Porto was rainy and beautiful, an ancient coastal city home to the port industry and 270,000 residents. Just as we had dreamed, Porto felt both historic and comfortable. Stone buildings lined the brick and cobble streets, with balconies overflowing with plants and flowers. It seemed every home on each narrow street had a backyard vineyard, …
Author: Cat Urbigkit
Rescue update
I’ve been trying to keep an eye on the rescued juvenile osprey. It was great to see him sitting upright in the nest the day after his ordeal, but his sibling has been doing plenty of flying while our rescuee stays put. Yesterday afternoon I saw him on the pole near the nesting platform, but …
Day of rescue
Yesterday was a day of rescue. The day before, the vet’s office in Pinedale called me about a sheep dog that had been brought in that was in very bad condition. I was in town for a meeting, so I dropped by to look at her and confirm it wasn’t a dog I knew. I …
Coyotes not welcome
Jim and I came upon this scene yesterday evening and looking at the photos this morning still makes my heart race. In this frame, the sun is setting, and the sheep herd is grazing across a high ridge, headed to its bedding ground. Our sentinel golden eagle sits in one spot, as the herd grazes …
The sentinel
It started with a simple observation. When I checked the sheep herd one afternoon, I flushed a golden eagle from the top of the hill above them. A few days later it happened again, and then again. Not every day, but nearly every day. It happened in the morning, afternoon, and evening – whatever time …
Just us chickens
I now have a close personal relationship with two broods of sage grouse, and Jim says I’ve got to end it soon. I know he’s right, but I hate to have to do that. The two broods – one with five youngsters, and one with six, range close together and I started to see them …
Learned behavior
This week was an interesting one on the Wyoming rangelands. The sage grouse broods are doing well, with the now adolescent-sized birds that accompanying their mothers. Most of the broods I’ve seen have five or six young, so it’s been a good year for chick production. The pronghorn antelope fawns are growing as well, but …
Transferring Old World traditions
As some of you will recall, husband Jim and I just had a paper published in the Sheep & Goat Research Journal in which we summarized the problems western livestock producers are having in dealing with expanding and increasing populations of large carnivores, including grizzly bears and gray wolves in our area. The livestock protection …
Eagle predation on pronghorn fawns
On July 1, as I drove down a two-tract road on the sheep allotment, I came upon two golden eagles on the ground. The raptors rose heavily into the air, weighed down by a recent meal. I drove straight to the spot in the sagebrush where the eagles had been grounded, and discovered the fresh …
Note from the range
As the days grow hot in summer, the hillsides erupt in pink beauty – the rock rose, or bitterroot blooms. The bitterroot is a completely nondescript presence until it blankets the sagebrush steppe with its colorful spray, ranging from white to bright pink. This year the landscape is honored with deep pink flowers. Although delicate …