This lovely plant is a Virginia creeper.

Some folks call it five-finger. Poison ivy has three leaflets. Leaves of three, let it be; leaves of five, let it thrive. Leaves of five, stay alive.

Dame's rocket is often confused for a native phlox, but phlox has 5-petaled flowers and dame's rocket has 4 petals.

The Virginia waterleaf has spots on its earliest leaves that resemble water stains.

Samara warriors. 

Samaras, the winged seeds of maple trees, covered the drive. They had been carried by the wind. As a child, I called samaras whirlybirds, helicopters or whirligigs.

A tortoise has to deal with a lot of overhead.

 http://www.ktoe.com/2018/05/31/talk-of-the-town-with-al-batt-7/

 http://www.ktoe.com/2018/05/31/talk-of-the-town-with-al-batt-7/

https://www.mixcloud.com/KTOE/4-19-18-talk-of-the-town-al-batt/

 https://www.mixcloud.com/KTOE/4-19-18-talk-of-the-town-al-batt/

Al Batt: Size of owls’ eyes reflect what the birds use them for: night vision

Al Batt: Size of owls’ eyes reflect what the birds use them for: night vision

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.comJune 2, 2018 09:00 AM

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing? I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I had the best salad I’ve ever had yesterday.”

“Eating a jar of bacon bits isn’t the same as eating a salad,” I say.

“What made it so good was that my neighbor Still Bill, he makes more dust than miles, bought it for me. I’m not saying he is tight, but if you put a dollar bill in one of his pockets and a rattlesnake in another pocket, you’d never know which one would come out first.“

Naturally

I heard a western meadowlark sing. I listened long and hard to this voice of my generation. An owl had called in the darkness, part of the job description of a night owl.

I spent an entire day walking trails at a fish hatchery located near Bayfield, Wisconsin. Winter wrens called most of the time. Winter wrens, like house wrens, are little birds with big voices. A wren is 90 percent song. Most of the singing had been done by males hoping to attract a hen wren. A winter wren’s song is more powerful than that of a crowing rooster. Yellow warblers, common yellowthroats and ovenbirds sang constantly, too. Mnemonics of the songs of those birds are as follows: Yellow warbler — “Sweet sweet sweet, I’m so sweet,” common yellowthroat — “Follow me, follow me,” and ovenbird — “Nature, nature, nature.” A common mnemonic for a backyard bird would be the “Hula, hoop, hoop, hoop” of a mourning dove. What would a mnemonic be for the winter wren’s rich, bubbling, cascading song? I don’t know. I’m sure there are some, but I find its song too complicated and busy to welcome such a thing. I saw a couple of scarlet tanagers, lovely black-winged redbirds. I was so taken with the handsome tanagers that I nearly stepped on a nesting Canada goose.

My father called the yellow warbler a summer warbler. Among the 21 species of warblers I saw was a Blackburnian warbler. Its striking black-and-orange pattern is breathtaking.

I walked a wooded wetland near Ashland, Wisconsin. My eyes were treated to the loveliness of the marsh marigolds and my nose detected the putrid odor of skunk cabbage. I think skunk cabbage plants are beautiful and they produce enough of their own heat to melt snow. It gets its name from the pungent, skunk-like smell it makes. To me, the stench is more like that of a rotting carcass. This smell attracts flies and other insects for pollination.

Each year, I make a point of moseying along the winding paths of Munsinger Gardens and strolling the brick walkways of Clemens Gardens in St. Cloud. These beautiful gardens situated along the Mississippi River offer hardy perennials, over 1,000 roses, 100,000 annual plants and a garden inspired by the world-renowned White Garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, England.

I opened the door to the house and a June bug, also called a May beetle, flew in. It bounced off a lampshade and fell to the floor. The June bug found itself on its back, like a tipped-over turtle, pawing the air with its legs. I released it outside.

I was pleased to see a monarch butterfly. The area of Mexican forests occupied by overwintering monarchs fell to 6.12 acres from 7.19 acres the prior winter. The number of treed acres occupied by monarchs measures butterfly populations. Twenty years ago, 44 acres of trees held butterflies. Bad weather, illegal logging, habitat destruction and herbicides killing milkweed are the main threats to the butterflies.

Q&A

“Why are owl eyes so big?” Because if they were smaller, they’d fall out of their eye sockets. Large eyes let in more light than small eyes, enhancing the ability to see in the dark. A great gray owl, weighing 2 1/2 pounds, has eyes larger than those of most humans.

