Turkey vultures have been here for a long time

Turkey vultures have rooted history in southeastern Minnesota

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.com
November 3, 2018 09:00 AMThe number of brown hairs has to do with the age of the woolly bear caterpillar. 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. I got my Ford Fiasco out of mothballs and drove it towards town. The car surprised me by completing the trip. I met the Fiasco the year my Slinky lost the spring in its step. I went to the theater and was nearly frightened into the next county.”

Scary movie, huh?” I say.

“No, it was the price of the candy that scared me 57 percent to death. Oh, I’ve been seeing woolly bear caterpillars.”

“Ah, if the rusty band is wide, then it will be a mild winter. The more black there is, the more severe the winter. What kind of winter do the woolly worms foretell for us?” I ask.

“We’ll definitely have one.”

Naturally

The crows cawed in the morning. I am pro crow. I figure if crows do well, so will my family.

Rich Greene of New Ulm told me that he was seated at a table outside a cafe, enjoying a scone. A robin landed on his shoulder. What else could a man do but share his scone with a guest?

I spoke in Duluth and spent the night at the home of Cindy and Chris Edwardson. Those wonderful hosts needed to take their bird feeders in each night because of a marauding black bear.

David Livengood of Silver Spring, Maryland, told me that there was a female cowbird that landed on the outside mirror of David’s car each day. The bird looked at itself in the mirror and then pooped on it.

A cardinal goes through a full molt in the fall. The male’s new feathers come with brown tips that wear away over winter, leaving them bright red in the spring. A cardinal gets its red plumage from pigments called carotenoids obtained from sunflower and safflower seeds, apples, dogwood berries, grapes, raspberries, rose hips and others. Carotenoids produce red, orange or yellow feathers.

Q&A

“How many broods will a mourning dove have in this country?” One to six clutches per year depending on location and weather.

“Do birders name their children after birds?” I suppose. Many humans carry bird names — Jay, Martin and Robin. I played basketball against Meadowlark Lemon once. It was almost fun. I named a dog Towhee. I look forward to meeting my first little kids named Gnatcatcher, Pyrrhuloxia and Curlew.

“When did vultures first appear in Minnesota?” T.S. Roberts, a physician known for his work in ornithology, reported that the turkey vulture, formerly more common, was still seen in fair numbers throughout the state in 1932. He cited several accounts from the late 1800s that indicated the species was abundant throughout many parts of Minnesota. He described them as abundant in east-central Minnesota in 1870; very common in the Red River valley in 1885; and seen every hour in the day in Otter Tail County in 1893. A stronghold was southeastern Minnesota — along the Mississippi River and along the St. Croix River. The word vulture likely comes from the Latin vellere, which means to pluck or tear. Its scientific name, Cathartes aura, means either “golden purifier” or “purifying (cleansing) breeze.” In the old cowboy movies, vultures were called buzzards, a colloquial term for vultures, which applies to several hawk species in Europe. Turkey vultures enjoy road-killed food between fresh and bloat. On the chemists’ 0-14 pH scale, seven is neutral like pure water. The extremes are toxic. High numbers are alkaline; ammonia measures 11 and bleach 12.

Low numbers are acidic — lemon juice or sulfuric acid. Vultures can eat just about anything without suffering harm. The main reason they can do that is they have the lowest gastric pH in the animal kingdom. Stomach acid protects animals because it digests bacteria and other living organisms. Turkey vulture stomach acid has a pH slightly above zero. This is lower than that of a car battery. It could dissolve metal, as well as digest nearly all organisms, including those causing anthrax, botulism, cholera, hepatitis, polio and rabies. Their appetites help prevent the spread of disease to humans and other animals.

“How long does a bumble bee live?” The lifespan of a worker bee is two to six weeks (28 days on average). They die with the first hard frost. Bumble bees rely on the queen to live through the winter and renew the population in the spring. A queen mates in the fall and then finds an underground hibernaculum to spend the winter. On average, a bumble bee queen lives about a year.

Thanks for stopping by

“No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don’t ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” — George Eliot

Do good.

