What I do all day

Upon hearing the term "packrat" many people think of humans that are unable to throw anything away. But real packrats are large rodents in the genus Neotoma, fascinating and surprisingly beautiful animals that nest in sandstone cliffs in Wyoming's high desert. In this episode, Kathy talks about some of the habits and characteristics of the bushy-tailed wood rat, Neotoma cinerea,  the native species of packrat with which she shares her land. 

North America's smallest falcon is the colorful American Kestrel. Once known as Sparrow Hawks, these tiny raptors are experts at catching grasshoppers and lizards as well as small mammals and birds. Their acceptance of a nesting box, when offered, makes them relatively easy to photograph and observe.

Llamas are fascinating animals that are still considered exotic creatures by many in North America. In this episode Kathy talks about her almost thirty years of interacting with llamas, raising them and using them as pack animals and companions in the backcountry.

Thirty-five miles east or west of my house as the crow flies sits the border of a large swath of land managed by the National Park Service. To the west is Yellowstone National Park - possibly one of the most recognized pieces of property in the country. To the east lies Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area - a much less well known yet, I would argue, just as beautiful and impressive expanse of land in its own right. 

Plains bison (Bison bison) are an iconic symbol of the American West and yet the species came close to being wiped out by the early 20th century. European settlers managed to decimate the herds containing tens of millions of animals that covered the plains and sustained many Native American tribes. In the early 1900's a small group of a couple dozen animals were discovered tucked away in Yellowstone Park and careful management in the years since has allowed that number to grow to approximately 5000 animals, some of which are now being relocated to tribal lands in Wyoming and Montana.

One of the longest lasting love stories in nature is also one of the most unique. Not only is this tale about two separate species, the main characters are not even in the same kingdom. One is a plant, the other an animal. Soapweed yucca and the yucca moth have a relationship known as "obligate mutualism" in which one species cannot survive without the other. Over millions of years they have come to an arrangement that allows both to thrive with certain sacrifices from each.

It has been ten years since the raven pair I call Billy and Betsy moved into our yard and began building the nest which they have occupied every spring since. For the last decade we have witnessed their joys and sorrows of raising young in the wild including this year when they had their most successful brood ever.  Four healthy offspring  fledged in early June and have been entertaining us ever since.

In this episode, Kathy introduces her favorite Wyoming wildflower, Kelseya uniflora. A little known member of the rose family, Kelseya is a delicate bloom that grows in incredibly unique and harsh conditions; a wildflower endemic to the Central Rocky Mountains that most people have never heard of and even fewer have seen. 

In many cities across the country, the term "Opening Day" means the first home game of the season played by their local baseball team. But in Wyoming, the words refer to the long anticipated opening of Yellowstone Park entrances to general traffic for the summer season. For locals, it is an annual tradition to visit the Park on a day before the roads become clogged with tourists and a chance to reconnect to the landscape that is revered by so many.

The opportunity to get up at 3 am and make your way across bumpy two tracks just for the chance to see some funny looking birds dancing for a mate is one of the best reasons to live in Wyoming. Almost 40% of the entire population of greater sage grouse live in the state. With numbers of the birds declining at a precipitous rate, it is also an opportunity that may disappear in my lifetime. 

Although common in western North America, black-billed magpies are often viewed as exotic by visitors to the area because of their iridescent colors and long flowing tail feathers. Like most corvids, magpies are smart and their complex nests are intricate works of art designed to keep the chicks safe by making it almost impossible for predators to raid. 

While there are constantly new things to discover in the wild lands of Wyoming, it seems the biggest changes of the year occur in those magic months of the spring season. Winter visitors are leaving the plains for higher elevations as snowbirds make their way north to birth and raise their offspring in sagebrush flats and mountain meadows. In this episode, Kathy discusses some of the ways in which the landscape looks different as temperatures warm and days grow longer.

While some people have gnomes on their lawn, Kathy occasionally shares her outdoor living space with a herd of several hundred animals, each weighing in at around 700 lbs. In this episode she talks about the elk that winter on a back pasture and move down onto the flats for a few weeks each spring before following the green wave up the mountain to graze verdant meadows during the summer months. 

