I heard someone refer to the eastern kingbird as a bee martin.
The superstition is that the earwig crawls into the ears of sleeping people.
Pop feeds a fledgling.
A young cardinal has a black bill. Adults have red-orange bills.
I stopped to look at a tree because trees are well worth looking at. Who knows? I might discover a tree unicorn or a leaf phoenix.
By Al Batt
Published 9:00 am Saturday, June 30, 2018You have read 8 of 10 articles.
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’m trying to catch up on my loafing, but that’s not easy for someone known as the LeBron James of farming. I had a big bowl of mini-doughnuts for breakfast. I figured if Cheerios were good for me, these would be even better. You know, if I were Bill Gates, I’d be richer than he is.”
“What do you mean? How could you be richer?” I say.
“I’d still do a little farming on the side.”
Naturally
It’s summer, the hot season of our year. Summer comes from the Old English sumor, from the Proto-Germanic sumur, Old Saxon sumar, Old Norse sumar, Old High German sumar, Old Frisian sumur, Middle Dutch somer, Dutch zomer and German sommer.
A robin had begun singing at 4 in the morning. The bird had a strong work ethic. Each season of every year, I watch birds come and go. They are the heartbeats of the world and weave wonder into my life.
It was nearly bird-melting hot as I walked wet ground. Sedges have edges and clamorous sedge wrens. Insects hadn’t thoroughly bested me, but the deer flies were unrelenting as they tormented me. They go for the head and neck when biting people, inflicting a painful bite using knife-like mouthparts to slice the skin and feed on blood. Fortunately, deer flies aren’t a disease vector here, but some people suffer allergic reactions to the bites. In addition to humans, these biting flies also attack cattle, deer and horses. Deer flies are most common in June and July.
I visited a county park just to listen to the ethereal, flute-like songs of the wood thrush. Thoreau wrote of the wood thrush, “This is the only bird whose note affects me like music, affects the flow and tenor of my thought, my fancy and imagination. It lifts and exhilarates me. It is inspiring. It is a medicative draught to my soul. It is an elixir to my eyes and a fountain of youth to all my senses. It changes all hours to an eternal morning. I long for wildness, a nature which I cannot put my foot through, woods where the wood thrush forever sings, where the hours are early morning ones, and there is dew on the grass, and the day is forever unproved, where I might have a fertile unknown for a soil about me.”
Thoreau was singing my song.
Dave Lewis from Ohio told me that he had collection of photographs of fake owls on docks. He said they must be attracted to boats. I saw three on a dock recently. The imitation owls are like pet rocks. They do no good and they do no harm.
A cat prowled nearby. Australia has built the world’s longest cat-proof fence, hoping the 27-mile fence bordering the Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary will help save endangered animals like the mala, a type of small wallaby, from feral cats. Researchers estimate that cats kill over a million birds each day in Australia.
I walked a trail in Wisconsin as winter wrens sang loud and endlessly. Three male scarlet tanagers landed on a log. Their vivid red colors made good company for the wren serenade. Good news of the family kind arrived via cellphone. We don’t get many perfect days. That was one. I was and am most thankful.
Q&A
Jill and Jerry Morstad of Albert Lea have a mallard hen nesting in one of their trees and wondered if that was common or if it was just a weird duck. As a weird duck myself, I understand weird ducks. Mallards nest in odd places, typically on the ground, but uncommonly in trees. The buck duck provides no assistance in incubating or duckling duties.
“How much does a fawn weigh at birth?” A white-tailed deer fawn weighs 5 to 8 pounds.
“How many times per second do hummingbird’s wings beat?“ The more than 300 hummingbird species found in North and South America flap their wings from 12 to 90 times per second.
“What is a flock of orioles called?” A group of orioles is collectively known as a pitch or a split of orioles.
“Do cowbirds eat insects off cows?” Maybe they do occasionally, but brown-headed cowbirds feed mostly on larger insects such as grasshoppers and beetles stirred into movement by cattle. Cowbirds also feed on seeds and grain.
“When could I expect to see baby skunks?” Eastern striped skunks give birth to a litter of four to six in May or early June. We begin seeing the babies (kits) when they are seven weeks old. Skunklets would be a perfect name for them.
Thanks for stopping by
“Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions.”— Will Smith
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder
Do good.
Even in the fog, the wind turbines were busily producing wind.
A fox squirrel looking for a snake in the grass.
Whether you call it a haymow or a hayloft, this old barn is lovely and that ain’t hay.
A marsh wren has been called the Heinz 57 Varieties Bird because of the many variations of its song.
Apparently, this dead tree stabbed the shelf fungus. It’s a zombie tree.