A squirrel feeder made for squirrels.

Counting crows. I came up with two for an answer.

Folklore says if the rusty band of a woolly bear caterpillar is wide, it will be a mild winter. The more black there is, the more severe the winter.

A bird deserves a better fate

While I was teaching a class at a college not far from my home, a fat, declawed cat wearing a collar and a bell killed this lovely brown creeper. Putting a bell on a cat doesn’t prevent it from killing birds.

These two crows were letting everyone know that they were not waterfowl.

A red-breasted nuthatch is ridiculously adorable.

A groundhog practices posing in case Mount Rushmore decides to add an image of a marmot.

A groundhog, woodchuck, whistle-pig or land-beaver.

As a young man tethered to a partially harvested cornfield, I’d watch the Canada geese fly over. I’d seen only Minnesota and Iowa. I longed to see what the geese saw.

Canada geese sometimes experiment with letters other than V in their flight formations.

A differential grasshopper will feed on ragweed.

I got a kink in my neck just from watching this red-bellied woodpecker feed.

Each of a golden-crowned kinglet's nostrils is covered by a single feather.

The red-breasted nuthatch shows little fear of humans.

Chilled but thrilled on a windy, below-freezing trip to Hawk Ridge

Al Batt: ‘Chilled but thrilled’ on a windy, below-freezing trip to Hawk Ridge

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.com
October 27, 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 have a PTA meeting today.”

“You’re a member of the Parent-Teacher Association?” I say.

“No, PTA stands for Pool Table Activity. I’m a lifeguard at the third pool table from the rear at the Vole Club. There is no fancy GPS in my pickup. I have a weather vane instead, but I still get where I’m going, later than sooner. I may not know where I’m going, but the important thing is that I’m on my way. My Cousin Chalkie stopped over. He has a snazzy GPS in his truck. Chalkie used to milk 50 cows. Now he milks 500 cows, but he doesn’t seem 10 times happier. Pop had an operation and Chalkie stopped to give him spray cheese in a can with some crackers in the hopes it’d cheer Pop up. Pop thought his eye operation had been a failure, but it turned out he was wearing the eyepatch on the wrong eye.”

Naturally

It was a nice enough day. The yard crows were laughing at fall’s mood swings. Crows are good at entertaining themselves. I wonder if crows have a favorite season? I like all 67 seasons that we have in Minnesota, but it’s difficult to find one more beautiful than autumn. Fall carries more gold in its pocket than does any other season. The first 32-degree day on average occurs Oct. 3 in Albert Lea, Oct. 5 in Mankato, Oct. 10 in the Twin Cities and Sept. 26 in St. Cloud.

I visited Hawk Ridge in Duluth on a below-freezing, windy, too-close-to-Lake-Superior kind of a day. Most folks were smart enough to wear winter clothing. Only one lunkhead wasn’t that bright. I wore a light jacket and was happy to have it, but could find only one glove in my car. It was a yellow work glove for my left hand. I wore it. It should have been a two-glove day. I was chilled, but thrilled with the birds seen at Hawk Ridge.

On the way home, a white-tailed deer ran in front of my car. We missed each other. A deer’s home range is around a square mile. Adult does weigh about 145 pounds and bucks about 170. The largest deer recorded in Minnesota was a 500-pound buck.

The second half of October brought five eastern bluebirds to my yard. I christened them the bluebirds of happiness, kindness, forgiveness, hopefulness and wellness.

A red fox is native to boreal and western portions of North America, but its origins are unknown in many lowland areas. Red foxes were absent from much of the East Coast at the time of European settlement, not becoming common until the mid-1800s. Vulpes is Latin for fox. Its scientific name, Vulpes vulpes, means, “fox fox.”

