Notice the dark patagial marks (between the shoulder and the forewing) on the underwings of a red-tailed hawk.
Turkey vultures have gray flight feathers and fingers at their wingtips.
Frank Sinatra never sang as much as a Carolina wren.
The ticks in Minnesota are sizable.
The light-colored leaves and the fruit of the bur cucumber.
This honey locust tree is armed.
Warning: Woodpeckers at work
This leaf couldn’t decide whether to be red or green.
A banded tussock moth caterpillar comes in colors from brown to yellow to gray.
Bats are good neighbors.
A great spangled fritillary is perched upon a thistle flower that gives the butterfly the illusion of having a purplish tail.
A fall day carries a bit of spring with it.
I’m going to add these birds to my Missouri life list the minute I am able to identify them.
I walked like a kestrel.
I ate a waffle at this Waffle House in Columbia, Missouri and it made me a better person.
The stories of James Floyd Stevens of Moravia, Iowa, helped make Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox legendary.
A spiffy carving of bald eagles in Moravia, Iowa.
Great Little Free Library and advice in Columbia, Missouri.
Queen City, Missouri.
Wise words and a planter Bug in Unionville, Iowa.
This water tower in Missouri is a mind reader.
Senior farmers, please be aware of a telephone scam where the caller attempts to sell you a new Case tractor.
This is where you went to learn how to become a Taylor back in the day. This is near Moulton, Iowa.
I enjoy an optimistic dinner with ambitious silverware.
Virginia creeper flashes its fall colors.
Wasps will raid and plunder a honey bee hive.
The feather structure of a double-crested cormorant decreases buoyancy and facilitates underwater pursuit of prey. Its plumage isn’t water-repellent. A spread-wing posture helps dry wet wings.
A great egret shares a post.
At the Albert Lea (MN) Audubon Preserve.
The Romans called it augury, the reading of the number, flight pattern and behavior of birds such as starlings to divine messages from the gods. It works. This starling predicted snow last January.
Saw this sandhill crane and colt while doing a Breeding Bird Survey in June.
Herter’s, located in Waseca, Minnesota, was Cabela’s before there was a Cabela’s.
I’m surprised Edgar Allan Poe never wrote a story about an earwig.
There was a bright golden haze on the meadowhawk.
This sign in Lake Crystal, Minnesota, reads: “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of the white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave."
The European skipper was first recorded in the U.S in 1925. This butterfly’s caterpillar feeds on timothy named for Maryland's Timothy Hanson, who has been called the Johnny Appleseed of hay. He was the first to cultivate this Eurasian grass in North America in the early 18th century.
Wherever fake owls gather, there are crows laughing.
by Al Batt, albertleatribune.comSeptember 22, 2018 09:00 AMHoney bees have taken control of this grape jelly feeder. - 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.
“Everything is nearly copacetic. Pop is still playing with a full deck, but it takes him longer to shuffle. He’s a speed bump. He slows down everyone. Pop rocked himself to sleep trying to get out of his easy chair. The only exercise Pop gets is opening pill bottles. He was complaining of double vision. Ma told him to keep one eye closed. Pop talked me into buying an extended warranty for my truck. It covers only the glove compartment door and the vanity mirror. I have an old truck. It’s shedding parts. I’m trying not to have an old truck. I’m thinking of trading my 12-year-old truck for an 11-year-old truck. I should sell it to Junior. I figure with what he’d save in speeding tickets alone, it’d pay for itself.”
From the mailbag
Lee Johnson, who I met at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, sent this:
“In 1957, my mom and dad, Hal and Dori, moved into their new home in Rochester. They became fast friends with their next-door neighbors, Gene and Ken. They remained best friends for the rest of their lives. Dori and Ken quickly discovered that they had a penchant for playing practical jokes on each other. They delighted in seeing who could play the most diabolical prank on the other. This practice, also, remained in effect for all of their days. This is the story about a joke that was played a long time ago and has attained an almost legendary status as their best joke ever.