Yellow trout lily is speckled like a brook trout, with a flower nodding as if it’s bashful about its beauty.
Every ear is different, but to me the dickcissel sings it’s name.
How I typically see a common yellowthroat that is seeing me.
And then it calls, “Follow me, follow me.”
A sparrow practicing to become a flamingo one day.
A mighty pretty place.
A dickcissel in a heavy fog.
June 26, 2018 Al Batt talks about all things birds, nature, etc. on KMSU's Minnesota Morning with host Karen Wright. He also shares wisdom on "trusting your gut".
They seemed happy to see me.
I was given a warm reception.
The common whitetail dragonfly likes to perch on the ground.
The cecropia is North America’s largest moth and is sometimes called a robin moth.
A cecropia moth at a sideways glance.
A widow skimmer dragonfly. A female, I think. Young males look similar. I see them often on the tips of reeds.
A dickcissel looking like a junior meadowlark.
A blackbird goes to see the dock.
The American avocet will aggressively attack predators.
Mud daubers provision their mud nests with spiders.
Raspberry purple becomes my favorite color at this time of the year.
Monarch butterflies make hope dance.
Seen at the Cable (Wisconsin) Natural History Museum.
This device separated the milk from the cream of the crop.
Reaching for food on a lower shelf.
Talking nature on the radio.
May the gull of happiness follow you all day, without pooping on you.
The yellow-headed blackbird’s scientific name is Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus, which means “yellow head, yellow head.”
A red-winged blackbird in need of a napkin.
I was eating sunflower seeds while watching this blackbird eat seeds.
An eastern kingbird feels right at home on barbed wire.
I watched cedar waxwings building a nest without once visiting Home Depot.
Cedar waxwings that became lovebirds.
Bromegrass.
I heard someone refer to leadplant as “prairie shoestrings.”
At the team meeting before planting.
A pheasant tiptoes through the dandelions.
A brown thresher.
Sedges have edges and sedges have sedge wrens.
A clay-collared sparrow’s song is an insect-like buzz.
These North Dakota hills were no mountains to a high-stepping birder like me :>)
A yellow-headed blackbird attempting to hide.
June 18, 2018 "Birding with Batt" - Al Batt talks about birds, nature, weather, etc.... with Minnesota Morning host, Karen Wright.
https://soundcloud.com/kmsu/al-batt-06192018
hHis name is Bill. His career goal is to be an offense lineman in the NFL.
A roadside rose.
Good advice for driving in Minnesota.
They are big fans of the weather in Pingree, North Dakota.
A cowbird comes to a complete stop.
On the prairie, you notice when the wind stops blowing.
My wife gave me this wonderful gift because I’m a loonatic.
The hills were alive with the sound of gnats.
The bluebird of happiness found me hiding in the shadows.
Nothing chases the blues away like a bluebird.
North Dakota is the bee’s knees. It produces more honey than any other state.
Cormorants in the sky.
A tree swallow watched me walk a trail in a park.
Yarrow was formerly used to break a fever by increasing perspiration, to treat hemorrhaging and as a poultice for rashes.
A gray catbird’s giddyup.
A catbird signals a turn.
A tree with snowy flowers, big leaves and dangling seed pods. It’s the northern catalpa.
This eastern phoebe was filling its beak with nestling chow.
You may be a red-necked grebe if...
Listen to nature talk on the radio.
Peonies were live bouquets at the cemeteries I visited as a boy.
our Lady of Mercy Church in Brush Creek, Minnesota.
Loitering mallard drakes.
By Al Batt
Published 9:00 am Saturday, June 9, 2018Nature’s World by Al Batt
The guy from just down the road
My neighbor Crandall stops by.
“How are you doing?” I ask.
“Everything is nearly copacetic. Today is laundry day. I’ve been out of clean bath towels for a couple of weeks now and I’m tired of using a hair dryer to dry off after a shower. I’ve started wearing shorts regularly. My glowing white legs act as beacons to low-flying airplanes. I’d love to pick your brain, but the one you picked isn’t working all that well. I guess that’s OK. I forgot what I was going to ask you anyway. I have a lot on my mind. There is no slack in my slacks. My kindergarten class reunion is coming up. It’s been quite a journey, but I’m worried about the 200 pounds I’ve gained since then.”
Naturally
A gray catbird was sitting pretty. It was in the catbird’s seat next to our bedroom’s screened window. Its plumage is muted, but it has an abundance of personality. Its mimicking song is a series of short musical and harsh notes collected into phrases. A song can last 10 minutes, but it seems longer outside my predawn window. A catbird puts in a long day, as it continues to sing after the sun goes down.
