For the Birds: Summer brings out nature of all sorts

By Al Batt

For the Birds The Caledonia Argus

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Masked Meeting 

 I believe it’s good luck to hold my breath when an ambulance goes by.

 I never heard of doing that.

 Are you going to start?

 No, I think it’d be better luck if I held my breath when a hearse went by.

Keeping a lawn story short

 The lawn mower was invented in 1830 by Edwin Beard Budding, an English engineer. What did people do about lawns before then? Ignored, ate or used a scythe on them. Had no lawn or grazed livestock. Our riding lawn mower is dilatory, inclined to delay or waste time. In other words, it doesn’t work. We’ve had it repaired several times, but it refuses to go back for mower. 

Naturally

 Robins, a significant part of the yard squad, worked the lawn, looking and listening for earthworms. Rose-breasted grosbeaks sang like robins in a good mood and brought joy to an active listener. I haven’t seen any tent caterpillars on the home front this year. They are a food staple for cuckoos. An eastern kingbird flew overhead. My mind flashed to a canoe trip I did on the Missouri River in Montana. I camped where the Lewis & Clark Expedition had. Each morning vociferous western kingbirds woke me.

 Raccoon carcasses act as mile markers or speed bumps on our roads. They appear to be losing the battle against vehicles.

 Barn swallows reminded me I was in Vienna once. When my mother had to be gone at mealtime, my father’s specialty was a can of Vienna sausages and toast, so I felt at home in Vienna. I crossed streets while dodging Smart car taxis and stopped to admire the statues of famous composers — Mozart, Schubert, Brahms and Strauss. But the first music I there heard was that of crows and barn swallows. That swallow is the national bird of Austria.

Everyone looks good when bending over in a garden

 Gardening is no bowl of cherries. It’s not even a bed of roses. Or maybe it is a bed of roses, complete with thorns. We’re all in this together. That includes rabbits, deer, chipmunks, squirrels, slugs and a dazzling array of worms and insects. The rabbits have been eating well this year. Apparently, the rabbit economy needed a stimulus package. The secret is to raise only onions. Rabbits aren’t fond of them. 

Q&A

Matt Maras of Albert Lea asked about a bald cardinal. I typically see bald birds in July and August. It’s normal for some birds (usually cardinals and jays) to go through an abnormal molt with an odd replacement of feathers. They’re OK with that cool look and that’s why there is no Hair Club for Birds or Feather Club for Birds. 

“Can pigeons be rabid?” Birds, snakes and fish aren’t mammals, so they can´t get rabies or give it to you.

“How can I help a turtle cross the road?” Hiding in a shell hasn’t proven to be a good defense against automobiles. Never pick a turtle up by the tail, remember that snapping and softshell turtles bite, don’t put yourself in danger when prodding a turtle along, and always push them with a blunt object in the direction they were headed. Thanks for caring.

“What eats slugs?” Firefly larvae, toads, salamanders, snakes, shrews, moles, raccoons, opossums, chickens, ducks and songbirds, such as the robin.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I owned a 1959 Rambler Six Custom Sedan when I was a teen. It had a radio and rust. I decided to scrape off the rust. I had yellow paint and no money, so I covered the scraped spots with yellow paint. You can’t be a true idiot without experience. The result was a polka-dotted car. That made it easy to find in a parking lot. To give the car an elegance, I bartered for three used baby moon hubcaps.

A friend, Jim Finseth, said his father (Ken) had worked at Pop Moon’s in New Richland. That was a Phillips 66 gas station before gas stations became convenience stores. Pop sold gas and to supplement the family income, he sold alcohol (Moonshine?) during Prohibition. He was caught and fined. 

In 1934, he sold the station and moved to California to escape his notoriety and winter’s cold. Pop bought a restaurant there, which became Moon’s Cafe. His son Dean started Moon Automotive and in 1954 produced a spun-aluminum wheelcover called the Moon Disc. 

The business later became Moon Equipment and made baby moon hubcaps that turned my polka-dotted 1959 Rambler Six Custom Sedan into a boss hot rod.

Nature notes

Female buffalo gnats (turkey gnats or black flies) bite chunks from my skin and feed on the blood. They punch above their weight and cause intense reactions and painful itching. The end of May and early June is prime time for these insects that breed in moving water. I’m happy I can the see gnats, but I’m never happy to see them.

An indigo bunting sang “Fire; fire; where? where? here; here; see it? see it?” This bird nests in brushy and weedy habitats on the edges of farm fields, woods, roads and railroads. I see nests in raspberry thickets and on corn and ragweed plants.

A red-headed woodpecker stores insects, nuts and seeds under bark, in cracks in fenceposts, under shingles, etc. It catches flying insects and forages on the ground. It occasionally drills holes in dead trees searching for wood-boring larvae, but flying insects are more important to its diet.

I watched a groundhog (woodchuck or whistle-pig) eating mulberry leaves in a tree. It also enjoys Dutch clovers and dandelions.

Toni and James Perschbacher of Albert Lea are being visited by a banded pigeon. The bands indicate the racing pigeon’s organization, club and its hatch year. I get many reports of lost pigeons and have found most owners aren’t interested in recovering a poor performer, so enjoy its company.

Meeting adjourned

“Kindness, like grain, increases by sowing.” — English proverb

©Al Batt 2020