“Ken had several bird feeders in his backyard and had an obsessive hatred for the squirrels that continually raided them. Ken was a handyman/tinkerer and decided he would build a ‘squirrel-proof’ feeder. He made many attempts at this, but they all failed. Finally, he hit upon a design that he was sure the squirrels would not be able to defeat. He drilled a small hole in the center of a “flying saucer” snow sliding toy and ran the pole that supported the feeder through it. He was extremely proud of his invention, as it was totally effective at keeping the squirrels at bay. He bragged quite a bit about it. One day, my mom was driving home from some errands and, a couple of blocks from the house, she saw an unfortunate squirrel in the road that had been killed by a car. By the time she got home, a fiendish plan had formed in her mind. She went in the house, got a paring knife, drove back to the squirrel’s body and cut its tail off! (To this day, the Johnson children find it almost impossible to believe that our sainted mother actually did this!) She took the tail back home and waited until she was sure no one was home next door. She then took a thumb-tack and secured the tail to the back of Ken’s ‘squirrel-proof’ feeder. She left just enough of the tail dangling so that Ken could see it from his kitchen window. She then went back home and waited for the fun to begin. Not long after, the folks who lived on our block were treated to a sonic blast that will be long remembered. Ken started yelling loudly at the squirrel to vacate his feeder. When Ken saw this was ineffective, he began swearing at it like the sailor he used to be. Finally, he went running out to the feeder and quickly realized that he had been totally pranked.”
Q&A
“What’s the difference between a dragonfly and a damselfly?” Dragonfly eyes are much larger than those of a damselfly, which have a gap between them. Dragonflies are short and stocky in appearance. Damselflies have long and slender bodies. At rest, a dragonfly holds its wings out from its body, like an airplane. Damselfly wings are held over its back.
“How can I keep wasps and bees away from hummingbird feeders?”
Moving the feeder a short distance can decrease insect visits without discouraging hummingbirds. Use hummingbird feeders with bee guards or make the nectar less sweet — five parts water to one part sugar instead of the usual four parts water to one part sugar. Bees and wasps prefer feeding in sunny areas and are attracted to feeders with yellow colors. Give insects their own feeder with a sweeter solution in full sun.
Albert Lea Audubon Society
Please join me for some nature stories on Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. at Southwest Middle School Little Theater at the corner of U.S. Highway 69 & Front Street. This event is free and open to the public.
Thanks for stopping by
“As I look back on the part of the mystery which is my own life, my own fable, what I am most aware of is that we receive more than we can ever give; we receive it from the past, on which we draw with every breath.”— Edwin Muir
“Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we’ll soon be in trouble.“ — Roger Tory Peterson
Do good.
Honey bees enjoying grape jelly.
A noisy shot of a plume moth. Holding its wings at right angles when at rest suits a plume moth to a T.
I love seeing a monarch butterfly tree.
A young male widow skimmer. This dragonfly often spends the night hanging around under leaves.
This cecropia, North America’s largest native moth, was seen not just hanging around a bank. It was hanging onto a bank.
Milkweed seed is on the wind. During World War II, these silky seeds were used in life vests and flight suits.
Harmless flower flies are good at mimicking bees or wasps.
Harmless flower flies are good at mimicking bees or wasps.
New England aster. The “petals” are each an individual flower called a ray flower. In the center of the head is another kind of flower, called a tube flower.
New England asters are a late season favorites of butterflies.
Large milkweed bugs prefer to feed on common milkweed, but will feed on related species.
Milkweed bug nymphs.
Sumac tries on some red colors for fall.
It’s that time of the year when the pavement begins to leaf out
The gray catbird is a fine looking bird that guards my raspberry patch each year and tries to keep me away from it.
Crane flies may look like giant mosquitoes, but they don’t bite.
A yellow-rumpled warbler found comfort with the dandelions.
An American redstart dances amongst the twigs.
This lesser yellowlegs seemed narcissistic.
by Al Batt, albertleatribune.comSeptember 15, 2018 11:00 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 put new license tabs on my truck. It seems to run better. I remember when my neighbor Still Bill, he’s the Midwest distributor for inertia, and I were in the Boy Scouts. One day, we learned how to rub two sticks together to start a fire.“
“Still Bill did that?” I say.
“He tried, but he didn’t put much time into the effort. He’d gotten so warm from rubbing the sticks together that he didn’t need a fire. Still Bill has talked me into drinking cod liver oil every morning. He says it builds resistance.”
“To what?” I ask.
“To ever drinking it again after I get this bottle emptied. My neighbor, Crying Charlie, was in the troop with us. I saw Charlie when I took Pop to the clinic to get his attitude adjusted. Crying Charlie has a case of the worse.”
“The worse?” I say.
“Yes, if you have a bad cold, Charlie has pneumonia. Whatever anyone else has, Crying Charlie has it worse.”
