Naturally

It was a day that would have made Goldilocks happy. It was just right.

It was a rare morning—no wind, no rain and no vehicle noise. I heard the whoosh of bird wings beating the air. I looked up to see a flock of Franklin’s gulls headed south. The flock was stretched in a long line with every gull appearing to be striving to pass the one on each side. The flock was in the form of a V trying to become a straight line. Named for the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, the graceful flyers are notably smaller than ring-billed gulls with nonbreeding adults sporting a patchy black to gray hood, black legs and feet, and black bills with red tips. They forage in agricultural fields, pastures, landfills and on the surface of water. They used to follow my tractor to feed on the earthworms, grubs, beetles and grasshoppers dislodged by the farm implements trailing the iron horse.

I didn’t own the morning, but nature’s gifts made me feel as if I did.

A red-winged blackbird male stopped at a feeder for a snack. His is a highly polygynous species, which means males may have many females as mates–up to 15. In some populations, 90% of territorial males have more than one female nesting on their territories. He isn’t exactly a supreme ruler because 1/4 to 1/2 of the nestlings in his territory were sired by someone other than the territorial male.

A tiny chickadee on a feeder was busily converting sunflower seeds into enough cuteness to make it through another day.

White sweet clover and yellow sweet clover are similar in appearance. They’re biennial herbaceous plants in the legume (pea) family. First-year plants don’t bloom, and second-year plants grow 3 to 6 feet high. Yellow sweet clover has yellow flowers, is usually the shortest of the two, and blooms earlier than white sweet clover. And white sweet clover (I’ll bet you’ve already guessed this) has white flowers. Sweet clovers are fragrant and reproduce by seed with plants producing thousands of seeds, which can remain viable for 40 years.

Vultures surfed the sky. It’s what they are programmed to do. I find it nearly impossible not to watch turkey vultures wheeling toward the heavens. They leave Minnesota from late August or early September to mid-October, going to the southern United States, Mexico, Central America and South America.

I patrolled the garden, ready to battle the cabbage worms. I was in charge of kraut control.

Q&A

A nest of northern house wrens had fledged in the yard, and my wife asked how long their nestling period was. Because it was my beloved bride posing the question, I gave an immediate, if not sooner, answer. The nestling period is 15-17 days, following an incubation period of 9-16 days. The clutch consists of 3 to 10 pale eggs densely marked with tiny reddish-brown or cinnamon-brown dots. On average, the second brood is smaller. Male wrens replace the old nesting material between clutches. Wrens often add spider egg sacs to the nest materials. In lab studies, once the spiders hatched, they made a wren’s life easier by eating nest parasites. The female wren incubates the eggs with full incubation beginning with the laying of the antepenultimate or penultimate egg. Both parents feed the nestlings and continue to feed them for a while after they’ve left the nest. Nearly every food delivery includes the removal of a poop sac. It’s diaper duty, with the diaper acting like a tiny sandwich bag. A parent takes the sac away and drops it. So be careful of wren bombs falling from the sky. The fledglings typically leave the nest within a few hours of one another.

“Are carpenter ants skilled laborers?” They build a home (nest) and tunnels (roads) without the use of a single power tool, so, yes, I’d say they are skilled.

“There are tiny flies that run across the kitchen counter and aren’t likely to fly. What are they and why are they keeping me company?” When encountering small flies that scurry quickly across surfaces instead of flying, you're likely seeing phorid flies, also known as "humpbacked flies" or "scuttle flies." They are roughly 1/8 inch long and demonstrate a rapid and erratic running or "scuttling" behavior as if they are trying to get open while running a pass route. A distinct humpbacked shape to its thorax gives the fly its other common name. This fly feeds and thrives in the organic material in pipes, drains and food sources such as fruits and vegetables. A prime location is rotting bags of potatoes or onions.

Thanks for stopping by

“If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in you.”―Minquass proverb.

“Before eating, always take time to thank the food.”―Arapaho proverb.

Do good.

Goldenrod soldier beetles are often seen on goldenrod, hence the common name, but visit many other late-summer flowering plants. The adults are seen from July to September, but are most abundant in August. They feed primarily on pollen and nectar but may eat small insects such as caterpillars, eggs and aphids. They don’t damage plants, bite or sting. Photo by Al Batt.