It’s vulturific
Nature by the yard
The new crop of chipmunks looked impressive.
Young robins swamped the birdbath. The enthusiastic and pugnacious birds were splishing and splashing.
Chickadees and cedar waxwings kept the yard entertained. Waxwings are named for the waxy red tips on their secondary wing feathers. According to Doug Tallamy, professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, a pair of chickadees needs 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to raise one brood. Insects are best for feeding fledglings because chickadees can’t afford pizza or cheeseburgers.
The sultry afternoon didn’t stop the red-eyed vireo from singing, “Here I am. In a tree. Look at me. Vireo.” The ornithologist Bradford Torrey said, "The red-eye's eloquence was never very persuasive to my ear. Its short sentences, its tiresome upward inflections, its everlasting repetitiousness, and its sharp, querulous tone long since became to me an old story; and I have always thought that whoever dubbed this vireo the 'preacher' could have had no very exalted opinion of the clergy".
Most of our woodpeckers have black and white plumages, but the northern flicker is brownish with a white rump patch that's conspicuous in flight.
An eastern screech owl called persistently, waiting to go to voicemail. The pop-can-sized screech owl is all beak and eyeballs.
Grasshoppers rubbed their legs together—stridulation. Crickets and katydids used their wings to make music.
Naturally
I’d been watching roadside LBJs (Little Brown Jobs). Juvenile vesper sparrows are similar to adults, but their plumages contain little or no rufous color. They are larger than song sparrows and hit peak migration in October. Young horned larks are nondescript and look like what they aren’t. Horned larks molt out of juvenile plumage by August and resemble a washed-out version of an adult the rest of the year.
Migratory populations of sedge wrens have a nomadic breeding cycle. Northern breeding populations breed from May through June. Breeding occurs in the southern U.S. from July into September, coinciding with the departure of northern breeding populations. This suggests that sedge wrens migrate to their northern breeding range for the first nesting, then migrate farther south to nest again. The latter breeding season could be by late arrivals or in response to habitat quality in the southern portion of the range.
Vulturific
The first Saturday in September each year is International Vulture Awareness Day. Vultures are recyclers and prevent the spread of harmful bacteria. They have acidic stomachs that kill harmful bacteria in rotting meat and their intestines have bacteria that make them resistant to diseases from rotting meat. Vultures commonly eat roadkill, making them targets for car collisions. Please avoid littering, which attracts animals onto the roads.
Everyone is important
The American biologist Paul Ehrlich likened the loss of species from an ecological community to randomly popping out rivets from the wing of an airplane. Remove one or two and the plane will probably be fine. Remove ten, or twenty, or fifty, and at some point, there will be a catastrophic failure and the plane will fall from the sky.
Q&A
“What are predators of adult hummingbirds?” Cats, sharp-shinned hawks, bullfrogs, merlins, roadrunners, kestrels, spiders, snakes, robber flies and occasionally dragonflies and songbirds.
“Do bees sting hummingbirds?” Bees could sting hummingbirds, but it would be a rare occurrence as both creatures are too focused on gathering nectar to look for a fight. Hummingbirds avoid bees by being agile and using quick flight movements, tail flicking or aggressive displays. Hummingbird feeders attract both and bees feed alongside the hummingbirds, but will chase them if they feel threatened. When many bees are at a feeder, the hummingbirds opt to leave and find other nectar sources. Red attracts hummingbirds while yellow attracts wasps and bees. Avoid feeders with yellow insect guards or flower accents to make your feeder will be less attractive to insects.
“Why are there tiny holes in acorns?” It’s because acorns are tiny. If the holes were big, there’d be no acorns left. Acorn weevils chew a small hole in the acorn while it’s attached to the tree, lay an egg in the hole and plug it to camouflage their activity. After the eggs hatch, the larvae feed on the inside of the acorn, which can make the acorn non-viable. When the acorn falls to the ground, the weevil larvae chew their way out, creating a perfectly round hole, and burrow into the soil to spend the winter underground. The reason you find many holey acorns under trees is because the squirrels leave them behind.
Thanks for stopping by
“A true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes.”—Author unknown.
“Joys come from simple and natural things; mist over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water. Even rain and wind and stormy clouds bring joy.”—Sigurd F. Olson.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2023
A tall white bird with a yellow bill, black legs and long S-curved neck has made the great egret a chiropractor’s dream. At the beginning of the 20th century, it neared extinction due to market hunting. The egrets’ feather plumes were used to adorn women's hats. The great egret has been called the American egret, common egret and great white egret. Photo by Al Batt.