“I’ve noticed some Canada goose goslings have gone missing. What preys upon goslings?” The size, intelligence, wariness and aggressive behavior of the parents limit predation on goslings. Foxes, coyotes, raccoons, mink, eagles, owls, snapping turtles, hawks, gulls and crows would love to take a gosling out for lunch.

“Why are ladybugs so brightly colored?” It’s a warning to predators of a lady beetle’s toxicity.

Thanks for stopping by

“Only when one comes to listen, only when one is aware and still, can things be seen and heard. Everyone has a listening point somewhere. It does not have to be in the north or close to the wilderness, but someplace of quiet where the universe can be contemplated with awe.” — Sigurd Olson

“Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.” — Herman Hesse

Do good.

The Blackburnian warbler was named after the botanist Anna Blackburne. The baseball team could have been named the Baltimore Blackburnians. - Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune

The fly had a question.

Ma and Pa, the Purple Martins.

A butterbutt (yellow-rumped warbler) trying to hide its yellow bits from view.

It’s not a lawn dart. It’s a female common merganser.

A young robin is called a young robin.

A house sparrow put something down on a bluebird house. A wild turkey feather.

No snowy egret, but this great egret is snow white.

The Jack-in-the-pulpit is a perennial, but Jack’s preaching will end and his position will be filled with red berries.

This is the bumblebee I petted this morning as it busied itself on Virginia waterleaf.

Replenishing robins.

Gobble, gobble and a slight wobble.

The red-headed woodpecker is nicknamed the half-a-shirt, shirt tail bird, jellycoat, flag bird and flying checker-board.

Kissing cardinals.

These guys have found the internet much too fast.

A native bee house.

Ruby-throated hummingbird nests have been found on loops of chain, wire and extension cords.

Wild ginger is a wonderful ground cover.

Why Hartland, Minnesota is blessed with the presence of chimney swifts.

The palm warbler is named for the tiny bird’s amazing ability to palm a basketball.

A leucistic robin seen in Rapidan, Minnesota.

It’s the time of the year when everything seems to have feathers.

A yellow warbler losing yet another game of hide-and-seek.

Things are looking up for this house finch.

“A wonderful bird is the Pelican.
His beak can hold more than his belly can.
He can hold in his beak
Enough food for a week!
But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?”

― Dixon Lanier Merritt

The yellow-headed blackbird’s song sounds as if it is being strangled.

A Baltimore oriole building a nest.

The indigo bunting breeds from southeastern Saskatchewan east to New Brunswick, and south to central Arizona, central Texas, Gulf Coast, and northern Florida. It is very tired.

Trout lily.

What happens when you hug a tree.

A chipmunk using its cheeks as lunch boxes.

I heard an owl call in the darkness. It’s part of the job description of a night owl.

A common yellowthroat wears a mask.

A yellow-rumped warbler looks at home with the dandelions.

The Wilson’s warbler wears a black crown.

An American redstart. Start is an old English word for tail. In Latin America, the redstart is called candelita or "little torch."

Shadow tail.

Al Batt on KMSU radio. 

 https://soundcloud.com/kmsu/al-batt-05292018

Al Batt: Swallows may be good luck, but several materials keep them at bay

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.comMay 26, 2018 09:00 AM

A nest of barn swallows. - Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Did you hear that Jane Johnson is marrying John Johnson‘s son, John Junior? They’re going to hyphenate their last name. So it will be John and Jane Johnson-Johnson, Junior. Pop finally got hearing aids. Ma hasn’t stopped talking since he got them. She says it’s been years since he has heard anything she has said. She saved it all and is letting him hear it. I see the neighbor has an old pickup planted in the middle of his lawn. Why did he do that?”

“He didn’t want to get a gnome,” I said.

“I had to take time away from slaving on my Hostile Acres Farm to attend to some family matters. It involved more than enough traveling. I’m always happy to get home. My bathroom understands me. I love having the home-bathroom advantage.”

Naturally

I had the blues. And I was happy to have them. There were six male indigo buntings at the feeders. It made me want to hug a cardinal. There was a female bunting, too, a lovely brown bird. Some might call her an LBJ — Little Brown Job.

The morning’s birdsong was a flawless symphony. An egret flew over. As egrets go, it was a great one. Bobolinks sang a song that has been described as “a tinkle of fairy music, like the strains of an old Greek harp.” Bobolinks wear black tuxedos with the wrong side at the front. Most birds with contrasting plumages are light underneath and dark on top. Not bobolinks.

