Antlers or horns?

 Naturally

 I notice nature’s gifts, finding beauty in the commonplace and mystery in simple things. I can’t send a thank-you card to a chickadee, so I supply it with sunflower seeds instead.
 An eastern bluebird male perched on the mailbox, checking everywhere for nest cavity vacancies.
Red-tailed hawks plopped down on posts and poles. I wonder when a post becomes a pole. The terms are used interchangeably. A post is generally shorter, while a pole often serves as a structural element in buildings or utilities. 
 I’m sure they’d planned the journey behind crows’ doors. I watched five crows fly this way and that way in a meandering flight. "As the crow flies" is used to describe the distance between two points, ignoring roads and obstacles. 
 Birds teach us to listen by providing a delightful component to learning. I listened to the cheerful and complex warbling of a house finch and its backup singers—chorus frogs. Gophers and moles break through the grass ceiling, and Siberian squill pushes through the fallen leaves and reaches for the sun.

Q&A

 Mike Rucker of Lake Wilson saw a pair of short-eared owls fly up from the grass in a road ditch and figured they weren’t tree-roosting owls. He noticed northern shovelers forming a circle on the water. Thanks, Mike. Short-eared owls are ground nesters. In Minnesota, this species is an inhabitant of grasslands, wet meadows, grainfields and open peatlands. They aren’t a common nester in Minnesota, with confirmed nesting mainly in the northwestern part of the state and some in the far southwestern corner. Groups of northern shovelers form tight swimming circles, creating a vortex to bring food to the surface. Mike also mentioned the abundance of Eurasian collared-doves and how the flickers perched in a tree like a robin or grackle. Eurasian collared-doves are larger than mourning doves and slightly lighter in color. It wears bling with a diagnostic black collar on the back of its neck and has a squared tail as opposed to the pointed tail on a mourning dove. Mourning doves, native to North America, have spotted wings, pinkish-buff bodies, and white tail tips. It’s sometimes incorrectly called a turtle dove. The name comes from its moaning coo. Eurasian collared-doves are originally from the Bay of Bengal in Asia, and escaped captivity in the Bahamas in the 1970s, arriving in Florida a decade later. Eurasian collared-doves make a three-note "koo-KOO-kook," with the middle syllable being the longest. Mourning doves produce a softer, haunting cooing sound, sometimes likened to an owl's hoot. Eurasian collared-doves make a loud "hwaah" call when excited or alarmed, and before alighting. Flickers spend substantial time on the ground, presenting un-woodpecker-like behavior as they search for ants, beetles and other invertebrates. In Minnesota, a male northern flicker can be identified by his distinctive black “mustache” stripe.
 “Do the teeth of mice grow throughout their lives?” This is characteristic of rodents, including mice, rats, squirrels and beavers. As their teeth wear down from gnawing, they continue growing. This ensures that the teeth remain sharp and functional throughout the rodent's life. If the teeth don’t wear down properly, it causes problems such as difficulty eating, malocclusion and jaw damage. Rodents chew to maintain dental health.
 “How many times do blue jays nest?” In Minnesota, where the bird-growing season is short, a pair has time enough for one successful brood, although re-nesting could occur two or three times if egg clutches are lost.
 “How can I tell which kestrel is the male?” American kestrel males have slate-blue wings; females’ wings are reddish brown. Both sexes have pairs of black vertical slashes on the sides of their faces—resembling a mustache and sideburns. Females are 10 to 15% larger. Kestrels have two black spots, known as ocelli ("little eyes" in Latin), on the back of their heads. These fake eyes discourage potential attackers from sneaking up from behind. Males have one black bar on their orange tail feathers; females have many black bars on theirs.
 “Antlers or horns?” Deer have antlers, not horns. Antlers are made of bone, while horns are composed of a bone core covered in a keratin sheath. Bucks have antlers to fight with other bucks for dominance. Antlers are football helmets that protect heads during battles. Antlers are shed each year, while horns continue growing. An exception is the North American pronghorn (not an antelope), which has horns it sheds annually. Horns are found on antelope, bison, sheep and other members of the bovine family. Deer, elk and moose are part of the Cervidae family. Deer shed their antlers annually, due to hormonal changes and changing daylight hours. Shedding antlers could be a way for deer to conserve energy, as they’re cumbersome and resource-intensive. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.”–Alice Walker.
 “Spring would not be spring without bird songs.”—Francis M. Chapman.
 Do good.

Al Batt 2025

Killdeer are common and widespread shorebirds that inhabit open fields, golf courses, lawns, airports, gravel parking lots and the edges of wetlands. They scrape shallow nests in gravel parking lots where they aggressively scold humans who get too close to a nest. They use a broken wing act to lure threats away from the nests. Killdeer loudly proclaim their name: “Kill-deer! Kill-deer!” Photo by Al Batt

A single bird can be my birding trip





Not seeing a violet-green isn’t easy to swallow

 I needed to be getting ready when I heard the bubbly, gurgling sounds made 
by a purple martin in our home.
 It wasn’t an actual bird, but the authentic recorded sound of a purple martin coming from a bird clock. My father-in-law gave me one that lasted over 30 years. My wife gave me a replacement clock last year. The purple martin sounds off at 8.
 I was off to see the wizard—an ologist of some kind with many letters behind his last name. A cardinal sang. I looked out the window and saw what I’ve seen often, but not enough, before. A deja view. That brilliant redbird brightened my day.
 Leo Buscaglia wrote, “A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.” 
 A single bird enhances my day.
 On the ride, I looked for swallows from my passenger seat. Tree swallows return to their breeding grounds earlier in the spring than other swallow species. This is due to their ability to adapt to a broader range of foods. I typically see one around March 19. Tree swallows are cavity nesters known to investigate artificial structures like the tailpipe of a truck for nesting. 
 “One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day; similarly, one day or brief time of happiness does not make a person entirely happy.” This is attributed to Aristotle. A swallow helps spring spring into action.
 In Minnesota, we get to see a nice variety of swallows: barn, tree, cliff, bank, northern rough-winged and purple martin.
 Some are easy to identify. Barn swallows eat barns, tree swallows eat trees, cliff swallows eat cliffs, and bank swallows eat banks, but only the branch offices.
 My father was a persistent but failed purple martin landlord. He lowered the rent and did away with the required security deposit, but had no success. He was a member of a purple martin organization that proclaimed that each martin ate 2,000 mosquitoes a day. Martins hunt for food during the day, and mosquitoes are active in the evening, with little overlap in their schedules. Martins feed high in the air, while skeeters dine closer to the ground. Eating a mosquito would be like going through a drive-thru and ordering one french fry at a time. It’d make no sense. I watch the martins at our bird club’s martin houses and gourds. They eat many dragonflies. Oklahoma research found martins eat invasive red fire ants, and eat termites, beetles, dragonflies, damselflies and other insects. When a baby martin cries, “I’m hungry,” it gets a dragonfly shoved into its gaping maw. That’s like a kid getting a large birthday cake, including the candles, shoved into his mouth because he whined, “Ma, I’m hungry.”
 If I had to pick a favorite swallow, it’d be the barn. I grew up in a dairy barn and watched many generations of barn swallows fledge from their mud nests in our barn. When I mow the lawn, barn swallows shadow me, snacking on the flying insects the mower causes to take flight. “Click it, click it,” they call. I remind them that there is no seatbelt on a push lawn mower, but they’re not listening.
 Barn swallows are symbols of spring, renewal, good luck, love and fidelity. A Native American legend is that a barn swallow dared to swipe fire from the gods and give the fire to humans. The angry gods shot flaming arrows at the bird. One arrow hit the swallow at the base of its tail, burning away the central tail feathers. Since then, the barn swallow has had a forked tail. The bird commonly associated with a swallowtail is the barn swallow, but all swallows have swallowtails. What are they going to do, borrow a tail from a blue jay? That’s not happening.
 I narrate natural history tours and tell stories on the Pelican Breeze boat that floats upon Albert Lea Lake. One year, barn swallows nested on that vessel. A nestling’s life is a happy sequence of significant events. Four young birds crammed into a nest that could have used a couple more bedrooms. When the boat took a tour, the young swallows came along. The parents stayed at the dock, waiting for the return of their boating babies. It was a glorious reunion, with parents and relatives gleefully fluttering about the youngsters and joyously welcoming them.
 I enjoy sitting on the deck of the house and watching swallows feasting on the ant swarms flying high in the air. It’s an evening at the bird ballet.
 If I don’t see a swallow, it’s probably a violet-green swallow. There are only two records of that species in Minnesota—1942 and 1990.

Thanks for stopping by

 “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.”—Henri Matisse.

©Al Batt 2025

This bird clock reminds me daily that I am fortunate to be nutty about nuthatches and looney about loons. Photo by Al Batt

A robin needs three snows on its tail, back or toes before it’s truly spring

Naturally

 The rain had turned into a heavy snowfall. An eastern bluebird found shelter in a window feeder and hunkered down. I couldn’t read his mind, but he didn’t appear to be the bluebird of happiness. “I wish you bluebirds in the spring. To give your heart a song to sing,” is from the song “I Wish You Love” written by Charles Louis Trenet and Albert Askew Beach. I wished the bluebird would have other bluebirds for company.
 Northern flickers arrive in my yard in April. These lovely birds pecked the ground in search of insects. They love to eat ants. 
 I see oak and ironwood trees clinging to their dead brown leaves. This retention of dead plant matter is called marcescence. The new spring growth eventually dislodges these dead leaves.
 I watched a wild turkey tom strut around, trying to impress hens. He thought he was all that because he had a bourbon named after him. Wild Turkey is a brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey produced in Kentucky. The tom shook his fanned tail because he was a mover and a shaker. A wild turkey can run up to 25 mph and fly 55 mph. How smart is a turkey or birds in general? It depends on who is giving the test.

