September 25 is Raptor Watch Day

Photo by Scott Root, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Orem -- Thousands of hawks, eagles and other birds of prey fly through Utah’s crisp, clear skies every fall. This fall, a hawk that’s been rehabilitated will join them! You can see and learn more about these raptors—and watch the release of a hawk that’s been nursed back to health—during this year’s Raptor Watch Day.

The event will happen at the Orem Overlook on Sept. 25, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The overlook is along the Squaw Peak Trail Road, just east of Orem.

A Swainson’s hawk that’s been nursed back to health by Patti Richards, a wildlife rehabilitator in Springville, will be released at noon.


Getting to the site
You can reach Squaw Peak Trail Road from Provo Canyon.

To reach the canyon from Interstate 15, exit I-15 at the 800 North exit in Orem (Exit 272) and travel east on 800 North. This road will take you into Provo Canyon.

Once you reach the mouth of the canyon, travel for about two miles, and look for Raptor Watch Day event signs on the south side of the road. Once you see the signs, turn onto Squaw Peak Trail Road and travel to the overlook.

The Division of Wildlife Resources hosts Raptor Watch Day every year. The event is free.


Kick back, and relax
Bob Walters, Watchable Wildlife coordinator for the DWR, says by Sept. 25, the trees near the Orem Overlook should be gleaming in their fall colors. And the air should be crisp at the watch site.

“If the skies are clear,” Walters says, “you’ll be treated to an up-close look at harriers, vultures, eagles, hawks and falcons as they sail overhead.”

Walters says experts will be on hand to help you identify the birds and to answer any questions you have about the raptors’ fall migration. “Raptor Watch Day is a great opportunity to kick back, relax and watch raptors,” he says.

For more information, call Walters at (801) 209-5326.

Adopt a Desert Tortoise--Nearly a dozen tortoises need homes in Utah

Photo courtesy of Sarah Southerland

Wouldn’t it be fun to have a pet that makes your neighbors “ooh” and “ahh”? As long as you’re willing to give up part of your backyard, you can.

Division of Wildlife Resources biologists are putting nearly a dozen desert tortoises up for adoption.

Listed as threatened on the federal Endangered Species list, most of the tortoises were found after people removed them from their native homes. (Once a wild tortoise is taken from the wild, it can’t bemreleased. Releasing it could introduce diseases into Utah’s wild tortoise population.)

Even though desert tortoises require some room, Jason Jones says caring for one is easier than caring for other pets. “They won’t bark or chase your neighbor’s cat,” says Jones, a DWR native aquatic species biologist. “And five months out of the year, they’ll be in hibernation in your house.”

To adopt a desert tortoise, you need a fenced area that’s at least 15 feet by 10 feet. “Tortoises also need burrows, so you’ll have to build some,” Jones says. “You’ll also need to plant dandelions, clover and other plants the tortoise can eat.”

Even though it takes work to provide a tortoise with a place to live, Jones says it’s worth it. “Desert tortoises are fun pets,” he says. “They’re unique too. How many people can say they have a ‘desert dinosaur’ living in their backyard?” Jones says being allowed to care for a federally protected species is also a rare occurrence and a privilege.

More information about adopting a desert tortoise in Utah is available in the Desert Tortoise Adoption booklet. The free booklet is available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/dt_adopt.pdf .

If you have questions, please call Jones at (801) 538-4830.

See Ospreys August 7

Photo Courtesy Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

Summit County -- Large fish-eating birds called ospreys will be the center of attention on Aug. 7.

That’s the day the Division of Wildlife Resource’s Watchable Wildlife program will host a free field trip to see the birds.

The field trip will be held in Summit County.

With their five-foot wing span, the ospreys will be easy to see. And if you attend the field trip, you might even see some turkey vultures and great blue herons, says Bob Walters, Watchable Wildlife coordinator for the DWR.

To participate in the field trip, meet at the Rockport Reservoir dam from 6 to 7 p.m.

To reach Rockport, travel on Interstate 80 to Wanship. Then exit the freeway and travel south on state Route 32 to the dam observation site.

From the dam, participants will follow Walters in their own vehicles to viewing sites in and near Coalville, Wanship and Rockport State Park.

If you’d like to join the field trip at one of the viewing sites, please call Walters at (801) 209-5326 to make arrangements.