The horned lark, the only native lark in North America, begins nesting early in spring and the tinkling songs of the males come from high overhead. The “horns” of the horned lark are feather tufts. A great crested flycatcher covered in feathers of earth tones pursued flying insects in the yard. I spotted turkey vultures in a dead tree. That seemed appropriate.

A squirrel ran past. They can run up to 20 mph. They work up a sweat that way, as they have sweat glands in their feet.

Jeff Bahls of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, told me that he’d spotted a barred owl eating nightcrawlers on a road.

There are mysteries to bird migration. The wandering of birds leaves me wondering. Birds can be expected, but they can confound expectations.

A red fox trotted through my yard. I was happy to see it. A study by an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies found that where Lyme disease is found, it occurred most often where fox numbers were the lowest. The reason is because red foxes are effective predators of mice, major carriers of Lyme disease.

The day’s red-winged blackbird’s opponent was a bald eagle. The blackbird was fighting out of its weight class, but it hectored the eagle enough that it landed in a farm field. The feistiness of a redwing is impressive.

I heard “kek-kek-kek” coming from on high. It was the call of a Cooper’s hawk, the chicken hawk of my boyhood days. I hear that sound often when I’m near the raptor’s nest. An impressive aerial skirmish took place. A crow and the hawk fussed with one another. Then a second crow came in like the cavalry to put the hawk on the run. They forced the Cooper’s to land in a tree. The crows turned to fly away and the hawk came shooting out of the tree at breakneck speed and chased both the corvids out of the neighborhood.

Q&A

Mary Thostenson of Ellendale asked if goldfinches will nest here. The American goldfinch’s main natural habitats are weedy fields and floodplains, where plants such as thistles and asters are common. They’re also found in backyards, cultivated areas, orchards and roadsides. Goldfinches can be found at feeders all year. They don’t start nesting until July when the fibers, such as thistle down, they need for nesting material become available.

Dennis Seaton of Emmons asked how to prevent barn swallows from nesting under the eaves of a house. It has been speculated that one reason swallows choose to nest close to humans is because that keeps crows and other predators away. In some cultures, it’s considered good luck to have barn swallows nest on a house. To prevent barn swallows from nesting on a building, cover the area with bird netting, chicken wire, aluminum foil or plastic cling. It’s generally four weeks from the time the swallows begin incubating eggs until the young leave the nest.

Thanks for stopping by

“Show respect to people who don’t even deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but as a reflection of yours.” — Dave Willis

“Character is like a tree and reputation its shadow. The shadow is what we think it is and the tree is the real thing.” — Abraham Lincoln

Do good.

Our snow removal plan here is called June

My father called the yellow warbler a summer warbler.

The Blackburnian warbler was named after the botanist Anna Blackburne.

The baseball team could have been named the Baltimore Blackburnians.

The betting window was busy at the duck races today. These two blue-winged teal swam bill-to-bill.

A female American redstart. A snazzy little hen is this butterfly of birds.

I got the look from a red-tailed hawk

Singing in the rain.

Hoping for a good crop of purple martins this year.

The house wren is a little bird with a big voice

Works better than a “Keep off the grass” sign.

I remember a fall day in Manteo, North Carolina

Large-flowered trillium allowed me to tiptoe through trillions of trillies.

I’ve hired a lawn-moving service.

As egrets go, this was a great one.

A woodchuck taking a break from chucking wood.

This woodpecker didn’t know his own strength.

Tools for picking corn by hand.

A crane that erects wind turbines.

I was in Washburn, Wisconsin, when I saw this giant fish devour an entire island. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not had this photo to prove it.

When I was in Bayfield, Wisconsin, I was a real blockhead.

I was charged by this mallard hen. Either someone had been feeding her or it was an annual event, The Running of the Ducks.

I nearly stepped on this nesting Canada goose. That would have resulted in a confrontation.

Bat houses.

The marsh marigold is a plant I called cowslip when I was a lad.

Some refer to a indigo bunting as a blue canary. - Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune

Al Batt: Great horned owlets can take a minute to move away from home

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.comMay 18, 2018 04:18 PM

Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?“ I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I’m as busy as a nudist camp mosquito. I’m pretty satisfied with myself, but I’m easy to please. Pop told me I should go to the bank and borrow more money. He believes if you owe a bank $1 million, the bank owns you. But if you owe a bank $10 million, you own the bank. Pop has more dough than a deep-dish pizza, so he has to worry about other things. He was worried because he couldn’t remember what shirt he’d worn yesterday. He’s solved that problem. He’s going to wear his favorite shirt every day. I’ve found that people do care. A fellow fell on the sidewalk the other day. Other people were careful not to step on him. My neighbor mowed his lawn. Talk about peer pressure. The grass has grown too tall for my mower. I’ll have to mow it even though in just six weeks, it’ll need mowing again.”