I visited several grocery stores as I did my errands. The cheapest grape jelly was absent from their shelves. It had gone to feed orioles. Chipmunks like jelly, too. I watched one putting sunflower seeds into its mouth, using its cheeks as lunch boxes.
I spotted a tiny bird standing out from the green vegetation. It was more yellow than bird. It was a yellow warbler losing yet another game of hide-and-seek. A friend, Dave Lewis of Stow, Ohio, said that it sings, “Feet, feet, feet; smell my feet.”
Another bird, petite and blue, perched nearby. The indigo bunting breeds from southeastern Saskatchewan east to New Brunswick, and south to central Arizona, central Texas, Gulf Coast and northern Florida. It must be very tired.
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.
By Jiminy! Crickets called by rubbing their wings together.
Dandelions serve as important sources of nectar for bees in the early spring, when most other flowers aren’t yet in bloom. Creeping Charlie, also called ground ivy, is an herbaceous plant native to Europe, brought to North American by the European settlers as medicine and a ground cover. Who was Charlie and why was he creeping? I strolled by the rhubarb. One of my parents preferred cutting rhubarb while the other felt pulling was the best way to go. My mother reminded me that no more than a third of the plant should be harvested at one time.
A turkey vulture took advantage of the 86,400-second rule to enjoy a road-killed raccoon. I found a pileated woodpecker on the road. Pileated can be correctly pronounced PIE-lee-ay-tid or PILL-ee-ay-tid. Sadly, I pronounced this handsome woodpecker dead.
Some arborvitae has browned. This is a severe example of winter drying, which can affect many kinds of evergreens. In late April, the warm, windy days with low humidity caused needles to lose moisture. Frozen soil in the root zone prevented water from moving into the needles to replace the lost moisture. Branches buried under the snow remained alive because they weren’t exposed to the warm, windy and dry environment. If a tree has 50 percent or more green needles, it may recover.
Q&A
Ed Pfannkoch of Chatfield asked for the best strategy to assist dazed birds that have hit windows. The greatest danger to a stunned bird is its vulnerability. An immobilized bird makes easy prey for cats and other predators. Place a dry washcloth or paper towel in the bottom of a shoebox to give the bird’s feet traction. Pick up the bird gently and put it into the box. Place the box indoors somewhere dark and quiet. Darkness calms the bird, which speeds recovery. In an hour, take the box outside and remove the lid. If the bird flies away, feel free to give an imaginary friend a high five. The Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota located in Roseville is a great help with injured birds. Their phone number is 651-486-9453.
“When is the best time to see a firefly in Minnesota?“ I typically see them from the second half of May through August, with July being an excellent month for viewing lightning bugs and their natural fireworks.
The Pelican Breeze
Join me on a natural cruise on Albert Lea Lake on July 1, Aug. 12 or Sept. 2. Please call 383-7273 for more information.
Thanks for stopping by
“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.” — John Ruskin
“No sun outlasts its sunset, but it will rise again & bring the dawn.” — Maya Angelou
Do good.
Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.
Pelicans in a feeding frenzy nearly matching something typically seen at McDonald’s.
Caging feeders could keep larger birds out. Emphasis on “could.”
My parents wanted to name me Hydrangea. But I smelled more like an Al.
Grandma made hollyhock dolls.
I watched cedar waxwings feeding on midges beyond count. The humming sound produced by the midges has a frightening mosquito-like quality. The males have feathery antennae.
A swamp sparrow treed in a swamp.
Tyrannus tyrannus, the eastern kingbird. My neighborhood royalty.
The perfect shelf for an old garage.
This reminded me of George’s Garage of my youth. I thought George knew everything about cars. He may have.
The bird feeding section of a local grocery store has grape jelly galore.
A honey bee hive could contain up to 80,000 bees.
Blue-winged teal dabbling as ducks.
Trying to get their geese in a row.
One of the goslings is named Ryan.
This handsome cedar waxwing had just been on the ground eating midges.
It was like hunting for a midge in the grass.
Is it northern Minnesota? No, it’s Freeborn Lake.
A common yellowthroat. Each warbler is a one-bird bouquet.
To me, it’s a wild rose, but it’s an airport to an insect.
Canada anemone. I heard someone call it a meadow anemone.
Immature male orchard oriole singing, “"Look here, what cheer, wee yo, what cheer, whip yo, what wheer."
No man is an island — or an egret.
No, there isn’t a baseball game going on nearby. This “spittle” protects the nymphs of spittlebugs.
They (MN Rise) were the champions of the Battle on the Hardwood Tournament held in Hastings. My lovely granddaughter is at the end of the front row with the coach directly behind her.