What you’ll see
Walters will have some binoculars and spotting scopes available, but if you have your own, he encourages you to bring them.

You’ll see osprey pairs and their young during the trip. Walters says each pair had one to three young, or eyases, this spring.

While there’s a chance you’ll see the ospreys fly, it’s more likely you’ll watch them as they feed and exercise their wings while on their nests. Sometimes three feet or taller in height, the nests themselves are something to see.

“The nests start looking like chimneys,” Waters says. “Sometimes I think they’d rather build nests than fish. It’s just incredible.”

During the trip, Walters will also point out waters you can visit at a later time to witness the spectacular feet-first ‘plunge dive’ of the osprey. Ospreys make these out-of-the-air dives to snatch fish that are swimming under the surface of the water.

Walters says ospreys are highly specialized to capture fish. Their outer toe is reversible, and their talons are covered with sharp hooks on the lower surface that allow them to grasp slippery fish in the water.

Walters calls the osprey’s plunge dive ”one of the true spectacles of nature.”

See Mountain Goats on April 10

Photo Courtesy Lynn Chamberlain, Division of Wildlife Resources

Sandy -- Colorful flowers and warmer weather aren’t the only signs spring is here: so are mountain goats at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon!

You can see and learn more about the goats at a free wildlife-viewing event. The event will be held Saturday, April 10.

Free activities for children are also part of the event.

“April is one of the best months to see the goats,” says Bob Walters, Watchable Wildlife coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources. “This event will be a great opportunity to get out and watch their sure-footed antics.”

The event will be held at the Park-and-Ride lot at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake County. DWR biologists will be at the lot from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

To reach the canyon, travel east out of Sandy on 9400 South.

“You’ll be able to get a front-row look at these agile rock climbers using spotting scopes and binoculars we’ll have on hand,”

Walters says. “You can also pick up a poster and a card that will teach you more about mountain goats.”

Activities for children will be held from 9 a.m. to noon. “Your kids can stamp goat tracks using ink stamps and paper we’ll make available,” Walters says. “We’ll also have some goat horns and goat fur that you and your kids can pick up and handle.”

For more information, call Walters at (801) 538-4771.

Elk viewing season ending early this year--Sleigh Rides End March 1

Hyrum -- If you’ve been thinking about taking a sleigh ride to see elk at Hardware Ranch, it’s now or never.

Dwindling snow has forced the Division of Wildlife Resources to close the sleigh rides at the popular wildlife management area early this year.

The sleigh rides will close at 5 p.m. on March 1. That’s about two weeks sooner than normal.

The Hardware Ranch WMA is at mile marker 22 on state Route 101 in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, about 17 miles east of Hyrum.

More than 300 elk are still on the meadow at the WMA. But Dan Christensen, the WMA’s superintendent, says south-facing slopes in the canyons that surround the WMA are quickly losing snow.

As the snow melts, more browse becomes available to the elk. And that means plenty of food will be available outside of the WMA soon.

“On warmer days, the elk leave the meadow or they drift to the far edge of the meadow,” Christensen says. “That makes it hard for us to get people as close to the elk as we usually can. We don’t want people to be disappointed when they come here.”

Christensen says the horse-drawn sleigh rides started in 1946, and they’ve been a favorite attraction at the WMA ever since. More than 30,000 visitors typically come to the WMA each winter. They’re treated to sleigh rides that take them through the middle of as many as 600 wild elk.

The elk are drawn to the WMA by a winter-feeding program. The program was started to prevent elk from raiding haystacks in Cache Valley by holding some of the elk at the top of Blacksmith Fork Canyon.

DWR starts Utah’s third confirmed Otter Population near Provo River

The odds you’ll see a river otter in Utah just got better.

On Nov. 25, biologists with the Division of Wildlife Resources released a northern river otter into the Provo River between Jordanelle and Deer Creek reservoirs. (This stretch of the river is commonly referred to as the “middle Provo.”)

The otter, a young adult female, is the first of as many as 10 to 15 otters the DWR hopes to place into the middle Provo River in the next few months. The otter released on Nov. 25 was trapped by DWR biologists on the Green River in northeastern Utah.

Three-year study

Releasing river otters into the middle Provo will provide Utah with another river otter population. It will also provide biologists with valuable information about the habits of river otters in the state.

