Birdwatching

We revisit our conversation from October 2025 with Deseret Magazine reporter Natalia Galicza, talking about her essay titled "Breaking a Language Barrier Brought My Family Together."

I’m just a 2nd-grade teacher leaning out my exterior classroom door, taking pictures of a curious little Black-Capped Chickadee happily pecking seeds from our class millet feeder which dangles just outside our window.

Participatory Science used to be called Citizen Science, and then Community Science, but the emphasis on participation highlights that we are contributing to something large and impactful for which we don’t ask what science can do for us, but what we can do for science.

“Everyone, look! The hawk came to say goodbye!”

Awhile back, I was riding my bicycle along country roads in Cache Valley, when suddenly six unusual looking chicks ran across the road in single file right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes just in time as the chicks disappeared down the farmhouse driveway on the other side of the road.

When I first became interested in using Utah birds as a core theme for teaching my 2nd-graders I had no idea how it would revolutionize my teaching career and connect me and my students with so many different natural and human communities.

Falconry is an ancient sport going back thousands of years. In Shakespeare’s time, it was a way of putting food on the dinner table.

A bird of the prairie and countryside, the western meadowlark releases songs synonymous with spring grasslands flush with balsam root, lupine, death camas, larkspur, prairie smoke, and wind tossed grasses that shimmer in morning sun.

Across my years of exploring the majestic outdoors with young children, I’ve experimented with nature journaling.

In other news, Utah firefighters are preparing to head home after two weeks battling the Los Angeles County wildfires. And, Utahns can see bald eagles across the state this winter.