Batt: Birdwatching helps cure winter blues
By :
AL BATT
My neighbor Crandall stops by.
"How are you doing?" I ask.
"Everything is nearly copacetic. I've been watching some high school basketball games. I remember when the fans used to chant for me to enter the game."
"I recall that. Those fans were rooting for the other team. How is your class at the college going?" I say.
"I quit."
"Quit? Why?" I ask.
"Because you're never too old to stop learning."
Nature by the yard
It was snowing. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face – at least until I took it out of my pocket. I thought of albedo. No, that isn't the name of an infamous mobster. The reflection of sunlight from the Earth's surface is an important control on the temperature. The percentage of sunlight reflected from a surface is called its albedo. Generally, the greater the albedo, the cooler the surface because less sunlight is absorbed. Snow acts as a reflective blanket. It reflects the sun's heat, cooling the overlying air, and it insulates the ground in winter, preventing some upper soil layers from freezing solid and protecting underlying vegetation from damage by severe frost. Snow reflects more of the sun's energy because it's white and more reflective than the darker ground.
There was a cawcus of crows sorting through the snow. There was likely carrion there or perhaps the crows we're building a snowbird. Earlier, the crows and blue jays had been hassling a sharp-shinned hawk in the yard. That accipiter had taken a junco.
I've been seeing more coyotes and their accompanying tracks. The mating season for coyotes begins in January and lasts through February. After breeding, females search for dens where five to seven pups are born in April. I'd seen a coyote, with tail curved to its body, running down the road not far from my mailbox.
Canada geese flew overhead. There was a lot of honking. Road rage in the air?
Q&A
"What is a group of squirrels called?" A scurry. When there numbers are high, I call them a surfeit. An interesting collective noun. Surfeit is a word meaning an overindulgence, and an excessive or immoderate amount.
"If I were to give a popsicle to a beaver, would it eat only the stick?" Yes, unless it's a red popsicle. They're quite tasty.
"Do daddy longlegs have the world’s most powerful venom?" No. The living thing we most often call a daddy longlegs is an arachnid, but it's not a spider. It's a harvestmen and it has no venom of any kind. Some people call the long-legged crane flies daddy longlegs. They are harmless insects that have the appearance of large mosquitoes. They have no venom at all.
"How fast can a hunting peregrine fly?" According to PLOS Computational Biology, the peregrine falcon is capable of snatching prey from the air at speeds of 186 to 223 mph. This stoop gives the falcons an element of surprise and allows them to outmaneuver their prey. The falcons are more maneuverable at higher speeds because they are able to generate more turning force.
"Are the birds at my feeders this winter the same ones that were there last year?" There is a definite possibility of that being the case. Most songbirds aren't typically long-lived, but are creatures of habit just as we are. Bird banding studies have shown that many of our winter birds return to the same wintering location yearly. Keep the feeders filled and there is a good chance the birds will be loyal customers.
"We dissected owl pellets in school. Do any birds other than owls regurgitate pellets?" A pellet is the mass of undigested parts of food that a bird regurgitates. The contents, dependent on diet, could include bones, fur, feathers, the exoskeletons of insects, plant matter, bills, claws and teeth. In falconry, the pellet is called a casting. In addition to owls, there are many other birds that produce pellets including gulls, herons, hawks, songbirds and many species of shorebirds.
"How big do Minnesota wild turkeys get?" The heaviest documented bird tipped the scales at just over 30 pounds. The wingspan of a turkey can be a bit over 4 feet.
Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting
I'm trying to eat healthy this year.
Good for you.
Yes, I have a little lettuce on every double cheeseburger.
Driving by Bruce's drive
I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: Life is a road. Each day is a mile marker and a good reminder to slow down. I was on a driving tour of the great rest areas of America. I brought along enough foodstuffs from home that my car was a touring cafe. Even so, I asked about an eatery in a small-town gas station. One man recommended a restaurant, but another said their knives were more tender than their steaks.
I parked my car in a downtown hotel parking ramp in Chicago. Actually, I didn't park it. A valet did that. It cost more to park the car than it did to drive it.
An Austin man told me had two cats. He used masking tape to make a square on the floor. His cats sat in that taped square as if it were that dreaded cat trap, a cardboard box.
I stopped in a coffee shop in Fayette, Iowa, where I enjoyed an Iowa sweet corn cookie. It was a sugar cookie as full of sweet corn as an Iowa summer.
I visited with a fellow in Montana who told me that he was from a town with a population of two. I've been to that kind of place. If you've ever taken a wrong turn off the freeway and lost your cell service, you might have been too. "I lied," he said. "Make that a population of one. I'm out of town."
The cafe chronicles
They were men who go anywhere and talk to whoever is there. One of them told me about a champion eater. I ate a side salad while considering Joey Chestnut who had eaten 74 Nathan's hot dogs, buns and all, in 10 minutes to win an eating contest. He consumed 22,200 calories in the process. That's fast eating. He must wear starting blocks on his elbows.
A checks mix
I'd planned on watching a granddaughter play basketball on TV, which was an iPad on my desk. I had paperwork to do and checks to write. I thought it would be easy to do that during commercial breaks and at halftime. It wasn't. My mind stayed with the game and was intent on avoiding work. I messed up one check and I had only two checks to do. I've made a note to myself to never try to multitask with those two tasks again.
Those exciting days of yesteryear
Uncle Bill asked me, "Do you want a haircut, or do you want them all cut?"
I didn't need to reply. Uncle Bill always had more to say. Two great talkers can't walk far together.
Mom couldn't avoid kicking the hornet's nest. She told Uncle Bill, "I want you to notice that Allen had two ears when I brought him in."
Nature notes
I tell myself that winter is on my side, but it can be ornery. At least I don’t have to shovel the cold. Here at my field station in January, I turn to the birds as sunflowers turn to the sun. I try to notice things. It’s an expression of life and of hope. The crashing temperatures painted frost patterns resembling ghostly plants on the window glass.
I watched a handsome red-bellied woodpecker fly to a feeder. It was a male with a red crown and nape. The female has the red nape but lacks the red crown. I saw a pair of critically acclaimed birds – cardinals. Each time I take a good look at a bird, I’m reminded why I’m a card-carrying birder.
A squirrel chattered at me the entire time I filled the feeders. Squirrels have a salty vocabulary. I enjoy squirrels even though they can be hard on feeders. It’s as the psalmist said, “Harden not your hearts.” I reckon that applies to all things including squirrels.
We’d received somewhere between 1 and 143 inches of snow – most of it parked illegally. It reminded me that Harmony became the Minnesota state annual precipitation record holder by receiving 60.21 inches in 2018. This proves that planning and hard work pay off. A downy woodpecker flew in as I was filling the feeder. I wondered if a downy finds winter weather a downer? I told it about Harmony’s record in hopes it might bring cheer, but the woodpecker wasn’t interested.
Meeting adjourned
We don't have to agree on anything to be kind to one another.
Thanks for stopping by
"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. 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. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasqueflower is a right as inalienable as free speech." – Aldo Leopold
"You have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy." – Ken Kesey
Do good.
PHOTO BY AL BATT Maybe this look is why a junco is called a snowbird.
PHOTO BY AL BATT A male red-bellied woodpecker has red from his nape to his bill and lacks the gray crown of this female.