Is the bigger eagle I’m seeing a golden or a bald?

Naturally

 The birds come back because they miss you. A male cardinal has a great PR firm. It’s called red feathers. A short walk brought sightings of red admiral and sulphur butterflies, an eastern phoebe and a groundhog while I listened to the musical stylings of chorus frogs and red-winged blackbirds. A cardinal singing brought me ringing joy. Life gets tweeter in the spring. Even a grackle’s song sounds good in the spring.


Q&A


 Mike Johnson of the Norseland Community Preservation Association asked where red-winged blackbirds go. They follow routes called flyways, with individuals often returning to the same places year after year. The males return here first and try to impress the females who arrive later. By November, most redwings have left Minnesota and headed to the southern US for the winter.
 Red Bushman of Norseland asked about the eagles' impact on loons. Loons face a wide range of threats, including mortality from lead tackle poisoning, avian malaria and entanglement in monofilament fishing lines. The loon chicks with limited diving skills and the eggs are vulnerable to eagles.
 Don Johnson of Norseland asked where the meadowlarks are. Both eastern and western meadowlarks inhabit roadsides, grasslands, croplands, weedy fallow fields and mixed grasslands/shrubs. The western prefers drier grasslands, and the eastern favors moister habitats. Like many grassland species, the decline of the meadowlarks is attributed to habitat loss and degradation. The loss of family farms contributes. Meadowlarks nest on the ground, so any disturbance of roadsides and other cover by mowing, spraying, burning, tillage, grazing or ATV usage during the peak nesting months (May, June, July) lowers production significantly. The eastern has a simple, clear, slurred whistle while the western's song has a musical bubbling flute-like quality. Males commonly use fence posts as perches while singing.
 “Is the bigger eagle I’m seeing a golden or a bald?” The two species are about the same size, and the females are larger. The legs of golden eagles are feathered to the foot; the bald eagle has featherless, yellow ankles. Goldens frequent forested and grassland landscapes, often away from lakes, rivers and coastlines. Bald eagles are typically found near open, fish-filled waters. Both species are fond of carrion. Juvenile bald eagles are larger than adults due to their longer wing and tail feathers.
 “What is the fastest animal?” A cheetah can run as fast as 70 mph. The pronghorn can run at 35 mph for 4 miles and could hit 55 mph during a sprint. A sailfish can move through water as swiftly as 68 mph. The peregrine falcon dives at speeds up to 200 mph.
 Katie Jacobson of Albert Lea asked what to do about a robin fighting with a window. After choosing a nest site, a pair of birds claim the area as their own and defend it from other birds of their kind. When a male robin spots another male, a chasing fight ensues. The dominant male gets a mate, the nesting location, the territory and the area’s food. The window acts as a mirror. A robin is territorial and instinctively attacks rivals in its breeding territory, making an enemy of its image. A real robin would leave, but the reflection remains. Being persistent and stubborn, the robin continues the attack. If you want the robin to stop, block the image. Put a piece of cardboard, black nylon screen, painter’s cloth or plastic cling on the outside of the window where the bird is attacking. Soaping the window works. This may cause Martha Stewart to shudder, but, in most cases, you’ll need it only until the shadowboxing robin thinks its worthy adversary has departed. Covering the inside of the window might enhance the reflection. Forget about using plastic owls or fake snakes.
 “What eats milo?” There is milo and millet. White proso millet is a tiny light-colored seed that ground-feeding birds, such as doves, native sparrows, thrashers, Carolina wrens, cardinals, starlings and house sparrows, enjoy. Milo is a large, reddish round seed, also called sorghum, often used as a filler in commercial seed mixes. It’s less expensive than most types of birdseed, but isn’t appealing to most species. On Cornell Lab of Ornithology seed preference tests, western ground-feeding birds like Steller’s jays, curve-billed thrashers and Gambel’s quail preferred milo to sunflower. In another study, house sparrows didn’t eat milo, but cowbirds did. Wild turkeys, doves and pheasants eat milo. Milo is used for livestock feed.
 “Have you ever heard of Canada geese nesting in a bald eagle nest?” Yes. Here’s a link to a video of a nest in Decorah. https://www.raptorresource.org/birdcams/decorah-goose-cam/

Thanks for stopping by


 “Wherever there are birds, there is hope.”―Mehmet Murat ildan.
 “I doubt whether the world holds for any [child] one more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice cream.”—Heywood Broun.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

  A birdie with a yellow bill hopped upon my suet feeder, cocked his shining eye and said nothing because he was too busy eating. With apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson, there are days when starlings dominate my suet feeder. There are starling-resistant suet feeders. Upside-down suet feeders are meant to challenge starlings and do lessen that bird’s presence, but starlings can hang upside down and feed. It’s going to the gym and eating lunch for a starling. Photo by Al Batt.


“It wasn’t me,” said the skunk.

Naturally

 The robin sang, “cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up.” It was a good morning. The rain had fallen. It rarely ascends. Flowers stuck their noses out of the ground to sniff the spring air. I wondered what a wet squirrel smelled like as I watched one move dexterously through the wet trees like a mini-Tarzan without a vine to swing on.
 I tossed some millet onto the ground for the native sparrows. Juncos enjoy that seed, and their gray and white bodies covered the seedy ground. Between the snowbirds and the American tree sparrows, there was little room for anything else. A couple of song sparrows, a few purple finches and house finches, and one more species. I watched the double-scratch behavior of a handsome fox sparrow. It used a backward kick it performed simultaneously with both feet to find food in the leaf litter. I want to give that a try, but I’m afraid I’d fall beak first into the scattered millet. Each time I see fox sparrows, I want to do for them what the Trashmen did for Surfin’ Birds.
 During the last couple of snowfalls, I’ve put raisins and bits of suet out for the robins. They sampled those products but were more interested in eating the millet. I took photos to make sure that’s what they were eating. Mourning doves like millet, too. 
 For a live view of a greater prairie chicken lek on the Bluestem Prairie Scientific and Natural Area near Glyndon in northwestern Minnesota go to: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/window-wildlife.html
 In times of war, some soldiers used ground acorns as a coffee substitute. Acorn coffee was made during the American Civil War, and the Germans made their version during the World Wars, calling it ersatz coffee. It requires a leaching process. It could serve as a highly nutritious substitute in any recipe where you would use cornmeal. Acorns are also used in flatbreads, tortillas, cornbread-type confections, pancakes and honey cakes.
 Lynne Wasmoen of Emmons sent me a photo of a shrike that had met its demise by colliding with a window. A shrike in Minnesota in the summer is a loggerhead, and one in the winter is a northern. But in April, who knows? They’re often called “butcher birds” and are both a songbird and a predator of songbirds. Shrikes sometimes kill more prey than they need, but don't let it go to waste. They store food for later by impaling their prey on the spines of trees or barbed wire. The shrike’s facial band tells the tale as far as ID goes. I couldn’t see where the mask met the bill in the photo. A loggerhead shrike has a thicker eye band. A northern shrike has a noticeably thinner eye band that doesn’t extend over the eyes or above the bill. The Lone Ranger wore a mask to keep his identity a secret. Not being able to see a mask kept this shrike’s identity a secret.
 Dr. Brandon Miller of the University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science said that a ginkgo tree is a good choice to plant where every other tree has died. It’s a tree that can withstand poor conditions. Female ginkgo trees produce seeds with fleshy coverings. When those coverings ripen in the fall, they produce a foul and pungent scent, often compared to the smell of dog feces. 


Q&A


 “I saw a rabbit with black horns. What’s going on?” Rabbit papillomas are growths on the skin caused by the papillomavirus and don’t infect other species. The growths, made up of mostly keratin, have no significant effects on wild rabbits unless they interfere with eating/drinking. The black nodules on the skin are usually on the head and can become elongated, taking on a hornlike appearance. They might be the origin of the jackalope. Most infected cottontails survive the viral infection and the growths go away. The virus spreads through direct contact and possibly through biting vectors such as ticks.

Bad jokes about nature department


 “It wasn’t me,” said the skunk back when skunks could talk. 
 Unless you have a lot of time, never ask a grandfather buck rabbit about his grandkids.
 An afternoon shadow is good when you’re feeling low. 
 The ether bunny can put you to sleep. 
 The days are getting longer, but they’re still 24 hours long.
 I watched a grackle using a laptop. It was probably checking its stock portfolio. Some birds adapt well to a human environment.
 What’s the largest ant? A giant.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?”—Martin Luther King, Jr.
 ”I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.”—Maya Angelou.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

Once abundant, populations of the rusty blackbird have declined an estimated 85-95% in 40 years. The only North American blackbird more troubled is the tricolored blackbird, a declining blackbird of West Coast wetlands. Scientists aren’t sure why the bird is in chronic decline. Migrating rusty blackbirds like damp habitats. They have piercing yellow eyes. Photo by Al Batt.

If crows are so smart, how come I can’t understand what they’re saying?

Naturally

 Owls are like stars. They come out at night. A great horned owl flew in front of my car in the late night. Owls find roads to be prime hunting locations. An owl-car collision was avoided.
 Winter went into hiding and May came early this year, then came the end of March with its snow and cold. I was stationed at the edge of a lake, an intersection with nature, ready and willing to be astounded by all I might experience. Canada geese flew in for a water landing. I think of geese as accomplished fliers, but I don’t think of them as fancy aerialists. They aren’t designed for fancy feats of flying. Some geese coming to the water used a tricky technique to slow themselves for a safe and effective landing. The geese stopped flapping their wings and rolled their bodies upside down while twisting their long necks so that they remained right side up. Then, they rotated their bodies to right themselves just in time for a gentle splashdown. If they had been passenger geese, the travelers aboard would have applauded the landing. The maneuver the geese performed is called whiffling. Slowing their descent is what I think the big birds wearing goose down were doing, but they might have been just showing off. Either way, it was impressive. If I had Superman’s hearing, I could have heard one goose say, “Take that, peregrine falcons.”
 Turkey vultures monitored the roads no matter where I drove. To them, each road is an aisle in the grocery store. Road-killed deer, raccoons and opossums were available for their dining pleasure. 
 I listened to a tufted titmouse calling “Peter-Peter-Peter” in Lamoni, Iowa. That’s what the mnemonic is. It could have been producing a clear whistle that said pita-pita-pita, cheeva-cheeva-cheeva, or here-here-here. The plural is titmice, and that name has nothing to do with mice. It derives from Old English words meaning “small bird.” The collective noun for titmice is a banditry. One titmouse flew near me, its big, dark eyes giving it the look of something that is constantly surprised. It used its feet as a plate to hold a seed and its beak as silverware to open and eat the food.
 I strolled around the St. Joseph, Missouri, area and had lovely looks at a northern mockingbird, Carolina wren, eastern meadowlark and great-tailed grackle.
 I watched trumpeter swans watching tilers working in a field in Minnesota. This swan can be nearly 6 feet long with a 7-foot wingspan and weigh over 25 pounds. That’s no Sesame Street’s Big Bird, but it’s a big bird. When the swans flew, the wind was so strong it was as if they were flying in place.


