Focus, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Department of the Interior, https://www.fws.gov/species/grizzly-bear-ursus-arctos-horribilis

Mendon City, UT, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/mendoncity
Website: mendoncity.org

Mendon City Pioneer Day Celebration, Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066990000950

In the Shade of the Mountains, Histories of Mendon and Petersboro, Exemplar Press, Watkins Printing, Logan, Dec 2011, https://library.mendoncity.org/
Call Number 979.212 MENDON

July 17, 2023March 4, 2026

Tigers

The year of the tiger. Our mountains, canyons, and valleys are replete with tigers-there’s no escaping them, tiger swallowtail butterflies! Even my grandkids captured one, which entertained them for days. It had a damaged wing and preferred crawling to flying. It’s angelic beauty transfixed the onlookers. Although injured, it hung on for a week- about the average life span of an adult butterfly.

The normal range of the western tiger swallowtail covers much of western North America, from British Columbia to North Dakota in the north to Baja California and New Mexico south. Individuals occasionally turn up in eastern North America, though it is generally replaced by the similar eastern tiger swallowtail.

Western tigers emerge from winter chrysalids between February and May, the date depending on the temperature. They are seen earlier in the more southerly and coastal parts of their range. These are high energy butterflies, rarely seen at rest.

The females lay up to a hundred eggs on a wide variety of host plants including willows, aspens, ashes, poplars, alders, and cottonwood. The eggs are deep green, shiny, and spherical. They are laid singly, on the undersides of leaves. The caterpillars emerge about four days later.

The caterpillars molt five times, eventually reaching a length up to 2 inches before pupating to adults. In summer, the butterfly can emerge as quickly as 15 days after the caterpillar’s pupated, but when the caterpillar pupates in the fall, the butterfly does not emerge until the spring. For camouflage, the young caterpillars, strangely resemble bird poop as they hatch. Once they begin to molt, they turn bright green in color, with large, yellow eyespot marks studded with black and blue pupils. These fake eyes may frighten predators, along with retractable, iridescent, horn-like structures on their head.

To harvest nectar, a butterfly unfurls its proboscis, a tube that functions like a straw and is coiled below the head when not in use. It inserts the proboscis into the flower and sucks up nectar by rhythmically contracting the muscles in its head. Sugars in the nectar provide energy for flight, defense, reproduction, and other daily activities.
Tigers also obtain nutrients and replenish fluids through “puddling,” where they congregate in large groups on mud or wet sand around puddles, streambanks, or on piles of fresh manure. I’ve observed puddling many times, always a levitating experience! Here they take up salts, proteins, and minerals. Salt is scarce in the butterfly diet, but is essential for reproduction and flight.

Puddling is primarily a male behavior, and during mating, a male butterfly transfers salt to the female in a sperm package, which she incorporates into her eggs. Researchers have found that sodium increases reproductive success in some butterfly species. During puddling, groups of males are conspicuous to females seeking mates. Males also patrol at treetop level looking for mates, swooping down to intercept females.

Thus, if you see a tiger, don’t be alarmed, just relax and enjoy their exquisite beauty and fascinating behaviors.

This is Jack Greene for Bridgerland Audubon Society, and I’m wild about Utah, and its puddling tigers!!

Credits:
Image: Courtesy US FWS, Thomas Maurer, Photographer, https://www.fws.gov/media/western-tiger-swallowtail
Audio: Courtesy & © Kevin Colver, https://wildstore.wildsanctuary.com/collections/special-collections
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/

Agyagos, Janie, Attracting Butterflies, USDA Forest Service, https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd899349.pdf

Backyards for Butterflies, Division of Wildlife, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, State of Ohio, Publication 5089, January 2020, https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/wildlife/backyard-wildlife/Backyards%20for%20Butterflies%20pub089.pdf

Carroll, James, 2006, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails gathered at mineral trace along Blackwater River tributary in Western Florida, BugGuide.net, https://bugguide.net/node/view/79626

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail – Papilio canadensis, [Click to second picture to view puddling], Montana Field Guide. Montana Natural Heritage Program, https://fieldguide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=IILEP94250

July 10, 2023March 4, 2026

Frisbee Fun!

If you’re like me, you’re always on the lookout for new outdoor activities! I would love to draw your attention to a sport that has many names, but that many have not had the pleasure to enjoy. I’m talking about the great hucking and slinging adventure, the sport of roll-aways and tree hits, the family fun activity called Frolf or Frisbee Golf, formally known as Disc Golf.

I first played this sport at 6 years old by tagging along after my father as he navigated the course through a forest and around a lake, starting each hole at a concrete tee pad and counting how many throws it took him to get his disc to settle in the metal basket with dangling chains. Once in a while I would throw a disc, but mostly my little legs tried to keep up on this exciting hike that involved throwing, putting, strategy, patience, and lots of searching through the woods for nearly lost frisbees! Now, 25 years later I still enjoy all the sport has to offer, and one of the primary reasons is because it is an all too easy excuse to get outside and enjoy the different landscapes and environments this great state has to offer.

We Utahns shouldn’t be too unfamiliar with this sport. In 2021, the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) World Championship tournament was held in Ogden at two disc golf courses, Fort Buenaventura and Mulligan’s Golf and Games. History was made at this event when James Conrad, on the final shot of the tournament, curled the disc 247 feet in a single throw to land in the basket; forcing a sudden death play-off, which he won, to become the world champion. This shot is widely accepted as the greatest shot in disc golf history.

According to the PDGA course directory, there are at least 91 disc golf courses throughout our state, and 50 spread along the Wasatch front. Most of these courses are free to play and include exposure to a diverse outdoor experience. Some courses wind and wiggle through heavily wooded areas while others meander through manicured city parks. If you are really up for an outdoor adventure, try one of the extreme mountain courses, like the Solitude Ski resort course, where you launch discs up and down rugged mountainous slopes, sometimes more than 1000 feet in a single throw! Try not to lose too many discs.

In this sport, some people prefer to have just one disc, go out on a beautiful sunny day, and simply enjoy nature while throwing a frisbee; scores don’t need to matter! Other people take a different, more competitive approach to this sport and focus on the dynamics of how each of the many discs fly. They learn that based on disc shape and weight and the technique of their body, they can manipulate the disc to bend and turn, go right or left, skip or roll, or limitless other maneuvers that may be required to get the elusive birdie!

Two years ago, I started an afterschool Disc Golf and Ultimate Club at USU’s Edith Bowen Laboratory School, which was open to all our 3rd-6th grade students. What I experienced was kids passionately enthusiastic about the comradery, the physical activity, and the special wonderment that only objects in flight seem to bring. Each session has hosted around 40 girls and boys and many end up introducing the sport to their own families. It seems there is something special about this sport that naturally draws the love of children.

And so, whether you are looking for something outdoor and active to do on your own, with children, grandchildren, or even a niece or nephew, disc golf might be a soaring success!

This is Joey Kozlowski, and I am Wild About Utah!
Credits:

Images: Courtesy & Copyright Joseph Kozlowski, Photographer, Used by Permission
Audio: Courtesy & © Friend Weller, https://upr.org/
Text: Joseph Kozlowski, Edith Bowen Laboratory School, Utah State University https://edithbowen.usu.edu/
Additional Reading Links: Joseph Kozlowski

Additional Reading:

Joseph (Joey) Kozlowski’s pieces on Wild About Utah: https://wildaboututah.org/author/joseph-kowlowski/

https://www.pdga.com/course-directory – Helps identify and find courses

https://udisc.com/courses – Helps identify and find courses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOhO7FfVQlE – Video of the ‘Greatest Shot in History’