A lack of insects isbugging people

A report published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” documents another startling loss of insect abundance. Bradford Lister, a biologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, measured the resources of the Puerto Rican rainforest (insects and insectivores) in 1976. He returned nearly 40 years later with a colleague. What the scientists didn’t see troubled them. Fewer birds flitted overhead and butterflies, once abundant, had nearly vanished. Their study revealed a significant decrease in insect populations from 1976 to the present. Sample biomass decreased to 25 percent or less of what it had been. The catch rate in traps fell by 60 times. Insect-eating frog and bird numbers plummeted. Bird captures fell 50 percent. Lister attributes the crash to climate change.

Q&A

“Does Minnesota have more common loons than other states?” It has more than any state except Alaska.

“When I was a child, something got into our hen house and killed many chickens. Why would a predator kill more than it could eat?” Surplus killing, excessive killing or henhouse syndrome is a common behavior exhibited by predators. They kill more prey than they can immediately eat and cache or abandon the remainder. Some animals that have been observed engaging in surplus killing include weasels, wolves, foxes, bears, coyotes, lynx, mink, raccoons, dogs, house cats and humans.

Thanks for stopping by

“The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is enchantment to be found?” — J.B. Priestley

  “Instead of shooting arrows at someone else’s target, which I’ve never been very good at, I make my own target around wherever my arrow happens to have landed. You shoot your arrow and then you paint your bullseye around it, and therefore you have hit the target dead centre.” — Brian Eno

Do good.

A Vulpes vulpes on the run can be identified by its white-tipped tail. Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune

Way to go, others!

This chickadee was caching seeds in a divot on a utility pole.

Minnesotans like to plant burning bushes. We’ll do anything that might provide heat.

I found myself in a seedy part of town.

Fall can be harsh, but it has a soft side.

Things may look grim, but there are seeds of hope for tomorrow.

Golden-crowned kinglets are capable of wintering in areas where nighttime temperatures fall below –40° Fahrenheit.

A golden-crowned kinglet is Mark Rothko’s painting “Orange and Yellow” given wings.

The pied-billed grebe eats its own feathers.

Milkweed seeds waiting for the next breeze.

Birding in the supermarket.

A snow umbrella is a handy thing to have.

The naso tang is like a mood ring, it changes colors as it changes its moods.

It’s a mood fish.

I just found this in a bag that accompanies me regularly on my travels. I need to clean out that bag more often.

I thought I’d found Nemo, but one clownfish was named Kevin and the other Bob.

This young red fox was quicker than my camera.

The scientific name of the red fox is Vulpes vulpes and means “fox fox.”

As fall weather continues, mice begin to make your home theirs

As fall weather continues, mice begin to make your home theirs

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.com
October 20, 2018 09:00 AMJuvenile red-headed woodpecker. 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. He was wearing a T-shirt with “Back” lettered on the front.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I can’t complain, but if you give me enough time, I could come up with a gripe or two. The nice thing about being the baby of the family is that my parents’ standards had dropped from wanting a valedictorian to hoping for someone who graduates without any felonies. I had a hankering for pickles yesterday. So for lunch, I had dill pickles, sweet pickles, bread-and-butter pickles, pickled beets, pickled eggs, pickled pigs’ feet and watermelon pickles. I made a mess in the kitchen. It’s what I get for using a splatula. I never knew what it meant to be fumble-fingered until I got in a mad rush to change the channel from one of those TV shopping networks. I wanted to join MENSA, but got a scholarship to DENSA. That means I can do jigsaw puzzles with a scissors. You’ll understand.”

“Why would I understand?” I say.

“Because I’m sure one of your ancestors coined the word, ‘Huh?’”

Naturally

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

Mark Twain gets credit for saying that. It’s quite safe crediting Twain, Abe Lincoln, Maya Angelou, Yogi Berra or that guy who delivers softener salt to the house of the neighbor to the east of your barber’s brother-in-law, the one married to his youngest sister, for saying something. Robert Heinlein might have been the one to write it exactly that way.

We should get an Indian summer this year. That’s unseasonably warm, dry and calm weather following a period of cold weather or frost in the fall.

