For the Birds: Catbirds creating cozy nests

By Al Batt

For the Birds in The Caledonia Argus

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting 

I set a record time for jogging last week.

Nice going.

Yup, it took me less than a minute to decide I wasn’t going to jog anymore. 

Old Sears years

In visiting with Bob Hargis of Riverton, WY, he mentioned a J.C. Higgins bicycle. I remember drooling over one owned by a kid I knew. 

Sears was known for Kenmore appliances, Craftsman tools, Allstate insurance, DieHard batteries, David Bradley lawn equipment, Christmas Wish Books (catalogs) and J.C. Higgins sporting goods. 

John Higgins started as the manager of the company’s bookkeeping office and retired as company comptroller in 1930. He didn’t have a middle initial, Sears added the “C.” 

The J.C. Higgins trademark covered baseball gloves, baseballs, footballs, basketballs, volleyballs, boxing, fishing, boating, tennis and camping equipment, luggage and bicycles. 

The J.C. Higgins name disappeared after Sears introduced the Ted Williams brand of sporting and recreation goods in 1961. I never got one of those bikes. My niece got a riding vacuum cleaner instead.

Who was that masked man?

 It was hotter than a burning stump. I had to wear sunglasses as I walked to the meeting. The heat brings out men’s legs. Shorts uncover legs white enough to be used as light sources. 

The meeting at the Courthouse was about the Coronavirus Relief Fund. It was an interesting session on funds available to small businesses. 

It was good being in the company of others, even if social distancing placed the nearest individual to me a quarter of mile away. We were required to wear masks. It was a wise thing to do for others, like driving on the right side of the road. Plus, it saved having to shave.

Nature notes

I walked while having a heated argument with the temperature and inciting conflict with biting insects. I visited with a cellphone caller who’d asked what it had been like to appear on Ron Schara’s “Minnesota Bound” TV show. I was about to give an answer when an unseen skunk held me smellbound. A skunk is an amazing anti-air freshener.

I watched soaring turkey vultures. A vulture’s heart rate when soaring is about the same as it is when the bird is sleeping. A half-dozen angry red-winged blackbirds hammered on a Cooper’s hawk. There was no movie on that flight.

Earwigs star in folklore claiming they will crawl into your ear and lay eggs. They don’t. Earwigs eat pests like aphids, mites and nematodes. They will chew on ornamental and vegetable plants, particularly dahlias, zinnias, hollyhocks, lettuce, strawberries, potatoes, roses, beans, beets and the silk of sweet corn. They’re preyed upon by tachinid flies, centipedes, toads and some birds.

Lightning bugs continue to flash when a thunderstorm is producing lightning. Fireflies don’t fear flashy competition.

Naturally

A black-throated brown strutted past. It was a male house sparrow.

Six young house wren siblings were crammed into a small house; not one had its own room or cellphone.

Goldfinch males flew overhead in undulating flights while calling “potato chip.” In 1947 and again in 1949, the goldfinch was proposed to the state legislature for consideration as the official state bird. Other proposed state birds during the 1940s and 1950s included the wood duck, scarlet tanager, mourning dove and pileated woodpecker. 

I listened to purple martins that migrate to Brazil – traveling more than 9,000 - 10,000 miles round-trip. 

I pulled some persistent bittersweet nightshade, but had to stop before the job was completed because a catbird let me know there was a nest in the jumble of vegetation. 

Catbirds usually build nests on horizontal branches hidden at the center of dense shrubs, small trees or vines. Nests are typically around 4 feet off the ground, but may be as high as 60 feet. 

Females build the nests, which take 5-6 days to build. The final product is a bulky, open cup made of twigs, straw, bark, mud and sometimes trash. It has a finely woven inner lining of grass, hair, rootlets and pine needles. 

Sap beetles, also known as picnic beetles, have become a nuisance in the garden and on my hummingbird feeders. Picnic beetle adults are about 1/4-inch long and are black with four orange-rust spots on the wing covers. 

They can injure fruits and vegetables, but are more common on fruits and vegetables that have been damaged or infected with a disease.

A raccoon kit grabbed a couple of fireflies out of the air with its paws and snapped another from the air in one bite. It ate them with relish. Or it may have been with onions. I’ve read many mammals find fireflies distasteful, but not this young’un. 

Pandemic birding

Try identifying 12 (a dandy dozen) birds from the windows of your home. Then use each bird name in a sentence before identifying a 13th. You’ll discover that most birds are weatherman handsome.

Q&A

“What color of flowers do bees like best?” Scientists have found the he most likely colors to attract bees are purple, violet and blue.

“Where could I see the most hummingbirds?” Colombia has 144 species and Ecuador hosts 132-134.

“Where do crows nest?” Crows typically nest in a crotch near the trunk of a tree or on a horizontal branch, generally towards the top third or quarter of a tree. They seem to prefer to nest in evergreens. A nest is usually about 1.5 feet across and 8-12 inches deep. The life of a typical nest is about 10 weeks (1-2.5 weeks building, 6 days egg-laying, 20 days incubating and 4 weeks of nestlings). The nests are well-made structures largely made of twigs and can remain intact for years. Occasionally a pair repairs and reuses an old nest or builds a new nest on top of an existing one.

Thanks for stopping by

“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.” — Langston Hughes

Do good.

Meeting adjourned

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank. Be kind.

© Al Batt 2020