Q&A

 “I love hearing the chickadee call its name. What other birds call their names?” These are onomatopoeic names. Other birds include the killdeer, eastern phoebe, eastern wood-peewee, eastern whip-poor-will,  Chuck-will's-widow and northern bobwhite. An imagination like one used to name the constellations is helpful in hearing what words a bird is saying, even if it doesn’t know it’s speaking our language. The blue jay calls “jay” and some human ears insist a crow says “crow” instead of “caw.”
 “When do rooster pheasants crow?” They might be heard crowing throughout the day all year round, but mostly at dawn and dusk in spring and summer. A rapid beating of the wings often follows a rooster's loud crow. Roosters also often cackle when they fly. It seems to me that they crow more often when the skies are clear, and there’s little to no wind.
 “How can I tell if it’s a downy woodpecker or a hairy woodpecker drumming?” I just heard a pileated woodpecker drumming. The big bird was on a big tree and produced an impressive, powerful, resonant sound. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the downy woodpecker has about 17 beats per second, which makes it almost sound as if we could count them. The hairy woodpecker has faster-paced drumming, with about 26 beats per second and sounds impossible to count. 
 “What is a spatzie?” Spatzie or spotsie are names that people call the house sparrow. Others refer to it as the English sparrow. The name likely comes from the German word Spatzen which means "sparrows." Spätzle, Spätzla or Spatzen are a kind of Central European egg pasta. 
 “I saw an owl pellet. Do other birds produce pellets?” Owls swallow prey whole or in large pieces, but cannot digest fur, teeth, bone or feathers. Birds, which consume food that has indigestible matter, cast pellets as part of the digestive process. Other birds that cast pellets include hawks, falcons, eagles, herons, cormorants, egrets, grebes, gulls, kingfishers, swallows, grouse, nighthawks, swifts, shrikes, crows, ravens and jays, and many species of shorebirds.
 “What bird runs the fastest?” Ostriches can’t fly, but no birds can match their speed on land. They are the fastest birds in the world when it comes to running. They have been clocked running continuously at speeds of 30-37 mph and sprinting up to 43 mph. In North America, our speediest land bird is the greater roadrunner. It speeds along at 20 mph, and it can reach about 26 mph when in top gear. And as any TV cartoon watcher can attest, that’s fast enough to elude Wile E. Coyote.
 Jim Muyres of Mankato wrote, “I am wondering if the spring migration is different than the fall? In the spring, it seems like more of a free-for-all or are there big flocks I am missing?”  The spring migration occurs within a shorter period than the fall migration. In spring, birds are driven to fly north to find breeding territories and to nest. This gives the spring migration more urgency. The spring migration typically follows more distinct migratory patterns and routes. The fall migration occurs over a more extended period, with birds taking a wider variety of routes to their wintering grounds. Flocks tend to be larger during fall migration than in spring because birds gather to increase their chances of survival, while in spring, they’re more focused on finding breeding territories. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.”—Leo Buscaglia.
 “By discovering nature, you discover yourself.”—Maxime Lagacé.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

My family’s elders insisted that a returning robin needed three snows on its tail (back or toes) before it was truly spring. Sometimes, they were right.  Of course, this doesn’t apply to the rockin’ robins who were here in the winter. A common mnemonic for remembering the ballad sung by an American Robin is "Cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up." Photo by Al Batt. 

The cheep seats in the trees were filled

Naturally

 I was off to see the wizard—an ologist of some kind with many letters behind his name. A cardinal sang. I looked out the window, and a brilliant redbird brightened my day. I took it as a good sign.
 I listened harder. Sandhill cranes made prehistoric-sounding calls that cut through the morning like a cleaver and could be heard from 2.5 miles away. They produce the sound on the ground and in flight.
 A mourning dove called coo-ah, coo, coo, coo or hul-a, hoop, hoop, hoop. The dove was named for its solemn, mournful song. Mourning doves can fly 55 mph.
 Knock, knock, who’s there? A woodpecker drumming on a tree. It’s a woodpecker’s whatness.
 Blackbirds and robins fill the cheep seats in the trees. By returning in the spring, they perform community service.
 Maple tree branches suffer toothy mayhem as squirrels chew on them. The cambium layer, just under the bark, contains sugary sap squirrels find appealing, and the bark and cambium layer can be a source of nutrients during times of scarcity. Squirrels might use the bark and twigs for nest-building materials. Squirrels have continuously growing teeth and chewing helps wear them down. 

Q&A

 George Downs of New Ulm wrote, “I have a question about bird feeding. During the winter, we enjoyed multitudes of sparrows at our birdfeeders in the yard, and large numbers of finches entertaining us at our window-box feeder. For the past two weeks the sparrows have all but disappeared and there have been no finches at the box at all. Is this a migratory pattern or just a return to natural feeding? We had good feeder action last summer that picked up as the cold months arrived. Is the pattern we have observed normal? Also, will they return once natural sources have been depleted?” Bird populations fluctuate seasonally and from one year to the next for a range of reasons. There is normal variation, but fluctuating food supplies/requirements, predator populations, stale seeds and changes to local habitat can impact bird numbers. They’ll be back.
 “Do birds urinate?” Birds do produce pee, but it’s different than mammal pee. Bird pee isn’t stored in a bladder but mixes with feces. Birds release a white paste with some dark components all in one dropping, which contains both urine and feces. This is what we lovingly call “bird poop.”  Ostriches, the biggest birds in the world, are the only birds known to release the two substances separately.
 “What gnaws on deer sheds?” Deer shed their antlers annually in late winter or early spring, and the dropped antlers are called sheds. Sheds are a valuable food source, a tool for teeth maintenance and a source of calcium and minerals for various animals, including squirrels, mice, chipmunks, raccoons, opossums, bears, foxes, coyotes, porcupines, rabbits, dogs, groundhogs, otters, beaver and deer chew on antlers.
 “Why are spiders in my shower?” They are there because they enjoy a dark, secluded environment that offers moisture and dampness, shelter, prey availability and the opportunity to see naked humans. I enjoy the company of spiders. Maybe it’s because I read “Charlotte‘s Web” by E. B. White at an early age, long before I saw the movie “Annie Hall,” wherein Annie Hall called the film’s protagonist Alvy (Woody Allen) at 3 a.m. because of a spider in her bathroom. Alvy arrived and admonished, “I told you a thousand times you should always keep a lotta insect spray. You never know who's gonna crawl over.” Alvy called it a major spider the size of Buick and demolished the bathroom with a tennis racket and might have hit the spider. An Entomology Today study found peppermint oil and chestnuts showed apparent repellent effects on some spider species. Lemon oil didn’t have a significant impact on any of the species tested. The test didn’t include all spider species. 
 “Why do geese fly in a V-formation?” It’s because the lead goose is usually a veteran female named Verna, Velma or Virginia. Occasionally, a male named Virgil gets to fly at the front just to shut him up. Scientists have determined that the V-shaped formation conserves energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of them, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. The birds take turns being in the front, falling back when they tire from acting as a windbreak. This allows the geese to fly long distances before they must stop for rest. A V-formation aids the communication and coordination within the group. Fighter pilots often fly in a V-formation for aerodynamic efficiency and tactical advantages. This configuration allows maneuverability, enhanced visibility, and a potential for reduced fuel consumption. Plus, it looks cool.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Birds are little miracles.”—Amy Tan.
 “Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.”—Wernher von Braun.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

American goldfinches molt twice a year. The brilliant yellow the males change into each spring brings a flying gold mine. Goldfinches are dimorphic, meaning males and females differ in appearance. They don’t nest until late June or early July when milkweed, thistle and other plants have seeds, which goldfinches incorporate into their nests and feed to nestlings. Until then, they wander in search of food. Photo by Al Batt.

Why is it called a murmuration?

 Naturally

 The bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see.
 I walked over the yard to see what I could see and hear.
 It had been a day of the black-capped chickadee’s whistling “Spring’s here,” an abundance of boxelder bugs and dandelion plants showing green.
 The shadows were bending in the afternoon under the weight of the sun when I heard the dark-eyed juncos making toy ray gun sounds. Pew, pew, pew! The gray birds with white bellies and outer tail feathers are called snowbirds because they usher in the snow. The junco, looking like a gray bird that landed in a can of white paint, is a common spring and fall migrant throughout Minnesota, and a common winter visitor in the southern part of the state. The junco’s eyes are dark and the bill a light pink. Females are a lighter gray. I see more of the darker-colored males than the females in the winter. Females are more common in the southern states, overwintering as far as northern Mexico. The males risk harsh winters in the north in order to get a head start on the spring journey back to their breeding territories in northeastern Minnesota and Canada. They’re sometimes accompanied by American tree sparrows that appear to be wearing tie tacks without neckties. It’s a good look and one I may emulate. This sparrow breeds across northern Canada and Alaska, and despite having "tree" in its name, it’s a ground bird. It forages and nests on the ground.

Q&A

 “Why do birds look fatter in the winter than in summer?” Humans look heavier in the winter, too, but it’s because we wear puffy coats in winter. Birds can’t wear puffy coats because that would interfere with their ability to fly. A farmer friend says he puts on winter weight in case the winter proves to be a harsh one and he can’t afford to buy an egg. This pronouncement causes his wife’s eyes to roll all the way around in her head. That’s a remarkable feat, but so is what feathers can do. Some birds grow more feathers for insulation. They learned how to do that by watching humans put on long underwear. Birds fluff their feathers to trap the air between the feathers and the skin. A bird’s body heat warms the trapped air, which keeps the bird warm. The average body temperature of a bird is 105 degrees. The fluffed feathers give birds a profile that makes them look plumper. They aren’t fat, they’re fluffy.
 “Why is a flock of starlings called a murmuration?” A murmuration of starlings is a shapeshifting cloud of swirling birds that alternately grows larger and shrinks. The elegant movement of a flock of starlings welcomes contemplation and creates stunning art in the sky. The movement of the flock is choreographed collectively by all members of the flock. The fluidity of motion results when one starling changes direction or speed, and each of the other birds in the flock responds to the change nearly simultaneously, as the group responds as one. I reckon the collective noun “murmuration,” derives from the sounds made by the wingbeats of many birds in flight. I’ve had a flock of starlings swoop low over my head with a loud whoosh before twirling away. The wing song made me duck. Maybe it should be called a whoosh of starlings?
 “Where do male goldfinches first show spring colors?” Uffdah! That’s a tough question about a wild canary that refuses to answer questions. This is a wild guess, but I’m going to say in Dublin, Georgia. Yeah, that’s it, Dublin, Georgia. I’ll bet yellow feathers abound there. Oh, wait a second. My sweet wife, The Queen B, just told me that this was a plumage question and not a geographical question. I told her I knew that. Please don’t tell her anything different. It’ll be our little secret. There are many colors on a bird’s palette. The first signs of a male American goldfinch’s molt into a breeding plumage show around the head. The pale edges of the wing feathers wear and fade, and the bill color begins changing to a pale orange. This progresses with more yellow and black feathers around the head and more yellow on the body. It creates expectations, and I welcome the sight of the tiny birds that have become flying dandelions. 

