Naturally

Flocks of red-winged blackbirds are signs of spring and signs of fall. Blackbirds are conspicuous in flocks.

The blue jays always look as if they’re in the process of committing a misdemeanor. Mark Twain said, “A jay hasn't got any more principle than a congressman. A jay will lie, a jay will steal, a jay will deceive, a jay will betray; and four times out of five, a jay will go back on his solemnest promise.”

Leaf-cutter bees cut ovoids out of leaves for use in constructing a nest within plant stems.

Roman augury, or the taking of auspices, stated whether the gods approved or disapproved of a specific action. Oscines were the birds whose singing was observed, such as owls, ravens, crows and chickens. Alites were the birds whose flight gave auspices and mainly involved vultures and eagles. I’d have thought the augurs would have searched for omens in the flight of starling flocks. Grainger Hunt marveled at the way starlings gathered in flocks called murmurations, which he described as “a dazzling cloud, swirling, pulsating, drawing together to the thinnest of waists, then wildly twisting in pulses of enlargement and diminution.” Murmurations offer safety in numbers. It’s a challenge for a falcon to single out one starling from a shape-shifting group of hundreds or even thousands of birds.

Researchers conducting a helicopter survey at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, discovered a black bear sleeping in a bald eagle nest. The scent of leftover fish may have drawn the bear.

My father used to say, “You get what you give.” He was talking about feeding our cattle, pigs and poultry. It applies to bird feeding, too. I feed primarily black oil sunflower seeds. I avoid cheap seed mixtures, which invite house sparrows to the table. In the Midwest, house sparrows usually have 2 or 3 broods, but they could have up to 4 broods of 1 to 8 eggs. If you invite the beautiful little house sparrows, which we called English sparrows for years, they bring their appetites and their extended families.

The bright yellow flowers of the Jerusalem artichoke (sunchoke) bloom. This native has edible tubers and has the largest (up to 10 inches long) and broadest leaves (up to 5 inches wide) of the native sunflowers. The leaf’s upper surface has a texture like sandpaper.

Q&A

“What bird sings the most?” A red-eyed vireo set a record by singing over 22,000 times in just 10 hours. Give that a try when you have a free 10 hours. It did that without a single throat lozenge. The northern mockingbird, wood thrush and house wren are wordy birdies. If you travel out of the country, you might enjoy the lengthy singing of the yellowhammer and the superb lyrebird. The lyrebird even makes the sounds of chainsaws and camera shutters for your listening pleasure.

Janelle Tukua of Albert Lea asked how deer communicate. White-tailed deer have an advanced communication system. A deer in alarm or distress may forewarn other deer visually (stiff walking, foot stomping, alert ears, raised tail and head swaying), chemically (scent deposited from the interdigital gland between the “toes”), and vocally (a snort or grunt). The waving white flag of a deer’s tail as it runs off is another example of visual communication, as are scrapes (bare dirt exposed by bucks pawing the ground with their hooves) and rubs (tree bark removed by a buck’s antlers). Forms of body language used by deer include hair bristling, staring and head movements that are used to establish dominance and territory.

“Why is the woodcock called a timberdoodle, and what bird is the plum pudding?” An American woodcock has many nicknames. The colloquial name timberdoodle, which sounds like a toy, derives from the bird’s habitat, erratic behavior and appearance. It’s also called a bogsucker because of its habitat of probing moist soil with its bill in search of food like earthworms. Another nickname is the Labrador twister, which comes from the woodcock’s spring sky dance. The American bittern has more nicknames than all the teams in most any football conference except the Big 20, with the monikers derived from the bittern’s unusual, booming calls. The sobriquets include plum puddin’, thunder-pumper, stake-driver, water-belcher, mire-drum, bog bull, butter-bump, dunk-a-doo, slough pumper or slough pump, barrel-maker, night-hen, post-driver and belcher-squelcher. There are other nicknames given to the American bittern for reasons other than the bird’s call. They are bog-hen, night-hen, bog-trotter, sun-gazer and shitepoke.

Thanks for stopping by

“This curious world we inhabit is more wonderful than convenient; more beautiful than it is useful; it is more to be admired and enjoyed than used.”―Henry David Thoreau.

“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.”―Iris Murdoch.

Do good.

Most white-tailed deer fawns are born in mid-May to mid-June, and weigh 5 to 8 pounds at birth. Typically, half the fawns are male and half are female. Their brown fur blends in with the dry grass and leaves, and the white spots mimic dappled sunlight. By the time a fawn is 2 weeks old, it’s capable of outrunning many predators. They lose their spots in 90-120 days. Photo by Al Batt.