Q&A


 “If crows are so smart, how come I can’t understand what they’re saying?” It’s because they are so smart.
 “How is it decided if ‘Lake’ goes before the name or after it?” Lakes with more surface area are more likely to be called something with “Lake” first. The size of a lake has something to do with whether “Lake” goes first or second in a name. Every Great Lake has “Lake” first, as do many of the country’s biggest or most prominent lakes. The way lakes were named was influenced by settlement patterns and the languages of those who colonized an area. There are some area differences in whether it was more common to put “Lake” first or second.
 “Are ticks insects?” They are actually arachnids, which are the same group as spiders, mites and scorpions. How can you tell them apart? The best way to tell arachnids from insects is the number of legs. Arachnids have eight legs, whereas insects have only six. Insects have three segments: head, thorax and abdomen. Arachnids have only two segments: cephalothorax and abdomen.
 “What bird could fly higher than Mt. Everest?” The chickadee could do so easily. Mt. Everest can’t fly. The bar-headed goose has been recorded at heights of over 23,000 feet and mountaineers have reported seeing the geese flying over Mount Everest.
 “Why does a tree have so many branches?” It’s because they stick together. Branches help to transport water, sugar and nutrients to the leaves and canopy of the tree.
 “What kind of haircut does a bee get?” A buzz cut.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals, the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great creative scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned if at all.”—Martin Gardner.
 “The earth has its music for those who will listen; Its bright variations forever abound. With all of the wonders that God has bequeathed us, There’s nothing that thrills like the magic of sound.”—Reginald Holmes.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

The largest bald eagle nest on record was in Florida and was 10 feet in diameter and 20 feet tall. A nest in Ohio, shaped like a wine glass, weighed over 2 tons, and served its purpose for 34 years until the tree blew down. The nest shown here is at Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge near Trempealeau, Wisconsin. A bald eagle, one of the owners of the nest, is visible to the right of the nest. What a fine sight to see. Photo by Al Batt.

Instructions for living a life

Naturally


 There are days when I say, “What a beautiful day!” with such gusto it’s as if I’d never seen a beautiful day before. I’ve learned that the weather doesn’t determine a day's loveliness. It’s all on me, but birds help. It’s as Mary Oliver wrote, “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
 Life can be like the child’s steering wheel on a shopping cart. It doesn’t take us where we want to go, but every day is a gift. Looking at birds is an excellent way to unwrap it. 
 A rooster pheasant crowed vehemently. Roosters crow loudly in the spring and summer, especially at dawn and dusk. Its crow is often followed by a loud, rapid beating of his wings that close ears can hear.
 There is a certain degree of everydayness to a house sparrow, but they are handsome birds. To a turkey vulture, every squirrel is an organ donor.
 Each year around this time, my mother reminded me that a robin needs three snows on its tail before it’s truly spring.
 The vinca bloomed early. It made me smile. I should have laughed. I’ve heard all my life, with only brief interludes of hearing other things, that the world laughs in flowers.
 I’d spent the night at a lovely place called the Little Bluff Inn in Trempealeau, Wisconsin. A car parked next to me was covered in bird droppings. If the vehicle had been a Honda, the birds would have done their Civic doody. Spring worried that I felt incomplete due to a near lack of winter. It went about remedying that situation. I stood along the backwaters of the Mississippi River in Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge as snow fell in the early light of the day, accumulating on my binoculars, and I listened to the sounds of trumpeter swans (sounding like a junior high French horn or trumpet player warming up), the bugling of sandhill cranes, the squeals and wheezy whistles of wood ducks and coots running on the water. I doubt the trumpeter swan's name will be changed to the French-horned swan. I marveled at the beauty of rusty blackbirds. 
 I remembered another day when the weather had emptied its files on me while I stood alongside another body of water. It was a foggy, rainy, snowy and eerily quiet day. As I listened to the silence, I saw something flying toward me out of the too-much weather. It was a pair of trumpeter swans. The silence was broken by the sounds of their wings flying over my head. I can close my eyes and still hear that. It was a beautiful moment.
See sandhill cranes from the comfort of your sofa
 Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary near Gibbon features spectacular views of the sandhill crane migration that occurs along the Platte River in Nebraska. The five-mile stretch of river covered by the camera is a densely populated roost with 100,000-200,000 cranes at the height of migration. 
https://explore.org/livecams/national-audubon-society/crane-camera

Q&A


 “How does a skunk smell?” With its nose, of course. The reason skunks smell bad is because of a gland under their tail that produces and sprays a stink. The spray is an oily liquid primarily made up of a substance called thiols, with a sulfur component that is the earmark of the signature skunk odor. Skunk smell is difficult to eliminate because the compounds in its oil reactivate the odor when in contact with water, causing the odor to resurface after you thought it was gone. Skunks are born with the ability to make and spray thiols. The spray is a defense mechanism and they spray if they are surprised or feel threatened. Skunks often give warning signs like stamping their feet or flicking their tails. I’ve heard the skunk’s smell described as a combination of rotten eggs, garlic and burnt rubber. Sulfur has a rotten egg scent that’s disliked by most, making a skunk's spray extremely pungent. The pervasive scent is powerful enough it can be detected up to half a mile away and can linger for weeks.
 “Are the sandhill cranes staging along the Platte River the ones that nest in Minnesota?” The most numerous species found there is the lesser sandhill crane. The greater sandhill crane comprises about 5% of those cranes and does nest in Minnesota, in the Great Lakes region and into Manitoba. The lesser sandhill crane is a traveler and nests in Canada, Alaska and Siberia.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Joy comes to us in ordinary moments. We risk missing out when we get too busy chasing down the extraordinary.”—Brene Brown.
 “Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

The large shovel-shaped bill of the northern shoveler distinguishes it from other dabbling ducks. The bill has over 100 lamellae (fine tooth-like projections) along the edges for straining food from the water. This duck has several other common names, such as “spoonbill” or  “spoony.” Other colloquial nicknames include Hollywood mallard, smiling mallard, grinner and spadeface. Why Hollywood? Maybe it’s because they’re always smiling for the camera. Photo by Al Batt.

Why do raccoons wear masks?

Naturally


 A lively bird feeder entertained me. Under the feeder, a chipmunk scampered about. Chipmunks might be the epitome of scamperers. Squirrels are more into scurrying. Chipmunks don’t hibernate in the truest sense. They don’t put on much fat before taking a long nap. Some people refer to it as partial hibernation because the body temperature drops and the heart rate slows. But theirs is a waking sleep, and unlike deep hibernators, they wake occasionally. They usually don’t leave their dens, relieve themselves, have a snack and go back to sleep. Sound familiar? However, on mild days, they may wander from their underground burrows.
 Chipmunks love tomato juice, and when tomatoes ripen, chipmunks chew holes in the bottoms to get the juice. 
 While chipmunks were dining aboveground, a turkey vulture was way above ground, flying overhead in an otherwise empty space that rivaled that found in a bag of potato chips. A vulture that had migrated to the southern U.S. for the winter, maybe even farther south, was teetering and gliding its way back into Minnesota. Vultures migrate during the day.


Q&A


 “What’s the difference between a possum and an opossum?” An opossum is a possum that surprises you. Oh, possum! Merriam-Webster says, “Both possum and opossum correctly refer to the Virginia opossum frequently seen in North America. In common use, possum is the usual term; in technical or scientific contexts opossum is preferred. Opossum can be pronounced with its first syllable either voiced or silent.” The name opossum is derived from the Algonquian word aposoum, meaning “white dog” or “white beast." 
 “Why do raccoons have black around their eyes?” It’s an occupational hazard. It comes from working nights. The black rings help reduce glare from lights, making it easier for the little bandits to see during their nighttime escapades. It’s much like the black stripes athletes put under their eyes during sporting events, which absorb light and reduce glare. The raccoon gets its English name from the Powhatan word “aroughcun,” which means “one that scratches with its hands.” It gets the name trash panda or masked bandit from people who deal with them. Raccoons cover their eyes when they’re scared or trying to hide. Small children often exhibit this same behavior. When scientists studied this tendency in humans, they discovered that young children with their eyes covered acknowledged their bodies, arms, hair, feet and legs could be seen, but insisted they couldn’t be seen. Raccoons must have a concept of selfhood and a theory of mind.
 “How much help is it to feed birds in the winter?” A study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology found birds with access to feeders during the winter were able to maintain a slightly higher body temperature at night compared to those who didn’t have access. This indicates the feeder birds gathered enough energy to survive a winter night without needing to lower their body temperature as much.
 “Where do pheasants roost?” They roost in trees, dense shrubs, forested wetlands, farm fields, cattail wetlands, weed-grown fence lines, weedy areas like stands of giant ragweed and small farmland woodlots. Dense vegetation near foraging sites is necessary as escape cover. The pheasants that winter in my yard roost in evergreen trees. During extreme winter weather, pheasants can go up to two weeks without feeding by reducing their metabolism and energy. Yet, there is no “Diet Like a Pheasant” book on the New York Times Best Sellers list.
 “How good is a bird’s hearing?” It has to be good because birds can’t read lips and they have ears that don’t take well to hearing aids. Our range extends from a low of 20 cycles per second to a high of 20,000 cycles per second. The range of frequencies heard varies among birds according to species. Starlings hear nearly as well as we do at high to mid-range, but their hearing fails on the low end. While they may not hear as wide a range as we can, birds are about 10 times as sensitive to rapid changes in pitch and intensity. Birds hear shorter notes than we do. Where we hear one sound only, a bird may hear 10 separate notes. Generally, nocturnal birds, like owls, have more sensitive hearing than diurnal birds.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc., and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons.”—Douglas Adams.
 “You ever wish that fireworks were incredibly quiet and also didn't disappear so quickly and also you could keep them in your home and also you could hold them in your hands? Because if so, I'd love to introduce you to  flowers.”—Jonny Sun.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

Snow is the true March Madness. A starling told me. Photo by Al Batt

A robin searches the sky for a break in the snowstorm. The ones in my yard have been eating suet pieces that have fallen to the ground and millet. Photo by Al Batt.