Lewis’s Woodpecker

The Lewis’s woodpecker was described by Alexander Wilson and named after Meriwether Lewis, who first saw the bird in 1805 on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. This woodpecker forages like a flycatcher and flies somewhat like a crow. It has a gray collar, pink belly and dark green back. It breeds from British Columbia southward to central California and New Mexico, and eastward to western South Dakota.

It rained, sleeted, snowed and everything in between as I watched the suet feeder near Rochert, where a rare Lewis’s had been reported. A downy woodpecker sampled the suet. Then a red-bellied woodpecker flew in and out quickly. A juvenile red-headed woodpecker, with a brownish head, flew to the suet and chowed down big time. By far, the most common birds eating the suet were yellow-rumped warblers. The Lewis’s woodpecker flew in. I had great looks at the bird. I smiled.

Q&A

“Why do lemmings jump from cliffs to their deaths?” There are no suicidal leaps for lemmings, as they don’t periodically hurl themselves off cliffs into the sea. Cyclical explosions in populations occasionally provoke lemmings to move to areas with lower population density. Some lemmings might die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers. These are accidental deaths in quest of reaching a new territory. A memorable scene from Disney’s 1958 Academy Award-winning nature documentary “White Wilderness” was of lemmings drowning after jumping off cliffs and into the sea. That scene was staged by filmmakers.

“When do mice start coming into houses?” I pressed a button and the garage door went up. A mouse came running from the yard into the garage. Good timing for it, bad timing for me. This forces me to run a trap line. White-footed and deer mice can get under the hood of a car and nothing good happens after that. As temperatures drop and fall colors become admirable, mice search for comfortable places to spend the winter. This annual migration of mice into homes usually occurs in October and November. I spoke at a pest control company’s annual meeting. They advised inspecting the exterior of a house and caulking or stuffing with steel wool any holes or cracks bigger than 1/4 inch, as that is all a mouse needs to get in. One fellow said that if a No. 2 pencil could fit into a hole, so could a mouse. That seemed unlikely, but I’ve never been an exterminator or a mouse. I read a study saying a hole two-thirds of an inch in size allows entrance to a mouse. TV’s Bob Vila said a mouse needs a crack the size of a nickel.

Thanks for stopping by

“The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.” — Gaylord Nelson

“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” — E.B. White

Do good.

The fluffy white floss attached to milkweed’s flat brown seeds, could be used to stuff pillows, mattresses and quilts

Hawthorn is equipped with a belligerence of thorns.

A snowbird finds snow during the first half of October in Minnesota.

Neither junco nor photographer was surprised.

A Goeldi’s monkey at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth.

Within this pile of fur lives a silver fox, a melanistic form of red fox.

Within this pile of fur lives a silver fox, a melanistic form of red fox.

The more pigment in his food, the redder the house finch male.

A fetching female red-winged blackbird.

Led Zeppelin sang, “We come from the land of the ice and snow. “

The song wasn’t about Minnesota, but it could have been.

This boisterous blue jay is fueled by peanuts.

The Eurasian collared-dove’s species name is decaocto. In Greek mythology, Decaocto was a servant girl changed into a dove by the gods to relieve her suffering. It’s mournful call recalls her former life.

The male brown-headed cowbird’s song is made up of liquid gurgling and sliding whistles.

 This is what happens when Jack Frost steals all the flowers.

A Siberian Lynx at the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth.

The speckled mousebird, native of central to southern Africa, can be found at the Lake Superior Zoo.

There aren’t many cotton-top tamarins left in their native home in Colombia. This one is at the Lake Superior Zoo.

The state bird of Iowa, the American goldfinch.

A charm of goldfinches.

It’s time for me to fill the peanut feeder before the customers start to complain.

I toss out some white millet for our native sparrows. It’s a good day when a white-throated sparrow is a part of it.

I enjoy fall’s special effects.

Someone said it looked like it was chewing gum, but it looked like a sheep to me.

 “Now is the time of the illuminated woods; they have a sense of sunshine, even on a cloudy day, given by the yellow foliage; every leaf glows like a tiny lamp; one walks through their lighted halls with a curious enjoyment.”

