Woodpeckers find timber with a good timbre

Naturally

Current events include woodpeckers find timber with a good timbre. They drum on resonant wood, tattooing communication to other members of their species. Goldfinches gather yellow around their faces, barred owls become more vocal, red osier dogwood becomes the red veins of spring and weeping willows glow.
I spoke to a wonderful group called the Bronx River Sound Shore Audubon. The organization’s president, Sandy Morrissey, told me that her brother had died recently. Before he shuffled off this mortal coil, he’d built two bluebird boxes. The boxes were placed in a local park. When Sandy visited that park, there was a bluebird perched on one box. The sight made her happy beyond words with the precious memories it carried.
I saw a superabundance of raccoon tracks. They were paw prints with five long, finger-like toes that connect to a C- shaped palm pad. They resemble tiny human handprints, measuring two to three inches across. Raccoons leave a trail with side-by-side tracks with each pair of prints composed of a front paw alongside a hind paw as the rear foot lands next to the opposite front foot when the animal takes a step. The back footprint has a more forward-pointing "thumb" and a larger C-shaped palm pad.
Look for snow fleas. They bear resemblance to specks of black pepper on the snow. These primitive insects are about 1/10-inch long and a dark blue-gray. Snow fleas are wingless but can jump several inches. A snow flea has a forked appendage at the end of its abdomen called a furcula that allows it to jump and gives it the name “springtail.” Snow fleas live in the soil and leaf litter where they eat microscopic fungi, algae and decaying organic matter. They go unnoticed during the summer, but have a high tolerance for colder temperatures compared to most other insects. As the snow begins to melt in late winter, they move up through breaks in the snow. You could find them on top of the snow in potentially large numbers, especially around the base of trees. Snow fleas are harmless to people and are beneficial because they help break down organic matter, enriching the soil. They are a curiosity. People are surprised to see insects active on the surface of the snow during winter.

Q&A

Mike Bonner of Courtland asks when bluebirds return. Some migrants return as early as February, but most arrive in early March. They nest from late March to early August.
“There is a Carolina wren coming to my feeders. What could it be eating?” They eat mealworms, sunflower chips, suet, peanut butter and peanut pieces.
I spoke at the Prairie Smoke Annual Meeting in Chatfield and delighted in spending time in the company of such good folks. Several of those people mentioned seeing American kestrels this winter. One asked what they eat. Most of the Minnesota breeding population of kestrels migrates south for the winter. Males, on average, winter farther north than females. Some kestrels seen here in the winter could be northern birds that have migrated south to our area. The trend has been a general decrease in American kestrel numbers. Evidence comes from the North American Breeding Bird Survey, the Christmas Bird Count, nest box surveys and counts at migration watch sites. Predation by other raptors, herbicide and pesticide exposure, loss of habitat and competition for nest cavities likely contribute to the decline. The American kestrel, often called "sparrow hawk" in the past, isn’t a hawk. The tiny bird of prey with pointed wings and beautiful plumage is a falcon, and the smallest falcon in North America at 10 inches long, about the size of a mourning dove. I don’t think any other bird of prey in North America is as richly colored. Both sexes have a pair of black vertical slashes on the face, like sideburns and tears. Male kestrels have slate-blue wings and the wings of the females are reddish brown. They often bob their tails when perched. Unlike other falcons, which capture most of their prey in the air, kestrels capture much of their prey on the ground. Their diet includes young ground squirrels, gophers, shrews, voles, mice, young rabbits, rats, small birds, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, worms, snakes, salamanders, frogs and toads. They prefer open habitats and are seen perched prominently on tree branches or utility poles while hunting. On their migration over Hawk Ridge in Duluth, kestrels catch dragonflies on the wing and eat the insects as they fly.

Thanks for stopping by

“There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.”—Alfred Austin.
“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”--Joseph Addison.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A mallard drake has a yellow bill and a mallard hen has a dirty orange bill. If it sounds like a duck, it’s a hen. The standard “quack” of a duck is produced by the female mallard. The male mallard makes a rasping or grunting sound. Photo by Al Batt.

Cool Hand Luke or Cool Behind Bird?

Naturally

I watched robins feed on persistent fruit in trees. They dine on the berries of hackberry and other trees at this time of the year.
A house sparrow in the yard was missing a tail. She shivered when a cold tailwind blew. The movie "Cool Hand Luke," starring Paul Newman, made the line, "What we have here is failure to communicate," famous. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little bird had a cool behind.
I saw blue snow in the yard not far from the tailless sparrow. It looked as if someone had stepped on a Smurf, spit out mouthwash or spilled antifreeze. Rabbit droppings came out of the blue. When rabbits feed on the invasive plant buckthorn, they excrete a chemical in their urine that turns blue when exposed to sunlight. Rabbits have round droppings while deer pellets are oval-shaped with one pointed end. I’ve heard that deer produce blue urine, but I’ve noticed deer avoid eating invasive species like buckthorn, garlic mustard and Japanese barberry. I’d never say they never sample those plants. They likely try it to see if they like it. Every kid had to do that, so why wouldn’t deer? I’m not sure if foraging is deterred because deer find them unappetizing or because buckthorn has thorns. Overbrowsing of native plants by large deer populations in some areas has enabled invasive species to flourish and displace native species. Deer don’t bother ferns much either, but extreme hunger tosses out the diet rulebook.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources eagle cam began in 2013. It’s nature’s soap opera. Eagles typically lay eggs in February that are incubated for around 35 days.

Q&A

“What is a gibbous moon?” It’s a moon having the observable illumination part greater than a semicircle and less than a circle. The eight phases of the moon are, in order: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent. A moon headed toward a full moon is waxing, getting bigger and growing brighter. A moon headed toward a new moon is waning, getting smaller. I was taught that if the moon is D-shaped, it’s waxing or developing. If it’s C-shaped, it’s waning or concluding. I hope you have a great day from morning to moonbeam.
“What’s the difference between a woodchuck and a groundhog?” A woodchuck chucks wood and groundhogs are crack meteorologists. They are the same animal, also called whistle-pigs.
“There is a small cup nest in a shrub in my yard. What bird could have made it?” Here are a couple of likely prospects. The yellow warbler nest is typically within 10 feet of the ground in an upright fork of a shrub or sapling and is lined with plant fibers, fur or feathers. The indigo bunting nest is often 3 feet or lower from the ground in the crotch of a shrub or low sapling. It’s lined with grass, roots, bark strips, thistledown or deer hair. The chipping sparrow nest is 3-10 feet off the ground on the tip of a branch. It might be lined with cattle, deer, horse or pet hair. The American goldfinch nest can be found around 15 feet off the ground, usually in the crotch of the plant and is lined with plant down from thistle, milkweed and cattail.
Randy Heideman of Albert Lea saw small squirrels in his yard for the first time. They weren’t much bigger than chipmunks. He wondered if they were red squirrels because their fur showed some gray. That sounds like red squirrels. They live throughout this country’s snowbelt, in mountainous regions and in Canada. They are most associated with coniferous woods but hardwoods and thickets also provide habitat. The squirrel builds a leaf nest or uses a tree cavity. The red squirrel is not a passive observer. It’s an aggressive and vociferous mammal that is a rusty reddish-brown, orange-red, ginger, brownish or olive-gray color, with some fur colors subject to seasonal changes. Its underside is white to grayish-white and its sides can show gray. In Longfellow's “Song of Hiawatha,” the red squirrel is called Adjidaumo. I’ve read that this is an Ojibwe word meaning "mouth-foremost" because squirrels descend trees head first. I checked the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary and found that ajidamoo means a red squirrel.

Thanks for stopping by

“Thirty days has September, April, June and November. Unless a leap year is its fate,February has twenty-eight. All the rest have three days more, excepting January, which has six thousand, one hundred and eighty-four.”—Brian Bilston.
“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”—P. J. O'Rourke.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A cardinal makes a winter day much better. Photo by Al Batt

This House Sparrow shivers when cold, tailwinds blow. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little bird had a cool behind.

This House Sparrow shivers when cold, tailwinds blow. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little female had a cool behind.

This fox squirrel is the king of the mountain.

BIRDING WITH BATT

 If you missed the “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.

Naturally

I’ve heard from many people in the Twin Cities about the flocks of robins they are seeing. They are winter robins as they are showing no fighting or singing. A good number of deciduous trees are demonstrating marcescence this year, refusing to drop their leaves. Marcescence means withering but persistent. A good number of Minnesotans become marcescent at this time of the year. Blue jays can migrate, but it occurs to me that many stay in an area where they cached food. Why store it if you’re not going to use it?
As Valentine’s Day nears, skunks come out looking for love and to paw-deliver Valentine’s Day cards. They like highways. It’s easier than walking in deep snow. They need to use them to cross the road. Sometimes food is on the road—carrion.
Dark-eyed juncos hop or walk as they move along the ground. They are social during fall and winter, spending the days in flocks. These flocks mix in with other native sparrows, particularly American tree sparrows here.

Q&A

“Were starlings brought to this country because of Shakespeare?” I’ve thought so all my life and have passed on the story that European starlings were introduced to North America in 1890 and 1891 by the American Acclimatization Society (dedicated to introducing European flora and fauna into North America) and the man responsible for it was Eugene Scheiffelin. That is true, but it likely had nothing to do with Shakespeare. Starlings were mentioned once in Shakespeare’s works, Henry IV, because of their ability to mimic. The findings of John Miller of Allegheny College, assisted by a student, Lauren Fugate, showed starlings were released in the U.S. multiple times in the 1870s and 1880s. Wild flocks were reported during that time. Edwin Way Teale in his book, “Days Without Time” published in 1948, had popularized the Shakespeare angle. I read Teale and enjoy his writing. He wrote that Scheiffelin had the curious hobby of introducing all the birds mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. The American Acclimatization Society releases in 1890 and 1891 weren’t their first, having released starlings at least once before in the 1870s. The first assertion of Shakespeare’s influence on those releases happened nearly 60 years after the last release. Despite the starling’s success and large numbers, its population is in steep decline in North America. The current population is half the size it was 50 years ago—down from an estimated 166.2 million breeding birds in 1970 to 85.1 million. The species is declining in Europe, too. Starlings are common and widespread, but their population has decreased by over 1% per year for a cumulative decline of about 50% between 1966 and 2019 according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
“How long can a ring-necked pheasant go without food?” According to the DNR, during extreme winter weather, pheasants can go up to two weeks without feeding. They accomplish this by reducing their metabolism and energy requirements.
Kent Spellman of Albert Lea asked why the birds that feed so heavily in bad weather, leave the feeders early in the day. They might have gotten enough to eat and needed to find a warm place to hunker down and ride out the inhospitable weather. Some of the nomadic feeder birds might have a considerable distance to travel and require an early start.
“Why do crows flock to cities in the winter?” There is more light, which makes it easier to spot owls, their sworn enemies and proficient predators. Cities are a bit warmer than rural areas. Being in a flock spreads the risk of a crow being picked off by an owl. And there are places where the crows could pick up breakfast on their way out of town.
“I have a neighbor who doesn’t like me feeding the birds. What can I tell him?“ You could tell him that you don’t like the color of his house or the make of his car.
“How did house finches end up in the Midwest?” House finches were originally a bird of the western US and Mexico. In 1940, some house finches were released in Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as caged birds called “Hollywood finches.” The population became established and spread throughout the country. House finches are about the same size as house sparrows, but more slender. Most adult males are rosy red around the face and upper breast, with a streaky brown back, belly and tail. Adult females aren’t red but are grayish-brown with indistinctly marked faces.