 I watched the Tanagers play basketball

Naturally

 It’s impossible not to be impressed by birds. One day last year, I watched a chickadee excavate a nest cavity. Its tiny bill had become a Swiss Army knife. Here’s an interesting fact: everything on Earth is either a chickadee or not.
 A party of blue jays appeared to be having a party. They were likely celebrating a hatch-day of one jay.
 I checked the lilacs. The buds had swollen, but I saw no sign of early bud break. Lilac buds are big, beautiful and tough. I think they’ll be fine.
 I watched the Vermillion (S.D.) Tanagers play basketball. That fine nickname led them to a state championship.
 I saw seven crows perched, one each on seven fenceposts. I suspect it was a board meeting, and I hope good things came from it. 
 I enjoyed seeing a northern harrier, a slim, long-tailed hawk gliding low over a grassland while holding its wings in a V-shape and showing a white patch at the base of its tail. If I’d been closer, I could have seen its owlish face, which helps it hear mice and voles. When I was a lad, it was called a marsh hawk as it hunted over agricultural land, marshes and shrubby wetlands. Its floating flight has given rise to the male’s nickname “gray ghost.”


Q&A


 “Is there a field guide that covers the great outdoors?” That would take a gigantic book. I recommend the “Kaufman Field Guide To Nature Of The Midwest” by Kenn Kaufman, Kimberly Kaufman and Jeffrey P. Sayre. This field guide helps you identify birds, mammals, trees, wildflowers, insects, reptiles, amphibians, fish, spiders, mushrooms, ferns, grasses, the sky overhead and the rocks underfoot when you’re walking in the woods, camping, hiking, canoeing or enjoying your backyard. This easy-to-use reference book is for nature enthusiasts living in or visiting Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan.
 “Why are insects drawn to lights?” Insects aren’t drawn to the glow like moths to a flame. Rather than being attracted to light, researchers suggest artificial lights at night may scramble the innate navigational systems of flying insects, causing them to flutter in confusion around porch lamps, street lights and other artificial illumination. In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers showed that when the insects flew around a light source, they tilted their backs toward the light and aligned their bodies in that direction. By maintaining that orientation, the insects create odd orbits and steering patterns.
 “What is eating the bark of my maple tree?” It’s the time of year when we see scattered maple trees stripped of bark. Squirrels cause this damage in their pursuit of the cambium layer, just under the bark, which tastes slightly sweet from the sap. Smooth bark is easier for squirrels to chew, so young trees or branches with thin bark are more likely to be stripped than trees with older, furrowed bark.
 “I watched a rabbit eat its excrement. Does that mean it’s sick?” Rabbits are foraging herbivores, and a fibrous, cellulose-rich diet isn’t easy to digest and by the time their dinner makes it through their intestines, it still retains many of the nutrients the bunnies need. Rabbits, hares and beavers solve this problem with a kind of digestion called hindgut fermentation. They eat their own poop and digest it a second time. Bunnies produce two different types of droppings: Fecal pellets, which are small, round, dry and dark brown or black, and cecotropes, which are softer, shiny and usually lighter in color, often resembling clusters of grapes or mulberries. Rabbits often consume their cecotropes directly from their anus. This process is known as coprophagy, and functions the same a cow chewing its cud.
 “How many babies does an opossum have?” Opossums in Minnesota mate between January and May. She often bears two litters of six to 20 babies each year. A newborn opossum, called a joey, is half an inch long and weighs less than a penny. The opossum rarely hangs by its tail. It uses its long prehensile tail for balance, to grip as it climbs trees and to gather bedding.
 “In a nutshell, tell me what a walnut is.” Yes. Next question. Walnuts are the round, single-seed stone fruits of a walnut tree. 
 “How did the gyrfalcon get its name?” The name derives from an Old Norse word for "spear." A gyrfalcon was a medieval falconer's dream and reserved for royalty.


Thanks for stopping by


 “We should not be simply fighting evil in the name of good, but struggling against the certainties of people who claim always to know where good and evil are to be found.”—Tzvetan Todorov.
 “Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.—Henry David Thoreau.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

The American robin is the state bird of  Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin. The male and female look similar, but the female is a bit duller in color. Robins exhibit a running and stopping behavior just like my first car. The comic-book Robin was inspired by Robin Hood or the American robin because he was born on the first day of spring. Often considered harbingers of spring, not all robins are migratory. Their “cheer up, cheer up, cheerily” caroling is welcoming. Photo by Al Batt.

It wasn’t "Love Train," a 1982 hit by the O'Jays

Naturally


 March 1 was the first day of meteorological spring. The golden-yellow of weeping willows is evident now. Want an adventure? Step outside. Go for a walk. I go outdoors and come back inside a different person. 
 What to my wondering eyes should appear—I saw only two bald eagles while driving to town and back. Eagles used to be something I didn't see every day. Now, someone could be heard saying this about an eagle, "That's something you see every day."
 I watched trumpeter swans. The DNR Nongame Wildlife Program collected swan eggs in 1987-1988 from Alaska. A couple of friends of mine, Carrol Henderson and Steve Kittelson, were instrumental in this endeavor. The eggs were incubated and the cygnets reared at Minnesota's Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area in Anoka County until they were two years old, and releases began in 1987 near Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge in Becker County. Releases would continue for over 20 years at Tamarac NWR and other sites. Swan Lake in Nicollet County, known as Manha tanka otamenda by the Sioux (“Lake-of-the-Many-Large-Birds”), is where trumpeter swans were first documented to be nesting in the United States. There is an estimated population of 65,000 adult trumpeter swans in Minnesota.


Jay or Jake?


 It wasn’t "Love Train," a 1982 hit by the O'Jays. What I heard were blue jays, handsome birds with substantial vocabularies. The vocal birds like to hear themselves squawk. What I heard were pumphandle calls or queedling. “Queedle, queedle.” The musical call has been likened to the sound of a squeaky clothesline, whistles or a complaining pumphandle. Jays learn the call of a hawk species that inhabits an area, and then mimic it when they near a feeding station. That often causes the birds at the feeders to scatter, allowing the jays to have their pick of the food. An aggressive blue jay uses its loud calls (“jay,” “jeeah,” “queedle, queedle”) to alert others to danger. It’s unknown whether jays develop this ability to warn others that a hawk is close or as a manipulative device. Many blue jays might be named Jay or Jake. The purpose of pump handle calls is to communicate distress or alarm. Blue jays emit these calls when they sense danger and when they want to alert other members of their flock of a potential threat. The nature of the call catches the attention of other birds and prompts them to be alert.


Q&A


 “Do birds have regional dialects?” Birds sometimes make mistakes when copying an adult. Other birds copy a mistake, and a local dialect develops. Dialects can also be created as birds adapt to a local environment. Birds that are heard better might find mates easier, meaning their song is more likely to be handed down from generation to generation.
 “Will this be a bad year for ticks?” Whenever there are warmer temperatures and less snow, it’s better for ticks. In Minnesota, adult ticks usually emerge once the snow has melted and they reach their peak during May. There’s a second period of activity in fall, before temperatures dip below freezing again. While a mild winter might mean more ticks, it may lead to fewer mosquitos due to a lack of precipitation and standing water. But that could change.
 “Is it really against the law to lock your car in Churchill, Manitoba, in case someone needs to escape from a polar bear?” If you Google it, there will be about 2,080,000 matches saying that’s true. It’s not. It’s not an official law, but most people do this. Roads lead less than 20 miles outside Churchill, so vehicle theft is not an issue. It’s customary for the inhabitants of the “polar bear capital of the world” to leave doors unlocked, but it’s not imposed by law according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. There is an estimated population of 935 polar bears in the western Hudson Bay area, where Churchill sits. As a response to the frequent bear visits, the town established a polar bear alert program. A team tranquilizes the animals if they enter town and takes them to a polar bear holding center, known by locals as the polar bear jail.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Without birds, nature would lose her voice and the planet its most engaging envoys. Birds matter precisely because they matter to us. Environment is a concept. Nature a label. Birds are real, elements that live within our sensory plane. They spread their wings and bridge the gap between our world and the natural world.”—Pete Dunne.
 “When life becomes heavy and worries pull me down like gravity, I simply look up and suddenly there, in the weightless free air, soaring like kites, flitting from branch to branch, unencumbered, my friends the birds release my soul and I am again free.”—Carl Schreiner.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

The American goldfinch is the state bird of New Jersey, Iowa and Washington. It’s sometimes called a “wild canary” because of the bright yellow plumage the male wears part of the year. Goldfinches are vegetarians and molt their body feathers twice a year, once in late winter and again in late summer. Its contact call, often given in flight, sounds as if it’s saying “po-ta-to-chip.”  Photo by Al Batt.

Vultures are driving over potholes

Naturally


 Small feathered things flew through the air before perching in my memory. The birds glided into the conspicuous and vibrant red veins of spring, the red-osier dogwood. The many-stemmed shrub is a favorite nest site of goldfinches and is also called red twig dogwood, red willow and redstem dogwood. Red-osier dogwood has pliable stems used in wicker baskets and furniture.
 Why is a dogwood tree called a dogwood? The possible origins are many and varied. In the 1500s, the trees were known in Europe as the dagwood because the small stems were used for dags, daggers, arrows or skewers. It might have been referred to as a dag or dagge in old English. It could have originated in colonial times because its fruit was edible but not fit for dogs. Another belief is that it’s called dogwood because a medicine concocted from its bark was used to treat dogs plagued with mange. Others suggest the name dogwood is a derivation of the word "daggerwood." Daggerwood sticks were sharpened and used to skewer meat for cooking.
 I’ve started watching for turkey vultures. Bald eagles soar with wings held flat and steady. Vultures have a rocking flight with wings held in a V-shape (dihedral). If they were automobiles, an eagle would drive on a new, smooth road and the vulture travel a road filled with potholes.
 European starlings attacked the suet with a fierce hunger. This bird was introduced into the U.S. and reached southeastern Minnesota in 1929. Within a decade, they were distributed statewide. 
 Thomas S. Roberts first observed a flock of house sparrows in Minneapolis in 1876. A resident had a dozen of the birds brought from New York and released in his garden in 1875. By 1877, the house sparrow was established as a breeding bird in the Twin Cities. The house sparrow will use plastic trash in its nests. Squirrels do, too. Discarded monofilament fishing lines become  a danger when wrapped around the beaks, wings and feet of birds.
 Minnesota’s favorite marmot, the groundhog, doesn’t appear above ground on its official day, Feb. 2. Its internal clock awakens it in March. It’s also called the woodchuck and whistle pig. Next February, celebrate Woodchuck Day, Whistle Pig Day and Groundhog Day.
 A newly molted male cardinal’s feathers are tipped with gray. Those tips wear away slowly during fall and early winter, revealing the brilliant red feathers the cardinal is known for. Research found cardinals reach peak redness by midwinter ahead of spring breeding season. The brightest red males are most attractive to females.
 I raised Araucana chickens. Most were rumpless (no main tail feathers), had feather tufts on the sides of the head and pea combs. They laid eggs with blue shells or other pastel colors, and the eggs were claimed to be higher in protein and to contain little or no cholesterol. No research confirmed that.