Even though pinyon jays are common in certain parts of the Rocky Mountain West, they are often overlooked or mis-identified as bluebirds. Their antics make them a fun species to observe and their vocalizations are sure to bring a smile to the listener's face. 

In this episode, Kathy talks about pronghorn, an iconic species of the American West and the only member of the family Antilocapridae. Not only are pronghorn the fastest animals in the Western Hemisphere, they are the only ones in the world that can maintain high speeds over considerable distance and time. 

Feral pigeons, also known as rock doves,  are the birds city dwellers often love to hate but they are a fascinating species that has a definite role to play in the natural world. In this episode, Kathy recounts stories of the local population of pigeons and how they interact with other residents of the ecosystem. 

While the opportunity to see a wild animal in its native habitat is exciting, it is not always possible. That is where the knowledge of how to identify animal tracks comes in handy, permitting the viewer to experience the thrill of knowing that a wild creature shares the land, even if the animal itself goes unseen. In this episode, Kathy talks about some of the tracks she has followed and recounts the stories that those trails have told. 

Just seeing golden eagles is a rare treat but in Kathy's case, she gets to observe their antics on a near daily basis. In this episode, we hear about the eagles that have shared the landscape of her home and about some of the threats that face these golden warriors of the sky. 

Barbed wire fences are ubiquitous across the plains of the American West, so much so that we often ignore their presence. But what about those wild animals that rely on freedom of movement to travel across the landscape in order to survive? In this episode Kathy talks about some of the changes that are taking place as we learn more about the need for wildlife friendly fencing and some of the organizations, like the Absaroka Fence Initiative,  that are stepping up to make it happen.

Many people have never had the opportunity to see rosy-finches but for the last decade, Kathy's home has served as a winter time bed and breakfast for the hardy little birds that spend their summers above tree-line, high up in the alpine. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, the most prolific mammals that share their territory with Kathy and her husband are the desert cottontails. Besides providing constant entertainment with their antics, these small bunnies are a source of food for a host of predators, many arriving from the air. 

In April of this year, Kathy was scheduled to hang an exhibit of her insect images at the Park County Library in Cody, Wyoming,  accompanied by a one hour presentation discussing the importance of bugs in the environment. Due to restrictions of the pandemic, the exhibit was postponed until the month of November and the lecture had to be cancelled completely. In this episode Kathy offers a much condensed version of her talk, suggesting why insects are disappearing, why we should care and what we can do about it. 

If there was a soundtrack for Kathy Lichtendahl's property in Wyoming's high desert, the background music would be provided by coveys of chukars. First introduced to the United States from the Middle East in the late 1800's as game birds, a number of the colorful partridges have survived and even thrived in wild colonies throughout the western states and British Colombia. 

The day Kathy Lichtendahl and her husband first set eyes on the property that was to become their home for the next three decades, they were told by the realtor that no rattlesnakes could be found in the area. Since then they have encountered hundreds of the venomous reptiles and have come to respect the beauty and uniqueness of an animal misunderstood and feared by many. 

If not for the Clark's Nutcracker, chances are that white bark pine trees would be in more danger of disappearing than they already are. These birds are sometimes called the Johnny Appleseed of pine cones thanks to their habit of burying nuts from a variety of species of pine trees that grow at elevations from 3,000' - 11,000' in the western mountains. Luckily for all of us, the nutcrackers don't reclaim all the seeds they bury, allowing some to sprout into new trees that will provide cones to future generations of birds and mammals. 

Water is a critical component of the western plains and one that has been tightly managed since the area was first settled by immigrants hoping to farm or ranch the land. In this episode, Kathy talks about the role a long-standing irrigation ditch plays in providing critical moisture to wildflowers along its banks and to the small creatures that hunt within the golden blooms. 

In this episode, Kathy introduces us to the rock wrens that spend the summer months raising their young on her property. 

In this inaugural episode, Kathy Lichtendahl provides the background for future podcasts. She explains the concept for the series and tells the story of how she and her husband came to be living in a remote part of Wyoming, sharing their daily lives with all manner of creatures in the natural world.