The First To Know - The Magpie
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
The First To Know
The Magpie
There are mornings out here that begin with a sound that tells you who you are and where you stand without opening your eyes.
The wind carries a clean whiff of earth and grass.
Cold settles fresh on the skin.
And somewhere in a cottonwood, a magpie announces the day with a sharp chuckle and a scatter of notes that cut clean through the quiet.
Take the magpie out of this country and the West loses part of its voice. Their black-and-white flash moves through winter like punctuation; sharp, alive, unmistakable.
They ride the margins of ranches and river bottoms, slipping easily between the wild and our civilized world, as if the two were never meant to be separate in the first place.
Magpies notice things.
They call out a coyote trotting through the sage.
They trail a hawk just a little too closely, just to stir the pot.
They linger where something has shifted, as though the land itself tipped them off before anyone else caught on.
They’ve been here through cattle drives and wagon tracks, through hard winters and long droughts. Long enough to feel less like birds and more like part of the land’s own soul. Some folks wish they were quieter.
More polite.
Easier to ignore. But the West has never been a quiet place.
Nor should it be.
Wind scrapes ridges.
Rivers cut through stone.
And a magpie’s chatter belongs right alongside it all. A place is made whole by all its voices, not just the gentle ones. Maybe that’s the invitation tucked into their chatter today:
before you decide what belongs,
take a moment to listen for what would be missing
if it were gone, and we just stood by and let it happen
Lessons from the Rockies
what the land Can teach US
Observations from the wild that help us see our own lives with a bit more perspective.
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About Lessons From The Rockies
daily reflections shaped by life on the range.
I’m Dan: rancher, artist, and storyteller. "Lessons from the Rockies" is where I share what the Rockies can teach us all. daily reflections shaped by life on the range.
These stories are just one part of a bigger effort:
🌾 Wild Range Project – our conservation and regenerative ranching work.
🎨 Wild Arc Art – original art that carries the same wild spirit into homes and hearts.
Every post: is about helping people reconnect to what matters.
Glad you’re here.
"D.W." Lorenz
🎨 From the Artist
I'm Dan — rancher, conservationist, and the one behind these stories. The same wild places that inspire my words also show up in my art.