Thanks for stopping by

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”― Wendell Berry.
“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”— G. K. Chesterton.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Blue jays frequently mimic the calls of hawks, especially the red-shouldered hawk. This may warn other jays that a hawk is around or deceive other species into believing a hawk is present and eliminate competition at a feeder. Photo by Al Batt.

Snood, wattle, dewlap, caruncles and slicing

NATURALLY


 The owl flew as if its wings were oars, rowing through the air. I watched a fox squirrel carrying an ear of corn excavated from the snow in the middle of what had been a large cornfield. There were no trees and only a few utility poles where a hunting hawk might perch. Not much later, I spotted a red fox carrying what appeared to be a cottontail rabbit. Red and gray foxes are similar in name and appearance. Gray foxes have black-tipped tails and red fox tails are tipped in white. The red fox is an opportunist that eats many other things besides rabbits—rats, mice, ground squirrels, birds, snakes, fish, insects, turtles, frogs, berries, fruits, nuts and seeds. Red foxes hunt primarily at night and hide uneaten food under litter or bury it to be eaten later. 
 I slowed to a crawl as 16 wild turkeys walked or flew in front of my car. They traveled across four lanes of traffic. No turkeys were hit. Jerry Viktora of Ellendale sent me a video of turkeys fighting in January. In the fall, turkeys segregate into groups—young males (jakes) in one group, adult males (toms) in another and the females in a third. Jake groups tend to hang out close to hen flocks. It seems I see more squabbles among the jakes than with the toms or hens. The young birds are trying to find their places in the pecking order. The groups dissolve in the spring. Turkeys survive the winter by feeding on mosses, buds, seeds, fern spores, acorns, scattered corn left after the harvest, seeds beneath birdfeeders and manure piles. Other than an adequate supply of food, they need a safe place to roost in the winter. They try to roost in trees giving thermal protection—pine or oak trees. If they have fed well, they can take the bitter cold. They struggle in deep powdery snow, which makes foraging for food and escaping predators challenging. They can scratch through 6 inches of fluffy snow and a foot of packed snow. When the ground is covered with powdery snow, flocks congregate in stands of pine and other softwoods, trees that hold snow in the canopy, leaving less on the ground for the turkeys to contend with. 
 The snood is the fleshy flap of skin that hangs off a turkey's beak. The wattle is a fleshy flap of skin under the turkey's chin. Some people call it a dewlap. A male turkey has a beard that hangs from its chest. It’s made of coarse, rough feathers. A beard is 3-4 inches long on a young male and can grow 10 inches or longer on a turkey at least 3 years old. A small percentage (10-20%) of female turkeys have beards. Male turkeys have sharp spurs on the back of their legs that they use when fighting with other turkeys. Caruncles are bumpy patches on a turkey's neck. The caruncles may play a role in attracting a mate. 

Q&A

 “How long do red-tailed hawks live?” Red-tailed hawks could hang around for a good spell, but most don’t live long. More than 70% survive until fledging. The survival rates plummet after that. More than half of the young hawks perish during the first year and 20% die each year thereafter, based on banding data. The oldest known wild red-tailed hawk was at least 30 years, 8 months old when it died in Michigan in 2011. It had been banded in that state in 1981. Most live less than two years.
 “I went to a raptor show and the bird handlers were giggling about slicing. I know what slicing is in golf, but what were they talking about?” Slicing is a term used by falconers and other raptor folks to describe the way a hawk defecates. Bird poop is brownish, the white pasty excrement is uric acid, the equivalent to a mammal’s urine. Eating mostly fish results in mostly white droppings because fish can be absorbed almost completely. This leads to whitewashing. Hawks, falcons and eagles forcefully eject their droppings, shooting them away from the nest to keep things sanitary. This process is called slicing. 
 “What kind of insect is a white sock?” It’s another name for the black fly, buffalo gnat or turkey gnat. Black flies develop in rivers and streams, can fly 10 miles away and be carried farther on the wind. Rubbing imitation vanilla extract on the skin repels them for some people.

Thanks for stopping by

 "Our mental life, like a bird's life, seems to be made of an alternation of flights and perchings."—William James.
 “Have I gone mad? I'm afraid so. You're entirely Bonkers. But I will tell you a secret, all the best people are.”―”Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The tail feathers of this lovely hen ring-necked pheasant are showing some winter wear. Photo by Al Batt.

What do you do when you’re diagnosed with cancer and lose your dream job? You hit the bottom in a pit with 200,000 snakes, and discover the pit isn’t the bottom but is the peak. Pat maintains the childhood wonder and amazement in our natural world and that made all the difference. As one who has had cancer, I found the book not only interesting, but inspiring.

The birds were moving left to right on my radio dial

Naturally

 It was above 30° in January, skunks and raccoons were moving around in the warm weather. 
 I look at the natural world with wonder and wonder what I’m looking at. I counted goldfinches and house finches at the feeders. I hoped for redpolls, siskins and purple finches. Birding is a game of finches.
 I saw a few flocks of snow buntings on roadsides. Snow buntings have an overall white appearance. Dark-eyed juncos often migrate to the same area every winter and stay within 10 to 12 acres. There is a social hierarchy to the winter flocks. Males are dominant over females and adults are dominant over the younger birds. Males tend to winter farther north than females.

A Kentucky cogitation

 I recall gathering around the radio. I gathered, because there was always something crawling on me. I twisted the dial until I heard the legendary Cawood Ledford call the Kentucky Wildcats basketball game over the crackling of an AM radio prone to chronic static. Ledford began by saying, “Hello, everybody, this is Cawood Ledford.” He likely originated the now commonplace description that goes something like this: “The Wildcats will be moving left to right on your radio dial.” The radio was a magical thing filled with information and imagination. It caused me to want to visit the Bluegrass State.
 It was a Chamber of Commerce day. I worked at Kenlake State Resort Park in western Kentucky near the Land Between the Lakes, a 170,000-acre nature paradise. Kentucky Lake, found there, has the longest shoreline of any manmade lake in the eastern U.S. I enjoyed seeing the elk and bison prairie. Kentucky has the highest elk population of any state east of the Mississippi River with 11,000 animals.
 Cawood Ledford had shuffled off this mortal coil. It’d be difficult to see him. I thought about that as I walked a trail. I had something else I wanted to see—birds. I saw just enough. They were moving left to right on my radio dial. Dreams do come true. Kentucky was a great place to see a Kentucky warbler.

Q&A

 “When is the breeding season for coyotes?” The mating season begins in January and lasts through February. After breeding, females search for dens, either digging one in loose soil or enlarging the den of another animal. Five to seven pups are born in April. When they're eight to 12 weeks old, the female teaches them to hunt. From fall to mid-winter, the pups leave the den and search for territories.
 “Why do some people call cicadas ‘locusts’?” Some people associated the emergence of cicadas with the Biblical plague of locusts. While cicadas might be colloquially called locusts, they're a different species. Locusts are a type of short-horned grasshopper and belong to the order Orthoptera along with other grasshoppers and crickets, while cicadas are Hemipterans, which are true bugs and related to aphids and leafhoppers. Locusts swarm in large groups and are more damaging than cicadas, eating substantial amounts of vegetation. Cicadas don't destroy crops and feed on juices from trees. In 1970, the buzz saw-like calls inspired Bob Dylan to write the song “Day of the Locusts.” Dylan heard the cicadas while receiving an honorary degree from Princeton University. The cicadas inspired these lyrics: “As I stepped to the stage to pick up my degree and the locusts sang off in the distance. Yeah, the locusts sang such a sweet melody. Oh, the locusts sang off in the distance. Yeah, the locusts sang and they were singing for me.”
 A group of cicadas carries a reminder of its incorrect moniker as it’s called a plague or a cloud. 
 “I watched my chickens preen. Why do they need to waterproof their feathers?” Preening is a bird's way of grooming its feathers to keep them in good condition. Preening removes dust, dirt and parasites from their feathers and aligns each feather in the optimum position relative to adjacent feathers and body shape. This alignment optimizes insulation, creates a more attractive mate, makes for more efficient flight and reduces friction and wear. The oil produced by the uropygial or preen gland found near the base of the tail helps with friction reduction. This gland produces an oily, waxy substance that adds waterproofing to feathers and keeps them flexible and strong. This helps the feathers withstand the stress of flight. Birds spread this oil to their feathers. Preen oil is a major source of avian body odor. Emus apparently don’t have a preen gland. They look as if that is ticking them off, but I can’t say for sure. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.”—Marianne Moore.
 “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”—F. Scott Fitzgerald.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A house finch takes a nap during a blizzard. Perhaps it dreams of warm days and green things. Photo by Al Batt.

The wild turkeys haven’t picked up a lick of trash

Naturally

 There is a gang of wild turkeys that have adopted a stretch of highway not far from my humble abode. I haven’t seen them pick up any trash yet, but I hope that’s their intention. They eat the spilled corn and soybeans they find there. The road is busy, but the turkeys claim the right-of-way. I had to come to a near stop before the turkeys grudgingly vacated my lane. They were telling me to go around. 
 Occasionally, a turkey is hit by a car and the carcass of the big bird becomes a meal for bald eagles and crows in the daytime and coyotes at night. I saw bald eagles feeding on road-killed deer and snow buntings feeding on seeds on the roadside near the turkeys. I listened to the sounds of birds. It’s nice to know who’s there.
 I thought I thaw a thaw. On average, January 23 is the coldest day of the year in much of the Northern Hemisphere. The warmest day of the year, on average, is July 24. A January thaw is defined as at least two straight days with temperatures above 32 degrees. 

Birding with Batt

 If you missed the “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.