Thanks for stopping by

  “Nature is my church. The wind in the trees and the bugs and the frogs. All those things are comfort to me.”—Sissy Spacek. 
 “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say ‘It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”—Fred Rogers.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

Starlings develop yellow bills during the breeding season, with the base of lower mandible blue in males, pink in females. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon my window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said: ‘Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!’" Clellan Card played Axel Torgeson on “Axel and His Dog,” a popular kid’s show and said, “A birdie with a yellow bill Hopped upon my window sill, Cocked his shining eye and said, ‘What’s that in the road…ahead?’”  Photo by Al Batt.

Each bird is a rare bird

Naturally

 Chipmunks scurried about as if they had misplaced their lists of things to do today. Perhaps their behavior was a result of the time and place creating a birder’s paradise, as that combination does every day of the year.
 I stared at each bird as if it were a rare bird, because each bird is.
 Woodpeckers drummed. They banged out love notes in Morse code or a woodpecker code on resonant limbs. Wild strawberry leaves were lovely to see. The leaves stay green over the winter. 
  I poured water into a small basin for the birds. Does that make it a beaker?
 Winter is over. Meteorological winter is December, January and February. Meteorological spring is March, April and June. Welcome to spring. Astronomical spring begins later. The spring equinox (also called the vernal equinox) marks one of the two instances each year when our sun and the Earth's equator align. The spring equinox falls on March 20 or 21 (and occasionally on March 19 in a leap year). In 2025, the day is Thursday, March 20. That means we get two springs. Yay us. Life is good. 
 Robins are singing, and red-winged blackbirds are flocking together, which is a wing-wing situation and a win–win situation. Red-winged blackbird males return before the females show up here. They hurry back to compete for choice territories. They must be aware to survive, so they travel in flocks, which offer more eyes to spot predators and food. Their arrival is a harbinger of spring. Arguably, the red-winged blackbird could be the most commonly seen bird in the Gopher State. The females, with streaky brown plumages, don’t need to rush as they know there will be males to welcome their triumphant arrival. The males sing “Look-at-me” at full throttle.
 I keep an ear out and hear sandhill cranes give voice to the call that stirs the soul. Aldo Leopold wrote this about that sound, “High horns, low horns, silence and finally a pandemonium of trumpets, rattles, croaks and cries that almost shakes the bog with its nearness.”
 Male goldfinches begin molting from their muted, drab plumage into their vibrant mating colors in mid-March. Keep an eye on that state bird of Iowa, and you’ll see some splotchy feathers on goldfinches during the in-between stages of a molt.
 Canada geese pairs, on territory, honk belligerently at perceived intruders. They’re like callers to sports talk shows—always yelling angrily about something. Smile when you hear one, and be thankful for all that free fertilizer you’re getting.
 Pussy willows are budding. This native willow grows 8 to 15 feet tall and thrives in wet areas. They're an important food source for early-spring pollinators, including several bee species. The plant is host to the viceroy butterfly, whose caterpillar feeds on it.
 Squirrel and rabbit chases take place as part of the courting process. Gray squirrels mate twice a year, typically from December to February and June through August. Fox squirrels mate twice a year, generally from December to February and June through July. The eastern cottontail rabbit breeding season runs from March to September.
 For most of Minnesota, December is typically the snowiest month of the year. January is second, February third and March is the fourth snowiest month, but you never know.

Q&A

 “What do robins eat at this time of year?” There is fruit available. They eat crabapples, mountain ash berries, haws from hawthorns, winterberries, rose hips and hackberries, among other things. They likely become adventurous eaters when they first return. This species (American robin) was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766 as Turdus migratorius, which derives from two Latin words: turdus, "thrush," and migratorius, "to migrate." The name robin has been used in North America since at least 1703.
 “When is the breeding season for opossums?” Opossums mate between January and May. The young aren’t fully developed at birth. The babies climb up the mother's belly and into her pouch. They remain there for 60 to 70 days. For a month after that, the young opossums climb in and out of the pouch, never straying far. When mouse-sized, they climb aboard their mother's back, where they spend their time until becoming independent.
 “What bird calls “Ricky”?” I don’t know if I know of one. I’d guess it might be a cardinal. Many ears hear it as “Birdie, birdie, birdie” and it wouldn’t be a stretch for it to be heard as “Ricky, Ricky, Ricky.” The ruby-crowned kinglet is often called “Little Ricky,” not because of its call, but because its four-letter bird banding code is RCKI.

Thanks for stopping by

 “A quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest.”—Albert Einstein.
 “If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining.”—Guy Finley.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

I love March, when the trees turn into red-winged blackbirds. Harbingers of spring, the redwings are among the earliest spring migrants, with the males arriving before the females to establish territories and engage in courtship displays. The males sing rowdy “Look-at-me” territorial songs and display their brilliant red epaulets to attract females.  Photo by Al Batt.

Life isn’t a Super Bowl commercial.

Naturally

  Life isn’t a Super Bowl commercial. I had a stroke.

  Now I have an excuse for not remembering someone’s name. I got up in the morning, walked to the bathroom and looked at the mirror. I smile at the mirror every morning. I figure if I can’t smile at my image, I won’t be able to smile at anyone else. A second benefit is that at least I’ll make one person smile that day. My odd reflection looked even odder than normal. One side of my smile had a serious droop to it. A trip to the ER and an ambulance ride to another hospital where I had to tell 73 healthcare professionals (each of whom was an angel) my full name (some spelling required) and birthdate, before they’d ask to see my smile. I spent a few days in the hospital (I highly recommend the aspirin suppository and the saline solution drip) and am now on the mend. The removal of the countless sticky EKG electrodes allowed me to get something off my chest—hair. I have moved from taking no prescription drugs to taking enough pills to put my piggy bank on a rapid weight-loss program. My smile has returned. I’m happy to see it.

  There was a lot of whining in the yard. No, it wasn’t all from me. It was the oft-repeated chi-call of a red-bellied woodpecker, which sounds kind of whiny. It’s a call for me to stop, look and listen.

  Acrobatic squirrels engaged in a merry chase of tag as a cardinal cranked up his spring song, a loud, whistled series of notes sounding like "cheer, cheer, cheer" or "birdie, birdie, birdie.” It’s smelling salts for the ears.

  Downy and hairy woodpeckers can be hard to tell apart. Downies are smaller and have short bills. Hairy woodpeckers have bills more like chisels. Nuthatches went around a tree trunk searching for food, as if they were stripes on a barber pole.

Q&A

  “What is estivation?” Hibernation or “winter sleep” is the state of inactivity or low metabolic process animals perform during winter. Aestivation (estivation) or “summer sleep” is the low metabolic process by animals in summer. There are reptiles and amphibians that estivate, including some tortoises, salamanders and frogs. Some land snails, insects and crabs do it.

  “Why do I see spiders in the basement one day and none the next?“ A few spiders around a home can keep away harmful pests and disease-carrying insects like ticks, fleas and cockroaches. Spiders provide free Halloween decorations for homes. In our houses during the winter, spiders move around searching for prey and water. Osage oranges (hedgeballs or hedge apples) aren’t effective and their use isn’t recommended to repel spiders.

  “Do birds have teeth?” Birds don’t have teeth, that’s why you’ve never seen one in your dentist’s office, and it’s not because they don’t floss. They may have ridges on their bills that help them grip food. Many birds swallow their food whole, and their powerful gizzards (a muscular part of their stomachs) grind up the food so they can digest it. Scoters and eiders swallow clams and mussels whole, letting their gizzards pulverize the shells. Bird beaks can sip nectar from flowers, filter food from water, tear flesh from bones, crack nuts, and pluck insects from the air. Mandibles in some species have evolved to look and act like teeth to help them handle food more easily. Mergansers and other fish-eating birds have saw-like serrations that help them grip slippery fish, while seed-eating birds have bill ridges, which help them cut through a seed’s outer husk. Some shrikes and birds of prey have a ‘tomial tooth’ on the upper mandible, which they use to sever a prey’s spinal cord. The double-toothed kite’s name comes from the two pointed tooth-like notches on its upper mandible, but those aren’t teeth in the true sense of the word. Baby birds have an “egg tooth” a small, sharp structure on the end of their beaks that they use to aid in hatching. A bird uses its egg tooth to pierce the air sac between the membrane and the eggshell giving them a few hours of air during the time they repeatedly force the egg tooth through the shell until they have made a hole big enough for them to leave the egg.

  “How fast can deer run?” White-tailed deer can run 30 to 40 mph, never once qualifying for a NASCAR event. They can leap up to 8 feet high.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Birds are wherever we are. They are our companions. Birds are mediators between heaven and earth.”—Terry Tempest Williams.

  “Birdwatching is something that we do for enjoyment, so if you enjoy it, you are already a good birder. If you enjoy it a lot, you are a great birder.”—Kenn Kaufman.

  I wish you good health. Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

It’s not a rodent. It’s North America’s only marsupial. The Virginia opossum is the size of a house cat (4 to 12 pounds). It’s resistant to rattlesnake venom, is rarely rabid and can have 6 to 20 babies (joeys) twice a year. Granny Moses on “The Beverly Hillbillies” enjoyed possum stew.  Photo by Al Batt.

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NATURE’S LUMBERJACKS

Naturally

 February is a short month. Cold weather makes it seem longer. Everyone was wearing a polar ice cap. It was a good day to have a hat to hang on a peg. John Steinbeck regarded the desert as a place “to observe the cleverness and the infinite variety of techniques of survival under pitiless opposition.” I thought of his quote when I walked about on a -19 day. He could have been talking about Minnesota weather. 
 I saw a perched hawk in a faraway tree. The light allowed no color to be seen. How did I know it was a hawk and not a crow? In general, perching raptors sit upright, whereas non-raptors, such as crows, when perched, lean forward over their feet. 

