Naturally
I find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Fall, summer and winter showed up in November and fought it
out. The air became crisper, the nights cozier and the socks woolier. The view out a window can be exquisite and some would argue there were days when the weather was best enjoyed that way. Especially when the wind with its cold teeth threatened to peel back the day.
A gray catbird was in my yard on Nov. 7. That's late for that bird species to be here. It was joined by immature Harris's sparrows, eastern bluebirds and drab-colored goldfinches galore. The cedar waxwing is a stylish bird, which means I have nothing in my closet it'd ever be caught wearing. A flock of waxwings fed on berries. The hum of farm equipment and the roar of tractor-trailer rigs swallowed any sounds the waxwings might have been making as I pulled impaled leaves from my rake.
Buckthorn has many branches and thorns. It keeps its leaves longer and greens up earlier than most deciduous trees. It sprouts profusely. I saw a great blue heron (Big Cranky, Long John or Poor Joe) standing as still as a statue along the Le Sueur River.
A woolly bear caterpillar moved across the walk. These caterpillars shed their skins several times and their colors change before fall. The caterpillar’s coat helps it survive winter. The woolly worm was searching for a place to curl up and hibernate until building a cocoon in the spring. The length of the bands is based on the caterpillar's age, with nutrition, genetics, habitat and species being other possible determinants.
It resembled a big mosquito but doesn't bite humans. It was a crane fly with a 1.5-inch long body and a 3-inch wingspread. In colloquial speech, crane flies are sometimes called mosquito hawks or daddy longlegs. To me, mosquito hawks are dragonflies and daddy longlegs are the arachnids called harvestmen. They aren't spiders. They don’t produce silk and aren't venomous. I've found daddy longlegs with fewer than eight legs because they'll shed legs grasped by predators and cannot regrow them.
Q&A
"My yard has noisy squirrels. What are they talking about?" A researcher at Auburn University wondered the same thing and learned the most common sounds squirrels make are danger warnings. The kuk is a sharp bark of alarm, usually issued in a series and intended for other squirrels and predators. The study showed that when a squirrel starts kukking, a cat gives up, knowing it had lost the element of surprise. The quaa sounds a bit like a cat screeching and is issued after the threat level has dropped. A quaa moan sounds like a chirp followed by a meow. It's ventriloquial, making it difficult to determine the sound's location. It's given in hopes the predator had left but suggests continued caution. Some experts claim to be able to tell if the squirrel is warning about an aerial or terrestrial predator. Muk-muk resembles a stifled sneeze or buzz-like phfft, phfft. Nesting squirrels use it when hungry and males make it during mating chases.
"How many trumpeter swans are there in Minnesota?" A 2015 statewide tally counted over 17,000 swans. A current estimate is 30,000. Some winter in Minnesota, settling on open water on the Mississippi River in Monticello (2,000 winter there) or along the St. Croix River. Native to Minnesota and the largest North American waterfowl species, trumpeter swans inhabited wetlands from Illinois northwest to Alaska. Throughout the 1800s, they were hunted for their meat (no supermarkets available) and feathers (some used for quill pens). Swan habitat diminished as settlers moved across North America. By the 1930s, an estimated 69 trumpeters remained in the lower 48 states, living in remote southeastern Montana. When the DNR started the swan reintroduction program in the 1980s, its goal was 350 swans.
"This fall, something made holes as big around as a pencil in my lawn. There were no mounds of dirt and the holes went down a few inches before stopping or turning. What is making them?" A northern flicker, with its white rump patch and black bib, creates holes like your description. The woodpecker regularly feeds on the ground, eating ants or grubs.
Thanks for stopping by
"It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire." — Robert Louis Stevenson
"Great blue heron is the color of gray mist reflecting in blue water. And like mist, she can fade into the backdrop, all of her disappearing except the concentric circles of her lock-and-load eyes. She is a patient, solitary hunter, standing alone as long as it takes to snatch her prey. Or, eyeing her catch, she will stride forward one slow step at a time, like a predacious bridesmaid. And yet, on rare occasions she hunts on the wing, darting and diving sharply, swordlike beak in the lead." ― Delia Owens, "Where the Crawdads Sing"
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
There’s something fishy about a great blue heron’s diet, but it will eat anything that comes within striking distance. I’ve seen one eat birds, ground squirrels and chipmunks. Photo by Al Batt