Q&A

 “What good are blue jays? They are bullies.” The aggressive nature of jays is the main reason many birders don't like them. Blue jays are loud, eat a lot and they're domineering. They’re much like us. In the words of Mark Twain, "There's more to a jay than any other creature. You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, in a measure, 'cause he's got feathers on him and he don't belong to no church perhaps, but otherwise he's just as much a human as you and me." It’s a handsome bird. Their lovely colors are welcome on gray days. Males and females look alike. Blue jays play an important role in the ecosystem. They enjoy eating acorns, and cache acorns, which has played a role in forest restoration. They cache acorns farther from the mother tree than do squirrels. They eat grasshoppers and tent caterpillars.
 “When is the breeding season for opossums?” Opossums mate between January and May, bearing two litters of 6 to 20 young each year. The young aren’t fully developed at birth. They climb up the mother's belly and into her pouch where they attach themselves to a teat. There they remain for 60 to 70 days. For a month after that, the young opossums climb in and out of the pouch, never straying far. When mouse-sized, they climb onto their mother's back, where they spend much of their time before becoming more independent. Opossums eat almost anything: worms, snakes, insects, eggs, young birds, fruit, grain, garbage and carrion. After eating, opossums wash much like a cat.
 “When did cardinals first come to Minnesota?” Northern cardinals are a common breeding species in Minnesota, spreading from southeastern Minnesota into Minneapolis and west to Owatonna by the 1920s. The state's first record for a cardinal was in 1875. Many of the first arrivals were lone males that appeared in the fall, winter, or spring in scattered locations in southern Minnesota. After the 1875 record, cardinals appeared in Sherburne County (1887), Kandiyohi County (1894), Fillmore County (1898) and Martin County (1913). T.S. Roberts, the father of Minnesota ornithology, wrote that the first confirmed nesting of a cardinal was in Steele County in 1925 (nest with eggs). Nesting was documented in Hennepin County in 1927 (young being fed by adults) and in Goodhue County in 1930 (nest with eggs). The Cornell Lab attributes the cardinal’s expansion to two factors: More bird feeders and more landscaped yards with shrubbery, which provide fruit for food, shelter for nesting habitat and cover in winter.
 “Why am I hearing great horned owls calling now?” December and January are when great horned owl pairs engage in vigorous hooting while establishing territories and courting. They’ll be incubating eggs by February. The breeding pair may perform a duet of alternating calls, with the larger female’s voice noticeably higher in pitch than the male’s.
 “What is the old saying about fishing and the wind?” Wind from the west, fish bite the best. Wind from the east, fish bite the least. Wind from the north, do not go forth. Wind from the south blows bait in their mouth.” 

Thanks for stopping by

 “Enjoy every bird.”--Al Batt.
 “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”—Emily Post.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A dark morph rough-legged hawk. Rough-legged refers to the feathering that extends to the base of the toes, which conserves heat in frigid weather. I called them Christmas hawks when I was a boy because I saw them in winter. They hover while facing into the wind as they hunt. A sighting was and is always a welcome gift. Photo by Al Batt.

How you could watch a bird feeder without having a bird feeder

Naturally 

 I walked at night. Moonlight and a starry sky brought me comfort. A walk brings things to light. A means of discovery.
 As dawn interrupted the night, I heard a woodpecker drumming on a resonant tree, the bird proclaiming its territory.
 Mallards found the cold water of a lake companionable, but I couldn’t get my ducks in a row. It was like herding mallards.
 I heard the song of the black-capped chickadee, a fabulous sound that said, “Love you,” “Sweet-ie” or “Spring’s here.” It might have been a case of listener bias, but I think not. It was good to know that spring had arrived on a gelid winter day. A friend, Keith Wakefield, had died before Christmas. I did a Christmas Bird Count just after Christmas, a chance to binge-watch birds. I take great pleasure in counting chickadees, being grateful to see a single chickadee. There were at least 22 of them in one feeding flock. They were accompanied by nuthatches and cardinals. Many of our warm-weather birds are subject to seasonal dismissals, but not chickadees. They hang with us. Keith’s favorite bird and mine, too, the tiny chickadee stays. And I’m the better for it and for having known Keith.

How you could watch a bird feeder without having a bird feeder

 The FeederWatch cam is located in a residential neighborhood in Manitouwadge, Ontario. This site is an excellent location to see winter finches (redpolls and grosbeaks) as well as two species of jays. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/ontario-feederwatch/

Q&A

 “Is it a crow or a raven I’m seeing?” I love Robert Frost’s poem, “The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.” A crow heralds its presence with a caw, while a raven's call is a hoarse, deep krronk. Ravens are considerably larger than crows and have more robust bills. A raven sports a shaggy beard of pointed feathers and its tail is diamond-shaped in flight with its wings and aerial behavior appearing raptor-like. A crow has a fan-shaped tail and a rounder wing shape in flight. Ravens are icons of northern Minnesota and seldom venture far from where they hatched, while crows are common city dwellers and are found throughout the state. Northern Minnesota crows may drift southward far enough to find food. In fall and winter, crows can form huge flocks. Ravens are expanding their range south with sightings in the Twin Cities area. One crow is bigger than any raven. An 18-foot crow sits atop a 31-foot-long branch on a 25-foot-tall cement pedestal in Belgrade, Minnesota.
 Rick Draper of Albert Lea asks how a squirrel nest persists. The well-engineered leaf nests (dreys) are constructed from twigs, leaves, moss and other material. The twigs, often gnawed from a tree when the leaves were still intact, are loosely woven together to create the floor of a nest. Squirrels add stability by packing damp leaves and moss on top of the twig platform to reinforce the structure. A spherical frame is woven around the base, forming the outer shell. It’s finished by stuffing it with leaves, moss, twigs and/or paper to build up the outer shell. The inner cavity of its leaf nest is lined with shredded bark, grass and leaves. The thick walls keep wind, water and snow from penetrating the interior and keep cold air out and warm air in. Bernd Heinrich, in “Winter World,” wrote of a 12-inch diameter drey having 26 layers of flattened, dried and overlapped oak leaves.
 “Why did I see a bald eagle perched near its nest in December?” It might have been checking its nesting site for any maintenance issues or other concerns. Eagle pairs usually begin defending their nest sites in mid-January. The eagles’ treetop nest increases in size each year as the couple adds sticks and plant material. Part of that is a pair-bonding exercise. Eagles typically lay two eggs (occasionally three) in early February to early April.
 “Is striped sunflower seed a good thing to feed birds?” Because of its tough shell, it’s best for larger birds with strong bills. Striped sunflower appeals to blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers and grosbeaks while discouraging starlings, house sparrows and cowbirds. Black oil sunflower seeds are best for attracting most seed-eating finches, sparrows, chickadees and nuthatches.
 Harvey Benson of Harmony wrote, “When you were a youngster did you read Thornton W. Burgess books? My favorites.” I’m sorry, I did not.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Still round the corner there may wait, / a new road or a secret gate.”—J.R.R. Tolkien.
 “If you want to test your memory, try to remember what you were worrying about one year ago today.”—E. Joseph Cossman. 
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A superstition maintains that saying “rabbit rabbit” aloud before saying anything else on the first day of the month brings a month of good luck. The beloved Gilda Radner said “bunny, bunny” to ensure laughter, love and peace. FDR said “rabbits.” If you forget to say “rabbit, rabbit” the first thing, say "tibbar, tibbar"—“rabbit” backward. Photo by Al Batt.

Did you miss 'Birding With Batt' this week? Now you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU streaming app! The KMSU app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists, and listen to shows on-demand.

Slow Birding is a good thing

Naturally

 I’d finished a radio show about nature. After its completion, the station played The Mamas and Papas singing, “I've been for a walk on a winter's day. I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A. California dreamin' on such a winter's day.”
 I went for a walk with no California dreaming. The feeders were busy. The weather could have been considered nasty. Mild winter weather leads to lessened feeder activity. Bad weather coming brings birds to the feeders just as it brings people to the grocery stores. My Christmas Bird Count started in the company of sun dogs. “Bad weather, good birds,” I told myself. I birded a couple of cemeteries and was taken with how the American flags, on tombstones backlit by the sun and hit by the wind, left shadows dancing on the snow. Thanks to its big voice, I saw a pileated woodpecker. While binge-watching snow, I saw a pair of American white pelicans—the white birds on the snow and ice should have been snowbirds and gone. They winter along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Mexico and return in early spring as lakes and rivers thaw.

Book report

 If I taught a bird appreciation class, and I have, Joan E. Strassman’s “Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard” would be a perfect textbook. She presents new and old information in pleasing and memorable ways. A dark-eyed junco loses 7% of its body weight when at rest overnight. Robins have found that regurgitated insects and earthworms make a great baby formula. Thanks to jays burying acorns to cache, “mighty oaks from little blue jays grow.” Cooper’s hawks, once known as chicken hawks, have created another definition of the term “feeder bird.” It’s a fun book and a fine read.

They’ve been studying

 A new study by researchers at Durham University, the British Trust for Ornithology and Princeton University examined the relationship between nest design and the time offspring spend in the nest before fledging across species of weaverbirds and icterids, two bird families renowned for their complex woven nests. They found that birds build hanging nests, particularly those with extended entrance tunnels, to help protect offspring against nest invaders like snakes and parasitic birds. They found that species building the most elaborate nests produce offspring with longer developmental periods. Nests with longer entrance tunnels are more effective at hindering access by nest invaders than shorter tunnels and limit the exposure of developing offspring to nest invaders.

Q&A

 “What do and don’t house sparrows like?” They love millet and cracked corn. Two of their least favorite feeder foods are safflower and striped sunflower seeds.
 “Is it true male peppers have three bumps and female peppers have four bumps?” It’s a myth. All pepper fruits are ripened ovaries containing seeds formed after pollination. The bumps or lack thereof are related to variety and growing conditions.
 “How many sparrow species are there?” According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, there are 43 species of New World sparrows commonly found in the United States and Canada (the family Passerellidae includes towhees, juncos, and lark bunting). Most birds with “sparrow” in their name are small and brown, many have streaked backs and all have conical bills perfect for husking seeds. Bright colors and bold patterns are rare. When most people think about sparrows, the first one that comes to mind is the house sparrow, once called the English sparrow. They are the little birds seen rounding up stray french fries in fast food parking lots, nesting under supermarket signs and invading bluebird and martin houses, farm buildings and home improvement stores. House sparrows were first recorded in ​Eurasia, North Africa and the Middle East, and introduced into the U.S. in the middle 1800s. House sparrows belong to a group called Old World Sparrows, which are native to Eurasia and Africa. This group meets at the Holiday Inn on the second Thursday of each month. Some sources indicate that house sparrows are weaver finches instead of sparrows and put them in the family Ploceidae. Taxonomy based on DNA studies found the house sparrow to be an "Old World sparrow" and a member of the family Passeridae. Weaver finches are sometimes considered a subgroup of this family. Others consider them as members of a separate family, Estrildidae. "New World sparrows," like the song sparrow, white-throated sparrow and chipping sparrow, are members of the family Emberizidae.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Good mashed potato is one of the great luxuries of life."—Lindsey Bareham.
 “These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraphs and kerosene and coal stoves—they’re good to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on ’em.”—Laura Ingalls Wilder. “By the Shores of Silver Lake.”
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The American white pelicans I saw in Minnesota on December 30. They had open water for fishing and each other for company. Photo by Al Batt.

