Naturally
A turkey vulture cut through the sky like a flying scissors. A blue jay, a symbol of communication, unleashed its extensive vocabulary. Bird counters at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve in Duluth tallied a whopping 78,544 blue jays flying over through Oct. 8. That’s a record for the fall count (August 15-November 30), which counted 60,523 last year. There should be enough acorns to go around. There were 13,224 American robins counted on Sept. 30. The total robin count for last fall was 14,639.
Dis and data
Red colors on leaves appear to be on trees getting high levels of direct sunlight.
A collective noun for flamingos is a flamboyance. A group of mallards is called a sord.
The waistline of the Platte River in Nebraska fluctuates.
The great bustard is the largest landbird in Europe weighing up to 40 pounds. It sounds like it's sneezing.
Fox news
I saw a fox as we both greeted the dawn’s sun. A red fox likes to hunt before sunrise and after sunset. Its thick, soft coat keeps it warm. In the fall, a red fox hangs out alone. The babies have grown and gone. Foxes grow longer, thicker coats for winter. Instead of hiding out in a den, a red fox usually curls up in the open. Wrapped in its big, bushy tail, the fox stays nice and warm even when completely covered by snow.
A Lewis’s woodpecker
In October 2018, I watched a smaller bird flying like a crow in Becker County. A Lewis's woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker with a dark red face, gray collar and a dark iridescent green-black back. The belly is pinkish or salmon red; the wings and tail are all dark, without spots or patches; the cap, bill and legs are black; and the feet are gray. The woodpecker was named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition where the bird was first recorded. This species rarely excavates wood for boring insects. Instead, it gleans insects from a tree’s surface or catches them in the air. Its breeding territory spans from British Columbia to New Mexico and as far east as South Dakota. A Lewis's woodpecker has a steady, buoyant flight, with slower wingbeats and longer glides than most woodpeckers. Its flight resembles that of a crow. There have been nine documented sightings of Lewis’s woodpeckers in Minnesota.
Q&A
“Can baby loons swim?” Unlike adults, a loon chick can walk upright on land. They can swim immediately after hatching, but spend much time riding on their parents’ backs during their early days. This regulates their body temperatures and protects them from underwater predators. Chicks depend on their parents for food. One parent remains on the water’s surface with the chicks while the other catches fish to feed them.
Mary Guggisberg of Freeborn asked when trumpeter swans leave Minnesota? This swan is a regular breeding resident distributed throughout the state. Most Minnesota trumpeter swans remain here through the winter months where open water is available. It’s considered a short-distance migrant with the majority of Minnesota’s breeding population migrating only as far south to find open water and an abundant food supply. Power plant sites are welcome sights for wintering swans.
“Why did sunflower seed prices escalate?” There are many reasons: the war in Ukraine (Ukraine is a major exporter of sunflower products), increased shipping costs, seeds being planted for the production of sunflower oil used as a frying oil in foods, some farmers able to make more money by devoting sunflower acres to other crops, and, of course, the number one reason is that baseball players are eating too many sunflower seeds.
“We can put a man on the moon, but I can’t tell a downy woodpecker from a hairy woodpecker. Help.” If you can see them both at the same time, the hairy is much larger. The hairy is the approximate size of a robin and the downy is the size of a house sparrow. The downy is more abundant and the hairy likes the company of larger trees. I’ve found the best way to differentiate the two is by their bills. The downy’s bill is much shorter, roughly 1/3 the length of its head and the hairy’s bill is nearly the length of its head. When sizes and bills are compared, a downy is dinky and a hairy is huge.
“What is a lake vulture?” It’s a name I’ve heard people call bullheads or catfish because they are generalists and will eat whatever fits into their mouths.
Thanks for stopping by
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”― Jane Goodall.
“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.”–Alice Walker.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2023
I put out an extra birdbath for the American robins and binge-watched their joyful splashing. Yes, I not only put out another birdbath, I put water in it, too. Their bliss was tempered by an occasional squabble due to creative differences. Estimates from Partners in Flight suggest the robin is the most abundant landbird in North America. The robin is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin. Although the superhero Batman’s sidekick Robin was inspired by N. C. Wyeth’s illustration of Robin Hood, a later comics version had his mother nicknaming him Robin because he was born on the first day of spring. Photo by Al Batt.