Naturally
Hummingbirds thrill me. They are aggressive jewels. The hairs on my arms tell me it’s a cool sighting each time I catch a glimpse of one. I watched them from my office window and marveled at their maneuverability. The presence of a single hummingbird makes any scenery stunning.
I walk late at night after work in order to escape the heat of the day. Our summer heat is gentle when compared to elsewhere, but it’s enough for me. I listened to the descending whinny and an even-pitched trill of the eastern screech-owl as I watched a beetle under the yard light. A beetle has wing covers (elytra), which usually make a straight line down its back. One of my favorites is a tiger beetle that chases down its prey. The ones in my yard are fast, but not as fast as the Australian tiger beetle, which travels at 5.6 mph.
Skunks root around with their noses in the soil and dig small funnel-shaped holes in the ground. Raccoons use their paws like hands, digging, lifting and tearing off chunks of sod and flipping them over to hunt for grubs. It’s as if they are working on a sod farm.
On the road, I look for GAS on every drive—Goldenrod, Aster, Sunflower. Roads change habitats. Roadkill provides food for crows, vultures, raptors and coyotes. The ditches preserve prairie ecosystems from the plow and development.
It was boy meets squirrel. A thirteen-lined ground squirrel scurried across the road. Colloquially known as a striped gopher or squinny (less frequently as liner, streaker or grinner), it spends more of the year asleep than awake. Adults enter hibernation in August or September and don’t emerge until April. Females may remain awake longer than males and the young of the year longer than the adults. The thirteen-lined ground squirrel, true to its name, has a series of lines running down its back. It’s a prairie species that has adapted well to roadsides, pastures, hayfields, ditches and golf courses. During the summer, they’re commonly seen on roadsides. The University of Minnesota teams are nicknamed the Golden Gophers. The mascot looks like a chipmunk but is likely a ground squirrel and not a gopher. It has stripes. Maybe the coaches would have enhanced recruiting success if young athletes could play for the Golden Ground Squirrels. Or maybe not.
Q&A
“Can I see the chiggers that bite me?” Chiggers are microscopic and almost impossible to see with the naked eye. At around 1/50th of an inch in size, most people need a magnifying glass or microscope to spot them. The mites resemble tiny, red spiders. Mosquito repellents don’t work on them. By the time you have a reaction, the chigger is gone.
“What do fireflies eat?” Firefly larvae eat snails, worms, slugs and other insect larvae, which they inject with a numbing chemical meant to disable. Adults eat other fireflies, nectar or pollen, although some don't eat at all.
“Why are insects attracted to lights? Insects are drawn to bright lights because
the lights confuse an insect’s navigational system, just as traffic lights confuse the navigational systems of humans. Many insects are phototactic, which means they experience movement toward or away in response to light. A popular theory says positively phototactic insects move toward lights because the lights act as guides. Many insects find their way by keeping a natural light source, such as the sun or moon, in their sights. They might mistake an artificial light for a celestial object. Insects swarming around porch lights are positively phototactic, attracted to the light. In contrast, insects like cockroaches are negatively phototactic and scuttle away when a light is turned on. Another hypothesis proposes insects use lights as an escape route. If a predator were to frighten a resting insect, it would fly toward the moon where the predator couldn’t reach it. Bug zappers attract a lot of phototactic insects, but few are mosquitoes. While mosquitoes are attracted to light, they are more drawn to food sources like you.
“Why do phoebes wag their tails?” A study found tail pumping informs predators that the phoebe is aware of them. Other birds dip, wag, teeter, bob or pump tails: palm warblers, pipits, wagtails, spotted sandpipers, waterthrush, hermit thrushes, American kestrels and others. Why do they call attention to their south ends? Threat awareness as the phoebe does, to startle prey into motion, to maintain balance and reasons unknown.
“Why are they called rough fish?” The term "rough fish" apparently dates back to commercial riverboat fishing in the 1800s. Sluggish, overweight boats lightened their loads when required by "rough-dressing"—removing the organs but not fileting less desirable species and discarding them.
Thanks for stopping by
“Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second.”—Mattie Stepanek.
“Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”—Camille Pissarro.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2023
The aggressive eastern kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) is known for its habit of chasing potential predators and brood parasites, which it detects from its prominent perch. It uses exposed perches to watch for flying insects which it sallies forth to snap up. An eastern kingbird is a flycatcher. The collective noun for flycatchers is an outfield, swatting, zapper or zipper. Photo by Al Batt.