“Releasing this otter marks the beginning of a three-year study to learn more about otters in Utah,” says Justin Dolling, game mammals coordinator for the DWR.

The day before the otter was released, a veterinarian at Brigham Young University placed a small transmitter in the otter’s abdomen, just under its skin. The transmitter will allow Casey Day to track the otter. Day is a graduate student at BYU.

Transmitters will also be placed in other otters that are released into the river.

“The types of food otters eat, the distances they travel and how successful they are at reproducing are among the things Day will learn,” Dolling says. “The information we gain from his study will guide us in other river otter reintroductions we do in the future.”

UWIN provides funding

Utah Wildlife in Need (UWIN)—a new charitable foundation in Utah—is providing all of the funding for the project.

So far, the foundation has raised $66,000 for the project. That’s half of what’s needed to see the project through to the end.

“If you want to help otters in Utah, this project gives you the perfect chance,” says Bob Hasenyager, UWIN director. “The ALSAM Foundation has provided $66,000 to get the otter project up and going. Now we need other folks to step up and provide the funding needed to see the project through to the end.”

You can learn more about UWIN—and make a donation to the otter project—at http://www.uwin.org/.

Otters and trout

DWR biologists have heard from anglers who are concerned about the effect river otters will have on trout in the middle Provo River.

“Crayfish [also called crawdads] are an otter’s favorite food,” Dolling says. “But if they can’t find crayfish, they’ll turn to other sources, including frogs and fish. An adult otter eats about two to three pounds of food per day.”

Dolling says the middle Provo River has plenty of crayfish. But if the otters have any difficulty finding crayfish in the river, there are plenty of fish to eat. “Otters usually target slower-moving fish, such as sculpin, whitefish, carp and suckers,” he says. “Most of the fish they eat are between five and seven inches long.”

Dolling says the river otters will also eat trout. And that may not be a bad thing.

“This stretch of the river has an abundant trout population that’s dominated by brown trout,” says Roger Wilson, sport fish coordinator for the DWR. “Because there are so many fish in the river, the fish are having to compete with each other for food and space. The competition they’re having is reducing their growth rate and affecting their overall condition.

“Letting otters take some fish could actually improve fishing in the river,” Wilson says. “If otters take some fish, the fish that remain should grow to a larger size.”

Walt Donaldson, Aquatic Section chief for the DWR, says the middle Provo River is a blue ribbon fishery that’s known to anglers across the country. “We reintroduced otters into the Green River in 1989, and they’ve haven’t caused the fish in the river any problems,” he says. “After otters are placed in the Provo River, we’ll keep monitoring the fish population in the river. If we find the otters are causing the fish problems, we can take management actions to make sure fishing in the river doesn’t suffer.”

Those actions include stocking trout in the river and capturing and removing some of the otters.

Not only should the otters not cause problems for fish in the river, they might also add to the enjoyment anglers find while fishing.

“Many anglers who fish the Green River have enjoyed seeing the otters,” Donaldson says. “They say it’s a treat to watch a family of otters play while they’re fishing.”
Otter history

River otters were never abundant in Utah. But they were found in various parts of the state. Some of the biggest populations were in northern Utah.

River otters were doing fine until Utah was settled. Then over trapping started to take a toll. In 1899, the Utah Legislature closed the state to otter trapping.

Otters faced another challenge, though: the degradation of vegetation along steam banks, and agricultural and urban encroachment. Each of these factors affected water levels and water quality in the state. And that, in turn, that affected the otters’ food supply.

As their habitat and food supply declined, the number of otters declined too.

Bringing otters back

Management practices during the 1900s improved conditions along some of the state’s steam banks. That, in turn, improved water quality. By the 1980s, it was time to increase the number of river otters in Utah.

The DWR started expanding river otter populations in 1989 when biologists released nine otters from Nevada and Alaska into the Green River in northeastern Utah.

The DWR followed the 1989 release with several more otters releases in the area.

In 2005, Utah’s river otter population expanded more when three otters trapped by the DWR in ortheastern Utah were released into the Escalante River in southwestern Utah.

That release was also followed by several other releases in the river.

Learn more

More information about river otters and their future in Utah is available in the state’s River Otter Management Plan. The free plan is available at www.wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/otter_plan.pdf