Q&A

 “I saw geese that weren’t flying high in a typical V-formation. They were flying in a single file. What was going on?” It was a fire drill.
 Jim Mujyres of Mankato wrote, “I am trying to figure out where vultures nest in Southern Minnesota. Where would they build their nests? Can they be seen flying dead critters to their young ones?” Turkey vultures typically nest in a variety of sheltered locations, including abandoned buildings, rock crevices, caves, hollow trees, cliffs, burrows, fallen trees, old hawk or heron nests, on the ground and in thickets, often near river valleys. They don't build elaborate nests, preferring to lay their eggs on debris or the flat bottom of a nest site. Both parents feed the young by the regurgitation of carrion, either directly into a begging nestling's gaping mouth or on the ground next to the nestling. I’ve found nests in dilapidated barns. Vultures eat a lot of roadkill because it’s difficult to eat healthy when you’re on the road.
 “Why do beavers cut down trees?” Beavers need to stay busy because they are known for being as busy as beavers. They cut trees for food. These herbivores eat leaves, twigs, woody stems, new tree growth on branches and trunks, and aquatic plants. Beavers are second only to humans in their ability to change the environment they live in, according to National Geographic. Adult beavers weigh between 35 and 55 pounds, although they can be as heavy as 90 pounds. In the spring and summer, they eat clover, leaves, ferns, buds, fruit, marsh grass, roots from aquatic plants and berries. Beavers can remain submerged for as long as 20 minutes. In fall and winter, they eat cuttings from trees stored beneath the water. When a beaver cuts down a tree, it eats the inner, soft cambium layer just under the outer bark. This is the same layer that rabbits, deer, porcupines and moose eat. The cambium is a thin layer of tissue in a tree that produces new wood and bark. Once the bark is eaten from a branch, beavers use the sticks as building materials for lodges and dams. Beavers are nature’s lumberjacks, cutting down trees and using their excellent engineering skills to build dams and lodges out of them. 
 “Why don’t I see dead birds?” You rarely see dead birds because scavengers like other birds, insects and mammals usually devour them. When most birds are nearing the end of their lives, they tend to die in hidden locations, further reducing the chances of you seeing a carcass. As you walk around, you might spot a dead mouse or squirrel. On the highway, you regularly see road-killed raccoons, opossums, skunks and deer. Birds weigh little, are covered with feathers and most have hollow bones. If a dead bird is on the ground, tiny decomposers—bacteria and insects—quickly invade its body. A small bird decomposes and disappears in a few days, while a small mammal might exist in recognizable form for much longer. Raccoons, foxes, coyotes, vultures, crows or opossums will eat much of a bird but leave the inedible parts—the bones and feathers. Rodents consume the bones for the calcium, and beetles ingest the feathers, which are mostly protein.
 “Do we have walkingsticks in Minnesota?” Walkingsticks are long, skinny insects resembling sticks capable of walking. This type of camouflage is called crypsis. Minnesota has two species of walkingsticks: northern walkingsticks are found in the forested region and prairie walkingsticks in the prairie region. Northern walkingsticks feed on basswood, white oak and American hazelnut leaves.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.”—Walter Elliot.
 “Birds are important because they keep systems in balance: they pollinate plants, disperse seeds, scavenge carcasses and recycle nutrients back into the earth. But they also feed our spirits, marking for us the passage of the seasons, moving us to create art and poetry, inspiring us to flight and reminding us that we are not only on, but of, this earth.”—Melanie Driscoll.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

A female collects pebbles, clods, corncobs and dung, and places them beside her nest on open ground to form a paved area. Why? Ask a horned lark. No one else knows for sure. If you squint and have a good imagination, it resembles a walkway. It likely prevents nesting material from blowing away. Photo of horned lark by Al Batt.

Have you tried spatial chunking?

 Naturally

 The weather was civilized, but cold. It was giving me mixed signals. As I walked outside on that -15 degree morning (I knew right away it wasn’t July or August because I’m that sharp) and stepped onto the freshly fallen snow, I heard a “squeak” with every step I took, and it had nothing to do with my digestive tract. If I walk upon an accumulation of light, I hear the breaking of the snowflakes as a squeaking sound. When temperatures are warmer, there is more water mixed in with the snowflakes, which allows them to slide past each other instead of breaking. The temperature needs to be 14 degrees or colder to cause the squeak. Temperatures above that increase the water-to-snowflake ratio, making it quieter.
 A half dozen starlings, a mini-murmuration nearing its minimum, kept me company on my squeaky walk. A murmuration is a flock that keeps starlings warm, fed, protected, and able to survive without having cellphones. Starlings are handsome birds that aren’t welcomed by everyone, but then, who is? They can mimic other birds. On this day, puffed up against the cold, they appeared to be mimicking cold birds.
 Bill Knish of Waseca wrote, “I don't know if I am becoming more observant in my advancing years or what, but, in the last couple of days I have been seeing Eurasian tree sparrows at my feeders just outside of town.” You are a sharp-eyed fellow, Bill. I’m fortunate enough to have a couple of them hanging around with the house sparrows in my yard this winter. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says that in 1870, a shipment of European birds from Germany was released in St. Louis, Missouri, in order to provide familiar bird species for newly settled European immigrants. The shipment included 12  Eurasian tree sparrows, and the chestnut-capped, white-cheeked sparrows prospered in the hedges and woodlots of the region, ultimately spreading throughout northeastern Missouri, west-central Illinois, and southeastern Iowa—and Hartland and Waseca, Minnesota. Cornell said nothing about Hartland and Waseca, but I’m sure they meant to. Unlike its relative, the house sparrow, it isn’t a bird of cities, preferring farms and lightly wooded residential areas. Birds make the world beautiful and both bigger and smaller at the same time.

Q&A

 Dan Paczkowski of Glenville had five trumpeter swan cygnets on a pond last summer, and then they all vanished, leaving their parents cygnetless. He wondered what could have happened to them. According to the Trumpeter Swan Society, on average, about 50% of cygnets don’t survive the first three months after hatching, due to predation by snapping turtles, bald eagles, coyotes, mink, great horned owls, dogs, humans and other predators. Another 25% of swans may perish before they are three years of age.
 “I was reading about the owl irruption. Have you ever seen a boreal owl?” I have and count myself fortunate to have seen the tiny owl. It’s the approximate weight of a mourning dove.
 “Do both fox squirrels and gray squirrels cache foods?” Both species are scatter-hoarders, meaning they hide food in many small caches scattered across a landscape. Fox squirrels are the largest tree squirrels that are native to North America and are calmer than the smaller grays, which are more squirrelly. The agility and skittishness of a gray squirrel have given it the nickname “cat squirrel,” which I’ve heard it called in the South. The University of California at Berkeley published a study in the journal Royal Society of Open Science that found tree squirrels use a mnemonic technique called "spatial chunking" to sort and bury nuts by size, type and perhaps nutritional value and taste. They can remember where to find what they are hungry for. It’s a meticulous preparation needed to survive a harsh winter. One squirrel can bury up to 3,000 to 10,000 nuts in a season and has a tremendous spatial memory and an excellent sense of smell that allows it to retrieve 26 to 95% of the nuts it had squirreled away, depending upon the study. Central Connecticut State University research reported that an eastern gray squirrel engages in deceptive caching by digging a hole and pretending to drop a nut it was holding in its mouth into the hole, covers up the empty hole, and runs off to another secret-stashing place. They do this to fool other squirrels who might be watching. I’ve seen squirrels perform these covert actions many times in the yard. Caches are moved by the owners and by thieves. An interesting aside is that squirrels listen to the sounds of birds like robins, jays and chickadees, and use them as alarms or all-clear signals.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.”—Lovelle Drachman.
 “And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”—John Muir.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

The red-tailed hawk is the most common hawk in the U.S. The red-tailed hawk’s average weight is 2 to 4 pounds. I typically see a pair of these hawks perched close together around Valentine’s Day. They usually maintain pair bonds until the death of a partner, and both incubate the eggs. Photo by Al Batt

The founding fathers used founding feathers

Naturally

 If I made a list of the birds I want to see each morning, the chickadee would be first on that list. A small flock of Canada geese flew over instead. 
 The founding fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution with founding feathers, the quills from geese. Some flamboyant writers preferred to use swan feathers for their scribbling. Quill pens date to the Dark Ages, when feathers replaced the hollow reeds used by the Romans. People sometimes used turkey or crow feathers. Thomas Jefferson bred special geese to keep himself in writing implements. Wing feathers were buried in hot, dry sand to harden the points. A penknife was used to cut the nib into a V-shape and to trim the nibs of worn quills. Britain imported 27 million quills a year from Russia. By the middle of the 19th century, steel nibs were on the way to overtaking quills. In the 20th century, the fountain pen, ballpoint and rollerball arrived.
  A caller from Florida said he was watching a softball game in Florida when a hawk caught an animal in the outfield and hauled it to a stick nest high atop a pole. He thought it was an osprey, but was told an osprey eats only fish. Ospreys possess a reversible outer toe, which is unusual among hawks, that allows them to grasp prey with two toes in front and two behind. Barbed pads on the soles of the feet help ospreys grip slippery fish. An osprey lines up its catch head first to lessen wind resistance while flying. Ospreys primarily eat live fish, but will prey upon small mammals like rats, mice, voles, squirrels, rabbits and muskrats when the fishing is poor. There are reports of ospreys eating snakes and small alligators. Ospreys begin nesting in South Florida in December. He had seen the world in a bird, as ospreys are found on every continent except Antarctica.

Q&A

 “How do squirrels survive winter?” Tree squirrels don’t hibernate. We respond to cold weather by putting on layers and staying indoors. Squirrels do the same, spending more time in insulated nests and putting on layers by fattening up. They also cache food for later and generate heat by shivering.
 “Do snowy owls come to Minnesota because they’re starving?” The snowy owl nests in the arctic tundra in northern Canada and Alaska, but during winters, this raptor comes south to hunt voles, mice and other small animals. Project SNOWstorm has studied this migration. They found that it’s common for some snowy owls to migrate south each winter. Every 3 to 5 years, hundreds to thousands of owls overflow into southern Canada and the northern United States. These large migrations are known as irruptions. An irruption is a sign of a baby boom, and was once thought to be caused by hungry owls flying south in search of food. Winter irruptions are usually caused by an abundance of food during the previous summer. Lemmings make up most of the owls' summer diet. An increase in lemmings produces a surge in healthy owl chicks migrating south. Far from starving, most of these Arctic migrants are perfectly healthy. Project SNOWstorm’s research has found that snowy owls in major irruption years tend to be fatter and heavier than those in non-flight years. Food shortages appear to prompt southerly movements of snowy owls (as happens routinely with species like great gray and northern hawk owls) only occasionally. Ornithologist Scott Weidensaul, who tracks the owls, said if they arrive in large numbers, the owls are mostly juveniles, in response to a productive breeding season. They hope to outdistance the competition. Not all the snowy owls that come here will survive. The mortality rate for young raptors is very high. Vehicle collisions, rodenticide poisoning and electrocution on power lines are three common causes of snowy owl death. Starvation is rare, and often the result of underlying causes.
 “How can wind farms protect bats?” Avoid sensitive areas. Monitor bat activity and mortality. Curtail wind turbine operation by slowing, stopping or changing the direction of blade rotation at the times when bats are likely to be present. Use deterrent technologies, adjust turbine blade angles and use algorithms.
 “What is the phantom of the north?” Blending in perfectly with the gray-brown bark of its perch, the great gray owl becomes one with a tree and earns it the nickname of the phantom of the north. This owl has large rings around its yellow eyes, two white patches near its beak that make it appear to have a snowy mustache, and lacks ear tufts. Its other names include phantom of the north or great gray ghost.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.”—Erol Ozan.
 “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”—David Brower.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

Each day brings gifts. They were here for the fruit—crabapples. The “cedar” in their name is a nod to eastern red cedar, which is an important source of winter food. The “waxwing” part refers to the waxy-looking red tips on their secondary wing feathers. Cedar waxwings also eat insects when raising young. Photo by Al Batt.

