Western Folklife Center

Click here to return to the homepage of Western Folklife Center

« Stuck, unstuck | Main | Spring has sprung »

Birds

In spite of the fact that it keeps snowing, we know it is spring for sure due to the arrival of migratory birds. Some hang out for a few days or weeks, but many oversummer. We are in a flyway, and as drought and development have impacted a lot of bird habitat, we get more and more birds--more numbers and more varieties. Sometimes we compare photos of our activities from year to year, as depicted on this blog. I was struck by the first two photos, taken a year and a day apart.

blue%20heron%20with%20shadow-small.jpg
Blue Heron with shadow
April 23, 2009
Home Ranch

heron%20with%20shadow-small.jpg
Blue Heron with shadow
April 22, 2008
Home Ranch

blue%20herons%20in%20tree%201.jpg
Blue herons in tree
Along Little Snake River
photo by Brian Lally

cranes%20near%20Battle%20Creek-small.jpg
Cranes over Battle Creek

Birds%20of%20a%20feather-small.jpg
Ducks keeping company with the cows
Big Meadow

geese%20%26%20tracks-small.jpg
Geese, waiting for the thaw
Home Ranch

geese%20and%20pelicans-small.jpg
Geese and pelicans
Little Snake River
photo by Sharon O'Toole

birds%20over%20reeds-small.jpg
Birds over reeds
north of Baggs, Wyoming
photos by Pat O'Toole

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

The opinions expressed in the Western Folklife Center's Deep West online journals are those of the online journal participants and not the Western Folklife Center. The Western Folklife Center does not moderate these journals and as such does not guarantee the veracity, reliability or completeness of any information provided in the journals or in any hyperlink appearing within them.

About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.
Powered by
Movable Type 3.34