Subarus do not come from the factory with bumper stickers on them. It just seems like it.

Al Batt: Long walks and birdwatching to enjoy spring-like weather

Published by rkramer@bluffco... on Mon, 03/16/2020 - 1:36pm

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm a dollar or two ahead, so I put a down payment on a free lunch. I have a weather rock. It'd been infallible. A dry rock means fair weather, a wet rock means it's raining, a dusty rock means it's a drought, a swaying rock means it's windy, a shadow beside the rock means it's sunny, a white rock means it's snowing, and if the rock is underwater it's a flood. It no longer works."

"How can that be?" I said.

"I didn't update it to the newest operating system."

Naturally

The sun's strength was impressive. It enticed chipmunks from their burrows. The trees were encompassed by dark circles at the base of their trunks. When the sun shines, a tree absorbs more heat than the surrounding snow does because of the tree's dark-colored bark. The trunk warms and radiates heat, which melts the snow around the foot of the tree. The same thing happens to telephone poles and fence posts. A red-winged blackbird sang "Look at me!" House finches tried to sing in the spring. These lovely singers, called Hollywood finches when they were sold as caged birds, are year-long residents here and provide needed flashes of color. Some of them undergo short-distance migrations south. Purple finches look similar but are winter guests in southern Minnesota. The red on a male house finch is concentrated on head and breast. The redness of a purple finch male spreads to most of his body.

I strolled about the yard, adding mud to my boots. Long walks and birdwatching are prescribed by doctors to patients in Scotland's Shetland Islands as part of treatments for chronic illnesses. The National Health Service Shetland rolled out what has been called nature prescriptions to help treat a range of afflictions, including high blood pressure, anxiety and depression. I wonder if I could send a bill to my insurance company for my walking shoes? Probably not.

I hope there will be enough good weather.

Q&A

"How big a territory does a pair of hawks have?" The red-tailed hawk is the hawk we commonly see. They usually hold a nesting territory of 1.5-2.0 square miles, but could be larger if food was scarce.

"What is the most recognizable bird in the world?" I'm speculating wildly, but I'd guess it would be the peacock, the male peafowl.

"What good are prairie dogs?" In addition to providing food and shelter for associated species, prairie dog burrows enrich the soil and improve vegetative quality by aerating the soil and allowing water to flow underground. Prairie dog activities increase and diversify the composition of grasses and forbs within their colonies, creating habitat favored by other wildlife. Their long-term use of a grassland appears to promote short, perennial grasses.

"Do robins mate for life?" I read that Aristotle considered earthworms to be the intestines of the earth. Robins consider them lunch. Robins don't mate for life. Pairs generally stay together during a breeding season, which can involve two or three nestings. Sometimes the two return to the same territory and end up together for another year. A robin has about a 50% chance of living through a year.

"Are horned larks a sign of spring?" Maybe, sort of. Somewhat. Horned larks commonly winter in southern Minnesota, with lower populations found shivering farther north. The horned larks that migrated south begin returning north in early February through late March. They can be seen feeding along the graveled edges of rural roads. They fly at a vehicle's approach before landing in a field and disappearing by blending into the ground. Horned larks have a horizontal posture and their song is a high-pitched tinkling. High breeding densities of horned larks are found throughout the heavily cultivated regions of the western and southern parts of the state.

"How much does a chickadee eat each day?" Smaller birds generally need more food relative to their weight than do larger birds. A black-capped chickadee eats 35% of its weight per day. A blue jay eats about 10% and a hummingbird as much as 100% of its weight each day.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I had a neighbor named Claude Bias. Claudie, as most called him, was one of those people who not only didn't try to keep up with the Joneses, he was most comfortable lagging far behind them. Claudie didn't have electricity on his farm. He had countless canines instead. He had so many dogs, I feared Claudie would succumb to a Roverdose. He didn't.

The legend of Gene Dodge

I headed down the Hog Highway — I-90. It's used to haul hogs to Hormel or to ride hogs to Sturgis. I was on my way to watch a basketball game in Sioux Falls. I listened to a tournament game on the radio. The skilled announcer painted effective word pictures. He talked of referees working with the official timekeeper to make sure there wasn't a second too many or too few on the clock. Being an official of any kind at an athletic event can be challenging. Fans yell, coaches yell, and a few gifted players might consider themselves above fouling. They don’t realize that a star is nothing but a mass of compressed gas.

You've heard the reports. A coach said something harsh to a referee. The referee responded, "What did you call me?"

The coach replied, "Guess. You've guessed at everything else."

Another coach asked a ref, "Would you call a technical foul on me if I thought you were the world's worst referee?"

The official replied, "Definitely not. I'm no mind reader."

"Good," said the coach, "because I think you are the worst."

I had a coach who offered his eyeglasses to a ref saying, "Here, you need these more than I do."

Gene Dodge was a fine man, proprietor of Dodge's Hardware, and heavily involved in community affairs. He was a responsible, well-mannered citizen, but got his blood up during high school basketball games. He had one-sided, strident discussions with referees he found flawed. The story goes that to curb his badgering of the arbiters of fouls and other violations, the school made him the official timekeeper, a serious position.

It worked well until a game when Gene couldn't take it anymore. A referee had become an example of all that was wrong with the world. After taking a heap of heckling, the frustrated referee said to Gene, "I thought you were supposed to be the timer?"

Without missing a beat, Gene said, "And I thought you were supposed to be a referee."

Thoughts during a timeout

If you want your home to be more wildlife-friendly, leave a door open.

If your cellphone battery lasts a long time, you probably have a life.

The ancient Egyptians worshiped cats. Anyone who has been online knows we do too.

Good moods don't need reasons.

Putting money into a vending machine demonstrates optimism.

Nature notes

Winter isn’t an easy companion. The citizens of the yard stay busy because they need to eat. Goldfinches generally become more common customers at the feeders during the second half of winter, as if inspired by a coach’s halftime talk. Juncos trilled as if it were the next season. Horned larks fed on roadsides. The darling of the yard and my minimum daily bird requirement, a chickadee, sang of spring.

I stumbled outside into a day exactly my size and found an owl pellet. Owls swallow small prey whole. The gizzard is a thick-walled organ that uses digestive fluids and grit to grind and dissolve the usable tissue from the prey. The types of tissue that can be dissolved by an owl's digestive system include muscle, fat, skin and internal organs. Bones, teeth, feathers, fur and insect shells collect in the gizzard. The bird regurgitates the indigestible materials as pellets.

Meeting adjourned

This was part of the obituary for a friend, Jack Moon of Kiester: "In honor of Jack, kiss your sweetheart, hug your kids, entertain your grandchildren, go for a long ride in the country, practice your faith, read a good book, sing a song, volunteer in your community, tell a joke (over and over again), enjoy nature, be a good neighbor and live every day as the blessing it is."

Do good.

AL BATT/BLUFF COUNTRY READER Shown is a purple finch male.

It’s a pleasant walk to and from the blinds in the early morning at the Rowe Sanctuary in Minden, Nebraska. It’s a great spot to see some of the 600,000 sandhill cranes there.

If I’m leading a birding trip, it leads to good food at places like Burchell's White Hill Farmhouse Inn outside Minden, Nebraska.

These were cranes I saw in Nebraska. I don’t believe they were sandhill cranes.

Speakers from a drive-in movie theater as seen at The Archway in Kearney, Nebraska.