As an old coot myself, I’m always happy to see another old coot
Narcissus might have been a coot.
I found an oriole’s nest on the ground. The bird had used fishing line in its construction.
A common grackle dressed like an oil spill.
A grackle gives winter the look.
I hear the Eurasian collared-dove calling all year.
Who hasn’t tried to sleep through winter?
Even in adverse weather, beauty is apparent, as in this red-winged blackbird.
Immature white-crowned sparrows have brown and gray stripes on their heads instead of the white and black stripes of adults.
Happiness is a rock. Happiness rocks.
Winter to the left of me. Winter to the right of me. Here I am, stuck in the middle with melancholy human snowbirds who have returned from their southern homes too soon.
Over 300,000 acres of this grass and sage brush burned in Northwest Oklahoma. I talked to distressed evacuees. It’s always something.
More snow on a MoDo.
Winters without end can be tiring.
A robin in what has proven to be a characteristic pose this spring.
By the time I got around to fixing the weather, we’d received 19 inches of snow in April, a new record. I couldn’t be prouder.
Hoorays from Oklahoma.
I found a few of these nasty sandburs on my shoelaces while I was walking across Oklahoma. They are treacherous things—the sandburs, not the shoelaces.
A buttonball from a sycamore tree.
Missing meadowlarks My newspaper column.
A pocket gopher mound.It’s a way to tell the frost is out of the ground. Unfortunately, this one was in Oklahoma, not Minnesota.
This robin has had more than three snows on its tail.
I’ve been imagining being that crane operator working 20 floors up in downtown Rochester, Minnesota.
A rabbit that is really bad at hiding.
Every day is a parade to a squirrel.
A squirrel discovers he’s lost his wristwatch.
The red-bellied woodpecker has a fine looking back.
And I think my eyebrows have gone wild.
A police officer isn’t the only one watching like a hawk
A sign that shoulda/coulda been on every road I’ve driven on this winter.
What happened to Janesville after the Big Bad Wolf huffed and puffed.
Birding on the radio with Al Batt
As seen at the Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska.
Billikens, good luck charms carved from Alaskan ivory.
Never trust a buffalo (bison) wearing basketball shoes.
Wood carving of kestrel done by Josh Guge found in the Subway of the Marriott Hotel in Rochester, Minnesota.
Winter’s footprint remains.
The still jolly but sick of winter Green Giant as seen in Blue Earth, Minnesota.
At the Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska.
This Canada goose was a gaggle of one when seen in Rochester, Minnesota
this winter has had many winters.
This seat of higher learning was found at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site in West Branch, Iowa.
The Godahl Store started in 1894 and closed in 2016. This village in Minnesota was named by Norwegian immigrants—Goode Dahl meaning Good Valley. Nelson and Albin are names of local townships.
The world’s largest frying pan.
Audubon’s process involved shooting, mounting, drawing, dissecting
I had the feeling I was being watched.
The stop sign on a pine grosbeak.
This was used to spread manure before there was fake news.
From 1918 to 1935, Peter Rosendahl, a farmer from Spring Grove, MN, produced a Norwegian-American comic strip “Ola og Per” (“Ole and Peter”). Here are the main characters.
The police lineup from which I pointed out the culprit who had chewed up my new bird feeder.
Why I feel right at home in Haines, Alaska.
A statue of a birder in Salina, Kansas.
They label the roads here.
Edward Hopper
The weather report as seen at River Bend Nature Center in Faribault.
Taopi, Minnesota (Mower County) has a population of 58.
One of the reasons why not many people ride bear back.
Old windmills, like this one in South Bend, Nebraska, enchant me.
It won’t be long.
Have a few thoughts on me.
This junco came here for the nice weather
This song sparrow found nothing to sing about in the snowstorm.
A robin weathers the weather.
Red means stop and look.
A common grackle wears the face of winter.
The loveliness of a female cardinal is enhanced by the snow.
Observations about nature on the radio.
Birding on the radio
Not all black bears are black
Things always look better after the snowplow has gone by a few times.
The Dancing is for the Birds Class was not canceled due to snow.
It’s said that a robin needs three snows on its tail before it’s truly spring. This bird’s tail has seen more snows than that.
There I was, face-to-face with a cardinal, one of the least dangerous creatures in my yard, and all I had to defend myself with was a camera.
Some days, the world really ticks off a grackle
May will bring more than flowers.
Spring can be prickly.
I hugged spring once.
A white-winged dove, a bird I see regularly in Texas.
Driving the drive in Hibbing, Minnesota
Here I am birding at Sax-Zim Bog.
Winter in the rearview mirror.
A red squirrel (also known as a chickaree, pine squirrel and fairy diddle) gives me the look.
A gray jay (Canada jay, whiskey jack or camp robber) eating peanut butter.
A popular stop for tourists at Sax-Zim Bog.
Cockney sparra.
- A cockney sparra. - Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune
A supermarket for termites.
A frustrated coyote hunting a roadrunner.
A coyote is an omnivore.
A black bear can hit 30 mph.
A pole-dancing opossum in my yard.
I went to Costa Rica to eat bananas. Bananas do most of their growing while pointing upwards.
A windmill, producing prairie winds for many years.
It will be a weird Thanksgiving this year.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Paul Bunyan.
Winter is beautiful. Sometimes it’s the most beautiful in a memory.
A nickname for the wood duck is the “acorn duck” because of its appetite for acorns
A northern shoveler carries the nicknames “spoonbill” and “smiling mallard.”
What are you looking at?
Ma and Pa Wood Duck.
It’s easy to be a Canada goose. One could do it with its eyes closed.
An elephant’s eyelashes.
With the temperature just north of 20°, song sparrows serenade the spring in my yard.