Naturally
I’ve seen few pheasant chicks this summer, but the Minnesota DNR’s 2018 roadside survey for pheasants showed a 19 percent increase from 2017. That’s 52 percent below the long-term average. Weather and habitat are the two main factors driving Minnesota’s pheasant population trends. Gray partridge numbers were similar to 2017, but 50 percent below the 10-year average and 93 percent below the long-term average. The mourning dove population decreased 7 percent from 2017, remaining below both the 10-year average and long-term averages. Cottontail rabbits decreased by 23 percent from 2017, but were 13 percent above the 10-year average and similar to the long-term average. The white-tailed jackrabbit count was near last year’s and historically low. The white-tailed deer index declined 13 percent from 2017, but was 19 percent above the 10-year average and 99 percent above the long-term average.
Paper wasps were numerous on the goldenrod plants. A honey bee followed me into the house. I opened a window and it flew back out in less time than it took me to close the window.
I was at a pleasing Plowing Bee at May Farm near St. Clair where many nice people had gathered. I spotted a gray tree frog that was greener than the milkweed leaf it was perched upon. This frog is variable in color with an ability to camouflage itself in shades of gray to green, depending on the substrate where it’s situated. Common green darner dragonflies (devil’s darning needles,” “snake doctors,” or “mosquito-hawks) were here and there and there and here at May Farm. This large dragonfly migrates south.
I also saw a number of native bees, which the honey bee isn’t. A bee nest box makes a great gift for gardeners or nature lovers. Many of our native bee species are solitary and effective pollinators. In order to ensure that these bees spend more time in our yards and gardens, they need places to nest. Mason bees and leaf-cutting bees are among those that utilize holes and you can provide nesting space for them by building a nest box and filling it with straws or drilling holes into a block of wood. Different bee species utilize holes of different diameters, so include a variety of sizes. A simple box can be made from a cardboard milk carton, salty snack tube, etc. filled with tubes made from straws, wood, bamboo, plant stems, etc. Boxes can be purchased and plans are available online.
Q&A
Rachel Depuydt of Eagle Lake asked what the difference was between a frog and a toad. They’re not easy to distinguish. Most frogs have long legs and smooth skins covered in mucus. Toads typically have shorter legs and rougher, thicker skins. Toads generally find their way into gardens and yards more than frogs. Frog eggs are found in a mass while toad eggs are in a chain. I was taught that all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads.
Karen Wright of Mankato asked what butterflies do in the rain. They try to avoid it. Butterflies hide when it rains — under large leaves, in tangled thickets, in dense vegetation, under rocks, in grass or bushes, or anywhere else that would intercept the raindrops.
Thanks for stopping by
“If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat, and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference.“ — Robert Fulghum
“It is not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” — Henry David Thoreau
Do good.
A peacock is a male peafowl. The female is a peahen. Our peafowl used to stalk our auxiliary dog.
A pearl guinea fowl sounds as if it is calling, “Quebec! Quebec! Quebec!”
Not long ago, I was getting an IV. What was I thinking about during that time? I was daydreaming of walking past a wall of ivy.
A western leaf-footed bug on a pomegranate on Bouldin Island in California.
Olaf Haraldsson, Saint Olaf, is the patron saint of Norway. St. Olaf Cemetery is a peaceful place in Waseca County, in Minnesota.
I cannot imagine the stories Henry Otto Hagen had to tell.
From St. Olaf Cemetery.
These grapes will soon have a lot to wine about.
Napa Valley Merlot.
A white-crested polish chicken in need of a dab of Brylcreem.
This is not a scapegoat. This is the kind of goat that blames the photographer.
The pelican in the rear eats between meals.
If each bird called out its name as the killdeer does, birding would be much easier.
A mining bee taking a break from all that mining.
I walked past the Wrigley Building in Chicago, but I was unable to do it while chewing gum.
This female American goldfinch eats seeds almost exclusively.
I encountered this western fence lizard on a fence in Napa, California.
This tiny California poppy, like a kind word, casts a long shadow.
The goldfinch’s flight call is “po-ta-to-chip.”
An elegant shorebird is the American avocet. It enjoys dining on brine shrimp.
I love talking about nature with good-natured folks.
Photo by Dana Melius
The honey bees have assumed control of the hummingbird feeder.
It may look like your brother-in-law, but it’s a Maroni chestnut tree.
I moseyed among the Merlot at the Meritage in Napa, California.
A katydid sings a song of summer’s end.
I suspect this is a shaggy parasol mushroom. Whatever it is, it is lovely.
The common whitetail is a dragonfly that primarily perches on the ground.
Breeding male ruddy ducks have sky-blue bills.