Kearney, Nebraska, and the Platte River


 It’s a natural wonder when over 500,000 sandhill cranes stage along the Platte River, with numbers typically peaking the third week of March. You can walk with the pioneers over the Oregon Trail by visiting the Archway. The Museum of Nebraska Art is in Kearney and Pioneer Village in nearby Minden, Nebraska, has over 50,000 historical artifacts, such as vintage cars, farm equipment and airplanes. 
You can find more information at:
 https://rowe.audubon.org
 https://cranetrust.org
 https://archway.org
 https://visitkearney.org


Q&A


 Glenda Batt of Albert Lea asked if deer change colors during the year. A deer's coat provides thermoregulation and camouflage. Summer coats are thin and reddish, allowing deer to better cope with heat stress. In the fall, deer begin a process of molting triggered by hormonal changes that reflect the changing seasons. The reddish summer coat turns a faded gray or brown color as the new winter coat grows. Coat color, regardless of the season, tends to be darker in forested areas and lighter in agricultural areas where deer are exposed to more direct sunlight.
 “What bird sounds as if it’s saying, ‘Ricky, Ricky’?” Cardinals sound like they’re singing, “cheer, cheer, cheer” or “birdie, birdie, birdie.” Birdie and Ricky aren’t that dissimilar. Other possibilities are tufted titmouse, black-capped chickadee, Carolina wren and ruby-crowned kinglet.
 “Are wild turkeys native to Minnesota?” There isn’t much evidence that they are, but if turkeys did occur in Minnesota, they were extirpated by a combination of overhunting, disease and unrestricted logging. The state released farm birds in the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s, hoping they’d adapt to the wild. They didn't. In 1971, DNR obtained 29 wild turkeys from the Missouri Ozarks and released them in southeastern Minnesota. The birds thrived and other reintroductions followed.


Thanks for stopping by


 “If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.”–Vincent van Gogh.
 “Let us bless the imagination of the Earth.”–John O’Donohue.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

Often referred to as a subtle beauty, the female cardinal is striking. The difference in her coloration from the red male is called sexual dichromatism. Female cardinals are slightly smaller than males and are among the more vocal of female North American songbirds. She sings while on the nest to tell the male when to bring food and when to stay away. She sings back-and-forth with the male to reinforce pair-bonding early in the breeding season. Photo by Al Batt.

If coyotes would only fetch a stick and slobber on a tennis ball

Naturally 

 I’d crawled into my oatmeal early so I could get outside before first light. We’d moved quickly from fog to snow. Rime is called frozen fog by some and  is common on the windward side of objects during freezing fog events and may resemble white plumes, nicknamed "frost feathers,"
 I take the ordinary seriously. A murder of crows swaggered across the lawn. Birds are captivating. A bird doesn’t look good wearing a cape, so it’s incapable of being a superhero, but it comes close by making my day. 
 Small creatures have big adventures. An accipiter visited the feeder. It created a hostile work environment. I’ve been seeing male American kestrels on utility wires. A male has a rusty back, blue wings and a rusty-colored tail with a black terminal band. A female has rusty wings, back and tail marked with black barring. Most kestrels migrate, but some males are year-round residents. Experts are uncertain of the origin of its name. Perhaps it’s related to the French crecerelle "rattle," from the Latin crepitacillium "small rattle," a diminutive of crepitaculum "noisy bell, rattle," from crepitare "to crackle, rattle;" or it could be imitative of its call. Kestrels hunt for small prey in open territory by  perching on wires or hovering while facing the wind.  

 I watched a coyote. If coyotes would fetch a stick and slobber on a tennis ball, they’d be widely loved.

Q&A


 “Why is a turkey called a buzzard?”  Buzzard is a British name used for a couple of species of hawks. Vultures don’t live in Northern Europe, so when settlers from there arrived in North America, they applied the name “buzzard” to any large, circling bird they saw, and the misnomer persists in some areas. The Atlanta Vultures were a professional indoor football team and a member of American Indoor Football that played part of the 2016 season. A turkey vulture weighs 3-5 pounds.
 “Why is Iowa the Hawkeye state?” One version states that it was  James G. Edwards who began the process by changing the name of his newspaper, The Iowa Patriot, to The Burlington Hawk-Eye, in tribute to his friend Chief Black Hawk. The second theory is that Judge David Rorer borrowed the name Hawkeye from James Fenimore Cooper‘s popular novel, “The Last of the Mohicans.” I think Nostradamus named it in 1555 after the future character Hawkeye in the TV show “M*A*S*H.” The nickname was approved by territorial officials in 1838, eight years before Iowa became a state.
 “I was on a tour boat where you did the narration. You talked about an esker. Could you remind me of what you said about it?” What did I say? My wife will remember. Just a moment, I’ll ask her. Oh, I can’t. She’s at a gathering of the Divas. That’s a group of her friends that refuses to invite me to their bashes. Eskers are ridges made of sands and gravels, deposited by glacial meltwater flowing through tunnels within and under glaciers, or through meltwater channels on top of glaciers. 
 “What’s the solution for removing skunk smell from a dog?” The American Kennel Club says the best solution for removing skunk smell from a pet is to combine ¼-cup of baking soda, 1-2 teaspoons of mild dishwashing detergent and one quart of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide solution. While wearing rubber gloves, work the foaming mixture into your pet’s coat and leave it on for five minutes. Avoid getting it into the pet’s eyes. Rinse with warm water. Follow with dog shampoo if desired.
 “Why do pigeons bob their heads?” Chicken, cranes, magpies and quail do, too. Studies suggest that birds in motion bob their heads to stabilize their visual surroundings. We rely more on our eye movements, not head movements, to catch and hold images while in motion. A pigeon tries to keep its head as stationary as possible. The head occupies one position and the body catches up.
 “How many young does a beaver have?” The mating season runs from November to March and kits are born in May or June, with an average litter of three to four. Beavers weigh 40 to 50 pounds on average and can chew through a six-inch tree in 15 minutes. 
“Why is the plural of mongoose, not mongeese?” I don’t know, but the plural is mongooses.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed ... We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in.”― Wallace Stegner.
 “It's good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.”—George H. Lorimer.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

Commonly seen tree squirrels in Minnesota are the gray (8-10 inches long with a tail roughly the same length, 1.5 pounds), fox (20-24 inches long with an 8-10-inch tail, 3 pounds), and red (11-13 inches with a 4-5-inch tail, 7-9 ounces). The noisy red squirrel (sometimes called a pine squirrel) is most associated with conifers and has a white eyering. In comparison a chipmunk is 10 inches long, including its tail, and weighs 2-5 ounces. The black squirrel pictured is a gray squirrel. Photo by Al Batt.

As Lou Grant said, “You got skunk.”



Naturally


 Some horned larks spend the winter in southern Minnesota. Those that had migrated south begin returning to Minnesota in early February through late March. Horned larks get their name from the black feathers protruding above their heads. The only lark native to North America creeps along bare ground searching for small seeds. When flushed into flight by a car, a horned lark looks pale with a blackish tale. 
 The courteous winter weather makes me expect a bountiful crop of fawns in May and June. I saw a red-tailed hawk, unable to convince myself it was something else, perched on a utility pole. Crows stood on top of road-killed deer and raccoons. The birds posed as if they were big game hunters. Three trumpeter swans flew over. Minnesota has the highest population of trumpeter swans in the lower 48 states with an estimated 65,000 adults. I smelled skunk and spring in the air. An amorous skunk has a 4 square mile territory. Great horned owls hunt them. A male skunk is called a buck and a female a doe. You might recall this exchange from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
 Lou Grant: “You got a lotta skunk.”
 Mary Richards: “Why thank you, Mr. Grant.”
 Lou Grant: “I HATE skunk.”
 Lou Grant, played by Ed Asner, said “spunk,” not “skunk,” but I know what he meant. 


Q&A


 “What is the country’s largest songbird?” The common raven.
 “What is a hokumpoke?” It’s a nickname for the American woodcock—aka timberdoodle, bogsucker, mudsnipe, night partridge, Labrador twister, mud bat, bog snipe, skydancer, pop-eyed shot-dodger, brush snipe and big-eye—a short-legged, ground-dwelling bird that feeds mainly on earthworms it catches by probing in the soil with its long, prehensile bill. The rotund little bird rocks its entire body in a bebop shuffle fascinating to behold. I’ve heard the painted bunting called “a flying rainbow” and “a living box of crayons.” The timberdoodle could be “the dancing dried leaves.”
 “Why are tree trunks round and not square or rectangular?” It’s all about marketing. Fewer sharp corners make trees easier to hug. A round or tubular shape resists the force of winds better than the flat surface of a square or rectangle. A round shape supports branches and a rounded trunk bends more easily than a flat-sided trunk. Utility poles and light posts are round for a reason. Round barns were advertised as more efficient, inexpensive and structurally sound with a greater volume-to-surface ratio, and thus used fewer materials. Structural supports inside the barn weren’t needed, leaving more open spaces without posts for more storage. Round barns were challenging to build, maintain, light and ventilate. It was hard for the devil to hide in a round barn, but claims of its efficiency were overstated. Round barns were made from round trees.
 Ron Hartman wrote, “We enjoyed a dozen trumpeter swans all summer on Freeborn Lake. They seemed to leave in late fall, but now are back...the lake is still frozen over. What are they eating? NOTE: I could have asked A.I., but I would rather hear from A.B.!” Swans have a thick plumage that includes a layer of down, which keeps their bodies insulated and warm. Swans have a temperature exchange system in their legs. The countercurrent exchange system transfers warm blood to the feet and takes the cold blood back into the warm body. Trumpeter swans are primarily vegetarians, feeding on a range of aquatic plants, including duckweed, pondweeds, rushes, sedges, wild rice and algae. They occasionally eat small fish and fish eggs. In winter, their diet includes grain, such as corn. Freeborn Lake likely provides a comfortable and secure place for them to rest. They can find open water elsewhere.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.’"—H.L. Mencken.
 “My father was a very disciplined and punctual man; it was a prerequisite for his creativity. There was a time for everything: for work, for talk, for solitude, for rest. No matter what time you get out of bed, go for a walk and then work, he’d say, because the demons hate it when you get out of bed, demons hate fresh air. So when I make up excuses not to work, I hear his voice in my head: Get up, get out, go to your work.”—Linn Ullmann about Ingmar Bergman.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

Great horned owls begin nesting in abandoned nests of squirrels, hawks or crows in January or February. Female owls lay one to five eggs, which hatch in 30 to 37 days. The "horns" atop a great horned owl's head are tufts of feathers called plumicorns. This owl is a winged tiger that isn’t a picky eater—it eats skunks. Its handshake is firmer than a weightlifter’s. Here’s one giving me a disapproving look. Photo by Al Batt.

Cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up

Naturally


 A rafter of turkeys. 
 A friend saw 75 wild turkeys jogging across the road. Why is a flock of turkeys called a rafter? Perhaps it’s derived from the word “raft” in its meaning of a large or motley collection of people and other things. Maybe it’s because when early European settlers in America built houses and barns, turkeys perched in the rafters of the unfinished buildings. Or because when turkeys roost in trees, the trees resemble the rafters of a building. Another theory is that the word “rafter” came to imply “stitch together” in Medieval English and was  used for groups of turkeys. I visited with a fellow who thought a flock of turkeys should be called a gobble. Male turkeys are called “gobblers” because of their famed call. It fits the mold—a group of geese is called a gaggle, but a gobble brings to mind scenes of gluttony from a Thanksgiving table. 
 Kind weather causes feeder birds to find their own food. This time away from feeders gave blue jays the opportunity to find a Cooper’s hawk in a spruce tree in my yard. At least 20 jays had a communal cow because of the presence of that accipiter. A collective noun for jays is a party, band or scold. Each name is appropriate for the noisy jays.
 February is the breeding season for cottontail rabbits, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, great horned owls, bald eagles, coyotes and foxes.
 Where I live, which is inside a house, we get little snow other than what I track in. The yard gets more snow. On average, we receive more snow from October to January than we do from February to April.
 We all know the sound of a bird. It might be the quack of a mallard duck, the honk of a Canada goose, the haunting calls of a loon or the voice of a friend, a robin. Robins sing “cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up.”
 I sat at a table with friends who are avid hunters. They talked of the sounds of waterfowl and other birds they hear, and they talked about the things they no longer hear. Silence speaks volumes. Meadowlark music is missed. They expressed concerns about our natural world. Nationally, 74% of Americans believe the country should "do whatever it takes to protect the environment," according to the Pew Research Center.


Q&A


 “How can I tell a male starling from a female?” When the birds are in breeding plumage, the base of the lower mandible is bluish or blue-gray in males and pinkish in females.
 Diane Wilson of Owatonna asked why swallows all face the same direction when perched on utility wires. That’s so they can share cute cat videos on their phones. Sorry about that. There are two reasons. When birds flock, they generally fly in the same direction. It would make sense that they face the same way before taking off. Birds are built to face into the wind. It’s easier to take off and land while facing the wind. Facing into the wind reduces wind resistance and limits ruffled feathers. That makes it easier to watch the cat videos. 
 “Do animals that turn white in winter still turn white when there is no snow?” Yes, weasels and snowshoe hares become white.
 “Why do ostriches stick their head into the sand?” Because they can’t find a safety helmet that fits. It’s a popular myth. Ostriches don’t stick their heads in the sand. This myth has led to a common metaphor for someone avoiding their problems. The belief began with observations of ostriches nesting and being stalked by predators. Ostriches bury their eggs in the sand and use their beaks to turn them, which makes it look like they're sticking their heads in the sand. Ostriches lower their heads to blend in with their surroundings and make themselves less of a target when they encounter danger. This behavior made people think the big birds’ heads were buried in the sand.
 “What’s the best thing to feed birds?” Black oil sunflower seeds will bring your feeders the greatest variety of the birds you want to see. Milo is an excellent seed to avoid in Minnesota. Most of it goes uneaten. I also feed suet, nyjer seed and a few peanuts. I need the birds more than they need me.
 “How do gulls find my tractor in the field?” The curious, hungry and intelligent gulls fly high overhead and have many eyes to see a wide area. They’ve learned that a tractor uncovers food. 


Thanks for stopping by


 “Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature.”—Jacob Bronowski.
 "All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them.”—Eeyore.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

White-breasted nuthatches join foraging flocks of chickadees, titmice and downy woodpeckers to find food in winter. Nuthatches recognize the alarm calls of those other species and forage up, down and sideways on tree trunks and large limbs. Their name comes from a habit of jamming seeds and nuts into tree bark before using their sharp bills to “hatch” the hearts. Their common call is a loud, nasal “yank-yank.” Photo by Al Batt.

From Minnesota State: Join us for Cancer Awareness Day on Saturday, February 10 🎀 Stop by our Honor Wall at the Taylor Center entrance and add the name of your loved ones affected by cancer 🩷 #inhonor #staystrongfighton

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I’m humbled by the honor of having my name bordered in pink and hanging on this wall of the Taylor Center. I appreciate the Minnesota State Women’s Basketball Team for doing this. Many more names found room on this wall later in the day. Go Mavericks.-AB

Are birds flying for Delta Airlines?



Naturally


 Thoreau wrote, “Is not January the hardest month to get through?” Kind weather helps. So do cardinals by whistling “what-cheer, cheer, cheer, birdie, birdie, birdie.” Both sexes sing. 
 I heard the drumming of a woodpecker in January. It was more percussion than melody. This proclamation of territory increases in frequency as winter lengthens. It’s sometimes called tattooing when downy, hairy, red-bellied and pileated woodpeckers peck on objects to communicate. They drum by rapidly striking beaks against resonant objects such as hollow trees, logs, stumps, utility poles, transformer boxes, metal chimneys, exhaust vents, rain gutters, downspouts and exterior light covers. Both male and female drum, most frequently in late winter or early spring when seeking mates and establishing territories. Drumming is most common in the morning, but woodpeckers may drum any time of day.


Q&A


 “I heard you on the radio and you said ‘fog eats snow.’ How does it do that?” Fog doesn't literally eat snow or make it vanish magically before our very eyes, but fog makes the snow melt faster. An above-freezing air temperature contributes to snowmelt. When fog forms, condensation takes place, which releases energy as heat into the air. This added heat increases the rate at which the snow melts. Water droplets from the fog melt some snow. The fog, specifically "advection fog," develops because the air and dew point temperatures are warmer than the snowpack temperature. The cold snow causes the air to cool and become saturated and there is a positive condensation from the air onto the snow. Fog absorbs and then re-radiates long-wave radiation, which helps melt the snow.
 “I saw birds in an airport terminal. How did they get there?” They fly for Delta. I was doing what I could to prepare myself for my job of keeping the airplane, in which I was a passenger, from falling out of the sky, when birds in an airport brightened my day. How did the house sparrows I saw get into the Denver International Airport? There are many doors through the terminals and jet bridges. When one door closes, another opens, and in come the house sparrows.
 Tom Steinman asked how to tell a male from a female hawk or eagle. It’s difficult to tell unless you see a pair together. The primary difference between males and females is size. This is true for most raptors. Females can be 25 to 33% larger than males.
 “Could I tell if it’s a male or a female blue jay calling?” Check your caller ID. Blue jays use a number of calls to communicate with one another. Males are more aggressive and females are more expressive. Males and females use the same calls; however, there are slight variances, such as a peep call the females use during an egg-laying period.
 “Do turkey vultures make sounds?”  Yes, they say, “Are you going to eat that opossum?” They produce a  low, guttural hiss when irritated or vying for a spot on a carcass. They may give a low, nasal whine while in flight.
 Father Eugene Stenzel of Wells asked why a bald eagle pair would build a second nest. Eagle pairs often build an alternate nest, usually within a mile of the first nest and within the pair’s territory, and the pair may take turns nesting between the two from year to year. A pair generally returns to the same nest annually, which is called nest site fidelity. An alternate nest serves as insurance in case the primary nest is destroyed early in the nesting season. A nest could go unused for several years, often because of the death of one of the pair, and then be reoccupied by either the original pair or one member with a new mate.
A pair may abandon a nest for unknown reasons and build another, or it may continue adding to and renovating a single nest (nestorations), which  includes repairs and pair bonding. Eagles take advantage of available resources. Besides large stands of trees, the nesting habitat must provide an abundant food source. If a nest blows down, the pair usually builds another nest nearby. A nest failure could be caused by a food shortage, inclement weather, human disturbance, predators (raccoons, great horned owls, etc.) and environmental contaminants.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Everyone has a belief system, B.S., the trick is to learn not to take anyone's B.S. too seriously, especially your own.”—Robert Anton Wilson.
 “The wonderful purity of nature at this season is a most pleasing fact. Every decayed stump and moss-grown stone and rail, and the dead leaves of autumn, are concealed by a clean napkin of snow. In the bare fields and tinkling woods, see what virtue survives. In the coldest and bleakest places, the warmest charities still maintain a foothold.”—Henry D. Thoreau.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote “A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon my window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said: ‘Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!’"
The bill of the European starling is yellow during the breeding season and darkens after the breeding season to a dark gray-brown or black and by early winter only 5–10% of starlings have yellow bills. Bills of adult males begin turning yellow in late December, followed by adult females, then first-year birds.  Photos by Al Batt.

There was a lady beetle swimming with my cereal

Naturally


 My cereal wasn’t supposed to have a prize in the box, but there was a free multicolored Asian lady beetle swimming in the milk in my bowl. 
 It caused me to issue a long, lingering sigh.
 Paul Simon, in “The Sound of Silence,” wrote “Hello, darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.” 
 Instead of the darkness, I talked to the cat, to the lady beetle and to myself in the dark house until the light found Minnesota, and I headed outside.
 The chickadees added extra “dees” to their calls to let me know there was something worth keeping an eye on. They watch for everything because it’s a matter of life and death.
 I’d found a dandelion blooming on a short stalk before the cold and snow came for it. No software is that impressive.
 You don’t need a doctorate in avian nutrition to feed the birds. Francis of Assisi called the animals, both wild and tame, his brothers and sisters. The 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that hunting and fishing contributed $145 billion to the U.S. economy while wildlife watching contributed $250 billion, with 39 million people (15% of the U.S. population 16 years and older) participating in recreational fishing, 14 million people (5.5% of the U.S. population 16 years and older) hunting, and over 148 million people taking part in wildlife watching (roughly 57% of Americans 16 years of age or older). I’m one of a select group of 96 million people who observed, fed, photographed or otherwise enjoyed the company of birds in 2022. That’s over 35% of the nation’s population aged 16 and over.
 The brown creeper could have been mistaken for bark, albeit a piece of moving bark as it climbed a tree trunk. The well-camouflaged songbird climbs a tree from bottom to top like a lineman for the county as it hunts for insects, probing into crevices with its slender, downcurved bill.


