By :

AL BATT

I went outside to turn over a few rocks. Not literally. As a boy, I'd turn over real rocks. It was amazing what I found under them. Now I think of seeing nature's marvels as turning over rocks.

The house sparrows chirped like 76 trombones. They could see spring from where they were perched. I welcomed the change of sounds. Mary Oliver wrote, "In winter all the singing is in the tops of the trees."

Q&A

"Do pheasants and chickens cross?" Different species of pheasants are known to mate, and there are instances of pheasants and chickens reproducing. About 10% of the 10,000 known bird species have mated with another species.

"What is a cactus buck?" A cactus buck is a deer with an unbalanced testosterone level, which results in velvet persisting on antlers and growing throughout the year.

"Do weasels dance?" There was this kid in junior high who was a definite weasel and he put John Travolta to shame on the dance floor. But I'll bet you're asking about a four-footed animal. Weasels perform a war dance when they’ve cornered prey. They bob and hop in a dance possibly meant to intimidate prey. One theory is the weasel’s twisting and darting about distracts, confuses and/or hypnotizes prey. A research study in the U.K. concluded some rabbits had died of fright after being subjected to the dance. Occasionally, a weasel dances without prey as an audience. Perhaps it's practicing.

"How did the myth of hummingbirds migrating on the backs of geese start?" People have hinted that John James Audubon believed that. I didn't know the man, so I can't say if that's true. It's difficult to understand how such a myth started and why it endures. I've never talked to a single waterfowl hunter who found a hummingbird hitchhiking on a goose. If I were a hummingbird, I'd want a free ride, but it wouldn't work as hummingbirds and geese don't migrate at the same time or to the same places. And geese don't serve meals on their flights. There isn't an overwhelming amount of data about the migration of hummingbirds. I suspect it was because people couldn't get their mind around the fact that such a tiny bird was able to fly such long distances on its own power.

"How do scientists weigh a whale?" At a whale-way station, of course. It's a combination of math, experience and estimation (a good guess). They can use boat slings for live or freshly deceased whales. I walked a beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My walk took me near a beached whale that had a death smell strong enough to gag an entire county. I wouldn't be willing to even guess its weight. Drones are used to photograph the length and width of a whale to determine its volume, which is converted to weight. The blue whale is the largest animal ever known. This marine mammal is up to 100 feet long and weighs as much as 200 tons. Its tongue can weigh as much as an elephant and its heart as much as an automobile.

From the mailbag

Bill Brummond of Truman sent a 1924 Fairmont newspaper clipping stating the Weiderhoft Brothers of Truman had grown an ear of corn with 1514 kernels suitable for seed. Bill added all normal ears have an even number of rows.

You are either into ice fishing or ice evasion

By this time of the winter, the bloom is off the rose. I walked like a penguin on the icy road or like Artie Johnson's character Tyrone, the dirty old man on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" TV show. Slipping and falling on the ice was funny when we're little, but not funny when we're big. Ice is nice in lemonade, but not nice under shoes without skate blades. The good news is that I'm saving a lot of money on sunscreen.

Thoughts at a stoplight

When I was a youngster, social media was a note passed in class.

If I think someone is being judgmental, am I being judgmental?

Keep your friends close and your lefse closer.

How often do you have to feel your toothbrush because you couldn't remember if you'd brushed your teeth? If you do that often, I've got bad news for you. You're normal.

I used a host's bathroom to wash my hands before dining. Towels were labeled "His" and "Hers." There were ornamental towels that should have carried the message "Don't touch."

Nature notes

Squirrels find food under the snow by smell and memory. Studies suggest that squirrels bury food in a series of locations that help form a cognitive map of storage locations. A study done at the University of Richmond found squirrels recover about 26 percent of the nuts they bury. Squirrels are likely to bury red oak acorns because they are less likely to decay in the ground. Squirrels generally consume acorns of white oaks immediately because they germinate in the fall and as they germinate, grow a thick taproot that squirrels don't like.

Solitary coyotes travel over large areas, up to 60 square miles. Dispersing young coyotes often travel 50 to 100 miles (with up to 400 miles documented) in search of a vacant territory or a mate. Adults could move 10 miles a night throughout their territory.

Thanks for stopping by

“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep and teach our muscles to work without thinking and I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked, and I dare you to notice. Don’t try to get anything out of it, because you won’t. Don’t try to make use of it, because you can’t. And that’s the point. Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be, whatever you are with whatever you have, and realize that that is enough to be happy. There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” – Charlotte Eriksson

Do good.

PHOTO BY AL BATT American goldfinches are beginning to show more yellow in their feathers.

A blue jay sticking around.photo by Al Batt

Winter weary but hopeful. Photo by Al Batt