Naturally

I’m a sustaining member of the fanatic bird feeders of my zip code.

As I came out of the house to fill the feeders, the first three birds I saw were a house finch, house wren and house sparrow. That seemed appropriate.

The yard had become Goldfinch City as the chatter of the tiny birds filled the air. I saw a Swainson’s thrush looking something like a coloring-book robin that hadn’t been completely colored. Male birds sang for the ladies. An avian serenade. Orchard orioles, while their chatter is similar, don’t whistle like Baltimore orioles, but sing more like a house finch. Carpenters worked in the yard. Woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees excavated nesting cavities in trees. A chipmunk being chased by anotherchipmunk ran over a fox squirrel feeding on the ground. The squirrel was perturbed, but the chipmunks had quickly left the scene.

Gardening was on my mind. Ancient Romans planted seeds on dirt-filled carts and rolled them into the sunshine. Rhubarb, native to Central Asia, first appeared in American seed catalogs in 1829 and is called “pie plant” by some.

From the car, I saw coots eating grass, walking as if they were wearing clown shoes. Magnolias bloomed, their flowers appearing before their leaves. I visited the National Wildlife & Fish Refuge, which covers 261 miles of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. In 1972, the refuge had one bald eagle nest. Now it has over 250 active nests. Bald eagles incubate their eggs for 35 days with the young fledging in 12 weeks and the adults weighing 8 to 14 pounds.

Color-coordination is overrated. Each time I see a sunset, I’m reminded that orange goes well with any color.

Q&A

Jim Lageson of Ellendale wrote about young great horned owls on branches and wondered if the owls eat carrion. Young great horned owls move onto nearby branches when they are about 6 weeks old. They are capable of short flights at around seven weeks of age. There can be a significant age difference in owlets as the mother typically lays an egg every couple days until the clutch is complete and starts incubating as soon as the first egg is laid. The eggs laid first hatch soonest. After leaving the nest, the fledglings remain close for several weeks, often roosting together in a tree near the nest. They react to the sight of their parents with begging calls and flights aimed at the older owls. Fledglings keep company with their parents for most of the summer. The owlets’ noisy begging can be heard into October. Most nests are used for only a single season. By the next nesting season, the young owls will have left the territory. After dispersal, most young owls are excluded from breeding by the aggressive behavior of territorial owls. Great horned owls eat almost anything that moves and will eat carrion if they must, but it probably isn’t their favorite fare.

Pat Ryan of Rapidan saw a robin with white wings and wondered what was going on there. It sounds like leucism, a genetic condition in which pigments don’t reach all the feathers. This results in white patches or a pale plumage. The bird would retain the normal color of skin and eyes. Albinism, on the other hand, results in pink eyes and skin.

“Do fake owls work to keep other birds away?” No, but they do keep other fake owls away.

“Why do young birds leave the nest before they can fly?” It’s to the advantage of some young birds to get out of the nest as soon as possible because a nest full of loud baby birds attracts predators and the nests can have parasites.

Thanks for stopping by

“Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.” — Alice Morse Earle

“To damage the earth is to damage your children.”— Wendell Berry

Do good.

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

Cliff swallows pile into their nests as if they were clown cars.

Red and white. Fight, fight, fight.

Flowers turn me into a cheerleader.

Cliff swallows are hard at work building nests.

The cliff swallow is famous for its returns to San Juan Capistrano.

Cliff swallows build by mouth.

I slowed down. This is at Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin.

A mammoth seen at Horicon Marsh.

The tree swallow was just visiting.

My father called it the blue canary—the indigo bunting.

My wife puts out food for me and I put out food for the birds.

The Harris’s sparrow is the only songbird that breeds exclusively in Canada.

A wren house made from license plates.

I love this yellow warbler.

Prothonotary warblers and cluster flies.

 https://www.albertleatribune.com/2018/05/al-batt-cluster-flies-of-a-feather-earthworm-parasite-named-for-its-behavior/

The orchard oriole enjoys oranges and grape jelly.

A ruby-throated hummingbird not looking very ruby-throated.

A bad photo of a hummingbird’s handsome gorget.

A mewing gray catbird.

A gray catbird has lots of personality.