— John Burroughs, from The Heart of Burrough’s Journals

A snow leopard in a hammock at the Lake Superior Zoo.

Not all the ring-tailed lemurs at the Lake Superior Zoo were thrilled to see me. The look from a lemur lingers.

I love the pelage colors of this eastern cottontail rabbit busy in its crepuscular (dusk and dawn) foraging activity

What’s up, Doc?

Does this make me look taller?

When the seasons collide.

It’s said that fall carries more gold in its pockets than do all the other seasons combined. It has a bit of red in there, too.

This would make a nice pattern on linoleum.

Kids learning about raptors at Hawk Ridge in Duluth.

A sharp-shinned hawk finds a receptive audience at Hawk Ridge in Duluth.

A lucky youngster gets to release a sharp-shinned hawk at Hawk Ridge in Duluth. Please notice the handmade binoculars.

The rusty blackbird, a species with declining numbers, has been seen in good numbers at Hawk Ridge in Duluth. That is great news!

A white-crowned sparrow enjoying its first fall.

A white-throated sparrow considers costume possibilities for its first Halloween

The view of Lake Superior from Duluth’s Hawk Ridge.

A female purple finch finds a friend.

The northern bobwhite produces a sharp two-note, whistled “bob-white.”

The robin is a handsome bird and a lovely singer.

Anne Murray sang this about the snowbird, “Spread your tiny wings and fly away. And take the snow back with you. Where it came from on that day.”

Nature has an unlimited palette.

Al Batt: Finch forecast: Prepare for siskins, redpolls, crossbills, grosbeaks

Al Batt: Finch forecast: Prepare for siskins, redpolls, crossbills, grosbeaks

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.com
October 13, 2018 09:00 AM

A red-breasted nuthatch is a feathered tin whistle. 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. I’m finer than frog’s hair. I had a tough day yesterday. I was headed down the highway and I had traffic backed up a mile behind me. It was my fault. The speed limit was 60 mph, and being a darn fool, I was going only 65. I drink eight glasses of water a day, so I’m always in a hurry, but I was driving that fast due to peer pressure. It’s difficult to get a decent look at corn at that speed. The other drivers glared at me as if I were a snail with rheumatism. They looked angry as they passed me. I can’t understand why anyone would be in such a hurry to get someplace they don’t want to go.”

Naturally

Sweet music and sauerkraut! This year is hurrying by.

Hummingbirds were still battling honey bees for control of the hummingbird feeder on Sunday. John James Audubon called hummingbirds “glistening fragments of the rainbow.”

Red-breasted nuthatches make the yard smile. The tiny birds look as if they are smiling. Who can turn the world on with her smile? Mary Tyler Moore and a red-breasted nuthatch. I enjoy their nasal voices sounding like tiny horns. “Yank, yank,” they say. Red-breasted nuthatches are birds of coniferous woods, nesting among spruce, fir and hemlock. These nuthatches migrate southward earlier than many irruptive species, sometimes heading south in early July and reaching their southernmost point by September or October.

Ron Pittaway, an Ontario ornithologist, did a 2018-19 Winter Finch Forecast in which he collected data on the seasonal seed, berry and cone crops across Canada to determine if there are enough natural foods to sustain the birds in the northern forests or if the birds need to migrate south. Widespread crop failures, due to weather conditions or insect outbreaks, result in an irruption of birds. The Finch Forecast indicates we’re going to see lots of birds. Depending upon where you are, look for siskins, redpolls, crossbills and grosbeaks this winter.

I was asked to speak at Carrol Henderson’s retirement banquet. I’m unable to do so because of a prior engagement. Carrol has been the only director of the Minnesota DNR’s Nongame Wildlife Program since its inception in 1977. He was instrumental in the creation of the Chickadee Checkoff and spurred the recovery of bald eagles, trumpeter swans, peregrine falcons and river otters. Carrol has authored many books, including “Woodworking for Wildlife.” Minnesota is fortunate that he moved here from his home in Zearing, Iowa. I appreciate him more than I can say.

