Looking out the window is worth the effort

Published by rkramer@bluffco... on Mon, 03/23/2020 - 10:22am

By :

AL BATT

I had been looking at some blurry photos of birds perched on clear images of tree branches. I searched my photos for something appropriate for requests from magazines and calendars. I couldn't decide, so I went for a walk to clear my head.

In the ordinary process of noticing nature, I find amazement. Nature offers touchstones that help me navigate my life.

Judging by the tracks in the snow, a raccoon had gotten its steps in during the night. Skunks, raccoons and opossums don't hibernate but hole up in sleeping places in burrows and elsewhere if the weather isn't good for foraging or courting.

Red-winged blackbird males returned to call on territory. "No, you shut up," they yell at the other males.

One crow listened to another whose call sounded important before angry voices welcomed me to the yard. The yard crows were indignant at the discovery of a great horned owl. Crows hate owls because owls love to eat crows. Lorine Niedecker wrote, "A monster owl out on the fence flew away. What is it the sign of?” The sign of an owl.

A pair of compact birds, white-breasted nuthatches, moved up, down, and around a tree. I sometimes call a nuthatch a tree mouse. The male called a "who-who-who-who or what-what-what-what." The active and agile birds often start high in a tree and move down it headfirst, probing into bark crevices for food.

I heard the whinnying call of a downy woodpecker. It's a downy — descending at the end. The rattling call of the similar and larger hairy woodpecker doesn't descend in pitch at the end.

Q&A

"Why do some birds stand on one leg more often than others?" They are more ambitious. They want to get a leg up on the competition.

"Do bald eagles wait until they have laid all their eggs before incubating?" No, incubation begins after the first egg is laid, meaning that in a nest where two eggs hatch, there will be the oldest sibling and the youngest sibling.

"Is it possible to tell male and female robins apart?" It can be difficult to tell them apart but there are subtle differences. Males typically have a darker head (often black) and the female has an overall paler color.

"What kind of a stomach does a bird have?" A typical bird's stomach has two parts. The first has acidic juices that are good at breaking down things like soft-bodied insects, worms, soft fruits, and nectar. The second section is the gizzard, which has powerful muscles that crush and grind hard foods like acorns. The gizzard needs help to do its job. This help comes in the form of grit the bird has swallowed. A bird has a crop. The crop stores food temporarily and initiates the digestion process before food enters the stomach. It's a thin-walled pouch at the base of the esophagus where birds store food before sending it to the stomach.

"Why didn't Ben Franklin want the bald eagle to be this country's national emblem?" Charles Thompson, one of the key designers of the Nation’s symbol, wrote that it was “born on the breast of an American Eagle without any other supporters to denote that the United States of America ought to rely on their own Virtue.” Benjamin Franklin was against the bald eagle being a national emblem. He said the bald eagle was a bird of bad moral character because of its tendency to steal fish from other birds and a rank coward when facing a kingbird.

"How far can a baby wood duck jump from a nest box and survive?" A duckling can take a 65-foot leap of faith, maybe more, and waddle away happily into a new world.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I experienced the sight of empty toilet paper and bread aisles in a store. I drove north on Winter, a street in Wakefield, Neb. Running low on gas, I turned down the radio. That seemed to help. After fueling to my car's content, I taught a couple of writing classes. Brilliant kids. It was a beautiful spring day. Then a terrible thing happened while I was having lunch. Someone claimed winter was over. "No!" I screamed. "Take it back. Say you were just kidding." It was too late. Within a few hours, we had a winter storm complete with sleet, ice and snow. Most everyone who traveled the same path I had described the weather as crappy. I'm going to get myself a snow globe that after I shake it, a tiny snowplow appears and pushes snow. A van ahead of me dispensed copious amounts of snow from its roof. Vans in snowy areas should have A-frame roofs.

A travelogue

I'm fortunate that work has allowed me to travel to many places on this old world. Like Forrest Gump, I’ve been many places. Traveling is wonderful as long as I have a home to return to. Unmoored traveling isn't for me. I haven't been everywhere, but I've been to Louisiana where I learned to never cook an alligator in a crockpot. And Hungary where a collective noun might be a goulash of Hungarians. I visited Kansas and discovered the poor man's banana tastes like a cross between a banana and a mango. It's a paw paw. In Sacramento, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill designating lace lichen the California state lichen, making California the first to have a state lichen.

I visited Republican City, Neb., named after the Republican River. Why the Republican name? Jefferson and Madison opposed Hamilton’s Federalists, usually calling themselves Republicans or sometimes Democratic-Republicans. A republican was anyone who believed in government without a king or aristocracy. In the 1780s, the river was known to French traders as “Fourche des Republiques”—the Forks of the Republicans. The Republicans were a band of Pawnees living there at the time and the river was given their name.

Nature notes

Looking out the window is worth the effort. Snow hadn’t been elusive or overwhelming. The DNR says January is our snowiest month on average, followed by December, March, November, February and April. When spring comes, can winter be far behind? We need a change of scenery, but we get an in-between season called sprinter.

I listened to a male cardinal sing his spring song. “What-cheer, cheer, cheer, birdy, birdy, birdy, birdy.” A black-capped chickadee whistled, “Spring’s here,” “Sweet-ie,” “Love you,” or “Fee-bee.” A white-breasted nuthatch celebrated the increasing daylength by giving voice to “Wha-wha-wha.” Blue jays voiced a musical queedle-queedle. Drumming woodpeckers provided a percussive accompaniment.

I heard a house sparrow cheep. I’ve heard them called cheap birds. In India, the Nature Forever Society has tried to rally conservation interest by declaring March 20 World Sparrow Day and naming it the state bird of Delhi. The Society’s president said, “The house sparrow is one bird which is seen by everyone, by kids, by adults, by people from various socioeconomic strata. It is a bird of the common man.” The house sparrow is the default little brown bird we see in parking lots and yards, on street corners and sidewalks, and on farms.

Snow melts first at the foot of the trees because the dark color of trunks absorbs energy from the sun. This heat energy is absorbed by the snow around the base causing it to melt.

Thank you for stopping by

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” ― Vincent Van Gogh

Do good.

AL BATT/BLUFF COUNTRY READER An American tree sparrow perched in a tree. Snowmelt sends them north to the tundra

I spent part of my day peering through red twig dogwood.

It looks like home to this pair of Canada geese.