The song sparrow is a persistent and lovely singer. A mnemonic for its song is “maids, maids, maids, put on your tea kettle-kettle-kettle.”
They are waiting for the blue jay to arrive.
Jammed up and jelly alight.
This leucistic American robin tried to hide from me in Rapidan, Minnesota.
The eye of a double-crested cormorant is aquamarine in color.
This nest box for bees is being well used.
a common yellowthroat kept his eyes on me this summer.
Gordon and Goldie enjoy a meal as Godfrey waits patiently for his mate to arrive.
Mr. Toad of the American Toad Hall.
This one-legged Baltimore oriole gets its kicks at a jelly feeder.
This red fox, a taxidermist’s work displayed at a county fair, shows its diagnostic white-tipped tail.
Rabbit’s foot clover seen at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.
Tick trefoil at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.
The butterfly weed had a lot of customers.
Did you know that 26.6% of Minnesotans are without dental insurance?
by Al Batt, albertleatribune.comSeptember 8, 2018 09:00 AM
Nature’s World by Al Batt
My neighbor Crandall stops by.
“How are you doing?” I ask.
“Everything is nearly copacetic. My neighbor Weasel rode along with me to an important meeting in a big city. My neighbor Still Bill was going to come along, too, but he has an enlarged procrastinate. It was like beating my head against a dead horse to get him moving, so Weasel and I left him home. I decided to splurge by eating in a fancy restaurant. It’s a good thing Still Bill, he makes more dust than miles, wasn’t with us because he says “gawrsh” instead of “gosh.” That would have embarrassed us to no end. It was the Pelican Club, named for the size of its bills. The headwaiter gave us a dirty look because we weren’t wearing dinner jackets. I thought a dinner jacket was the skin on a baked potato. Weasel barely survived looking at the menu. It jarred his preserves. He’s so cheap, he can’t open his hands far enough to get gloves on. His wallet is on a bigger chain than his dog is. Weasel doesn’t believe in impulse buying. He believes in impulse banking. Weasel and I went to church Sunday morning. The minister said in his sermon that every man, woman and child in the congregation would die one day. That made me smile.”
“That’s terrible! Why did that make you smile?“ I say.
“Because I wasn’t a member of that congregation.”
Naturally
The next season is always just around the corner.
Rain fell. Waseca set the official state annual precipitation record in 2016 with a total of 56.24 inches, 63 percent of which fell between July and September.
Young animals are out and moving about. Some become roadkill before they discover that cars can be cold-hearted.
I saw no young robins in the yard. Baby robins are unable to fly well when they leave the nest. They must build muscles and grow adult feathers to be capable fliers and that takes time after fledging. Their spotted breasts and other camouflage markings help hide them from predators. They are skilled at blending in with their environment. Robins typically have two broods a year with both parents feeding the youngsters. About a quarter of those that fledge survive to November. About half of those birds survive to the next year.
I noticed some abnormal molts on birds in the yard — two bald blue jays and a bald cardinal. Barn swallows sliced the air, feeding upon swarming ants. The barn swallow is a Neotropical migrant. It travels south in flocks to winter in Mexico, Central America and South America. It travels by day, eating as it flies. It travels as many as 600 miles a day.
Q&A
Bonita Underbakke of Lanesboro and Rod Meyer of Mankato each asked the identity of a beautiful black and yellow spider that appears to be trying to write a novel in its web. It’s an Argiope (ar-JYE-o-pee) or black-and-yellow garden spider. It’s also called a yellow garden spider, a signature spider or writing spider. It’s an orb weaver. They are typically found in late summer in the center of large, roundish webs. The spider’s large web often has an area in a zigzag pattern, called astabilimentum, which resembles dental floss. The purpose for this is up for conjecture, but is thought to provide camouflage for the spider, attract flying insect prey by reflecting ultraviolet light or is a warning to birds to avoid the web. There is much folklore as to what the spider is trying to write. As with many spiders, the female is much larger that the male. She has a body measuring about an inch long and, including their legs, can be several inches in length.
“Where do wasps overwinter?” The only wasps that live over the winter are the queens. The other wasps perish with the onset of cold weather. In the fall, the queens find refuge in protected sites in and around the home and landscape, such as under a rock or tree bark. The wasps that survive the winter are fertilized queens that will build a new nest and colony from scratch.
Thanks for stopping by
“Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later. Clean air, clean water, open spaces — these should once again be the birthright of every American. If we act now, they can be.” — President Richard Nixon’s 1970 State of the Union message to Congress
“That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.” — Henry David Thoreau
Do good.
Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.