They are sharp hawks.

Naturally

 I haven’t gone through my usual amounts of birdseed this year because of two sharp-shinned hawks patrolling the yard. During winter, sharpies hunt wooded edges and bird feeders. They’re pursuit hunters, surprising prey on the wing by bursting out from a hidden perch, using cover and stealth to get close to their prey. They are adept at flying through thick vegetation, and typically take smaller birds, such as juncos. The menu of the small hawks consists of 90% songbirds, but also includes mice and voles. I watched a vole trying to hide under a few leaves. Without a snowpack, the rodent had no subnivean environment to provide safety and comfort. Sadly, one sharpie hit a window and died.
 I did have a handsome pileated woodpecker, about the size of a crow, visit my suet feeder.
 With all the fuss about Groundhog Day, it’s funny the mammal isn’t more popular in the team nickname arena. After all, Elvis sang, “You ain’t nothin’ but a groundhog.” Why don’t we have the Woodbury Woodchucks, Grand Rapids Groundhogs or White Bear Lake Whistlepigs? There is the Punxsutawney High School (PA) Chucks, the St. John (ND) Woodchucks and the Wausau (WI) Woodchucks, a collegiate summer baseball team in the Northwoods League. I thought the Washington Commanders football team should have been the Woodchucks. The Princeton WhistlePigs were a summer collegiate baseball team of the Appalachian League based in Princeton (WV), which folded in 2023. Whistle pig is another name for a groundhog. 
 The mosquito danger level was low, so I went for a walk on a blustery January day. A fellow walker asked me to identify scat along a trail. I told her it was from a dangerous beast. It was a nincom poop. 
 I looked at a painting by Les Kouba called "Blue-bills." I counted the ducks in the painting. It was hard not to, and there were only five of them, not 13 as I’d expected. Kouba was born in Hutchinson (MN) and specialized in painting waterfowl. He produced some advertising art: The Old Dutch windmill on potato chip boxes, Schmidt beer wildlife scenes, and the Red Owl grocery store's logo. He’s known for incorporating 13 elements into his drawings, usually flying ducks or geese. Kouba died on Sept.13, 1998, continuing his tradition of the number 13.

Q&A

 “What’s the coldest Minnesota has ever been?” On Feb. 2, 1996, a record low of 60 below zero was recorded in Tower, north of Duluth. Four days later, it was 48 above in Tower. I drove by ice shanties on a lake. There were a bunch of them—no fish was safe. I checked my car's thermometer—it was 55 degrees above zero on Jan. 30. That was outside. An old cowhand from Minnesota or a cowboy from northern Iowa might say, “That ain’t right, but it’s mighty fine.” I glanced at several thermometers on banks, schools, etc. They all showed a different number, but each was near 55. There’s little connection, but it reminded me of an old “Twilight Zone” TV episode in which the Earth was moving away from its usual orbit and gradually falling towards the sun. Food and water grew scarce. Sweaty people proliferated A radio voice warned everyone to remain indoors and be prepared for rampaging looters; it said they could cook eggs on the sidewalk and soup in the oceans. The thermometer surged past 120 degrees. The scene cuts to an apartment at night. In the frigid darkness outside, the weather was 10 below, and a blizzard raged. The protagonist is bedridden with a high fever and she was only dreaming that the Earth was moving closer to the sun. In reality, the Earth was moving away from the sun and would eventually glaciate. She concluded the description of her nightmare with, "Isn't it wonderful to have darkness and coolness?”
 “How many lakes are there in Minnesota?” According to Politifact, Minnesota has 14,444 lake/pond features of 10 acres or more, which is about seven-and-a-half football fields (including end zones). The DNR says Minnesota has 11,842 lakes of 10+ acres. Mower, Olmsted, Pipestone and Rock Counties have no natural lakes. The 10 most common lake names are Mud, Long, Rice, Bass, Round, Horseshoe, Twin, Island, Johnson and Spring. The motto “10,000 Lakes” has appeared on license plates since 1950.
 “Why do some red-winged blackbird males show more red than others?” They show varying amounts because they can control how much of a red epaulet is displayed. Males show red to assert dominance, defend territory or attract females, while hiding the red when feeling vulnerable or being off their territory.

Thanks for stopping by

 “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive."—Marcus Aurelius.
 “In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.—Aristotle.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

Cows moo, dogs bark, pigs oink, cats meow and ducks quack. Right? When it comes to mallards, only the females quack. Some online nonsense claims a quack doesn’t echo. What would make a sound impervious to an echo? Nothing. A quack echoes. Photo by Al Batt.

The vole is the potato chip of the prairie, not of the house

Naturally

 The January day was headed to perfection, but it was a long trip, even if it knew a shortcut. It was -20 degrees and it was windy. That’s an invitation to stay indoors. My Mama didn’t raise any fools, so I waited until it warmed up to -18 degrees, a less than drastic improvement, before heading outside. I tried to do the right thing by my neighbors by feeding the birds. Birds are my neighbors. It was quiet as I trudged along briskly, if a person can trudge along briskly. Then, I heard the voice of a harbinger of hope. A white-breasted nuthatch sang its spring song—a rapid, nasal, “way-way-way-way.” The bird gave voice to an appreciation for a new day.

Q&A

 “How does a woodpecker keep from getting woodchips in its nostrils?” A woodpecker's nostrils or nares have stiff feathers around them. These feathers filter out woodchips and sawdust, and lessen the number of work comp claims. 
 “I heard you talk about an old saying about daddy longlegs helping farmers find cows. Tell me again.” If the cows are lost, find a granddaddy longlegs and say to him, “Granddaddy, granddaddy, where are the cows?” It will lift one of its legs and point in the direction where the cows are to be found. They don’t always tell the truth.
 Ken Nelson of Clarks Grove asked why there are so many mice in houses this year. There are two main things attracting mice to your house—food and shelter. Perhaps birds of prey have had an easier time catching mice with less snow cover for the rodents to use for hiding. A house is a safe haven. While house mice inhabit homes throughout the year, deer mice and white-footed mice prefer to dwell outdoors, and establish shelter within dwellings in order to escape the winter weather. A pest exterminator told me mice can enter through openings as small as a dime. Maybe mild winters have led to more resources, which resulted in more mice. One mouse leads to more mice because they detect the odors of food and other mice. Voles seldom enter houses. Voles, also known as meadow mice, are herbivores that eat grasses, sedges, herbs, seeds, grains, tubers, bulbs, fruits, tree bark and roots. They may be mistaken for another small mammal that does occasionally get into houses: the northern short-tailed shrew that eats voles, mice and insects. The subnivean zone is a hollow space between the ground and the base of the snowpack. It’s a humid winter habitat with a stable temperature of around 32 degrees. Voles and mice live there. They sometimes cache food. Shrews could live there and weasels might hunt the subnivean.
 “Why do I see more Cooper’s hawks today than in the past?” Called chicken hawks by colonists because they plucked poultry from farms, Cooper’s hawks were often shot before the 1940s. Logging and development diminished the hawks’ forest habitat, and pesticide use in the mid-20th century led to eggshell thinning, which further depleted populations. Pesticides such as DDT were curbed, and protections from hunters were initiated in the 1960s, causing populations of woodland avian predators like Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks to soar. These accipiters are drawn to birdfeeders.
 “Why are so many owls hit on the roads?” Some owls commonly forage at the same height as vehicles, making them prone to vehicle collisions. Spilled grain, bags of chips, half-eaten cheeseburgers and beverage containers litter the edges of our roadways. Rodents love to snack on discarded food scraps and grains, and the owls love to snack on the rodents that love to snack on those food scraps and grains. Once an owl zeroes onto a mouse or vole (the potato chip of the prairie) prey item, it doesn’t notice traffic. Owls hunt at low altitudes at night, flying close to the ground where vehicles are traveling.
 “How did barn owls get their name?” Barn owls were around before barns. Maybe barns were named after them? The barn owl's genus name is Tyto, which is Greek for “owl,” and the species name is alba, which is Latin for “white.” So, the translation is “white owl.” The common name refers to the barn owl's frequent use of barns and other manmade structures. Its nicknames are ghost owl, monkey-faced owl and sweetheart owl. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “There are those who argue that everything breaks even in this old dump of a world of ours. I suppose these ginks who argue that way hold that, because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter, things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I'll swear I can't see it that way.”—Bat Masterson.
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”—Martin Luther 
King, Jr.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

The American tree sparrow is sometimes called a “winter chippy” because it has a rusty cap like the chipping sparrows that nest in Minnesota. American tree sparrows forage and nest on the ground, breeding at or above the treeline, migrating down to balmy Minnesota in late autumn. Photo by Al Batt.

If a robin couldn’t take winter, it wouldn’t have become Batman’s sidekick



Naturally

 Finding beauty in ordinary things is a fine idea at any time, but it is perhaps most appreciated when the weather is far from perfect. The coldest day of the year in Minnesota generally falls between January 21-25. On a cold, drab January day, I drove to donate to the Geneva Cancer Auction and delighted in the red stems of the red osier dogwood. Weeping willows grew close to the edge of the road. I suppose they needed a shoulder to cry on.
 There are signs of spring that some might call overly optimistic. Black-capped chickadees are singing “fee-bee” or “spring’s here,” and woodpeckers are drumming.
 I saw a robin stubbornly spending the winter here. They are tough. That’s why one of them became Batman’s sidekick.