I enjoyed a waffle at a Waffle House in Columbia, Missouri, in the company of Columbia resident and avid birder Edge Wade. Edge is not only a wonderful person, she is the only Edge I know. We talked of birds and Edge related a tale of watching ravens in a tree in Alaska dropping sticks upon a bald eagle perched lower in the same tree. They continued until the eagle fled the scene.

I led a group to Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve in Duluth one rainy year. During the fall, migrating raptors concentrate in impressive numbers and funnel down the North Shore along the bluffs. We picked a day without inviting weather for raptor or birder. We got great looks at pouring rain. We spent enough time outside to see the rain up close. One of the members of our group, after listening to me bloviate on how to identify the nonexistent hawks, commented, “From where I sit, they all look like rain.”

Q&A

“What weeds are most common in farm fields?” The Weed Science Society of America surveyed weed scientists across North America to find this out.

Most common:

1. Common lambsquarters

2. Foxtail

3. Morning glory

4. Palmer amaranth

5. Redroot pigweed

6. Waterhemp

7. Horseweed

8. Common ragweed

9. Barnyardgrass

10. Velvetleaf.

“How can I tell if it’s a horn or an antler?” Horns look like daggers (sometimes twisted) and antlers resemble branches with multiple points. Bovids (sheep, goats, cows, bison) have horns. Cervids (deer, elk, moose, caribou) have antlers. Horns are made of keratin, as our fingernails are. Antlers are made of bone and are shed annually. Horns usually grow on both sexes, while antlers are typically found only on males. Female caribou are an exception.

Thanks for stopping by

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” — Jacob A. Riis

“Animals are such agreeable friends — they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.” — George Eliot

Do good.

A red-breasted nuthatch is a feathered tin whistle. Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune

Why Burmese pythons spend so much time at the chiropractor’s.

A group of peafowl is called an ostentation or a pride.

Peacocks are mentioned in the Bible as one of the most precious items King Solomon's ships brought from Asia.

This is an exceptional version of a Minnesota robin. Western populations of the American robin are often paler than eastern populations and have almost no white at the tail corners.

The drunken birds of Minnesota have been popular items in the media, yet no robin has ever lost its driver’s license.

A beautiful tree with a message.

This statue in Duluth memorializes Albert Henry Woolson (February 11, 1850 – August 2, 1956), the last surviving member of the Union Army who served in the American Civil War.

Caged rocks forced to anchor a fence.

I love historical markers like this one in Nicollet County, Minnesota.

This was carved with a chainsaw.

A trumpeter swan, dressed in down, is enjoying Minnesota’s lovely autumnal weather.

A trumpeter swan herds a flock of three cygnets.

When there is snow on the catalpa leaves, the sales of thermal Halloween costumes go up.

Fall maintains its beauty despite winter’s early intrusion.

I saw this farm tractor between Meire Grove and Greenwald in Minnesota.

The first junco (snowbird) showed up in our yard on October 6.

I am in Rochert, Minnesota today because I’m a snow chaser.

It was my good fortune to speak at this lovely place in Park Rapids, Minnesota.

The loons loom large in Park Rapids, Minnesota.

St. Urho’s Day is on March 16, which makes my birthday much more celebratory. According to Minnesotans, Urho drove the grasshoppers out of Finland by chanting, “Grasshopper, grasshopper, grasshopper go away.”

As found at the statue of St. Urho in Menahga, Minnesota.

As far as lakes go, this one found in Osage Township in Minnesota is pretty straight.

Fall can turn any day into a Sunday drive.

Dining at this eatery in Hartland, Minnesota, was as comfortable as eating at the kitchen table. I miss it.

When it comes to regal birds, this goldfinch stands next to an eagle.

The hummingbirds are still here. I’m enjoying their company.

Mark Twain wrote “you never see a blue jay get stuck for a word.”

Mark Twain wrote “A jay hasn't got any more principle than a congressman.”

Red Barber, the baseball broadcaster, said that "sitting in the catbird seat" meant "sitting pretty, like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him." Here is a local catbird seat.