Fogs have frosted the trees with rime regularly this January. These white-tipped trees guard a rural cemetery not far from my humble abode.

Did you miss 'Birding With Batt' this week? Now you can hear it any time you like via the KMSU streaming app! The free KMSU app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists, and listen to shows on-demand!

Why we have evergreen trees

Naturally

It was -14°. It was so cold Jack Frost quit and nose hairs were snapped off. I used a fur-lined teacup and welcomed warm thoughts. Winter is for the birds. The crows expressed their displeasure at the presence of a raptor. The blue jays had stolen the colors of the sky on a sunny day and of the water when it was ice-free.
It reminded me of a similar day in Southeast Alaska that offered all the things people want in a day—deep snow, cold and ice. I wandered alongside a river, pointing my camera at worthy subjects and there were many worthy subjects. There was enough spawned-out salmon for everyone. Crows, ravens, magpies, gulls and bald eagles fed at the buffet. I know we’re told not to anthropomorphize, but I think doing so can add to our understanding. I watched a bald eagle eating with gusto. It was taking the advice of an old Schlitz Beer commercial that said, "You only go around once in life. So, grab for all the gusto you can." Its epicurean delight attracted the attention of other birds, including other eagles. Humans display similar behavior. Somebody else’s lunch often looked better than ours when we were kids. As adults, we’re enjoying our food at a restaurant until we see what someone else is having. “I should have ordered that,” we think. The owner of the salmon repulsed any attempts at fish thievery. A bold raven snuck up on the eagle from behind and yanked its tail. It did this several times until the infuriated eagle reacted. When it did so, a gull grabbed the fish and dragged it off where a squabble of gulls fought over the delicacy.
The bald eagle, freed of the responsibility of a fish dinner, flew into a tree and preened. The gulls continued to battle for control of the salmon. The eagle, having had enough, flew down from its perch and dispatched one gull, as the remaining gulls fled the scene. The bald eagle flew back to its perch and continued to preen.
The tail-tugging raven got the salmon.

Why we have evergreen trees

When I walk on a cold, windy winter day, I appreciate the evergreen trees for their good work in blocking the bitter winds. There is a Native American folktale about a sparrow with an injured wing. He was unable to fly south with his flock as winter approached. Despite that, the sparrow continued to sing his lovely song. When the first snow fell, the sparrow became desperate and sought shelter and warmth in the leaves of an oak tree, then a maple, an elm, a willow and an aspen, but each tree had a small heart and rejected the tiny bird with considerable rudeness. The pine tree, however, welcomed the sparrow and apologized for its sticky branches and needlelike foliage. The pine tucked the little bird comfortably into a sheltered and welcoming branch. When his flock returned in the spring, the sparrow's wing had healed. The Creator admonished the trees that had so much but refused to share. The Creator proclaimed those trees would lose their leaves each winter, but because the pine tree had shown compassion, it would remain green all year.

Q&A

“What should I do if I find an injured bird?” Make the bird as comfortable as possible and call the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota, located in Roseville, at 651-486-9453. If you find an injured raptor, contact the University of Minnesota Raptor Center at 612-624-4745.
“Why do I see robins and mourning doves here in the winter?” There are migratory robins and there are those that don’t migrate. Scientists are studying the migratory robins and the resident robins, finding they interbreed little. There may be genetic differences. Overwintering robins tend to travel in flocks of 40-50 birds and reside in ravines and other wooded areas where they have an open water source. They can be nomadic and move to where there is an adequate supply of food. Robins survive in the winter on the fruit of trees like buckthorn, crabapple, cherry, mountain ash, hackberry and hawthorn. Robins seldom visit feeders but might eat raisins, currants, blueberries or small pieces of suet placed on the ground or platform feeder. Most mourning doves move south, but some are year-round residents in the southern part of the state. If they find food (cracked corn, millet or safflower seeds at feeders) and water to drink, they can withstand winter. Off the subject, a dove has a structure in its throat that produces pigeon milk or crop milk for nestlings. The milk looks and smells like cheese and has some nutrients found in cow's milk.

Thanks for stopping by

“As the pressure of population increasingly regiments us and crowds us closer together, an association with the wild, winged freedom of the birds will fill an ever growing need in our lives.”—Edwin Way Teale.
“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.”—Alice Walker.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

The Harris's Sparrow is the only North American songbird that breeds in Canada and nowhere else in the world. It was named after Edward Harris (not the actor), a friend of Audubon, in 1843. Thomas Nuttall had named it the "Mourning Finch" in 1834. Photo by Al Batt.

I tried to get my ducks in a row, but it was like herding mallards.

A collective noun of squirrels scurried away

Naturally

 I stood where the wind often hits hard, but it had taken the day off.
 When snow falls, nature listens. I need to listen, too. If I can’t be quiet, what can I do? When it snows, I have three choices: shovel, make snow angels or listen. 
 A kind reader sent this quote from “Red Deer Runs in Darkness,” “It became obvious to me that nature has her own language. She speaks through the animals, the trees and the cool summer breeze. She whispers, ‘Embrace me.’ And I do.”
 I watched a red-breasted nuthatch fly into a feeder, grab a sunflower seed and leave quickly as if it had swiped the seed. Two pheasants and two rabbits fed under that bird feeder. It was below zero and they were hungry, so there was little fussing. They were a group. A group of rabbits has been called a bevy, bury, colony, down, drove, herd, husk, litter, nest, trace, trip and warren. Collective nouns for pheasants include bevy, bouquet, brace, creche, head, nide, nye, plume, plump, trip and warren. I could rightly call the mixed group a bevy, trip or warren. Later, a fox squirrel joined the group, but only for a short time. A collective noun for squirrels is a scurry and that’s what the squirrel did after being chased by a rooster pheasant. 
 There was another group moving through the yard on a cold and sunny day. It was a noisy group of starlings. The collective noun for that vociferous bunch is a chattering. They are often referred to as a murmuration because of the background murmur caused by the many wings of a flock beating in flight.
 I went indoors to thaw after a walk. I decided to delete a few of my overabundant herd of photos. I started with some Costa Rica pictures. I looked at photos of an eyelash pit viper, a small arboreal viper most active at night. It feeds on rodents, lizards, frogs, bats and birds. Its color varies—green, brown, brownish, grayish, pinkish, yellow, yellowish, white and more. It has small horn-shaped extensions on the supraocular scales (above the eyes). It’s named for these bristly scales that resemble hoods or eyelashes over its eyes. Another snake found in Costa Rica is the fer-de-lance, a highly venomous pit viper inhabiting the region from southern Mexico to northern South America, whose name means “spearhead” in French. It feeds on rats and other rodents, opossums, rabbits, frogs and geckos. It’s said to be the most dangerous snake in Central and South America, and causes more human deaths than any other American reptile. On average, a fer-de-lance injects 105 mg of venom in one bite, although a venom yield of up to 310 mg has been recorded while milking the snakes. The fatal dose for a human is 50 mg. It’s responsible for almost half of all snakebites in Costa Rica. However, even with its high venom yield and huge fangs (around 1 inch long in large females), the species has a low mortality rate of 1 to 2%. 
 I fed a handful of peanuts to the blue jays. Vanessa Sorensen wrote, “Though temper and crest May flare Striking beauty.” Feeding the birds is a Christmas gift to me. An ancient Italian proverb said, “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.” One of the significant benefits of being a birder is that it gives me something to talk about besides the weather. 

Q&A

 Mark Sorenson of Hollandale saw a gray squirrel using the walnut in its mouth to bang on a window of Mark’s house. He wondered why. It might have been a Christmas gift for Mark, but I suspect the squirrel was looking for a place to cache food, in this case, a walnut.
 “Why are they called angleworms?” Angleworms are commonly called earthworms. The name originated because these common ground worms are a preferred bait used by anglers, a person fishing with an angle (a rod with a baited hook on a line) rather than a fisherman using a net. The angle of the hook makes an angler; from the Old English angul means “fishhook.” The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center said earthworms are native to the US but aren’t indigenous to some northern parts because the glaciers covering North America as far south as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio wiped out native earthworms. European settlers introduced earthworm species from Europe and Asia to North America in the 18th century; likely introduced unintentionally in ship ballasts or in the roots of imported plants.

Thanks for stopping by

  “We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late.”—Marie Beynon Lyons Ray.
 “Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more."—“How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”—Dr. Suess.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

The handsome male house finch named Snowy McSnowface. Photo by Al Batt

A superstition maintains that saying “rabbit rabbit” aloud before anything else on the first day of the month brings a month of good luck. Gilda Radner said “bunny, bunny” to ensure “laughter, love and peace” and FDR said “rabbits.” If you forget to say “rabbit, rabbit” the first thing, say "tibbar, tibbar"—“rabbit” backward. Warranty available for purchase.

I forgive those squirrels who trespass against us

Naturally

 There are no ordinary moments.
 I marveled at a starry sky. Marissa Meyer wrote, “I’m still thanking all the stars, one by one.”
 As I thanked as many stars as I could, I recalled the words of James Thurber, “There are two kinds of light—the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.”
 The sky illuminates and is immense, but so is a square foot of my yard.
 The next morning, firmly in the spirit of the season, I forgave those squirrels who trespass against us.

Christmas gifts

 What do you give a nature lover other than your undying appreciation? Here are a few other welcome gifts.
 The birds come already wrapped. Share your love of them with another.
 The Audubon Bird Guide app and the Merlin Bird ID app (from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) are free and come in handy on a cellphone (a field guide in your pocket) or tablet. Check your storage space available before downloading them. The Audubon app offers detailed descriptions for over 800 birds, 2,300+ bird songs and 3,500+ high-quality color photos. There is a search function for identifying a bird by song type or pattern, wing shape, time of year, by state, locomotion and more. There are up-to-date range maps with wintering maps for many migrating birds. The Merlin app allows you to answer three simple questions about a bird you are trying to identify and Merlin gives you a list of possible matches. It has a sound ID that listens to the birds around you and shows real-time suggestions for what is singing. You can compare your recordings to the songs and calls in Merlin to confirm what you’ve heard. If you take a photo of a bird or pull one from your camera roll, Merlin’s photo ID offers you a short list of potential matches. The photo ID works offline, so you can identify birds in the photos no matter where you are. Merlin has the capability of building a digital scrapbook of your birding memories with Save My Bird. Tap “This is my bird!” each time you identify a bird and Merlin adds it to your growing life list. Many other wonderful field guide apps require payment.
 Warm socks, warm gloves or mittens, cap (I’ve found that the dorkier a hat looks, the warmer it is). Flip-top mittens allow the wearer to fold back the mitten to reveal fingerless gloves. Vests. I love the arm freedom they provide.  

