Naturally
“Down in front!” I yelled.
The Canada geese flying in front of me paid me no mind.
It was a genial fall day. The festival of the falling leaves was coming into the homestretch. The leafless trees added a lovely homeliness to the landscape as they watch us wear flannel shirts.
Every cornfield I see is a food plot for deer, but on November 1, I saw the fields being used by wild turkeys, sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans.
A bald eagle fed on a road-killed raccoon. The crows nearby looked as if they were cheering for the eagle, but I know they were jeering.
I am an on-demand bird feeder and scattered millet seed on the ground for native sparrows like juncos, white-throated sparrows, fox sparrows, Lincoln's sparrows and white-crowned sparrows. I relish the presence of birds, but opossums are nice, too. There were four young ones in the yard—Pogo, Gopo, Opgo and Ogpo. How do I know their names? By the name tags they were wearing. Opossums are nocturnal, spending the day in dens or protected spots, but they’re active at any time of the day, especially when food is scarce. I hear them going bump in the night.
American tree sparrows are present from early November through early April and usually arrive and depart with the juncos. Chipping sparrows spend early April through late October in my company. It’s a common LBJ (little brown job) or LBB (little brown bird)” in yards. Edward Forbush, a noted 19th-century ornithologist, called the chipping sparrow “the little brown-capped pensioner of the dooryard and lawn, that comes about farmhouse doors to glean crumbs shaken from the tablecloth by thrifty housewives.” Its song is a dry, fast, high-pitched trill of chip notes that gives the bird its name and is sometimes mistaken for the sound of insects. The chipper is a dapper little sparrow, handsome and tame. It has been called a hair sparrow due to its habit of lining its nests with hair.
I was happy to see some redbelly snakes this fall. It’s Minnesota's smallest snake, about the size of a nightcrawler, named for its bright red, pink or orange underside. I’ve heard it called a fire snake and it feeds on slugs, snails and earthworms.
For yellowjackets, it’s every female for herself this time of the year. The workers die and the queens survive. I saw a meadowhawk, a relatively tame dragonfly that flies into fall. I’m not sure of its flight speed, but dragonflies have been clocked at 35 mph. According to Rachel Crane, a biologist at the University of California Davis, dragonflies catch up to 95% of the prey they pursue, a rate she described as wildly high compared to other predators.
On the subject of yellow, the “wild” asparagus turns a lovely yellow. Wild asparagus is the same species as the asparagus cultivated in gardens but has escaped into uncultivated areas where it persists. Seeing it causes me to imagine what the sound of the color of asparagus yellow would sound like.
Q&A
“Do Canada geese mate for life?” They do unless they discuss politics.
“Can some insects taste with their feet?” Yes, and it makes a real mess in a pizza parlor. Butterflies, flies, bees, wasps and many others have taste receptors on their feet and legs.
“Can skunks spray when their feet are off the ground?” Some naturalists believe they can’t, but I’m not willing to test this myself, so I will answer with this from the University of Nebraska Extension. “The following points contradict the more common myths: Skunks can spray whether their feet are on the ground or not; skunks do not disperse the spray by shaking their tails; and a covered trap does not prevent skunks from spraying—it only reduces the likelihood.”
“What insect lives the longest?” A termite queen lives for 50 years and some scientists believe she lives for 100 years.
“Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes?” Black with white stripes. Beneath the fur, zebras have black skin. A shaved zebra would be all black.
“What is the world’s largest insect?” The world’s longest insect is the Chinese stick insect, which is 24.5 inches long, but no thicker than a forefinger. The heaviest is the royal Goliath beetle of Africa weighing 3.5 ounces, the approximate weight of a blue jay. There are about 400,000 beetle species known to science—that's around a quarter of all known animals—and countless more still to be identified.
Thanks for stopping by
“There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.”—Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
“The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”—Henry Miller.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2023
Dark-eyed juncos (snowbirds) are birds of the ground. They hop around our yards looking for fallen seeds. Juncos make toy ray gun sounds. “Pew, pew, pew!” They have white outer tail feathers that flash open in flight. Photo by Al Batt.