Q&A

 “Which bird is the snowbird?” Someone asked if the snow goose was the snowbird. It’s not. Neither is the snowy owl nor the snowy egret. Snowbirds and snowflakes visit me. The dark-eyed junco is the snowbird, and the snow bunting is the snowflake. Juncos are said to bring the snow. I think junco is an acronym for “Just Until Nicer Conditions Occur.” The junco is easily seen against a background of snow, but the snow bunting shows more white than any other songbird. The snow bunting nests in the Arctic tundra. The song “Snowbird” by Anne Murray, in which she sings, “Spread your tiny wings and fly away. And take the snow back with you. Where it came from on that day,” was written by Gene MacLellan, who was inspired after by a flock of snow buntings on a beach in Prince Edward Island. “Snowflakes” describes the movement of a flock in flight. Naturalist John Burroughs wrote, “This is the only one of our winter birds that really seems a part of winter—that seems born of the whirling snow, and happiest when storms drive thickest. Its calls, coming out of the white obscurity, are the sweetest and happiest of all winter bird notes. It is like the laughter of children.” He also referred to a flock as being like snowflakes knit together. Frank Sweet penned this, “Which came first, the birds or the snow? Or was it together they fluttered down?”
 Don of Cannon Falls asked if the blue jays he feeds peanuts to in his yard could be the same ones he sees in a park 2 miles away? I’ve read about blue jays caching seeds up to 2.5 miles from the source. Blue jays are magnificent, big-brained birds that travel extensively in tight-knit groups and gregarious flocks in the winter with variable memberships and range. A dominance hierarchy reduces squabbling. The blue jay is also the mascot of the Waseca Schools. I learned that during the pandemic, people developed a great appreciation for the beauty and vibrance the jays brought to a day. They could be the same birds. Some jays migrate. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says that the number of jays that migrate is probably less than 20%.
 Micah of Mankato wrote, “I've noticed all the oriole nests I've seen, have been hanging on maple trees. Is there something to that?” Baltimore orioles often nest in American elms, but the population of elms dropped because of Dutch elm disease, so the orioles build nests in other trees, especially maples and cottonwoods.
 “How can I tell dog tracks from coyote tracks?” Coyote paw prints are generally narrower and more elongated with tightly grouped toes, creating an oval shape, while dog prints tend to be wider with spread toes, and appear rounder. Coyote trails are inclined to be straighter than the often meandering paths of dogs. 
 “How many seeds does a cattail produce?” Cattails reproduce by both seeds, with an average of 220,000 seeds in a single brown, hot dog-like seedhead, and vegetatively through clones emerging from a single rhizome. A single rhizome may produce up to 100 stalks in a single growing season. There may be a relationship between the abundance of cattails and the size of muskrat populations. In years when there are many cattails, the muskrat populations boom. Cattails get their name from the fuzzy, elongated seed heads reminding some of the tails of cats.

Thanks for stopping by

 “You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself—a point that seems to escape many people.”—Gerald Durrell.
 “Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”—Kahil Bebran.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

Common ravens are members of the Corvidae family, which in Minnesota includes the American crow, blue jay, Canada jay and black-billed magpie. Ravens are permanent residents in northern forested areas. This common raven enjoyed visiting a McDonald’s in Juneau, Alaska. Photo by Al Batt.

When opossums travel in hay bales, they don’t go first class

Naturally

 I saw an old movie where a bald eagle was producing  the call of a red-tailed hawk. I suspect it was because the hawk’s call sounded fiercer than an eagle’s, was easy to dance to, and was undoubtedly more recognizable than the giggles and screams of a bald eagle.
 There is a legend of the bald eagle that says back when the world was new, the eagle had the voice of a symphony, an aria and a rock concert all rolled into one song. When the eagle sang, the world stopped to listen—mesmerized by the beauty of the song. The problem was when the eagle was quiet, the world became too quiet. The gods formed a committee, and after only 173 meetings, the gods decided the eagle's voice should be shared with all the other birds. Because lawyers had yet to be invented, the eagle had no choice but to comply with their wishes. One by one, every bird got a voice. After all the birds had received their own voices, eliminating the world's awkward silences, the bald eagle was left with its current vocals. It’s the voice that sounds as if it’s lamenting the loss of its powerful, enthralling song. And why shouldn’t it complain?

Q&A

 “My uncle told me that opossums came to Minnesota in giant hay bales. Is he correct?” Uncles are seldom, if ever, correct about anything. I know because I am one. Did your uncle ever travel in a giant hay bale? It’s no place for anyone suffering from hay fever, and there’s no first-class section. They don’t even offer those crummy, tiny bags of pretzels. I’ve heard that tale of opossums hitchhiking in hay bales a couple of times. The opossums allegedly caught rides on trucks hauling big hay bales northward to the Gopher State, where they would be served in school lunch programs to students serving detention. Something like that could happen occasionally, but it wouldn’t be a dependable means of travel for the mammals. Few opossums drove those trucks, as arcane laws make it difficult for opossums to obtain driver’s licenses. Why did a plodding mammal that is slow in processing information and not dressed for a Minnesota winter end up here? They don’t stockpile food or accumulate layers of fat. Farms and cities proliferated along the roads and rivers, offering easier paths for travel and free food for opossums. Cities added a bonus as they’re warmer because sunlight reflects off hard surfaces, and cities burn various fuels. Climate change likely played a role as Minnesota’s annual average temperature has risen since the 1980s.
 “When I visited Texas, I was told that everything in Texas either sticks, pricks, stings or bites you. Why is that?” You’ll find that particularly true if you insist on going barefooted. It’s the Texas version of the Welcome Wagon. Texas has a warm and welcoming climate that encourages year-round insect activity, fosters the growth of thorny vegetation and is hospitable to other high-strung things that fly, crawl, slither or swim.
 “What’s the difference between a rabbit and a hare?” Minnesota is home to one rabbit species (eastern cottontail rabbit) and two hare species (white-tailed jackrabbit and snowshoe hare). Hares are precocial, meaning they’re born furred with their eyes open and capable of locomotion. They require little parental care. Rabbits are born hairless, blind and helpless. Rabbits are smaller, have shorter ears than hares, and prefer to hide from predators rather than depending upon their speed to run to safety like hares. And hares are harder to pull out of a hat.
 “What drinks are named after birds?” Liquor: Wild Turkey, Old Crow, Redbreast, The Famous Grouse and Grey Goose. Cocktail: Passenger Pigeon, White Pelican, Blue Bird, Crow, Albatross, Bird of Paradise, The Bird is the Word, Cardinal, Swan Song and Flamingo. Beer: Warbler Ale, Nemesis Bird, Barn Owl Bitters and Old Speckled Hen. Wines: Burrowing Owl, Barn Owl Red, The Goose, Grey Duck, Cooper’s Hawk and Eagle’s Nest. The list is far from all-inclusive, and some names were given to me by a retired bartender I birded with in California. I’d think Prairie Chicken would be an excellent name for a bottled libation. The ghostly sounds produced by prairie chickens are reminiscent of the wind blowing across the top of a bottle.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.”–W. Somerset Maugham.
 “My faith demands – this is not optional – my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”—Jimmy Carter.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

The Minnesota Breeding Trumpeter Swan Survey, conducted in 2022, estimated the statewide population at 51,860. Many of those swans winter in Minnesota, where they find open water and an abundant food supply. This photo showcases the difference in sizes between Trumpeter swans, Canada geese and mallards. Photo by Al Batt.

Canada geese flew over, sounding as if they were playing vuvuzelas



Naturally

 I whistled while I walked.
 Or it might have been caused by my breathing through the icicles that had formed in my nostrils.
 It was below zero as I tiptoed through the little remaining snow. There was a slight breeze that enhanced the winter experience for me. The weather folks used to toss out the term “windchill factor” to make us feel more uncomfortable in our minds than we were in our bodies. They don’t use that phrase much anymore, and I don’t miss hearing it. It brings back painful and cold memories. It’s true the weather doesn’t always agree with me, but it isn’t the weather’s job to agree with me.
 Canada geese flew over, sounding as if they were playing vuvuzelas. Other birds joined me on the raw January day. I heard no complaints from any of them, and I marveled at every feather I saw. Birds dare to be great. They need to be great in order to survive. I watched chickadees and blue jays cache seeds for the next day. Their preparations reminded me of “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” one of Aesop's Fables. That fable describes how a hungry grasshopper begged for food from an ant when winter came. The ant refused to share. The tale sums up moral lessons about the virtues of hard work and planning for the future. I’ve seen the food storage behavior often with those two, as well as done by nuthatches and squirrels. No matter. I love being surprised by the things I expect to see. This leaves me in a perpetual state of astonishment. It’s a wonderful state to be in.
 Back in the house, where there was a minor windchill factor, the bird clock did the call of the eastern screech-owl because it was 9 o’clock. Life was good.

Q&A

 This is a slightly edited version of what Mike Rucker of Lake Wilson had sent, “I have a bird feeder question for you. I picked up a new bird feeder and filled it two months ago. Not one bird has touched it yet, not even a sparrow, and we have hundreds of them. And you know sparrows, they're smart and opportunists when it comes to food. But no, they haven't touched it either. We don't have any finches, I think maybe they would use it. The old feeder is empty every other day, the new feeder has never been touched. Just curious to see what you think.” I advise everyone to give a new feeder 3-4 weeks to allow the feeder birds time to adjust to a new feeder, but your patience has far exceeded that. There can be several reasons for the new feeder being shunned: A lack of appealing food, a feeder with moldy seed, a blockage that restricts any food from being released, a poorly placed feeder exposed to predators, an abundance of natural food sources, or a change in the local bird population. Essentially, the birds might not find the feeder safe, accessible, or offering food they like. Because the other feeder is being patronized, I’d suspect the seed is the problem. Any seed that has gotten wet is no longer a draw. If there is any moldy smell, wash the feeder and replace the seed. Until the birds become accustomed to it, place only a small amount of seed in the feeder and change it regularly so it remains fresh. That amount can be increased once the feeder builds a regular clientele. You might try black-oil sunflower seeds if the feeder ports will accommodate them. The birds we like to see find that food enticing. I hope the feeder becomes a flourishing eatery. 
 “How many litters does a rabbit have each year?” An eastern cottontail rabbit has a home range of 5 acres or fewer and gives birth to three or four litters annually with four to six kits in each litter.
 “Do spiders often bite people, and do I really swallow eight spiders a year while I sleep?” Spiders don’t waste their time biting us. Unless threatened, such a hostile reaction would be pointless. A study found that of Southern California patients seeking medical treatment for spider bites, only 3.8% had actual spider bites. What are the chances of an eight-legged arachnid crawling across your pillow and jumping into your mouth while you sleep is unlikely. Spiders want nothing to do with us. Our open, moist mouths are unappealing to spiders. Snoring would frighten them away. The chances of you chowing down on spiders while you’re sleeping are like winning the lottery.  