Books. I enjoy the tactile sensation of paper field guides and they are all excellent. I prefer painted birds over photos and guides covering more than a single state. A small book showing only the birds of one state is good for those who do their birding from the kitchen window or at a feeder. I advise you to look at field guides in a bookstore before deciding on which one fits. 
 A Leatherman, ice cleats, trekking or hiking poles, snowshoes, a dependable travel mug, a pocket-sized notebook and a back, day or fanny pack. Binoculars are wonderful gifts but are easier to buy for a child than for an adult. You’ll want to get a gift receipt or be accompanied by the adult gift recipient at the time of purchase.
 Membership in a local Audubon or bird club, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology or the American Birding Association. State park sticker, feeders, birdseed or a subscription to BWD magazine (a birding publication).

Q&A

 “How can I tell rabbit tracks from squirrel tracks in the snow?” I read an interesting item from the Hickory Knolls Discovery Center (Illinois), saying when a squirrel hops and lands, its larger back feet land parallel and in front of its smaller front feet. The resulting shape is square-ish. Rabbits land with one forefoot in front of the other. The line of those two prints behind the two larger hind footprints resembles the letter Y. SQuirrels leave SQuare tracks and Ys are the tracks of a bunnY. I’d add that rabbit tracks can have the shape of a triangle and that rabbits stop to nibble and squirrels dig for nuts buried under the snow. A rabbit has furred toes, blurring the toes in a track, while a squirrel has long, skinny toes that are likely to appear in the tracks. If the tracks lead to a tree and stop, it’s a squirrel.
 “My grandfather was born in Kentucky and he talked about a “wasper.” What is that?” It’s a southern name for a wasp. Waspers is the slang for the plural of wasp and it might be easier to say than “wasps.”

Thanks for stopping by

 “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”—Willie Nelson. 
 “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners to make our souls blossom.”—Marcel Proust.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

Ring-necked pheasants were successfully imported from China to the United States in 1881 with 26 of the 30 birds surviving the journey. The first successful release in Minnesota was in 1916. A rooster's crow is often followed by a loud, rapid beating of his wings. Roosters frequently cackle when they fly. I cackle when I fly, too. Photo by Al Batt.

If these pheasants could book a flight to Texas, Arizona or Florida, the airports would be full of feathers. Photo by Al Batt

From “Zen Birds.”

The Christmas Bird Count was postponed as the area reels from a blizzard. The birds couldn’t postpone their days.

The highways closed because of weather conditions, but the feeders remained opened.

On a day buried in white snow, birds bring splendor.

Do polars bears hibernate?

Naturally

 Blue jays and peanuts. Pluck and chuck.
 It was gray anatomies as juncos covered the ground feeding on the millet I’d put out for them. The dark-eyed juncos flash white outer tail feathers in flight.
 It was a gray sack hanging from a branch.  I’d walked the nearby trail regularly and didn’t notice the Baltimore oriole nest until the tree had shed its leaves. It had been a bustling bag of baby birds not long before. The female is the primary architect with an unbelievable weaving artistry. They build nests well enough that some survive several years. A nest includes hundreds of fibrous strands of plant material (grapevine, various kinds of grass, dogbane, milkweed and others) as well as yarn or string.
 Hanging around with the juncos are some American tree sparrows. European settlers incorrectly named them because the birds reminded them of Eurasian tree sparrows back home. American tree sparrows are ground birds. They forage on the ground, nest on the ground and breed in scrubby areas near the northern treeline. It’s a small sparrow with a long, notched tail and an unstreaked gray-brown breast and belly with a dark spot in the center. The upper mandible of its bill is dark and the lower is yellow. It has a rusty cap and eye-line, and a gray face.
 Birds are fine company. I watched chickadees enhance my yard. How do they survive winter? Birds have systems in place. Small songbirds migrating through and those who winter here often associate with chickadee flocks. These followers listen to the voices of their chickadee leaders chasing the moment and when they hear an alarm note, they react.

Q&A

 “Do polar bears hibernate?” Only the pregnant polar bear females enter a den for months at a time (October-March) to give birth to cubs and nurse them for the first three months of their lives. Other polar bears are outside during the winter, hunting seals and getting by. The female may lower her heart rate, her metabolism and breathing rate in the den, but not to the point of a true hibernator. She is in a state of “light hibernation,” which allows her to minimize the amount of energy needed to stay alive while tending to her cubs. Prior research had hinted that all polar bears were capable of a walking hibernation, a period of decreased metabolism undertaken by bears during the summer and fall in response to a lack of hunting opportunities. A new study found no evidence to support this theory. There was no indication that polar bears could adjust their metabolism enough to deal with a scarcity of prey.
 “I saw a catbird feeding on the white berries of poison ivy this fall. What else eats them?” Here are some plucked from a long list of chowhounds who refuse to let the leaves of three be: American robins, deer, raccoons, cardinals, eastern bluebirds, woodpeckers, crows, wild turkeys, bobwhite quail, squirrels, chickadees, tufted titmice, black bears, yellow-rumped warblers, cedar waxwings and more.
 “Why don’t small birds fly in V-formations like geese?” A goose gets a lift from the wingtips of the goose flying in front of it. Small songbirds wouldn’t create enough of an updraft to make a V-formation useful. 
 “What duck dives the deepest?” The long-tailed duck is likely the champion diver as they dive as deep as 200 feet to forage. 
 “Why don’t the feet of songbirds freeze?” Their feet are mostly bones, sinew and scale with little muscle or nerves. The feet lack sweat glands, so they stay dry. The arteries that transport blood to the legs are in contact with the veins that return blood to the bird’s heart. This allows the heat to be transferred between the two, keeping the feet warm.
 “Give me some weather folklore involving birds.” Your wish is my command. When cranes are aloft, the day is soft. Swallows soar, good weather more. A robin singing at dawn while facing west, means a change in the weather by noon. If a robin sings loudly from the top of a tree, expect a storm. When a woodpecker pecks low on a tree, expect warm weather. A loon calls loudest before a storm.
 “What is a meadow wink?” It’s a nickname for the bobolink. Other nicknames include skunk blackbird, ricebird, reedbird and butterbird. Breeding male bobolinks are the only North American bird with a white back and black underparts, and have been described as a bird wearing a tuxedo backward.

Thanks for stopping by 

  “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”—Jonathan Swift.
  “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way she or he handles three things; A rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights”—Maya Angelou.
  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

The sight of a bluebird has long been associated with happiness, good luck and joy. I hope this photo brings you all of those. Have a bluebird day. Eastern bluebirds photo by Al Batt.

An award-winning children’s book on collective nouns presented wonderfully.

There are stories, lessons and tips galore for animal lovers who get to shadow a world-class veterinarian in the pages of this book.

This fine book led me to recall sitting in all-day-breakfast eateries, talking with friends about slow birding—taking the time needed to really look at and learn about a bird. Joan found blue jays are the 6th most googled bird, and white brows on a male white-throated sparrow suggest it might be a philanderer.

The Thanksgiving opossum

Naturally

 I saw several inert bodies of wild turkeys hit by cars. The big birds can be stubborn when it comes to surrendering a road. I’ve fond memories of spreading my fingers and outlining them in pencil on construction paper to create a make-believe turkey in grade school.
 Northern shrikes migrate south from the arctic to Minnesota for the winter. Slightly smaller than a blue jay, it has a distinctive black mask and noticeable white patches on the wings in flight. Shrikes are predatory songbirds, catching insects, small birds, small mammals and reptiles. They impale their prey on the thorns of trees.
 A chipmunk appeared to have impacted wisdom teeth. A chipmunk’s cheek pouches are like cargo pants and can expand up to three times their normal size to allow the chipmunk to carry food. National Geographic reports that a hardworking chipmunk can gather 165 acorns in a single day. In his book “Winter World,” Bernd Heinrich counted 60 sunflower seeds packed into one cheek pouch. In a good year, one 4-ounce chipmunk can stockpile 8 pounds of food and do it without renting a single storage unit. Caching food allows an industrious chipmunk to snack while watching Netflix on nasty winter days. I’ve heard from a reader who reported one chipmunk stuffing 31 corn kernels before taking its food to go. An interesting fact: Most chipmunks are named Chip, Dale, Alvin, Simon or Theodore. 
 A New York Times article said scientists at the University of Hong Kong published the most complete census of ants ever assembled. The study estimated there are at least 20 quadrillion—20,000,000,000,000,000—ants on Earth, about 2.5 million ants for every human. 

The Thanksgiving opossum

 It was a beautiful photo that had outgrown its frame. Three deer and a Virginia opossum showed up under the feeders. The opossum is nearsighted, suffers in cold weather (tail and ears are subject to frostbite) and plays dead or ‘possum for up to 4 hours when threatened. It’s an omnivore with 50 teeth that eats ticks, slugs, mice and rats. I love seeing an opossum, often called a ‘possum, because it’s one more interesting thing for me to look at and I’m thankful for that.

Q&A

 “Are bluebirds here in the winter?” Eastern bluebirds are occasionally present in the winter months, primarily in the central and southern regions of Minnesota. The Iowa DNR said up to a third of its bluebirds stay in Iowa. Red cedar, Virginia creeper, sumac, bittersweet, hackberry and hawthorn are native plants that feed wintering bluebirds.
 Jena Kauffmann asked for advice on safe bird feeders to make at home—Pinecones with peanut butter? Is lard a safe alternative? Anything harmful we should know? Pinecone feeders are great. Feeders made from cans, milk cartons or jugs, orange halves, etc. are limited only by the imagination. Make homemade suet with equal parts lard and peanut butter, melting and mixing them over low heat. You could add a variety of ingredients to this mixture: Black-oil sunflower seeds, unsalted nuts, dried fruit, peanut butter, cornmeal or flour, other kinds of birdseed or rolled oats. Avoid bacon grease, table scraps, meat, salted nuts and sugar. Keep the blend refrigerated until you’re ready to use it. 
 Arlene Kjar of Northfield suggested I write about discerning house finches from purple finches. The two closely related species are sparrow-sized with stout bills. I could fill a column on this subject, but I’ll go with what I hope proves useful. Most males can be distinguished by the shade of red, with a house finch tending to have an orangish tint and a purple finch appearing wine-red. This can be helpful, but ambiguous. Females can be distinguished by the contrasting dark and light markings on purple finches, including a light eyebrow stripe, and the muted gray-brown coloration on house finches. Look for a slight headband effect (peak) on the head of a purple finch and a smoothly rounded head on a house finch. A purple finch has a distinct notch at the tip, while a house finch has a longer tail that is slightly notched. A purple finch has a broad-shouldered look and a house finch looks slimmer. A good method of telling the male finches apart is to look at the birds’ lower flanks (below the wings to the tail). If the flanks are streaked with brown, it’s a male house finch. If the flanks are white with a hint of pink, it’s a male purple finch, which has a cloudy white belly. To my mind, purple finches are calmer at the feeders.

