Naturally
The day was a humdinger; Mother Nature must have moved her world headquarters to my neighborhood. Most of the deciduous trees were engaged in making their leaves colorful. Virginia creeper vined in bright red leaves.
Nature is the ship on which I sail. There's always something worth noticing. Large black ants hurried. I heard music. I think it was a carpenter anthem. Let there be ants. And let there be eaters of ants like northern flickers. The male flicker has a black mustache. For an ant, a flicker is the skunk at the party.
Once I start watching birds, I become too lazy to stop. My capacity for astonishment becomes endless. A chickadee cached sunflower seeds in a divot in a power pole. The tiny bird was investing in utility stocks. Crows produced a natural noise as jays gave me an earful. I was unable to get a word in edgewise. I’ve read of a group of jays called a party, band, cast and scold. I use "a bunch of jays" more than anything else. Something plural flew past my head. Multi-colored Asian lady beetles. Maybees were on the flowers. That's my nickname for bee mimics, flies that resemble bees. Bee mimics are other insects that resemble bees. This is called Batesian mimicry, which means something harmless is imitating something dangerous. Most bee-lookalikes are hoverflies. These harmless flies cannot sting.
Portland, a Texas city on the coast, claims properly that it's always feather weather there. I know that's true, but it was feather weather in my yard, too, thanks to the white-throated sparrows scratching for grub on the ground. They took occasional breaks to whistle a bit. Whistling is a white-throated sparrow’s superpower. A caller asked why some of the birds had tan stripes while others had white stripes. This lovely bird, with a declining population, comes in two forms — those with tan stripes and those with white stripes. Those with white stripes are the most aggressive. Males of both forms want to mate with females with white stripes, but females of both forms prefer tan-striped mates. So it all works out. I wish birds had a mailbox so I could send them an appreciative postcard.
A phalanx of blackbirds moved past as I walked at the edge of a lake at a state park on a quiet day. I checked logs in a bay and was rewarded with good looks at turtles. Hope springs a turtle. Pelicans flew over, their wings made sounds as if they were swinging ropes.
Q&A
Tom Jessen of Madelia wrote, "If all cowbirds are raised by other species, how are they able to communicate with each other after leaving the host nest and joining the flock?" Cowbirds are brood parasites, meaning they ditch their eggs in the nests of other species and allow the foster parents to do the hard work of raising the chicks. Cowbirds have parents that don't look or act like them. Behavioral scientists are working on an answer. Cowbirds learn to recognize other cowbirds through sound and sight. Some scientists believe adult cowbirds stick around after the eggs are laid and maintain contact with the hatchlings, which is how the chicks learn the ways of the cowbird. In response to hearing the begging cries of baby cowbirds, female cowbirds respond by calling to them. When a young cowbird is able, it begins to visit adult cowbirds. It's an amazing story.
Rick Mammel of Albert Lea asked how long to keep a hummingbird feeder up in the fall. I keep mine up 7 to 10 days after I see the last hummingbird in case there are any stragglers. A feeder doesn't delay their migration.
"Are insect numbers declining?" The German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research did a worldwide compilation of insect abundance that showed land-dwelling insects are in decline. On average, there is a global decrease of 0.92% per year. The number of insects living in freshwater has increased an average of 1.08% each year. Local trends are highly variable.
"Where do Minnesota's trumpeter swans migrate?" They are short-distance migrants, with the vast majority of the breeding population migrating only as far south as central and southern Minnesota to sites where there is open water and an abundant food supply. A power plant site that hosts thousands of wintering swans is Xcel Energy’s Monticello Nuclear Power Plant along the Mississippi River, which has local efforts that feed the swans. Some have migrated to Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas. Single swans, sibling groups, young pairs and failed breeders leave their summer territories first, followed by pairs with cygnets. They migrate in small family groups to wintering grounds.
Thanks for stopping by
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©Al Batt 2020
The male northern flicker has a black mustache, which is lacking on a female. Photo by Al Batt
Hitchhiking is habit that gulls find hard to kick.