Thanks for stopping by

 “Stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”—Leo Tolstoy.
 “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention.”—Mary Oliver.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

How do birds survive winter? They fluff up their feathers, trapping warm air between the feathers to create insulation. Birds could seek shelter in cavities, under the eaves of houses, on the protected sides of trees or in brush piles. Some eat more high-fat food to maintain their metabolism or lower their body temperature to save energy. Photo by Al Batt.

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Did the jay hit the finch with a snowball or was it Colonel Mustard?

 Naturally

 The bison is the national mammal, the rose is the national flower and the oak is the national tree, but we had no national bird. That situation has been remedied. The bald eagle is now officially our national bird after President Biden signed it into law on Christmas Eve. My gratitude goes out to many, but I’d like to give a special nod to a friend named Preston Cook of Wabasha, who was the driving force behind the bald eagle being able to fly to this lofty position. Preston had a vast collection of over 40,000 eagle items (from coins to belt buckles to hood ornaments to two 2,500-pound granite eagles) that he donated to the National Bald Eagle Center in Wabasha. Preston was inspired by Murray Burns, a character in the film “A Thousand Clowns” Preston saw in 1966, who said, “You can’t have too many eagles.”
 A female downy woodpecker tried to land on me twice while I stood peering through my binoculars as I counted American tree sparrows. Apparently, in my dotage, I’ve come to resemble a lanky bird feeder with numerous construction flaws. I was pleased to have been mistaken for something useful.
 Seeing and hearing birds is a gift. Crows are birds. Therefore, crows are a gift. The first bird I saw in the new year was a crow, and I hadn’t been that excited about seeing a crow since the last crow I’d seen.
 There are so many things to see. Bald-faced hornet nests, looking like a gray something or another between a football and a basketball, are seen dangling unoccupied from tree branches.
 Watch for birds pecking at goldenrod galls. Chickadees and downy woodpeckers find the galls a reliable provider of food in the form of larvae. Some ice fishermen use the larvae as bait.
 Great horned owl pairs engage in duet calling during courtship. The male has a lower voice. The great horned owl is a big owl, but the thick feathers for insulation from Arctic cold make the snowy owl North America’s heaviest owl, typically weighing about a pound more than a great horned owl and twice the weight of a great gray owl, which is North America’s tallest owl.
 I walked along the edge of a frozen lake and saw a mink cross the trail. A mink doesn’t change the color of its coat in winter, so it stood out like a sore thumb against the background of snow. Trumpeter swans linger wherever there is open water and blend in with the snow, but their sonorous bugling gives their location away.
 Cedar waxwings stripped the hawthorn and crabapple trees. Cedar waxwings have yellowish bellies, while Bohemian waxwings, which show up in northern Minnesota, have gray bellies.
 Willows and dogwoods become more colorful. Willow trees yellow, and dogwoods redden into perfect subjects for Christmas cards. I love seeing the redbirds on conifers gracing the front of Christmas cards. Cardinals used to be a southern bird, but have moved north thanks to bird feeders, human development and rising temperatures.

Q&A

 “Most winters, I see a muskrat wandering around. What’s going on there?” It's hard for a muskrat to forage for aquatic vegetation if its pond freezes all the way down or the mammal runs out of food in a pond. This forces muskrats to move overland on roads or trails to find food in deeper waters.
 “What do shrews eat?” Shrews belonged to an abandoned order called Insectivora, meaning "insect eater," but shrews are omnivores, eating whatever they can find. They remain active all winter, with a high metabolic rate that causes them to always be in a hurry because they feed voraciously night and day. They eat more than their weight each day and I’ve read that their metabolism is 60 times the rate of a human’s. They eat insects, worms, spiders, centipedes, salamanders, voles, mice, snakes, small rabbits, the nestlings of ground-nesting birds and even other shrews. Unique among mammals, the bite of the short-tailed shrew contains venom that paralyzes or kills its prey.
 “I see rodents scurrying across the walk. How can I tell if they are mice or voles?” Voles are rotund, and their tails are significantly shorter than the long tails of deer mice and white-footed mice.
 “When snowy owls come down here from the tundra in the winter, what do they eat?” Snowy owls prey upon mice, voles, shrews, rabbits, pigeons, weasels, muskrats, waterfowl (ducks and geese), gulls and other targets.

Thanks for stopping by

 "By the age of 70, he who doesn’t read will have lived only one life. He who reads will have lived 5000 years. Reading is immortality working backwards."—Umberto Eco.
 “Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”—Desmond Tutu.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

An American goldfinch wearing its winter disguise. The drab plumage didn’t prevent the finch from being hit in the face with a tiny snowball, likely thrown by a blue jay. Photo by Al Batt.

Never judge a day by its weather



Naturally

 The day was not strikingly perfect, but it was the best day available. Dick Van Dyke said, “We should never judge a day by its weather.” That’s good advice, but advice that’s not always easily taken.
 Three young opossums fed on snow-covered ground on a gelid day. Opossums are omnivores and eat eggs, grains, nuts, fruit, birds, snakes, frogs, mice, carrion, berries, garbage, insects, crustaceans, pet food and bird seed. Claims of them eating large numbers of ticks are dubious at best. A group of opossums is called a passel. I cracked open a window of the house and tossed an apple gently in their direction. The apple hit the frozen ground and took a big hop before rolling into one of the three animals. After being bumped, the opossum jumped into the air and, upon returning to Earth, scrambled off into the woods. The second opossum sniffed the apple and then ran away to safety. The third grabbed the apple with some of its 50 teeth and, smiling like an opossum eating an apple, ran off to that secret hiding place where it goes to eat apples. The three different reactions by the opossums remind me that not everyone wants the same present. None of the opossums wanted money or gift cards.
 I saw a muskrat. Muskrats don’t hibernate or cache food, so they feed all winter. They spend much of their time in a sleeping lodge, which they often dig into a steep bank with an underwater entrance. In early winter, muskrats create small shelters called push-ups by chewing holes in the ice and covering them with a mound of mud and plant debris. These mounds are often 3 feet high and up to 300 feet from the main lodge. Muskrats can stay underwater for about 10 minutes and use the push-ups to catch their breath out of the weather and away from predators. Muskrats have stiff fur around their back feet and toes, which works like webbing to propel them through the water. Their front feet are smaller, and they hold them under their chins while swimming.
 I had detected the hooting of owls during the night. A pair of great horned owls exchanging “Who's Awake? Me too” calls. A great horned owl doesn’t build its own nest and isn’t a significant remodeler of purloined nests. An owl can turn its head 270 degrees.
 I watched a rough-legged hawk balancing in the air. It was hovering. Rough-legged hawks are circumpolar birds that breed in the arctic tundra and have feathered legs that help conserve heat. Rough-legged hawks hover in stationary flight while searching the treeless tundra for prey and continue that practice when they show up here in the winter. They are similar in size to a red-tailed hawk but have smaller bills and feet. Red-tailed hawks can wind stall, remaining steady in the air by using an oncoming wind to accommodate hovering. Rough-legged hawks soar and glide with their wings held in a dihedral or “V” shape. If you see a hawk perched on the tip-top branch of a tree surveying the land for prey, it’s likely a rough-legged hawk. Red-tailed hawks prefer lower and larger perches for hunting. Rough-leggeds primarily prey on shrews, mice and voles during the winter.
 A sharp-shinned hawk hit the window of our house while pursuing a songbird. It didn’t survive the collision. Aptly named, its shins were sharp. The small accipiter had a square-tipped tail. Its yellow eyes identified it as an immature bird.
Getting to know your local birds is rewarding (sad in the case of that accipiter), but it’s good to look at birds while traveling. I watched ravens pulling discarded food items out of trash containers near a McDonald’s in Juneau, Alaska. One freed a paper bag filled with french fries. It was a nest of fries raided by a raven.

Q&A

 “Are ants found on every continent?” Ants are found almost everywhere. The only areas that don't host populations of ants are Antarctica, Greenland, Iceland and some island nations. What? No ants in Antarctica? Most ant species live in soil, leaf litter or decaying plants.
 “How can I tell the leaves of white oaks from those of red oaks? Red oaks have pointed leaf tips, and white oaks have rounded leaf tips.

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 “Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree and there will be one.”—Aldo Leopold.
 “No one can look at a pine tree in winter without knowing that spring will come again in due time.”—Frank Bolles.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

Robins depend upon fruit and berries for food in the winter. They gather in flocks that don’t have frequent meetings with required attendance. A flock enhances an individual’s ability to find food and spot predators. Robins are hardy survivors that can take the cold as long as they eat right. They dress for a frigid day by fluffing their feathers. Photo by Al Batt.

Finding a cardinal feather in a place almost as good as on the bird



Christmas Naturally

 I remember being a Christmas tree wrangler. The tree had been hog-tied and brought home on the roof of our Pontiac. My job was to carry the conifer into the house and place it into a red tree stand with green legs. I tightened screw bolts to hold the tree’s trunk firmly in place. The stand also acted as a watering bowl to prevent excessive needle drop. “Excessive” meant it dropped every single needle. It looked like a rescue tree, but when it was tinseled and precious ornaments from the Ben Franklin store put in place, it’d be a beauty.
 I stepped back to admire my work, something done often by those who do little work worth admiring. It was then that I saw it. A red feather, tinged with gray, stood at attention as if someone had purposely placed it there. It was from a cardinal. We didn’t have a cardinal on the farm. We bought the tree from a tree lot, but I didn’t know where the tree had originated.
 The feather was a choir of angels singing without the choir of angels or the singing, but it was close.
 I can’t give all the credit to a single feather of a handsome redbird, but I can’t deny its complicity in making it a most memorable Christmas. I wish you simple pleasures. Merry Christmas.

Wabi-sabi pheasants and deer

 Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept that directs us to search for beauty in imperfection and accept the more natural cycle of life. Welcome to wabi-sabi winter weather.
 Rarely does a pheasant die of old age. Its average life expectancy is less than 1 year as a result of being a prey species. Pheasants Forever offered these figures: Survival Rate—Mild winter, good habitat: 95% survive. 
Survival Rate—Severe winter, good habitat: 50%.
Survival Rate—Mild winter, poor habitat: 80%.
Survival Rate—Severe winter, poor habitat: 20%.
 State Farm estimated there were over 1.8 million animal collision insurance claims in the U.S. between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. These states have the highest risk of animal collisions: West Virginia (1 in 40 chance of a driver hitting an animal in a year), Montana (1 in 54), Michigan (1 in 59), Pennsylvania (1 in 61), Wisconsin (1 in 63), Mississippi (1 in 65), Iowa (1 in 68), South Dakota (1 in 69), Virginia (1 in 73), and Rhode Island (1 in 75). Minnesota is 11th with 1 in 79 odds. The animals most often involved in animal collisions are deer, followed by unidentified animals (maybe Sasquatch). Most deer-vehicle accidents happen at dawn and dusk, between 5 and 8 in the morning and in the evening. The most dangerous months for animal collisions are, in order, November, October and December.

