Naturally
In most years, January seems like a month of Mondays, but this year, it had been kind. It got over it.
The first bird I saw on New Year’s Day was an American crow. It’s challenging to sidestep a crow. It had a scholarly look, so I suspect the crow made a point of being the first bird spotted. Crows are big believers in caws-es. The popular holiday tune “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a bird lover’s delight. The lucky recipient ends up with 23 birds by the end of the song. It’s one partridge, two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, six geese and seven swans. In the original published version, it was “four colly birds,” not “four calling birds.” In England, “colly birds” was a name given to blackbirds. That blackbird differs from those of this country. It’s a common European thrush, Turdus merula, and the male has a black plumage and yellow bill. Merriam-Webster‘s entry for “colly” notes that it derives from the Old English word for coal and means to blacken with or as if with soot. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “colly bird” as an old popular name for a blackbird. Colly is a dialect word for coal dust. So, a bird the color of coal could be a crow in my version of the song. This colly bird or a calling bird was calling or cawing. That crow knows more than I’ll ever suspect about crows.
I do Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). I decide where I think birds might be, then I find them and look at them. Simple, huh? The kicker is that there is math involved. That’s right, I have to count the birds. That’s why it’s called a Christmas Bird Count. Being out among them gives me a wonderful experience. I enjoy visiting with the people I meet, getting some walking in and seeing lovely birds. I looked for rough-legged hawks, which I called Christmas hawks when I was a lad, a hawk with feathered feet for warmth. I can’t grow the feathers, so I wear wool socks. They feed on small mammals—moveable feasts. I saw none. The nice weather might have kept the raptors north. I can’t count the birds in my yard because it isn’t within a CBC circle, but I never cease to be amazed by how the birds know everything about everything in the yard. I feed the birds and they feed my curiosity. It’s a story filled with drama and sunflower seeds.
Q&A
“What can I feed robins in the winter?” Robins aren’t typical feeder guests, so it’s best to place an open tray feeder, low or on the ground, near a berry-producing tree frequented by the robins and stock it with raisins, apple slices, other chopped fruit, mealworms or suet. Flocks of robins are nomadic in winter and once they have depleted the local berry supply, they’re likely to search elsewhere for another natural berry crop instead of hanging around the feeders. Robins readily visit bird baths for fresh water.
“How dangerous are coyotes to humans?” I saw a coyote on my deck before Christmas. It was no surprise. I’d ordered something from Acme. Coyotes aren’t as dangerous as potato salad. I love potato salad, but according to the CDC, about 3,000 people a year die from complications related to foodborne illness. Thankfully, not all are from ingesting potato salad. Coyote attacks on humans during the years 1970 to 2015 resulted in two human deaths. Dogs kill an average of 30–50 people per year in the US. Deer-car accidents cause 175 to 200 fatalities. There were 19,196 homicides in this country in 2022.
“Where can I see swans in Minnesota in the winter?” Where there is open water and an abundant food supply. Minnesota's wintering swans benefit from two power plant sites that discharge warm water: Xcel Energy's Monticello Nuclear Power Plant and Otter Tail Power Company's coal-fired power plant in Fergus Falls. You might find swans in a crossword puzzle. A three-letter word meaning a male swan is a cob and a three-letter word meaning a female swan is a pen.
“Why do acorns have hats?” The top of the acorn that resembles a hat, cap or beret is called a cupule. It's a tough outer shell that can be prickly, rough, scaly or smooth. It adds extra protection for the delicate embryo inside the kernel, which consists of two fatty leaves called cotyledons.
Thanks for stopping by
“One has only to sit down in the woods or the fields, or by the shore of the river or the lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him.”—John Burroughs.
“No matter what it is, if you don’t move your eyes and set the pace yourself, your intellect is sentenced to death. The mind, you see, is like a muscle. For it to remain agile and strong, it must work. Television rules that out.”—Mark Helprin.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2024
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song filled with birds. The recipient might have wanted jewelry, but the five golden rings were likely to have been ring-necked pheasants, audacious gallinaceous birds with white collars. Another theory suggests the gold rings were goldspinks, an old name for goldfinches. Photo by Al Batt.