Naturally
The surgeon told me to think of a pleasant place before I went under the knife. I thought of staring at a chimney. I’m not a chimney sweep, I haven’t even played one on TV, but I travel around each year, hoping for a good crop of chimney swifts. When the swifts go into a chimney to roost, the bats begin their nightly hunt. I’ve seen flocks of swifts zoom into chimneys. Swifts may look like flying cigars, but they are memories on the wing. In tough times, I remember those moments.
I listened to the clucking or chucking of chipmunks. They issue these warnings of a predator in the sky while stationary.
Pale green corn rootworm beetles wander away from cornfields in late summer to visit gardens where they feed on flowers and vegetables.
I’m seeing murmurations of starlings, those wondrous shape-shifting flocks. I listened to the hummingbirds—the hum of the wings and their chittering. Hummingbirds drop their internal temperature, inducing a temporary state of torpor, and need less energy, and therefore less food, to withstand frigid temperatures. If you spot a motionless hummingbird, don’t be alarmed. It’s torpor. Young hummers migrate along the same routes and winter in the same places their ancestors have, some making an 18-hour flight across the Gulf of Mexico.
One group of pelicans will drive prey towards another group of pelicans. The American white pelican eats up to three pounds of fish per day. It also eats salamanders, tadpoles and crayfish.
The downy woodpecker makes a whiney call that descends in pitch at the end. The hairy woodpecker’s call is similar but doesn’t descend in pitch at the end.
Mast is a term used to describe the fruit of trees and shrubs. A mast year is when a particular species produces more fruit than normal. Oaks have cycles of high and low yields. Oak masting happens every 2-5 years. In a mast year, seed-eating animals are unlikely to eat all the seeds produced, leaving the rest to sprout. An abundance of acorns is said to augur a bad winter—not true.
In September, monarch butterflies congregate in large numbers and by the end of October, they have left the state in a mass migration to their winter grounds.
Q&A
“Which bird builds the largest nest?” Bald eagles build the largest nest of any bird in North America. The nests are reused annually and increase in size.
“Why does a hummingbird fly backward?” To keep the dust out of its eyes. A hummingbird's wings are unlike any other bird's and allow them to fly forward, backward, hover, and fly upside-down for a short period. Their shoulder joint is a ball and socket that allows the hummingbird to rotate its wings 180° in all directions. Hummingbirds don't flap their wings, they rotate them. When hovering, they move their wings in a figure-eight motion.
“What’s the most populous landbird?” According to Partners in Flight, here are the numbers in millions. Starlings and house sparrows have 93 million each in North America, the same population as the yellow warbler. The common grackle is 67, not as many as the indigo bunting at 77. Blue jay is 17 million and American crow 28. Red-winged blackbird, savannah sparrow and yellow-rumped warbler are 170 million each. Dark-eyed junco is at 220, chipping sparrow 230 and leading the flock is the American robin with a population of 370 million.
“Do bats open their mouths to echolocate?” Bats open their mouths to improve sensory localization.
“Do yellowjackets or bald-faced hornets reuse a nest?” Nests of both species are abandoned and not reused.
“Do pelicans mate for life?” American white pelicans are monogamous and likely pair each year on their breeding grounds. Adults breed when three years old and bonds last through the breeding season, but whether pairs continue in subsequent years is uncertain, although many people believe they do mate for life.
Kevin Linn of Belle Plaine sent a photo of a bald cardinal. When northern cardinals and blue jays finish nesting, it’s time for them to molt and replace old feathers with new ones. Some cardinals and jays lose all their head feathers at once.
“Do birds sleep while flying?” The Avian Sleep Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology found frigatebirds sleep in flight, usually only one of their brain hemispheres sleeps, but occasionally both. The birds sleep around 42 minutes of each 24 hours flying with each sleep phase lasting an average of 12 seconds.
“How old are turkeys when they begin to roost in trees?” By two weeks of age, poults can fly to low branches to roost.
Thanks for stopping by
“Let us try to recognize the precious nature of each day.”―Dalai Lama XIV.
“If you can’t be in awe of Mother Nature, there’s something wrong with you.”—Alex Trebek.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2023
Not all black birds are blackbirds and not all blackbirds are black. Members of the blackbird family, Icteridae (ick-TARE-a-dee), include blackbirds (red-winged, Brewer’s, rusty, yellow-headed), grackles, cowbirds, meadowlarks, orioles and bobolinks. Baltimore orioles are named for their orange-and-black plumage, the colors of the heraldic crest of England’s Baltimore family who also gave its name to the city. Photo by Al Batt.