Q&A


 “Why is an oak tree keeping its leaves in the winter?” It’s called marcescence and is a juvenile trait. Theories abound as to what benefit a tree derives from persistent leaves. The dead, dry leaves might make the tree unpalatable to deer. The living snow fence of leaves might trap moisture for the tree to use. Marcescence might preserve leaves for mulch in the spring. Or it might be just to give us something to wonder about.
 “Are there any nocturnal hawks or eagles?” The ones we see here are diurnal hunters, with some hunting at dawn and dusk. The letter-winged kite of Australia hunts at night.
 “Are bees able to see the color red?” Bees see reddish wavelengths of yellow and orange, but not red, which means they aren’t naturally attracted to red. The most likely colors to attract bees are purple, violet, blue and yellow. On the other hand, hummingbirds find the color red to be enticing. Baltimore orioles enjoy orange, goldfinches prefer yellow, and bluebirds and blue jays are drawn to the color blue.
 “Did Ben Franklin really want the turkey to be our national bird?” The story about Benjamin Franklin wanting the National Bird to be a turkey is a popular myth. Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter criticizing the original eagle design for the Great Seal, saying that it looked like a turkey. In that letter, Franklin wrote that the “Bald Eagle...is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly…[he] is too lazy to fish for himself.” Franklin noted that compared to a bald eagle, a turkey is “a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America...He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage.” Ben defended the honor of the turkey versus the bald eagle, but he didn’t propose it become one of America’s most important symbols. Neither bird is officially our national bird.
 “When does a cardinal begin to incubate the eggs she has laid?” Actual incubation begins on the day the last egg is laid, with clutches having 1–5 eggs, although the female occasionally sleeps on her nest after the second of three eggs is laid.
 “My grandmother said her grandmother called a bird ‘the hangnest.’ What kind of bird would that be?” It’s a nickname for the Baltimore oriole, which builds her nest suspended from the branch of a tree. There is a hangnest tody-tyrant, a bird  that is endemic to Brazil.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”―George Orwell.
 “All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice.”―Elliott Erwitt on photography.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

The average weight of a female bald eagle is 10-14 pounds, with males weighing 8-10 pounds, about 25% less than females from the same region. Bald eagles in the southern part of the species’ range tend to be smaller than those in the north. They have a 6-8 wingspan and are around 3 feet long. Bald eagles and golden eagles are similar in size. Photo by Al Batt.

Black and Gold, Gold and Black, Mallard Ducks go quack, quack, quack.

Naturally


 The snow turns us all into trackers without granting us the acute power of observation that animals have. Humans tend to concentrate our powers of observation on digital screens. It’s a joy to see all the proof of activity in the dark yard, some resembling printable dance steps given to students at the Air Dance Studio.
 Some starlings have started showing yellow in their bills in January, changing from black as the breeding season gets closer.
 I watched mallards float on cold water. My mind took me to Mallard, Iowa, which is south of Curlew and north of Plover. The town has 265 residents and used to have a high school with a memorable school cheer: "Black and Gold, Gold and Black, Mallard Ducks go quack, quack, quack." In Minnesota, I grew up playing “Duck, duck, gray duck.” In Iowa they played “Duck, duck, goose.” I wonder if they played “Duck, duck, bear” in Alaska? They probably didn’t.
 This country adopted the bison as its national mammal in 2016. The oak is the national tree and the national flower is the rose. The bald eagle is our national symbol and our unofficial national bird because it’s never officially been designated as our national bird. I hope the bald eagle runs for that office.
 Rochester, Minnesota, has had a brown Christmas (a day with less than an inch of snow on the ground) in 1944, 1949, 1953, 1958, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1997, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.


Q&A


 “What do boxelder bugs eat while in my house?” They suck the juices out of leaves and developing seeds of boxelder and maple trees, but not enough to hurt the trees. While they’re happy to spend the winter in the cozy confines of your house, they eat nothing during that time. They’re generally inactive, but might become mobile on sunny days, moving towards windows.
 “I saw a blue jay investigating a mud wasp nest. What was it looking for?” Probably not its car keys. They eat beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars and wasps. It was likely decimating a wasps’ nest to eat the larvae inside.
 “How long does a screech owl live?” An eastern screech-owl lived in the wild for 14 years and 2 months, but the average lifespan of one in the wild is 3 to 7 years. It’s estimated that 30 to 50% of owlets survive into the following year. I’m affiliated with the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Alaska and Dylan, the eastern screech owl living there, is 18 years old.
 “How can one blue jay tell if another is a male or a female?” In ways that we have no clue. They likely see differences in each other’s feathers in the ultraviolet spectrum. 
 “Is it rime or hoar frost?” When supercooled droplets from fog freeze and attach onto an exposed surface, we get rime. All objects need to be at 32 degrees or below, causing the liquid to freeze instantly. Hoar frost typically develops on clear and calm nights, with a dew point below 32 degrees being brought to saturation by cooling. The moisture in the air skips the droplet stage and goes straight to crystallizing, similar to dew, but when temperatures are below freezing.
 “Why is it called a corn snake?” Not found in Minnesota, the corn snake is named for its presence near stored corn, where it preys on mice and rats. Others maintain it’s named for the pattern of the snake's belly scales that resemble the kernels of variegated corn.
 “When did opossums show up in Minnesota?” They arrived in the southeastern part of the state around 1900. They aren’t well-equipped to survive cold winters.
 “Are horses native to North America?” A study, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, found horses have been present on the Great Plains as early as the 16th century. Horses originally evolved in North America before traveling across the Bering Strait into Asia and further west. North American horses likely died out before Vikings arrived on American shores at the end of the 10th century. It’s unclear whether the Vikings brought horses to America, but the Spanish did in the 15th and 16th centuries.
 “How big a problem is lead for eagles?” The Raptor Center said over 85% of the bald eagles they treat have lead in their blood. Using copper ammunition is an effective and non-toxic option that ensures eagles are spared from unintended harm.


Thanks for stopping by


 “One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion.”—Simone de Beauvoir.
 “How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?”—William Blake.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

This squirrel with a black coat is a color variant of the eastern gray squirrel. Studies have found that black squirrels maintain heat more efficiently than those with gray coats during our frigid winters. Black squirrels seem to thrive in urban environments. Why they do better on urban land cover is up for speculation. Photo by Al Batt.


Our cat, Pinky (I thought she should have been named Nehi because she’s orangish, but I lost the naming rights in a 1 to 1 vote) is a big fan of the Minnesota State Maverick Women’s Basketball team. She is generally well-behaved but does occasionally swat at an official.

Five golden rings or five audacious gallinaceous birds?

Naturally


 In most years, January seems like a month of Mondays, but this year, it had been kind. It got over it.
 The first bird I saw on New Year’s Day was an American crow. It’s challenging to sidestep a crow. It had a scholarly look, so I suspect the crow made a point of being the first bird spotted. Crows are big believers in caws-es. The popular holiday tune “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a bird lover’s delight. The lucky recipient ends up with 23 birds by the end of the song. It’s one partridge, two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, six geese and seven swans. In the original published version, it was “four colly birds,” not “four calling birds.” In England, “colly birds” was a name given to blackbirds. That blackbird differs from those of this country. It’s a common European thrush, Turdus merula, and the male has a black plumage and yellow bill. Merriam-Webster‘s entry for “colly” notes that it derives from the Old English word for coal and means to blacken with or as if with soot. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “colly bird” as an old popular name for a blackbird. Colly is a dialect word for coal dust. So, a bird the color of coal could be a crow in my version of the song. This colly bird or a calling bird was calling or cawing. That crow knows more than I’ll ever suspect about crows. 
 I do Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). I decide where I think birds might be, then I find them and look at them. Simple, huh? The kicker is that there is math involved. That’s right, I have to count the birds. That’s why it’s called a Christmas Bird Count. Being out among them gives me a wonderful experience. I enjoy visiting with the people I meet, getting some walking in and seeing lovely birds. I looked for rough-legged hawks, which I called Christmas hawks when I was a lad, a hawk with feathered feet for warmth. I can’t grow the feathers, so I wear wool socks. They feed on small mammals—moveable feasts. I saw none. The nice weather might have kept the raptors north. I can’t count the birds in my yard because it isn’t within a CBC circle, but I never cease to be amazed by how the birds know everything about everything in the yard. I feed the birds and they feed my curiosity. It’s a story filled with drama and sunflower seeds.


Q&A


 “What can I feed robins in the winter?” Robins aren’t typical feeder guests, so it’s best to place an open tray feeder, low or on the ground, near a berry-producing tree frequented by the robins and stock it with raisins, apple slices, other chopped fruit, mealworms or suet. Flocks of robins are nomadic in winter and once they have depleted the local berry supply, they’re likely to search elsewhere for another natural berry crop instead of hanging around the feeders. Robins readily visit bird baths for fresh water.
 “How dangerous are coyotes to humans?” I saw a coyote on my deck before Christmas. It was no surprise. I’d ordered something from Acme. Coyotes aren’t as dangerous as potato salad. I love potato salad, but according to the CDC, about 3,000 people a year die from complications related to foodborne illness. Thankfully, not all are from ingesting potato salad. Coyote attacks on humans during the years 1970 to 2015 resulted in two human deaths. Dogs kill an average of 30–50 people per year in the US. Deer-car accidents cause 175 to 200 fatalities. There were 19,196 homicides in this country in 2022.
 “Where can I see swans in Minnesota in the winter?” Where there is open water and an abundant food supply. Minnesota's wintering swans benefit from two power plant sites that discharge warm water: Xcel Energy's Monticello Nuclear Power Plant and Otter Tail Power Company's coal-fired power plant in Fergus Falls. You might find swans in a crossword puzzle. A three-letter word meaning a male swan is a cob and a three-letter word meaning a female swan is a pen.
 “Why do acorns have hats?” The top of the acorn that resembles a hat, cap or beret is called a cupule. It's a tough outer shell that can be prickly, rough, scaly or smooth. It adds extra protection for the delicate embryo inside the kernel, which consists of two fatty leaves called cotyledons.