Q&A

 Ken Nelson of Clarks Grove asked when deer came to Minnesota. The white-tailed deer's original range was limited to the hardwood forests and prairies of southern Minnesota. In pre-settlement times, white-tailed deer were present throughout the wooded river valleys and woodlands of central and southern Minnesota, and most abundant in the hardwood forests (maple, basswood, oak). The cutting of the hardwood forests, the development of agriculture and year-round hunting following the rapid settlement of southern Minnesota were primarily responsible for the decline in deer populations. By 1880, deer had become rare in their original range. The state’s attempts to regulate hunting failed, leading to a ban on hunting in southern Minnesota in 1923. The conifer forests of the north were a haven for moose and caribou and unfavorable to white-tailed deer because the lack of undergrowth in there meant little food and cover for deer. When tree cutting flourished in northern Minnesota, so did deer. By 1950, deer inhabited all 87 counties.
 “When do owls nest in Minnesota?” Here are the nesting times of the three most common owls in the state. The great horned owl is Minnesota's earliest nesting bird, some laying eggs in January. Barred owls and eastern screech owls begin nesting in March. Only two of our Gopher State owls have brown eyes: the barred owl and the uncommon barn owl. A great horned owl weighs 3-5 pounds and has eyes about the same size as ours. If that owl were the size of a human, its eyes would be the size of oranges. Enormous eyes help owls see in near darkness, and one of its ear holes is higher than the other, helping it identify the source of a sound.

Thanks for stopping by

 “The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe for the axe was clever and convinced the trees that because his handle was made of wood he was one of them.”—Turkish proverb.
 Spider Grandmother’s Two Rules in Hopi mythology are: Don’t go around hurting each other. Try to understand things.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

This peregrine falcon has a second job as an education bird. It’s a teacher whose first job is being a peregrine falcon, which may reach speeds of 200 mph during a hunting stoop. The name derives from "falco peregrinus"—"pilgrim falcon" in Medieval Latin. Photo by Al Batt.

Don’t eat the blue snow

Naturally 

 Why did the chicken cross the road? To show the opossum it could be done. Opossums frequently sing ”On the road again.”
 Don’t eat the blue snow. When eastern cottontail rabbits eat buckthorn, they excrete a chemical from the plant in their urine that turns blue in sunlight. 
 Snow buntings look like snow drifting upwards. John Burroughs, a naturalist of the late 1800s, wrote: “The only one of our winter birds that really seems a part of winter, that seems to be born of the whirling snow, and to be happiest when storms drive thickest and coldest, is the Snow Bunting, the real snowbird, with plumage copied from the fields where the drifts hide all but the tops of the tallest weeds, large spaces of pure white touched here and there with black and gray and brown. Its twittering call and chirrup coming out of the white obscurity is the sweetest and happiest of all winter bird sounds. It is like the laughter of children. The fox-hunter hears it on the snowy hills, the farmer hears it when he goes to fodder his cattle from the distant stack, the country schoolboy hears it as he breaks his way through drifts toward the school. It is ever a voice of good cheer and contentment.”
 Pine siskins are charming winter residents that look as if they’re wearing pajamas. They resemble our winter American goldfinches but have streaky breasts. Goldfinch breasts are unmarked.

Q&A

 “Do we have crossbills?” I have some bills that make me cross, but if you’re referring to the birds, we have two crossbills in North America—the red crossbill and the white-winged crossbill. Crossbills have an overlapping arrangement of the upper and lower bills, with one bill crossing over the other. This odd bill is needed because crossbills are specialists in conifer seeds. A crossbill inserts its bill between two scales of a cone and uses the bill as a wedge, allowing the bird’s tongue to remove the seeds. Crossbills aren’t adept at eating food other finches readily eat, such as thistle seeds. The red crossbill has the larger and longer bill of the two and is more likely to feed on pine seeds. White-winged crossbills feed on smaller cones like spruce. Cone production is notoriously variable. Some years, cone production is negligible, which causes crossbills to wander in search of food.
 “Why do so many white birds have black feathers on the trailing edges of their wings?”    Gulls, pelicans, storks, geese and ibises are examples of those birds. The black feathers protect the wing from wear and tear. Black feathers contain melanin, which makes feathers stronger. Feathers with melanin have a tougher layer of keratin—the same substance found in human fingernails—compared to feathers without melanin.
 “Thoreau wrote about a ‘night-warbler,’ but he didn’t identify the bird. What do you think it might be?” Thoreau told Ralph Waldo Emerson about the unidentified bird. Emerson advised him not to try to identify the bird because it was essential to leave some mystery in nature. Those two gents didn’t let all birds remain unknown. Emerson's favorite bird was the black-capped chickadee, which he appreciated for its Yankee industriousness. I agree with Emerson. The chickadee is also my favorite bird. Thoreau's favorite avian critter was the wood thrush because it sang freedom. Hearing the thrush’s flute-like “Frit-0-lay” song never fails to thrill me. I’ve read a lot about the night-warbler and have seen speculation that the mystery singer was the common yellowthroat or the ovenbird. Unless we perfect a time machine that allows us to spend time in Thoreau’s company, that bird will remain a mystery. Perhaps that’s the best thing. It gives us something to wonder about.
 “What is the hawk they talk about in Chicago?” It could be the nickname of Ken Harrelson, called the Hawk because of his distinctive profile. Ken Harrelson spent 33 years as the play-by-play announcer on the Chicago White Sox broadcast. It could be Harrelson, but I doubt it. I suspect the "hawk" you’re hearing about refers to the icy-cold, damp winds that blow off Lake Michigan in the winter. It got the name because the bone-chilling winds are as fast as a flying hawk, and the biting cold is as sharp as a hawk's talons. Ken Harrelson said “dadgummit” often and was known for calling bloop hits that landed between fielders "duck snorts." He might have watched the TV show "The Real McCoys," starring Walter Brennan as Grandpa Amos, for whom "dadgummit" was his hayseed catchphrase.

Thanks for stopping by

 "To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand out in the cold."—anonymous. Aristotle is often credited for this aphorism. I never heard him say it. I doubt he did.
 "When snow falls, nature listens." — Antoinette van Kleef.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

When you see a cardinal, it might take your breath away. A cardinal is said to bring hope or good luck. When you see a cardinal, it tells you that an angel is near. When you see a cardinal, it means you have just received a Christmas card. Photo by Al Batt.

Was Rocky the Flying Squirrel the size of a chipmunk?

Naturally 

 If you have a birdfeeder, watch for motionless woodpeckers, with their bodies held parallel to a tree or feeder, waiting for a predator to pass. That’s a red alert pose. I try to imagine what the bird is going through. I want to put myself in its feathers, but I can’t, but I keep trying. I anthropomorphize to demonstrate kinship. 
 Red or Norway pines have two needles per bundle. White pines have five needles per bundle, matching the number of letters in the word "white."

Q&A

 “Is there a conifer that loses its needles each year?” The tamarack tree, a Minnesota native, is a deciduous conifer with bright green needles that turn yellow in the fall and drop off.
 “Is a flying squirrel the size of a chipmunk, and how does it fly?” It has a membrane that connects its front and back legs called a patagium. Spreading its limbs allows it to glide, not fly, between trees. Minnesota has two species of flying squirrels, not counting Rocky. The northern flying squirrel weighs 2 to 4.4 ounces and is 10 to 12 inches long (tail included). The southern flying squirrel is 8 to 10 inches in length and weighs 1.6 to 2.2 ounces. Minnesota has two species of chipmunks. The least chipmunk is 7.2 to 8.5 inches long and tips the scale at 1.1 to 1.8 ounces in weight. The eastern chipmunk can be 11 inches long (including the tail) and weigh up to 4.4 ounces. So, yes, they are around the size of a chipmunk.
 “How far do bucks travel during a rut?” For three years, scientists at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute in Kingsville, Texas, tracked over 60 white-tailed deer bucks with GPS collars that recorded a buck’s location every 20 minutes from the beginning of November through the end of February, encompassing the peak of the rut in the South Texas study area. The analyzed data found that the home range of these deer during the 4-month monitoring period averaged 2,967 acres. Although home ranges of over 4.5 square miles seemed large, the smallest home range was 332 acres and the largest 13,648 acres. There was a general decrease in home range size as deer aged from yearlings to 3 years of age and then an increase for mature bucks. Daily movements in November averaged just less than 3 miles per day. That movement rate jumped to over 5 miles a day during December and over 6 miles per day at the peak of the rut. There was a great deal of variation amongst individual bucks. During December, daily movement ranged among bucks from 2.5 miles to over 8 miles per day. It makes sense that habitat and population density could have a significant effect on the movements.
 “I walked with you along a lake and you told me how to tell a dabbling duck from a diving duck by how they fly, but I can’t remember how.” A dabbling duck (mallard, wood duck and teal are prime examples) takes to the air more easily, springing straight up from the water like a rocket because of its larger wings. A diving duck (like canvasback, redhead and ring-necked duck) needs to run on the water’s surface to gain enough speed for takeoff because of its smaller wings and body designed for diving, requiring a longer runway to become airborne. Dabblers are slower flyers with feet centered on their bodies, which makes it easy to walk on land. Divers, with legs further back on the body and larger feet used for powering a dive, which makes them awkward when walking on land.
 “What can you tell me about crab spiders?” Crab spiders resemble tiny crabs, holding their front pair of legs in a manner reminiscent of pincers, and scuttle sideways, forward and backward. They come in many colors that help them remain camouflaged on flowers, and can change colors to match the background. A crab spider is an ambush predator that preys on insects. The goldenrod crab spider is the one most commonly encountered. 
 “Last spring, I heard some ducks on a lake that sounded like rubber duckies. What were they?” Some people call the American wigeon “baldpate” because of the male’s white cap and forehead. It produces a wheezy, high-pitched whistle that sounds like a rubber ducky in a tub.

Thanks for stopping by

 “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”—Jimi Hendrix.
 "You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing - that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”—Richard P. Feynman.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

This black squirrel is an eastern gray squirrel. The black color in gray squirrels is called melanism. Some scientists have surmised that black squirrels thrive where it’s colder because their dark fur absorbs more heat from the sunlight, giving them an increased tolerance for the cold. Photo by Al Batt.