Thanks for stopping by 

 “In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”—Robert Lynd.
 “Modern man has lost the option of silence.”—William S. Burroughs.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

I think the Virginia opossum is cute. I don’t hold the majority opinion. Photo by Al Batt.

Do mothballs keep mice away?

Naturally

A thirsty red-bellied woodpecker bellied up to the birdbath. The chipmunks had taken a winter break into their burrows where they had stored food.
I saw Lapland longspurs and horned larks flying alongside roads. Look for snow buntings on roadsides and in fields. The “snowflakes” that are birds flash white in flight. They can be spellbinding.
I like window platform feeders attached to the glass via suction cups. I love seeing birds close and I hope the feeders might prevent some window strikes. When frightened, the birds can’t achieve sufficient velocity when flying from the feeder into the glass to do themselves much harm. A feeder on a crank-out window allows filling on a day with cranky weather. One feeder fell from the window on a 20° day. I put it back up, and with a brazen display of overconfidence, I went indoors and took off my coat. It stayed adhered to the glass. A chickadee was the first to land on it, then a goldfinch, a blue jay, a red-breasted nuthatch and a cardinal. Gloriosky!
Some oak and ironwood trees hang onto their brown and curling leaves in winter. This is called marcescence and usually occurs on the parts of the tree that hadn’t yet formed flowers. Commonly, trees exhibit marcescence when young, but lose this characteristic when older and usually leaves remain on the branches closest to the ground. Younger oaks may keep a full complement of dead brown leaves. People speculate the retained leaves may deter browsing animals, such as deer. The dried leaves may conceal buds from browsers or make them difficult to nip from the twig. Research has found the dried leaves less nutritious. Another reason trees might give for holding their leaves is it allows them to keep and recycle their nutrients themselves. Marcesent leaves provide shelter for wintering birds perching among the rattling leaves, away from winter’s wind.

Nature news

A juvenile bar-tailed godwit has flown 8,435 miles from Alaska to the Australian state of Tasmania without stopping, appearing to set a new world record for marathon bird flights. Satellite data showed it didn’t stop during its flight of 11 days and one hour.
As of December 20, 2022, the manufacture and import for sale in Canada of plastic checkout bags, cutlery, food service ware, stir sticks and straws will be prohibited. Ring carriers surrounding cans or bottles will be added to that list on June 20, 2023.
Research done at the University of Oldenburg in Germany found the barn owl suffers no meaningful hearing loss as it ages. In contrast, a human loses more than 30 decibels of sensitivity to high-sound frequencies by the age of 65. Understanding the preservation of hearing in birds could lead to new treatment options for deaf humans. If you spot a great horned owl, what appear to be ears are tufts of feathers. The ear openings are on the sides of the head, one slightly higher than the other. The offset ears are most pronounced in night-hunting owls and permit an owl to position its head so sound reaches both ears simultaneously and it can pinpoint prey.

Q&A

“Why are they called cobwebs?” Cobwebs are tangles of the silken threads of spiderwebs covered with accumulated dirt and dust. Another name for a spider was atorcoppe, from ator- “poison, venom” plus copp “top, summit,” which by extension meant “head.” Atorcoppe meant “poison head.” J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in “The Hobbit” that when the dwarves were captured by a colony of spiders, Bilbo Baggins sang to anger the spiders and draw them away from his friends. “This is what he sang: Old fat spider spinning in a tree! Old fat spider can’t see me! Attercop! Attercop! Won’t you stop, stop your spinning and look for me?” It worked because Tolkien added, “no spider has ever liked being called Attercop.” Atorcoppe was shortened to coppe and a spider’s web called a coppewebbe. This word underwent spelling and pronunciation changes that turned it into cobweb in the 16th century. A cobweb is a “head-web.”
“Do mothballs keep mice away?” A mothball is a toxic pesticide and can be dangerous to people and pets. Fumes from mothballs kill clothes moths, their eggs and their larvae that eat natural fibers. People use mothballs to keep rats, mice and squirrels away. People are exposed to the chemicals in mothballs by inhaling the fumes. If you smell mothballs, you’re exposed to these chemicals. Children or pets sometimes mistake mothballs for food or candy, which can cause serious effects. Please read the warnings on the packages.

Thanks for stopping by

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.”—Woody Allen.
“I feel a very unusual sensation—if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.”―Benjamin Disraeli.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

I’m afraid it’s not the best photo, but it is a snow bunting. Snow buntings breed in the high Arctic where their plumage blends in with the landscape. Photo by Al Batt.

An Eastern Chipmunk doing some last-minute shopping. Its cheek pouches expand to three times their size, eliminating the chipmunk’s need to use a plastic bag.

Watkins no longer sells products via their door-to-door sales model, but it has a museum in Winona, Minnesota.

Watkins no longer sells products via their door-to-door sales model, but it has a museum in Winona, Minnesota.

Joey Batt was presented with a commemorative basketball for scoring 1000 points by Coach Emilee Thiesse of the Minnesota State Mavericks. Swishes do come true.

Will we get a lot of snowy owls this year?

Naturally

It was a chilly day with edges softened by a diminished wind. No leaves were leaping, but a lovely young opossum drank from the birdbath.

Q&A

Jack May of Mankato wrote, “When I was a kid, we would plow our land with a moldboard plow. Gull-like birds would flock behind the plow. You could distinctly see them pluck earthworms from the ground. It never seems as dramatic these days, but this is a little reminiscent of those days. Any thoughts?” In my youth, a small, black-headed gull of the prairies, the Franklin’s gull, was a common sight behind farm implements exposing earthworms, grubs, insects and mice. I called them “prairie doves.” Another common gull that feeds behind the plow is the ring-billed gull. It isn’t black-headed, is larger than a Franklin’s, and has a ring around its yellow bill. Franklin’s nest primarily at Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge in Marshall County. Estimates show a drop in nesting populations due to unfavorable water levels. The ring-billed gull population has increased in Minnesota, thanks to an omnivorous diet and adaptability to human-modified landscapes, including feeding at landfills and parking lots. I see more ring-billeds shadowing the implements of husbandry today in my neck of the woods, but they don’t appear to be the tractor aficionados the Franklin’s gull was. There is a lot of harvesting done during the hours when gulls aren’t working.
Micah Nettekoven wrote, “Is it true a woodpecker’s tongue wraps around its brain?” A bird’s tongue is called the hyoid apparatus and is how woodpeckers extend their tongues to reach insects deep inside the holes they’ve drilled. A woodpecker’s tongue is long and the bird needs a place to put it. This hyoid apparatus of a woodpecker travels below the jaw, wraps around the back of the head and runs toward the nostrils. Scientists think the hyoid apparatus acts like a seatbelt and provides extra cushioning of the head during pecking.
“I heard bucks don’t eat during rut. Is that true?” Are they too obsessed with breeding to eat? Bucks lose weight during the rut, but it’s from burning calories. Bucks eat during the rut, just not as much because of their hectic schedule. A deer’s diet consists of a variety of crops, grasses, vegetation, acorns and nuts. The browse of deer on twigs can look similar to the browse made by rabbits. Deer have incisors only on their lower jaw and this requires them to tear off their food. Rabbits make sharp, clean cuts at an angle, as they have incisors on both upper and lower jaws.
“Why do birds migrate?” The two primary reasons are food and nesting locations. Birds migrate to move from areas of low or decreasing resources to areas of high or increasing resources. Here’s more about how migration evolved. Birds nesting in the Northern Hemisphere tend to migrate northward in the spring to take advantage of burgeoning insect populations, budding plants and an abundance of nesting locations. As winter nears and the availability of insects and other food drops, the birds move south. Migration can be triggered by changes in day length, lower temperatures, changes in food supplies, and/or genetic predisposition.
“What are the close relatives of a cardinal?” Molecular phylogenetic analyses for 832 species show the closest relatives to the northern cardinal to be the pyrrhuloxia and vermilion cardinal with these three species being closely related to some grosbeaks (including rose-breasted, brown-headed and crimson-collared), This differs from an earlier study using morphological characters. Colloquial names for a cardinal include cardinal-bird, cardinal grosbeak, cardinal redbird, common cardinal, crested redbird, top-knot redbird, Virginia nightingale and Virginia redbird.
“Will we get a lot of snowy owls this year?” Predicting the movements of snowy owls is difficult due to limited information on prey availability and nest success at their remote breeding sites in the Arctic. Some snowy owls migrate south every winter. Every three to five years, a spike in the population of lemmings, their chief food source, results in a larger number of surviving owl chicks. Adult owls chase young owls from territory. The owls aren’t coming south because they’re hungry. Peaks in lemming numbers cause a boom in snowy owls. Large numbers of owls force the lemming population down. With fewer lemmings around the next year, snowy owl numbers fall. Fewer owls mean lemming numbers rise and the cycle repeats.

Thanks for stopping by

“A gull, up close, looks surprisingly stuffed. His fluffy chest seems filled with an inexpensive taxidermist’s material rather lumpily inserted. The legs, unbent, are childish crayon strokes—too simple to be workable. And even the feather-markings, whose intricate symmetry is the usual glory of birds, are in the gull slovenly, as if God makes too many to make them very well.”—John Updike.
“Even stones have a love, a love that seeks the ground.”—Meister Eckhart.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

The call of the red-breasted nuthatch is a nasal, tinny yank-yank that is higher-pitched than the white-breasted nuthatch. There is a "tin horn" quality to its call. This nuthatch can be quite tame. Photo by Al Batt.

The “Little Kids First Nature Guide to BUGS” is a wonderful book. Its wonderful information and impressive photographs have made this a book for kids of all ages. Better yet, it has turned me into an appreciative Little Kid.

One of the many things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving is the wonderful collection of National Geographic Kids books. They are superb. And they are great for those of us masquerading as adults.

How can I tell a downy woodpecker from a hairy woodpecker?

