As a follow-up to yesterday’s entry on the Hi Ute Ranch, I’ve been Googling around for some photographs or an official Web site or something. I had no luck on the Web site, but I did find a couple of pictures. For those who want to know what the heck I was talking about yesterday or those who want to relive some happy memories, I present the following:

• This site features one of those groovy interactive photos that enable you to move around inside them using your mouse. It’s the next best thing to standing in the middle of the actual barnyard.
• This site, on the other hand, features an ordinary static shot of the ranch plus a brief remembrance in verse by the site’s owner, who lived on the ranch as a boy and isn’t too happy about the development that now surrounds it. I wonder how he feels about the conservation easement, whether he thinks it’s a good thing or too little, too late.

Oh, for those who don’t know and may be wondering as you read the poem on the second Web site, a kildere (or, more properly, a killdeer) is a native Utah bird that nests on the ground in open fields. It has a distinctive call that consists of one high-noted whistle followed by a lower note. This call is what gives the bird its name, although it’s always sounded to me like the bird is saying “hee-haw,” not “kill-deer.” It sounds, actually, like a more benign version of Nelson from The Simpsons. I love the sound of kilderes, especially now when you don’t encounter it much. For the last couple of summers, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a killdeer living in a small pasture behind my parents’ barn, so I hear the call fairly often…