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.