Appreciation for Wild Birds and the Wild West.

My friend Caleb introduced me to the PRI RadioWest podcast and I love listening to it because I feel that it helps keep me connected with the West, the Rockies, and the Utah community. While in Thailand I interact with a lot of foreigners from many places, and though many Thais see everyone in the U.S. as the same, I have found that I fervently proclaim my status of being a Westerner - not a West Coaster - but a Westerner. Texas and Utah, two foregrounds of rugged expedition, yes this is my background. Two states that I often took for granted growing up.

So I listen to these podcasts and one of the recent ones was about the birds of the Great Salt Lake and artist Rosalie Winard whose photographs of America's wild birds she hopes will speak about how each bird is part of a community and how these communities are being threatened.

My brother Carl has spent a great deal of his life caring about wetlands and also the birds in them, a beautiful part of our surroudings often taken for granted. I remember when he went with my Dad to Aransas Pass in Texas, one of the few places in the world endangered whooping cranes make their home.

They are beautiful, no?