Naturally

  Birds that had completed their molts appeared impeccably dressed. On a day filled with fur and feathers, and covered in colorful fall leaves, I watched a fox sparrow sort through the fallen leaves in search of sparrow chow.
  I eliminated some common burdock plants. In my walks over the years, I have encountered a kinglet, goldfinch and hummingbird that had been killed after becoming entangled in a burdock. The birds had become caught by the hooked bracts surrounding the flower heads and seed heads. The more a bird struggled, the more ensnared it became. Other small bird species have been reported to have succumbed this way after seeking insects or seeds. These include gnatcatchers, nuthatches, chickadees, warblers and siskins.
 I watched a fluffy (furry) moth shiver to warm itself enough to be able to fly.

Q&A

  “What percent of birds migrate?” I attended a Bell Museum Master Class presented by a representative of the National Audubon Society who said 19% of global bird species and 70% of North American birds migrate. He added that 80% are nocturnal migrants and 96% of land birds feed insects to their chicks. According to a large-scale analysis of data gathered by 21 bird observatories from northern Europe and Canada on nearly 200 species, birds have advanced the timing of their migration by an average of just over a week since the late 1950s and early 1960s. Short-distance migratory birds start their migrations by 1.5 to two days sooner per decade on average. Long-distance migrants start 0.6 to 1.2 days earlier. The change is more pronounced in the spring migration than in the fall.
  “What’s a good tree to plant for birds?” Trees that provide nuts and berries for food, and feed caterpillars are great. Doug Tallamy, professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware and author of  numerous books found that oaks support 557 species of caterpillars, black cherry supports 456 species and maples support up to 297 species of caterpillars. Tallamy made it simple: “No insects, no baby birds.”
  “I heard you mention Bergmann’s rule on the radio. What is it?” Bergmann's is an ecogeographical rule that states within a broadly distributed taxonomic clade, populations and species of a larger size are found in colder environments, while populations and species of a smaller size are found in warmer regions. This is because larger animals have a lower surface area to volume ratio than smaller animals and radiate less body heat per unit of mass and therefore stay warmer in cold climates. The higher surface area-to-volume ratio of smaller animals in hot and dry climates facilitates heat loss through the skin and helps cool the body.
  “Where do birds sleep?” Diurnal birds find places safe from predators and sheltered from the weather. Depending on the species, these roosts could be in dense foliage, in cavities, perched high in trees or close to tree trunks holding the warmth of the day’s sun. The downwind side of a tree trunk might be a bird’s choice. Some birds spend the night on the ground, facing into the wind. Other birds might use buildings. Waterfowl sleep floating in the water. Wading birds like herons and egrets sleep standing in water or on land.
  “How can I attract goldfinches to my yard?” Goldfinches are granivores, so provide nyjer seed and/or black oil sunflower seed, and water. Good choices for your garden are sunflowers, black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, asters, cosmos, milkweed, Joe Pye weed, cleome and native thistles.
  “How can I tell a downy woodpecker from a hairy woodpecker?” The hairy is much larger, but that can be difficult to discern when you’re not seeing both species at the same time. The male of each species has a red nape spot, which is lacking on the female. A diagnostic feature is the bill. The downy has a short, stubby bill. The hairy has a bill nearly as long as its head. If it’s dinky, it’s a downy. If it’s huge, it’s a hairy.
  “What’s the difference between a horn and an antler?” Antlers grow as an extension of an animal’s skull and are generally found only on males of the deer family. However, female caribou do have antlers. Horns are made of compressed keratin growing from a bony core and are never shed. These permanent cranial appendages can be found on both male and female bighorn sheep, cattle (there are naturally polled breeds), bison and others. Antlers are seasonal, shed and regrown yearly while horns are permanent. An exception is the pronghorn, whose horns are shed annually.

Thanks for stopping by

  “There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.”—Alfred Korzybski.
  “When life gives you rain, jump in the mud puddles.”
  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

River otters eat fish, clams, crayfish, mussels, amphibians, aquatic beetles, bird eggs, fish eggs, turtles, injured or molting ducks and geese, muskrats and small terrestrial mammals (chipmunks, mice and young rabbits). Photo by Al Batt.

In September, I was a teller at the Moonshell Storytelling Festival at Mahoney State Park in Nebraska. It was a blast, as was the company of this lovely creature.

A thirsty red-bellied woodpecker bellies up to the birdbath.

I saw a skunk spitting out honey bees

Naturally

  I was on a trail of discovery as I walked toward the delicious colors of a sunset. I appreciate things in the hopes of being a responsible ancestor. The leaves and the trees have had a falling out. Once, when I was a boy, I thought I saw a mosquito wearing a parka, refusing to give up. I have no photo to document that sighting because I had no camera.

Odds, ends and wonderments

  Puffins sound like mini-chainsaws.
  The California quail’s main call consists of three syllables and sounds like the bird is saying “Chi-ca-go.” 
  The collective noun for dippers is a ladle—I guess.
  A boreal chickadee sounds like a black-capped chickadee with a head cold.
  A bird’s mothering instinct will overcome the scent of a human, no matter when that human last bathed.
  The blue-gray gnatcatcher eats spiders, steals insects from spider webs and uses the webs as nesting material.
  A fossorial animal is one adapted to living underground, often by digging a burrow and/or tunnel. Examples of fossorial animals are earthworms, ants, moles and pocket gophers. Insects are the most diverse group of animals and many are fossorial.
  The Canary Islands weren’t named after the birds; the birds were named after them. Their label comes from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs." The story is that a Mauretanian king sent an expedition there that found multitudes of large dogs. The Canary Islands had a teeming colony of monk seals known as “sea wolves” by sailors and might have morphed into “sea dogs.”
  Iowa State became the Cyclones after the Chicago Tribune noted on September 29, 1895: Struck by a Cyclone It Comes from Iowa and Devastates Evanston Town. “Northwestern might as well have tried to play football with an Iowa cyclone as with the Iowa team it met yesterday. At the end of 50 minutes’ play, the big husky farmers from Iowa’s Agricultural College had rolled up 36 points while the 15-yard line was the nearest Northwestern got to Iowa’s goal.”

Q&A

  “What are some predators of the honey bee?” I watched a skunk feed at a hive. Skunks are insect eaters by nature and a bee is a sweet delicacy. When a skunk finds a hive, it scratches at the entrance, causing the bees to come out to investigate. When they do, the skunk snatches them up as a tasty treat. You’ll know skunks have been visiting your hives when you see scratches on the lower parts of the hive and find remnants of bees lying on the ground outside the hive. This is because skunks often suck on a bee, drawing out the bee’s juicy inner parts, and then spitting out the exoskeleton. Skunks also dig up yellowjacket nests to eat larvae and adults. Skunks are able to bear the pain of the stings. Putting a fence around a hive discourages skunks as they aren’t skilled climbers.
  Yellowjackets and bald-faced hornets eat dead bees, live bees and honey. Varroa mites, bears, praying mantises, dragonflies, ambush bugs, spiders and many others are predators of honey bees.
  “Are coyotes pack animals?” Coyotes may live as solitary individuals, in pairs or in small family groups, both in rural and urban areas. Their packs are typically much smaller than wolf packs and most often include only family members.
  “Where do spiders go in winter other than into my basement?” In Minnesota, the adults of most spider species die at the end of the summer, while the eggs or immature spiders overwinter. Of the species that overwinter as adults, the largest is the wolf spider.
  “I see swellings on goldenrod stems. What’s going on there?” The round gall is readily seen during the fall and winter, and occurs on several species of goldenrods in Minnesota. The goldenrod gall-fly female punctures the bud of a goldenrod plant and deposits one egg, which hatches and the larva begins to feed. The plant forms a gall in response. In September and October, the larva bores a tunnel from its central cavity to the outer epidermis, leaving a thin skin of tissue in place (this eases the exit of the adult) and then returns to the central cavity where it spends the winter. Pupation occurs during April and the adult fly emerges during the latter half of May to the first part of June and lives 8 to 10 days. The white grubs make excellent bait for ice fishing, and chickadees and downy woodpeckers feed on the larvae.

Thanks for stopping by

  “It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.”—Karl Popper.
  “Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesn't make a corporation a terrorist.”—Winona LaDuke.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

Bobcats are long-legged animals with bobbed tails. They have a white patch on the back of their ears. Photo by Al Batt.

Did the bird lose its tail in a poker game?

Naturally 

  Crows announced my arrival.
  I followed trembling leaves down a trail while leading a nature walk. As I pontificated to those nice enough to join me, house finches sang. The birds are permanent residents, but some undergo a short-distance migration south. Males sing throughout the year, except during a period of molt (late July to October). I spotted a hermit thrush on a picnic table near the trail. Considered by many to have the most beautiful song of all birds, its soul-stirring sound is flute-like and ethereal, and led to it being nicknamed the “American nightingale.” It doesn’t do much vocalizing during migration.
  At home, there were playground scuffles among the native sparrows scratching beneath the feeders. I saw a white-throated sparrow without a tail. When a hawk or cat tries to capture a songbird, the songbird has a trick called a fright molt, which is what it’s called when a bird loses feathers due to sudden stress. This usually involves feathers near the tail or rump, where birds are likely to be attacked as they flee. It can be a lifesaving technique when a bird is about to be caught—similar to a lizard dropping its tail. There is a downside to having your tail scared off. A tail assists the bird in turning and balancing in flight, but if dropping feathers allows the bird to fly another day, it’s worth it. It will make do until a new tail grows back.