Thanks for stopping by


 “One has only to sit down in the woods or the fields, or by the shore of the river or the lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him.”—John Burroughs. 
 “No matter what it is, if you don’t move your eyes and set the pace yourself, your intellect is sentenced to death. The mind, you see, is like a muscle. For it to remain agile and strong, it must work. Television rules that out.”—Mark Helprin.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

  "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song filled with birds. The recipient might have wanted jewelry, but the five golden rings were likely to have been ring-necked pheasants, audacious gallinaceous birds with white collars. Another theory suggests the gold rings were goldspinks, an old name for goldfinches. Photo by Al Batt.

What does a great horned owl say?

Naturally


  Feeding more than two birds with one seed, I put out sunflower seeds. Chickadees and blue jays were the first to the trough. When I see a chickadee, the whole world becomes a chickadee. The bird causes me to become lost in the moment. A chickadee may eat 35% of its weight each day and a blue jay only 10%, but they both need more calories on colder days than on warmer ones. As I watched a blue jay do blue jay things, I realized that “blue” doesn’t do the handsome bird justice.
  My wife named her Tula, but the yard turkey (a wild turkey hen) doesn’t care. I watched the turkey chase the crows, rabbits and squirrels about the yard. Turkey hens gone wild! She’s serious about her one-turkey stampede. The squirrels climb trees to end the pursuit; the rabbits hop away as fast as they can go. Crows appear to take it as a game of tag in which they will never be it. Male crows are generally slightly larger than the females. It was a chilly day, so the turkey preened and used all 5000-6000 of her feathers. A Canada goose wears 20,000 to 25,000 feathers. When the turkey is in a particularly foul fowl mood or a fowl foul mood, she even chases the starlings.


Q&A 


  “Why don’t turkey vultures stay here all winter?” Why doesn’t your brother-in-law Herb stay here all winter? Herb needs to go to the Lower Rio Grande Valley and learn how to make stained glass windows. There are likely turkey vultures in that class with Herb. I kid because I love. Turkey vultures migrate to avoid challenging environmental conditions and resource limitations. Herb does something similar. Birds require more energy to maintain their body temperature when it’s cold. Food resources become scarcer in the winter, forcing turkey vultures to move southward where it is easier to survive. They are scavengers that feed on the carcasses of animals. In winter, reptiles, amphibians and some mammals hibernate or go into torpor, which means there are fewer food sources for vultures. The vultures return in the warmer months when carrion doesn’t freeze. The increasing deer populations and the rising number of vehicles on highways help turkey vultures, as the combination of deer and cars leads to more road kill for more vultures to dine on. If road kill went unfrozen during the frozen part of the year, vultures might stay here in the winter. The Cherokee Nation called them "peace eagles" based on their resemblance to an eagle from a distance and the fact that they don’t kill their prey.
   “I know a barred owl’s call is described as “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” What does a great horned owl say?” The mnemonic of a great horned owl’s hooting is, “Who’s awake? Me, too!” The female’s voice is higher in pitch than the male’s.
   “Is an opossum the Irish cousin of a possum?” I’ll ask one and get back to you on St. Patrick’s Day.
  “Why would a bird sing in the winter?” To declare and defend a feeding territory. They may sing to communicate with others or to express vitality and energy. As the days lengthen, which signals the approach of the breeding season, they sing to attract mates and as part of the courtship process. I typically hear the black-capped chickadee singing a clear, sweet, whistled “fee-bee” or “sweet-ie” starting in January. If the bird sings “Spring’s here,” it’s speculating at that time.
  “What is the function of the gold dots on a monarch chrysalis?” They could act as camouflage by reflecting the colors of the surroundings, breaking up the shape of the pupa or resembling dew droplets. They may act as a warning coloration or filter the wavelengths of light that might be harmful to the monarchs.


These and them


  I enjoyed reading “Birding a Cornfield County” by a friend named Wayne Feder of Blue Earth. It’s a lovely book chronicling the author’s “Year of the Bird” in Faribault County in 2018.
  Mario Benassi of Haines, Alaska, showed me his red-tailed hawk, Gavilancito, which he explained meant “little hawk” in Spanish. Mario is a falconer who uses his 2.6-pound raptor to hunt rabbits, grouse and ducks for Mario’s winter table.
  I enjoyed visiting with Jim Wright of New Jersey, who, with Scott Weston, coauthored a swell book titled, “The Screech Owl Companion,” everything you need to know about these beneficial raptors. And then some. 


Thanks for stopping by


  “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”―Leonard Cohen.
  “We need laughter in our lives. Laughter is carbonated holiness. It’s like the cavalry arriving to help us get our sense of humor back.”—Anne Lamott.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Tula the wild turkey’s class yearbook photo. She was active in Turkey School. Cross country, Choir, Ag (specializing in shelling corn and manure handling), Primary Preener at the Class Play and Folk Dance (her turkey trot brought the house down). She was voted Most Likely to Catch a Squirrel. Photo by Al Batt.

Wild turkeys can run at speeds up to 25 mph and fly up to 55 mph

Naturally

 Wild turkeys can run at speeds up to 25 mph and fly up to 55 mph. The wild turkey hen in our yard chases pheasant roosters and flies high into trees to harass crows. I think the crows relished the company. Once those tasks are completed, it’s as if someone flipped a switch and the turkey gets the zoomies, frenetic random activity periods (FRAPs) or frenetic activity periods (FAPs), a delightful and common behavior exhibited by dogs and cats when they sprint around the yard or house at full speed.
 Red-tailed hawks hunt from perches and from the air. As they circle and soar, they can spot a mouse from 100 feet high.
 One billion birds die from colliding with windows in the U.S. each year. This is the second leading human-related cause of death to birds after outdoor cats. These collisions are frequently caused when birds are drawn to lights or confused by the outside habitat reflected in windows. Methods could be implemented to alert birds that windows are solid and not an extension of their habitat. Adding closely spaced decals to the outside of windows, striping windows with tempera paint or soap, using UV-reflective tape or using one-way transparent film over windows are all temporary ways to protect birds from window strikes. More permanent solutions include using etched or bird-friendly glass, and windows with screens or netting on the outside.


Q&A


 “How many eggs does a pileated woodpecker have in a clutch?” There will be 3-5 eggs.
 “How does a blue jay swallow so many sunflower seeds on a visit to a feeder?” They have a throat sac called a gular pouch, which they can fill and cough up the seeds later to eat or cache.
 “Why are snowy owls so often seen at airports?”  Snowy owls are accustomed to the Arctic tundra, so they prefer open, flat areas, which make it easier to spot their prey. It’s a different kind of tundra. It’s a busy and noisy tundra with bright lights, but it’s still tundra to the owls. 
 “Why do birds migrate at night?” Most birds migrate at night. The stars and the moon aid night-flying birds’ navigation. Free of daytime thermals, the atmosphere is more stable, making it easier to maintain a steady course. Cooler temperatures at night help keep birds from overheating. There are fewer predators (cats and hawks) of those flying under the cover of darkness. Plus, they can eat during the day when food might be easier to find.
 Duane Miller of Hartland was out at midnight hoping to see the northern lights. What he saw instead were birds on the highway. He wondered what they were doing there. The birds might have been looking for the northern lights. Or not. Pavement absorbs heat and holds it, causing birds to land on roads when the temperature drops. On a chilly day, I watched a manhole cover in a city being visited by house sparrows who found warmth there. Other temptations are found on roads: food, grit (just until birds get their teeth—“giggle”) and the potholes, cracks and rumble strips holding water. Pheasants stand on roads in wet weather to keep out of waterlogged grass. Many birds feed at roadsides on spilled grain and windblown seeds caught in the vegetation on the edge. Those things happen in the light of day. Nocturnal owls hunt the roads at night. They get a clear shot at prey there. Members of the nightjar family fly up from the road to capture flying insects and the open road gives them good looks at both prey and predators. I’ve encountered mourning doves and horned larks on roads before daybreak. Why the doves are there so late or so early, I don’t know. Maybe they forgot to go to bed. I suspect other ground-roosting birds other than the horned larks—snow buntings and Lapland longspurs—could be found there in the dark. Something could have rousted a bird from its preferred parking place, causing it to land on a nearby road. More things to wonder about.
 “Are mosquitoes pollinators?” Just like bees or butterflies, mosquitoes transfer pollen from flower to flower as the insects feed on nectar. A female mosquito seeks a blood meal for the protein when she lays eggs and the males feed only on flower nectar and never bite. 
 “How often do we get a brown Christmas?” The Minnesota DNR says that 29% of the years, there is no measurable snow cover in the Twin Cities. Northern Minnesota has a 100% chance of a white Christmas in some areas. Southern and western border counties have a 60% or lower chance. 


Thanks for stopping by


 “Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers.”—Kahlil Gibran.
 “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention.”—Mary Oliver.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A leucistic eastern kingbird. Leucism is an abnormal condition of reduced pigmentation that results in a bird being marked by pale and muted colors or irregular patches of white. Birds with leucism have dark-colored eyes rather than the red or pink eyes characteristic of albinism. Leucism is more common than albinism. Photo by Al Batt.

You can observe a lot by just watching

 Heaven and nature sing—naturally


 I keep looking. Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot by just watching.” Surrounded by wonder, I watched a chickadee enter a cavity in a dead tree. Life and death, death and life. On a chilly night, a chickadee roosts in a cavity or dense vegetation. It caches food. Being a bird is hard work, but a chickadee carries a jauntiness with it. A joy of being among the living.
 Some of the wind-rustled leaves had become cardinal-wannabes and flew past as I filled the feeders where chickadees and cardinals are valued customers. I want them to turn the feed into feathers and flights.


The annual hint list


 What do you give a nature lover for Christmas other than your undying appreciation or raucous cheers extolling their perfection? Here are a few other welcome gifts. The birds come already wrapped. Share your love of them with another.
The Audubon Bird Guide app and the Merlin Bird ID app (from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) are free and useful on a cellphone as a field guide in your pocket or on a tablet. The Audubon app offers detailed descriptions, bird songs, range maps and color photos. There is a search function for identifying a bird by song, wing shape, time of year, state, locomotion and more. The Merlin app allows you to answer three simple questions about a bird you are trying to identify and Merlin gives you a list of possible matches. It has a sound ID that listens to the birds around you and offers a potential identification. If you take a photo of a bird or pull one from your camera roll, Merlin’s photo ID offers a short list of potential matches. Many other outstanding field guide apps require payment. Warm socks, warm gloves or mittens, cap (I’ve found that the dorkier a hat looks, the warmer it is) or flip-top mittens allow the wearer to fold back the mitten to reveal fingerless gloves. I love the arm freedom vests provide. Books of all kinds. I enjoy the tactile sensation of paper field guides and they are all excellent. I prefer painted birds over photos and guides covering more than a single state, but your preferences may vary. A small book showing the birds of only one state is suitable for those who do their birding from the kitchen window or at a feeder. I advise you to look at field guides in a bookstore before deciding on which one fits. A Leatherman, ice cleats, trekking or hiking poles, snowshoes, a dependable travel mug (one that hollers at you when you are about to forget it somewhere—please let me know if you find one), a pocket-sized notebook or a back, day or fanny pack. Binoculars are lovely gifts but are easier to buy for a child than for an adult. Get a gift receipt or be accompanied by the adult gift recipient at the time of purchase. A membership in a local Audubon or bird club, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, American Birding Association, Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union, Wild Ones or Izaak Walton League. Please don’t fall for the scam and join the Mosquito Lovers of Minnesota group. I’ve been the only one there at the last three meetings. A state park sticker, feeders, birdseed, a subscription to BWD magazine (a birding publication) and a bunch of things I’ve neglected to mention would make lovely gifts.


