Naturally
Some horned larks spend the winter in southern Minnesota. Those that had migrated south begin returning to Minnesota in early February through late March. Horned larks get their name from the black feathers protruding above their heads. The only lark native to North America creeps along bare ground searching for small seeds. When flushed into flight by a car, a horned lark looks pale with a blackish tale.
The courteous winter weather makes me expect a bountiful crop of fawns in May and June. I saw a red-tailed hawk, unable to convince myself it was something else, perched on a utility pole. Crows stood on top of road-killed deer and raccoons. The birds posed as if they were big game hunters. Three trumpeter swans flew over. Minnesota has the highest population of trumpeter swans in the lower 48 states with an estimated 65,000 adults. I smelled skunk and spring in the air. An amorous skunk has a 4 square mile territory. Great horned owls hunt them. A male skunk is called a buck and a female a doe. You might recall this exchange from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”
Lou Grant: “You got a lotta skunk.”
Mary Richards: “Why thank you, Mr. Grant.”
Lou Grant: “I HATE skunk.”
Lou Grant, played by Ed Asner, said “spunk,” not “skunk,” but I know what he meant.
Q&A
“What is the country’s largest songbird?” The common raven.
“What is a hokumpoke?” It’s a nickname for the American woodcock—aka timberdoodle, bogsucker, mudsnipe, night partridge, Labrador twister, mud bat, bog snipe, skydancer, pop-eyed shot-dodger, brush snipe and big-eye—a short-legged, ground-dwelling bird that feeds mainly on earthworms it catches by probing in the soil with its long, prehensile bill. The rotund little bird rocks its entire body in a bebop shuffle fascinating to behold. I’ve heard the painted bunting called “a flying rainbow” and “a living box of crayons.” The timberdoodle could be “the dancing dried leaves.”
“Why are tree trunks round and not square or rectangular?” It’s all about marketing. Fewer sharp corners make trees easier to hug. A round or tubular shape resists the force of winds better than the flat surface of a square or rectangle. A round shape supports branches and a rounded trunk bends more easily than a flat-sided trunk. Utility poles and light posts are round for a reason. Round barns were advertised as more efficient, inexpensive and structurally sound with a greater volume-to-surface ratio, and thus used fewer materials. Structural supports inside the barn weren’t needed, leaving more open spaces without posts for more storage. Round barns were challenging to build, maintain, light and ventilate. It was hard for the devil to hide in a round barn, but claims of its efficiency were overstated. Round barns were made from round trees.
Ron Hartman wrote, “We enjoyed a dozen trumpeter swans all summer on Freeborn Lake. They seemed to leave in late fall, but now are back...the lake is still frozen over. What are they eating? NOTE: I could have asked A.I., but I would rather hear from A.B.!” Swans have a thick plumage that includes a layer of down, which keeps their bodies insulated and warm. Swans have a temperature exchange system in their legs. The countercurrent exchange system transfers warm blood to the feet and takes the cold blood back into the warm body. Trumpeter swans are primarily vegetarians, feeding on a range of aquatic plants, including duckweed, pondweeds, rushes, sedges, wild rice and algae. They occasionally eat small fish and fish eggs. In winter, their diet includes grain, such as corn. Freeborn Lake likely provides a comfortable and secure place for them to rest. They can find open water elsewhere.
Thanks for stopping by
“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.’"—H.L. Mencken.
“My father was a very disciplined and punctual man; it was a prerequisite for his creativity. There was a time for everything: for work, for talk, for solitude, for rest. No matter what time you get out of bed, go for a walk and then work, he’d say, because the demons hate it when you get out of bed, demons hate fresh air. So when I make up excuses not to work, I hear his voice in my head: Get up, get out, go to your work.”—Linn Ullmann about Ingmar Bergman.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2024
Great horned owls begin nesting in abandoned nests of squirrels, hawks or crows in January or February. Female owls lay one to five eggs, which hatch in 30 to 37 days. The "horns" atop a great horned owl's head are tufts of feathers called plumicorns. This owl is a winged tiger that isn’t a picky eater—it eats skunks. Its handshake is firmer than a weightlifter’s. Here’s one giving me a disapproving look. Photo by Al Batt.