Q&A

  “How rapid are a hummingbird’s wingbeats and heartbeats?” On average, a hummingbird flaps 60-80 times per second in normal flight and up to 200 per second at top speed, and its heart beats 250 times per minute when at rest and up to 1,220 beats per minute when flying. 
  “A meme claims ravens have one more flight feather (pinion) than crows, making the difference between the two birds a matter of a pinion. Is that true?” Both birds have the same number of primaries (10), but crows have five evident finger feathers, whereas ravens have but four. So in flight, the difference between the two could be a matter of a pinion according to Kaeli Swift, Ph.D. and her corvid research.
  “When do deer carry antlers?” A white-tailed buck’s antlers begin growing in late April and usually reach full size by mid-August. While they’re growing, the antlers are covered with velvet, a fuzzy layer of flesh that supplies blood to the bony growths. Once the antlers are fully grown, the velvet dries and the deer removes it by rubbing his antlers against a tree. The main shedding period in Minnesota is around mid-January to mid-February.
  “Gray fox or red fox?” Gray foxes have black-tipped tails, while red fox tails are tipped in white. 
  “How do native bees survive winter?” Native bees hibernate and overwinter as fully formed young adults in their cocoons or as diapause larvae, emerging as adults the following spring or summer. They may live in the ground or in cavities of hollow plant stems or holes in wood left by wood-boring beetles. Only the new bumblebee queens survive by wintering underground and nonnative honey bees overwinter in their hive or nest.
  “I saw civet cats when I was a boy in Minnesota. Are they related to raccoons?” I saw them, too. Those were spotted skunks. Minnesota has two skunk species, the striped skunk and its smaller and less common relative, the increasingly rare eastern spotted skunk. Skunks and raccoons are from different family groups. Skunks are from the family Mephitidae, which consists of skunks and stink badgers. Raccoons are from the family Procyonidae, which is a New World family including ringtails, olingos,  olinguitos and others. The spotted skunk is also called a civet cat, but this mammal isn’t closely related to the true civets of the Old World. The prevalence of small farms in the early 1900s may have been a factor in facilitating the range expansion of the eastern spotted skunk, which was once common around farms, where it denned under houses or outbuildings and fed on stored crops, rodents attracted to stored grain and small farm animals such as chickens and their eggs. 
  “How big is a cardinal’s breeding territory?” Studies found it could be as much as 6.4 acres.
  “How much bigger are ravens than crows?” On average, our largest songbird, the common raven (croak) is about half again the size of an American crow (caw).

Thanks for stopping by

  “Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher standard of living is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.”—Aldo Leopold.
  “To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.”—Aldo Leopold.
 Do good.

© Al Batt 2022

The voice of an eastern screech-owl, a bird about the size of a pop can, features whinnies and soft trills. The descending, horse-like whinny is used to defend territories and the extended trill is used to attract mates and maintain contact. They produce soft hoots; sharp barking calls indicating alarm or agitation; screeches when defending nests or fledglings; a chuckle or rattle denoting annoyance (as when being mobbed); a clacking sound made by snapping the bill when annoyed; and a hiss as part of a threat display. Photo by Al Batt.

A podcast about nature.

I love the leaves of dead nettle.

What is a collective noun for vultures and what’s a jayhawk?

Naturally

  Lovely leaves slipped through the fingers of the trees. Colorful leaves make it impossible not to notice nature. Lemony yellow-colored grape leaves demand attention. No season makes any promises, but most of ours deliver wind. Aeolus, the god of the winds in Greek mythology, gave a bag of wind to help with Odysseus’s sailing. Today, we have politicians doing much of that work. Watch for storms when clouds are more wide than tall.
  A long, twisting flock of blackbirds traveled across a field. The cacophonous flock could contain red-winged blackbirds, grackles, starlings, cowbirds, Brewer’s blackbirds and/or rusty blackbirds.
  I watched a red-bellied woodpecker take a position at one end of a platform feeder and a pair of blue jays at the other end. It was a showdown. One jay flew first. The woodpecker grabbed as much food as it could and left. I’m sure the remaining blue jay declared itself the winner.

Q&A

  “Do blue jays mate for life?” Blue jays are monogamous and pairs may mate for life.
  “What is a group of vultures called?” A group of turkey vultures on a carcass is called a wake, a group roosting in trees is called a committee, venue or volt, and a group that is soaring is called a kettle.
  “What is determining the age of trees by counting their rings called?” The science of dating events and variations in the environment by the comparative study of growth rings in trees and aged wood is dendrochronology.
  “Can a great blue heron swim?” I’ve seen them swim with apparent grace and comfort despite the lack of webbing between their toes.
  “Why are vultures sometimes called buzzards?” When the early European colonists  saw vultures flying high in the sky, they noticed a resemblance to the broad-winged, dark-feathered birds of prey from back home—buzzards, which are members of the genus Buteo. In America, Buteos are hawks, with the red-tailed hawk being a prime example.
  “How do squirrels find the acorns they have buried?” They use a combination of landmarks, cues, memory and a sense of smell to narrow their search. They are good at locating buried foods.
  “How many birds do wind turbines kill?” Estimates vary, but according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, wind turbines kill 140,000 to 500,000 birds in the U.S. annually. Cats kill between 1.3 and 4 billion birds annually. Buildings and glass kill 365 to 988 million, vehicles kill 89-340 million, electric lines between 8 and 57 million, and oil pits kill 500,000 to 1 million birds each year. 
  “Why do turkeys spend so much time on the roads?” Wild turkeys use roads and roadsides as courtship areas in late winter and flocking areas before spring breakup. Juvenile and adult hens use roads most frequently in early spring because green forage, seeds and insects are more abundant in open, sunny habitats. Some turkeys, especially in spring and early summer, choose to stand, walk or pace back and forth on busy highways, dodging vehicles and blocking traffic. The reasons for this peculiar behavior aren’t fully understood. Highway turkeys aren’t easily dispersed. Turkeys of a feather flock together in the fall. Hens live in flocks with their female offspring, sometimes in large numbers. Hens that weren’t successful at hatching chicks may form smaller flocks with other lone hens. Male turkeys also form flocks, which might be segregated by age classes. Young male turkeys (jakes) band together and older males (toms) form their own flocks. In the fall, all these groups are drawn to the short-cropped grass and food that is left over for them. Grain and other seeds often collect on the graveled roadsides.
  Jennie Sorensen of Fairmont saw a bald eagle do a barrel roll and wondered why it does such a maneuver. Eagles flip as part of a mating ritual, to make a sudden dive when they spot food lurking beneath the surface of the water, to pirate (steal) a fish from another bird or as an act of aggression. 
  “How can I tell a dragonfly from a damselfly?” When perched, a dragonfly's wings stick straight out, perpendicular to its body like an airplane's wings. A damselfly's wings fold back in line with its body, giving it a more sleek, slender appearance. The name Odonata, the order of insects containing the dragonflies and damselflies, derives from the Greek, meaning tooth, referring to the strong teeth found on the insects’ mandibles. 
   “What is a jayhawk?” The term Jayhawk combines two birds: the blue jay, noisy and quarrelsome, and the sparrowhawk, a stealthy hunter, according to a University of Kansas  website.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.”―Emily Bronte.
  “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”―F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Great Gatsby.”
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2022

The dark-eyed junco is called a snowbird because it seems to bring snow as it migrates. Photo by Al Batt

The birds and the bees on the radio.

Picnic wasps are responsible for most “bee” stings

Naturally

 A red-breasted nuthatch nearly landed on me while I filled a bird feeder. There are two nuthatches seen regularly in Minnesota and both species of nuthatches have dark blue-gray upper sides, short tails, sharp bills and black crowns. The white-breasted nuthatch has a white face and white in the breast that tapers to a grayish belly and chestnut undertail and the red-breasted nuthatch has a bold face pattern with a white eyebrow above a thick black eye line bordered underneath by more white. The rest of its underparts from its throat to its undertail are peachy-orange. Both species produce nasal calls, with the red-breasted’s sounding distinctly higher-pitched than the white-breasted’s. The red-breasted nuthatch is just over 4 inches long and the white-breasted nuthatch is 5.5 inches. Nuthatches have a habit of clinging upside down on tree trunks and limbs. By creeping down a tree, they’re able to find invertebrates undiscovered by woodpeckers or other birds moving up a tree. Like chickadees, they don't linger at a feeder. They grab a seed and go. White-breasted nuthatches are found year-round in wooded areas throughout Minnesota, favoring deciduous trees over conifers. Red-breasted nuthatches prefer conifers and are common in the northern half of the state. Red-breasted nuthatches are partial migrants, meaning they are seen in the southern half of the state after the breeding season. 
 Picnic wasps (yellowjackets) are responsible for most “bee” stings during outdoor dining events. Honey bees are fuzzy. Yellowjackets are not. Yellowjackets feed insects to their young. Many of these are harmful insects that might damage trees or crops. They devour many houseflies. Shakespeare wrote in “The Taming of the Shrew,” “If I be waspish, best beware my sting.” Pope Paul VI said, “Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest.” In the Bible, God said he would send hornets to pursue the Canaanites and drive them from the Promised Land. He might have been willing to call upon swarms of stinging wasps or have been speaking symbolically for a plague of another kind. 
 Flower flies mimic bees and wasps, and don’t sting. Flies have only two wings. Bees and wasps have four membranous wings.
 Dark-eyed juncos are lovely little sparrows that flash white tail feathers in flight. A crow thinks it is something to crow about.

Q&A

 Vicki Lauruhn of Mankato asked what could be done to keep birds from flying into windows. Here are some suggestions. One-eighth-inch-diameter nylon cords that dangle about 4 inches apart on a window’s exterior. Insect screens are effective at reducing the reflectiveness of glass and offering a buffer between the bird and the glass. A bird screen designed to go on the exterior of windows and prevent bird collisions. A curtain of taut monofilament lines spaced 3 inches apart on a window’s exterior. Dot stickers applied to the outside of windows in a 2-inch by 2-inch grid are effective and our eyes quickly adjust to them. Translucent bird tape applied directly to the glass, produced by the American Bird Conservancy. Solyx Bird Safety Window Films applied to a window’s exterior. Use a highlighter to draw a grid on the interior glass or a bar of soap to draw a pattern on a window. Paint the outside of the glass with tempera paint. Decals (it doesn’t matter if they’re shaped like hawks), liquid or coated glass that reflect ultraviolet light. White window chalk. Close window shades or blinds and turn off lights at night. Plastic owls don’t work. 
 “How long do hummingbirds live?” Most hummingbirds die during their first year, but the average lifespan is 3-5 years. According to the Bird Banding Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, the oldest banded ruby-throated hummingbird was at least nine years and one month old. 
 “Do both male and female chickadees incubate the eggs?” Both members of a pair excavate a nest cavity, but only the female black-capped chickadee builds the nest and incubates the eggs. 
 “What percentage of cardinal nests raises young?” Cardinals have a low rate of nesting success. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, less than 40% of their nests fledge at least one young.
 “We forgot to take down a Christmas wreath on a door we seldom use. Birds nested in it. What kind would they be?” The house finch is famous for doing that.
 “How can I keep wasps out of my mailbox?” Bar soap rubbed inside a mailbox can cause wasps to look elsewhere. It also works in a nest box. The soap creates a slippery surface difficult for a wasp nest to stick to it.

Thanks for stopping by

 “I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness—it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude.”―Brené Brown.
 “When we heal the world, we heal ourselves.”–David Orr.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2022

Purple martins leave Minnesota in September. They roost and migrate together on their way to Brazil for the winter. Purple martins begin returning to Minnesota in April. Photo by Al Batt.

This woodpecker packed a punch.

I miss the hummingbirds. I hope they will drop me a postcard from warmer climes.

The low temperatures might have wiped out the white-faced meadowhawks here for this year, but I often see this dragonfly into November.

A fritillary seen in Colorado.