Birds in words

Dark-eyed juncos hit-or-miss at predicting first trackable snowfall

by Al Batt, albertleatribune.comOctober 6, 2018 09:00 AMThe northern shoveler is often called a spoonbill. - 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. I was in a fast food restaurant making poor choices the other day. I shouldn’t have been there as my garden did very well this year. I planted only invasive species and they flourished. I ran into Lice Berg there. I hadn’t seen him for years — not since he moved to Idaho. I remember him as the cheapest guy I’ve ever known. I recall a waitress at The Eat Around It Cafe telling another about a lone penny on a table, “That’s just the tip of the Lice Berg.” My Uncle Curly used to play poker once a week with Lice, Scooter’s old man and Ace. They were playing when Ace had a heart attack and died. They called the police and waited for an ambulance to arrive. They liked Ace, but there was $400 on the table. They looked at Ace’s cards. He had the winning hand. They each took $100 and left the remaining $100 on the table. Ace’s wake was a couple of days later, giving them time to think about what they’d done. They gathered by the casket containing the body of their friend. In his grief, Scooter’s old man said, ‘You were the best card player I’ve ever known. Here’s $100,’ and tossed the bill into the casket. My Uncle Curly took $100 from his wallet and before dropping it into the casket, said, ‘You’d have won that last hand. I owe you this.’ Lice was next. He said, ‘Ace, it’d be an abomination to card players everywhere if I didn’t give you the money you’d won fair and square.’ With that, Lice wrote out a check for $300, put it in the casket and took out $200 in change.”

Naturally

A deer had run in front of my car. It wasn’t a large ungulate, probably a half buck. I watched a raccoon climb a tree. Raccoons can climb down headfirst by rotating their back feet.

In an attempt to keep from worrying that I was spending too much time offline, I attempted to see a cloud that looked like the city of St. Cloud. And the sound of the chainsaw was heard throughout the land. Storms had added clearing downed trees to the bloated to-do lists of many people. I walked face first into a spiderweb. I wiped it off and apologized to the spider. If you wish to thrive, leave spiders alive.

Blue jays bothered a great horned owl trying to get some sleep in the yard. The owl’s ear tufts of feathers are called plumicorns. A flock of starlings traveled the edges of the woods. The name starling comes from the Anglo Saxon and means little star— likely from its star-shaped silhouette in flight. Northern flickers filled the yard for a couple of days, stopping on their journey south. Turkey vultures are known to the Cherokee as “peace eagles” because they never kill.

Look for dark-eyed juncos to return. They are called snowbirds because they look like a winter day: gray skies above and snowy white below. White outer tail feathers flash two parallel white stripes, presenting an upside-down V, as a junco flies away. In the fall, when my father spotted the first junco on our farm, he told us that it would be six weeks until the first trackable snow. He marked the date on the calendar. If the snow fell near the predicted date, Dad marveled aloud at what an amazing prophet a snowbird was. If the date wasn’t close, the failed feathered seer wasn’t mentioned. Sometimes the juncos were right.

A snowbird is also a northerner who moves to a warmer southern state in the winter. When I worked in the Gulf Shores of Alabama, I’d hear local singers croon, “If it’s snowbird (tourist) season, why aren’t we allowed to shoot them?”

There are many fallen acorns. Acorns from the white oak family begin germinating this fall. Acorns of the red oak family germinate next spring.

The yard was busy with busy honey bees. According to Golden Blossom Honey, in order to produce 1 pound of honey, 2 million flowers must be visited. A hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a pound of honey. One bee colony can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year. An average worker bee makes about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

The 2018 Waterfowl Population Status Report showed North America’s spring duck population had declined 13 percent from last year. The biggest drops were in northern pintail and scaup numbers. Northern shoveler, green-winged teal, gadwall and redhead showed the greatest increases. The mallard population was up 17 percent.

Thanks for stopping by

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” — Maya Angelou

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do good.

The northern shoveler is often called a spoonbill. 

There is a fungus among us. At least at Rock Bridge State Park in Missouri.