Nature by the yard
 I see a lot without going anywhere but outside.
 A pileated (either PIE-lee-ay-tid or PILL-ee-ay-tid is correct) woodpecker called. The call is similar to a flicker's, but a flicker sounds like a soloist and a pileated an entire choir.
 The light show begins in June and continues into August, as fireflies flash in search of mates. Each species of firefly has its own flash pattern. I think of their numbers peaking around the 4th of July, but that's not exact. Eastern tiger swallowtails, bluet damselflies and widow skimmers (dragonflies) move about. Hummingbirds fed on a four parts water to one part white sugar mixture.
 A walk in our woods show shady plants are doing well. The Virginia bluebells have gone, but wild ginger, jack-in-the-pulpit and Solomon's seal delight. Flowers move from the spring ephemerals growing in the woods before the leaves blocked the sun to those growing on the edges of woods to the summer flowers growing in the open.
 Among the multitude of events canceled this year was the wonderful Henderson Hummingbird Hurrah. Although the Hurrah has been shelved, the Hummingbird (and butterfly) Garden in Henderson is open and is well worth visiting. Volunteers maintain its magnificence.
 I like most everything, but stable flies didn't make my list of things whose company I enjoy. They cause me considerable discomfort. Chiggers and buffalo gnats (black flies) didn't make that list either. I've copied the list to Santa Claus. Their common name is stable, dog or biting house flies, and they target dogs' ears, the legs of cows and horses, and me. Stable flies resemble small house flies and both males and females bite hard. I've heard them referred to as ankle-biters, a reference to their favored feeding site — my ankles. They're fast fliers, usually biting low on the leg, feet and ankles, although any bare skin is fair game. Their bites cause cattle to stomp or kick and my shins have felt the misdirected anger of a cow. Decaying organic matter such as grass clippings, compost piles or bedding straw are ideal breeding areas. 
 A chickadee makes me smile without doing anything more than being. The chickadee is in my birding sweet spot. In 2017, I spent too much time in the hospital. Freed from that confinement, I found walking difficult and birding nearly impossible. I decided to count chickadees, with 1000 being my goal. I didn't care if it was the same chickadee repeatedly, if I saw it, I counted it. I told no one, holding my own soft celebration upon achieving that minor goal. I counted 1000 chickadees again this year. They added up much quicker in 2020.

Q&A
 "How can woodpeckers hammer without getting headaches?" They have reinforced skulls structured to spread the force and brains cushioned from repeated impacts. Despite that, woodpeckers are susceptible to fatal window collisions.
 "What do swans eat?" Trumpeter swans eat aquatic vegetation — leaves, seeds, roots, tubers and rhizomes. Swan parents use their feet to stir up food for cygnets. Invertebrates in the sediment with the tubers and rhizomes provide protein to cygnets and adults. Swans eat grains leftover from harvest. 
 "Is it true that red squirrels emasculate other squirrels?" I've heard red squirrels castrate their competitors, but no reliable observations have been documented. I grew up reading naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton (I still have one of his books) and he noted that a species of parasitic botfly preys on squirrels, laying eggs in their groins. The hatched grubs burrow into the skin and consume the host animals’ testes or ovaries. I'm not certain of the veracity of the previous sentence, but botflies do parasitize tree squirrels and chipmunks, with the larvae leaving protruding boils called warbles on a skin. This makes for a lumpy squirrel. Adult male squirrels lacking testes have been cited as evidence of the emasculating abilities of pugnacious red squirrels. It's an old man's tale that arose from the fact that males have testes that shrink and retract after the breeding season. 
 "Have coyotes ever killed a human?" Historical records show two documented incidences in the U.S. and Canada of people being killed by coyotes. Typically, 30-50 people in the U.S. die from dog bites annually and deer-related car collisions are responsible for about 200 deaths each year. Coyotes are omnivores and small-game hunters. They feed on rodents, fruit, rabbits, turkeys, geese, woodchucks, carrion, pet food, garbage and fawns (primarily up to 20 days old). They'd eat a cat and adult deer hit by cars. Mesopredators (such as coyotes, foxes and raccoons) are mid-ranking predators of a trophic level, which typically prey upon smaller animals.

Thanks for stopping by
 "Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." — Mason Cooley
 "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Do good.

© Al Batt 2020