30 October 2016 - Golden Eagles and Wildlife

I had some major fun yesterday. I was out birding and happened to see two golden eagles flying over the ridge. Naturally, I pulled over and grabbed my binoculars.  To my amazement I found myself watching a bonding display. Golden eagles tend to mate for life, but they have bonding rituals which include nest building. During the fall, in their territory they will build as many as three nests high in the cliffs.  At the start of the nest building, the male will fly in with a stick, the female will fly with him and check it out. 

Then he will drop the stick and execute a straight down dive to catch it. It is spectacular to watch.  Here you can see he has just let go of the stick. The  dive was just too fast for me to capture.

Then he gets serious and starts hauling really large sticks into the nesting site.  

Meanwhile she is arranging the sticks to her liking. 

 

While autumn is gorgeous around here, the falling temperatures bring wildlife in closer.  Nothing like taking a hike and running into moose--especially during the rutting season when the males are feisty. Just back away...slowly. 

Coyotes are easier to spot as the grass dies back.

  Occasionally you can come across the big bucks.

Hikes in the upper elevations reveal pikas on the rocks. At this time of year they are guarding their haystacks--their winter food supply that is drying in the sun before they haul it into their den. These cuties are not much larger than a big hamster. 

I have come to discover that yellow-bellied marmots are everywhere. This guy looks so happy soaking up some sun on his hot rock. 

Speaking of rocks, while it isn't wildlife, it is wild! Here is an entire boulder covered with fossils. It is all by itself, a single boulder somehow thrust out of the earth. Quite beautiful. The largest fossils are about an inch long. The boulder is probably eight feet across and four feet high. 

Life is a smorgasborg and you never know what will be served up next. 

10 October 2016 - Utah Gold

Autumn in Utah is all about the gold. The most prolific trees are aspen, cottonwood and poplars which have leaves that turn into glorious shades of yellow and gold. Yes, we have reds and oranges to punctuate the golden glow, but nothing like the blazing hardwood trees you would see back east. 

In addition to the trees turning our world to molten gold, in late September the rabbitbrush starts blooming. Its flowers are also a deep yellow that herald the coming of fall. 

So here is a quick color tour of the golden raiment beautifully modeled by the mountains on some of my recent travels.

 

It isn't only the changing color of the leaves that sets my heart to fluttering. I love how the grasses and fields transform from green to many different hues from pale straw to rich oranges.  

So much beauty! My advice? Get out there and look!

7 October 2016 - I love my neighbors!

I live in a great neighborhood with wonderful neighbors. I find it so interesting how kids who grew up here years ago are moving back or never left. 

I am living in the house where I grew up and still have some of the same neighbors. Becky, who grew up across the street from me, lives in her own house next door to her parents' home. Both her parents have passed, but her daughter's family now lives in the family home. Down the street, Leah still lives in her original home and she is now a great-grandmother. Her kids, my sibs and I, and Becky were all friends from elementary school on up. At the bottom of the street are Monty and Ruth, whose children also ran with our pack. Their son lives next door to them. Kitty-corner from me on both sides are the homes of two sisters. They make me think how wonderful it would be to that close to family. Newcomers are on either side of me. They have blended in seamlessly and it is almost like I have known them for a long time. Every one of them are wonderful, welcoming and very interesting people. But it is also intriguing to see how some families stay close together. 

In today's world people tend to live fairly insular lives. Many mothers become car moms--busy taking kids to music, dance, soccer, swimming...you name it. Even though this is the same in my neighborhood, there is a fairly solid group of nine neighbors that you can count on if you need help. In the last year and a half these families have come together for ice cream socials, meet-the-neighbors potlucks, and tonight Stephanie and David hosted yet another potluck for this group. 

I'm here to tell you how much fun it was. 17 adults and 11 kids showed up. The food was incredible, conversation was lively and the group was great fun. The kids swirled in, out and around. It was happy, loud and boisterous with a bit of mayhem. 

There are seventeen kids connected with these families and they spend a lot of time running up and down the street between houses. It is fun to watch how well they all get along together. 

There is a girls' posse-- here are five of the seven that were part of the group tonight.

The boys rarely stand still long enough for photos. And the entire group--boys and girls--run like crazy in odd games I've never heard of. It is exhausting to watch, but reminds me of how all the kids ran together when I was young. Our yards had no fences, and we used them all. We played endless games of kick soccer, sardines at dusk, and continuing episodes of Robin Hood, where Gordie, the oldest, always got to be the Sheriff of Nottingham. We would wrap small stones in tin foil, our silver, to hide from the Sheriff. 

My neighborhood kids don't play Robin Hood. They play Quidditch with hula hoops set up for the balls, and they run around on broomsticks. Different generation, different heroes. Where we had the original skateboards that used metal roller skate wheels, these kids have motorized scooters. Oh yeah, I'm jealous! 

I am enjoying being part of all of this. In the summer when the windows are open I get to hear most of kids practicing an instrument and they are good enough that is worth stopping to listen. 

In addition, quite a few of girls in the posse like to bake. I am the recipient of cookies, big pieces of cake, beautifully decorated cupcakes--all on a hit and run basis. My doorbell rings. I answer to find no one there, but on the doormat is a plate of goodies. Sometimes I hear giggles from a hiding place. It is kind of a reverse trick-or-treat, except home made treats beat store candy any day!

I have wonderful neighbors and I'm grateful to be part of this wildly varied group. 

2 October 2016 - Dragonflies and other intriguing insects

I have seen some gorgeous dragonflies this summer. What's even better is that in the fall, they like to sit up on top of dead branches where you can get nice views of them. 

I love all the different colors and wing patterns.

This beauty is a Damselfly, not a dragonfly. 


It is indeed an eat and be eaten world.

Praying mantis usually show up in the fall. This year is no exception. I can only hope she lays an egg case in my yard.

This interesting guy is a Hydrophilidae, a diving beetle also known as a water scavenger beetle. I found it in my little wading pond one morning. He is just under three inches long. 

The red-belted bumblebee is one of my favorites. They are very calm and don't mind being stroked with a gentle finger. 

I have a large number of Green Metallic Sweat Bees in my yard. Seriously good looking bee. 

This was a first for me. It is a giant Ichneumonidae wasp. They paralyze spiders, dig a hole in the ground, put the spider in and lay an egg on it. Instant food for the larva. The wasp in this photo is over two inches long.  Her ovipositor is over three inches long. It is long enough that is goes out of the photo in the upper left.

This has been a banner year for Monarch butterflies. It is fun to see them flourishing after the decline in their numbers for the last decade. 

I've been learning a lot about butterflies this year. It is good to have field guides. This is a Pale Swallowtail. 

This is in the Fritillary butterfly family. 

 During one of my birding trips I found a huge mud puddle that was covered with butterflies, from tiny skippers and several of these Black Admirals...

to the big yellow Swallowtails. ..

and a mass of White Sulfur Butterflies. 

Often called a hummingbird moth, this is really a White-lined Sphinx. It is one of the main reasons I let thistle grow in my yard. 

Now you've had a quick trip through some of my favorite insects that I've seen over the last couple months.  Hope you have been out there admiring the six-footed wonders in your own yard.