Wild, Wild West

When I spent a week canoeing in Canada a few years ago, a friend and I had a bit of a competition going on to see who could spot the most wildlife. As I recall, he tried to include Canadians, but I wouldn’t let him, even though his “National Geographic”/ BBC voice explaining the natural habitat and diet of the native Canadian made the whole thing rather convincing. In my friend's honor, I will record all wildlife sightings while in Utah. The most interesting ones (to me, anyway) are highlighted.

As of October 31:

• 5 snakes (no rattlers yet!)
• tons of deer (too many to count) including at least three 10-point buck
• 1 large bull moose coming after us on a trail, 1 bull moose sleeping on the bank of a creek, 1 mother moose (cow??) and two small moose calves
• 1 badly injured 10-12 inch Tiger Salamander that L and I tried to rescue
• tons of squirrel (too many to count)
• several red-tailed hawks
• tons of magpies (too many to count)
• several small lizards
• scads of Box Elder bugs (swarming around our office door every day)
• chipmunks
• rabbits (not many, though)
• goldfinch (I think)
• lots of spiders (no black widows, yet)
• ants – red, fire ants, flying ants and wood ants
• wasps, yellow jackets, and (of course) honeybees
• lots of seagulls (the state bird) and a pelican or two
• carp
• crane or heron (i'm not sure i can tell the difference from a distance)
• pheasant
• mice (one inside, one out)