Q&A


 Jerry Viktora of Ellendale asked why he hadn’t seen any cardinals in his yard since the summer. By late summer, when nesting is over and cardinals relax the defense of their territorial boundaries, the birds sing less and flocks form. They don’t migrate but can expand their range while foraging for food. They determine where to spend the winter. The flocks are ever-changing and dependent on weather and available resources. If you continue to offer food and water, they are likely to make return visits.
 “What is the mortality rate for nestling songbirds?” I have seen various references saying for typical passerines or perching birds, juvenile mortality in the nest is around 50%. I cannot cite a study.
 “Why do vultures circle dying animals?” Ah, the dreaded circle of death, seen often in cowboy movies and jungle films. Turkey vultures don't circle dying animals, waiting for them to go onto the menu. They ride thermals to travel and to find food. They do investigate possible prey.


Thanks for stopping by


 "For somehow, not only for Christmas, but all the long year through, the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you."—Margaret Elizabeth Sangster.
 "Christmas is the season for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart."—Washington Irving.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

It was a bluebird day when a couple of bluebirds of happiness showed up. As the song “Over the Rainbow” said, “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh, why can't I? If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow. Why, oh, why can't I?” Eastern bluebirds photo by Al Batt.

If you need some peanuts in the shell weighed, call a blue jay



Naturally


 I put out some peanuts in the shell for the birds. The blue jays weigh the peanuts by picking them up as if they are miniature barbells and, after some consideration, take the heaviest ones first because there is more food in those. My wife says blue jays are just a bit smarter than I am. She’s not giving them enough credit. They are more than a bit smarter. I imagine a blue jay looks at those peanuts and says to itself, “Wow! I’m rich.”
 A reader from Connecticut places peanuts in plain sight scattered around her yard. Then she watches how quickly the blue jays find the goobers. Jays notice anything different in their world—that’s how they survive.
 I examined a rotting stump, evidence of a tree gone by. Crows squawked a lot, just as people squawk a lot. The crows kept their eyes on me. It’s part of their job description. They’ve learned that humans are always up to something.
 A turkey hen preens on our deck. An adult turkey has 5,000 to 6,000 feathers and she appeared intent on sprucing up every feather her bill could reach. She sorts through her feathers as if she might have been counting them. You can tell a female turkey’s poop from a male’s. That’s a handy skill to have and will astound your family when you share this bit of knowledge at next year’s Thanksgiving meal. Take that Aunt Agatha, who claims to have once shaken hands with Ross Perot and reminds everyone of that at every opportunity. The female scat is clumpier, rounder, potentially curly or spiraled and green-brown with white uric acid on the surface. The male scat, both from the jake and the tom, is long, narrow and straight, sometimes with a J-shape at the curved end. The larger the diameter, the older the bird. The hen keeping me company has no beard. Turkey beards start growing when poults are five months old and keep growing throughout their lives. They are permanent and not replaced during molts. The older the male, the longer the beard. Turkeys can lose their beards when a vitamin deficiency results in their beards being sheared off, snapping off from the weight of snow and ice that collects or fraying from being dragged on the ground. Some toms grow more than one beard. The National Turkey Wildlife Federation found one tom had 13 beards. The longest beard was on a turkey in Texas and was 22.5 inches long. That turkey played a guitar with the band ZZ Top. A less prominent version of the beard occurs on about 10% to 20% of females. 
An unmitigated gull stole my hot dog and laughed
 I spoke at a thing in Florida. I call it work; my family and friends call it bloviating. I was out on the beach because there was a beach there that was hard to avoid. It was a shore thing. I lacked a laser pointer, so I used my hot dog as a pointer, as any sane man would do when pointing out a bird. A gull took that as an invitation to have a bite. It snagged it from my hand but struggled to carry it away, even though I had taken a bite, dropping the tasty morsel, mustard and all, which was greedily consumed by its bickering followers, who numbered more than those of Elon Musk. A kerfuffle or maybe a hullabaloo ensued. The gulls laughed at my unwanted dietary restriction. They laughed because they were laughing gulls. I didn’t ask, but I doubt the hot dog vendor offered refunds on pilfered frankfurters and who carries insurance for that sort of thing?


Q&A


 “Where do Canada jays hide the food they steal from me when I’m camping?” The Canada jay is also called the camp robber, whiskey jack or gray jay. This bird has eyes that seldom miss food. A friend told me of a Canada jay swiping a strip of bacon from a frying pan. “Whiskey jack” doesn’t derive from tales about these birds highjacking Al Capone’s trucks hauling whiskey to a speakeasy. It comes from the Cree (and other Algonquian languages) name for the bird, which was Wisakedjak. Wisakedjak was a sacred figure known as a trickster. The gregarious Canada jays hide food in conifer needles and cram it into the nooks and crannies of tree bark, using their sticky saliva to roll bits of food into gooey packages like ABC (Already Been Chewed) gum on the bottom of a student’s desk. Tree sap might be an aid. Like other jays that cache food for their winter’s larder, Canada jays have terrific visual memories and are able to find hidden morsels months later.


Thanks for stopping by


 “Perhaps one day we will kneel down and ask the animals for forgiveness.”—Dalai Lama.
 "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere."—Laura Ingalls Wilder.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Crow or raven? Check a range map. Crows caw, while ravens have a deeper, throatier croak or gronk. Ravens have thicker bills and shaggy necks. A crow’s tail is fan-shaped in flight and a raven’s is wedge- or diamond-shaped. Ravens soar, crows flap. A crow is about 2/3 the size of a raven, which is the size of a red-tailed hawk. Crows are more common in urban areas where a big crow is typically a big crow. Common raven photo by Al Batt.


It was the match of the century: a pecan-eating Steller’s jay versus the windows



Naturally

  The opossum’s pink fingers produce awe and awwww. My job description was defined by Mary Oliver, who wrote, “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” Things are always happening. Pine siskins are goldfinches wearing striped pajamas. Deer think they have the right-of-way. They don’t always pay attention. It’s not fair, but we have to pay attention for them.

  Raccoons spend most of the winter hunkered down in dens but emerge occasionally to forage for food and drink water. They aren’t true hibernators, entering a prolonged state of inactivity called torpor in which they can sleep for weeks at a time, relying on their accumulated fat stores.

  Dena Selby of Haines, Alaska, kindly fed a few pecans to Steller’s jays and now the jays are attacking the windows of her house, demanding more pecans. What can Dena do? Feed them more pecans.

  I was tooling around Chicago in a rental car, while someone on the radio marveled at the traffic savvy of the city’s coyotes, which allegedly look both ways before crossing the street and use crosswalks at red lights. They have surpassed our ability to do that.

  It happens every fall; a hen turkey decides to trot around our yard. I don’t know why she does it, but I’m sure she has a good reason. In the fall, hen turkeys live in flocks with their female offspring. Hens that weren’t successful hatching chicks may form smaller flocks with similar lone hens. Male turkeys form their own flocks, which might be segregated by age. Young male turkeys, commonly called jakes, band together and older males form their own groups. They likely hold clandestine meetings. They interact with others within a flock and call frequently to each other. An essential part of a flock’s life is establishing dominance, which leads to squabbles, dominance displays, fights and kerfuffles. A gobble can be heard occasionally as the pecking order is sorted out.

Dr. Splatt

  Brewster Bartlett, a retired science teacher at Pinkerton Academy, a high school in Derry, New Hampshire, once ran the RoadKill Project, a program connecting students from schools around the nation to study flattened fauna. Students involved in the RoadKill Project adopted roads and kept track of the dead critters they encountered from the tiniest frogs to stray pets to deer. Bartlett, known as “Dr. Splatt,” found that daylight-saving time had no effect on the roadkill count, but more dead animals were counted during a new moon than a full moon, perhaps because the animals moved more freely under the cover of darkness. Roads posted at 35 mph had more carnage than highways because the slower roads are often winding and travel through wooded, rural or suburban areas.

Q&A

  “How do you tell if a crow is a male or female?” Individuals vary in size and there are regional differences, but it's nearly impossible to tell male and female crows apart. The only way to differentiate between them is if they're perched close together when a slight difference in size might be detected. Males are generally larger than females.

  “What is another name for a mountain lion?” Ralph or Betty would be suitable names, but I doubt they’d come if you called them. Cougar, panther, puma, painter, el leon and catamount are other handles.

  “Where do garter snakes go in the winter?” Garter snakes are found throughout Minnesota. To keep from freezing during the winter, garter snakes spend the entire winter below the frost line in a state of brumation. Hibernation in reptiles differs from mammals because a reptile doesn’t survive on its fat reserves. In reptiles, hibernation is called brumation. Snakes are ectothermic (cold-blooded) animals and a garter snake's metabolism slows and its low activity prevents it from burning energy. Sluggish but not asleep, snakes move farther underground if severe winter temperatures and a lack of insulating snow cover drive the frost line deeper. They congregate in a rocky outcrop, a crevice, a natural cavity, an ant mound or a tunnel made by a burrowing animal. Some winter dens are used by garter snakes year after year. Garter snakes may come out to bask in the sun for a few hours on warm days before returning to the hibernaculum.

Thanks for stopping by

  “It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.”―Wendell Berry.

  “It is my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you understand the most amusing.”—Winston Churchill.

  Do good.

  

©️Al Batt 2023

 A hen turkey spends a lot of time looking in the windows of our house. My wife says that the big bird is seeing its reflected image, but I’m certain it’s because she has a crush on me. Men sense these things. A crow named Splat has hit my office window with significant droppings that run down the glass, creating an odd form of art. I think she’s jealous of the turkey. Photo by Al Batt.