Argiope aurantia is commonly known as the yellow garden spider, black and yellow garden spider, yellow and black garden spider, golden garden spider, golden orb weaver, corn spider, scribbler spider, writing spider and McKinley spider. In 1896, one reportedly predicted the U.S. presidential election by weaving McKinley's name in her stabilimentum.
Audubon featured in this week’s column
By Al Batt
For the Birds in The Caledonia Argus
Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting
I put cow manure on my strawberries this year.
I’ve heard that’s a good thing to do.
Maybe so, but I’m going back to whipped cream next year.
Driving by Bruce’s drive
I have a wonderful neighbor named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: “Knock, knock! Who’s there? Hutch. Hutch who? Bless you, but remember we’re in a pandemic.”
I’m fine, thanks. Other than I must be parked in an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” People have been spring cleaning for over four months and many have racked up more screen hours each day than there are hours in a day.
My wife made me a mask. She said it was reversible. The first time I wore it, she told me I was wearing it inside out. Maybe it was a color-coordination faux pas. We’ve upgraded our behavior during a time when every sneeze is writ large.
I wear a mask, social distance and wash my hands hundreds of times each day. I wear a mask because I don’t want to take the chance of being the male equivalent of Typhoid Mary and I haven’t found a single soul unworthy of my concern.
Masks are good for the economy. People are spooked when masks are lacking in stores. It’s a red flag. I don’t want the scariest Halloween costume to be someone not wearing a mask.
Perhaps a health insurance company will give discounts to mask wearers? I don’t hate anyone, but I hate this damndemic and cancer. I’m doing my best to figure things out. I’m trying to piece things together by choosing to be happy.
Conjured memories
I’m part of the “get out” generation. I had to get out of the kitchen, the house or the drugstore with the comic book library. A neighbor, Tom Miller, told me what to do when I couldn’t get out.
If I used the tube from an empty toilet paper roll as a megaphone to yell “too doo to do,” a concerned citizen would bring a new roll of paper at the exact time it was needed the most. That may have worked in the Miller home, but not in mine.
Donna Ferguson of New Richland, a wonderful woman I knew as Ma Fergy, died recently. Some called her Ma Ferguson. In 1924, another Ma (Miriam) Ferguson of Texas and Nellie Ross of Wyoming were elected the nation’s first female governors. Coincidentally, both Ma Fergusons had a husband named Jim.
The Texan Jim had been elected governor in 1914. During his second term, he was impeached for misapplication of public funds and declared ineligible to hold public office. When his wife ran for office, she promised “two governors for the price of one.” Ma urged voters to restore Pa’s honor by voting for her and he governed over his wife’s shoulder.
I’ve learned
Uncomfortable chairs become antiques because no one sat on them.
Each day, the weather answers our questions from the day before.
Baseball was more fun to watch before every pitch and swing was analyzed from every possible angle.
Nature notes
A red-tailed hawk flew low enough that I could see the prey item it carried was a vole. The vole is the “potato chip of the prairie” — a popular food for many animals.
Large insects flew short distances before landing on the ground. They were Carolina locusts, a kind of grasshopper, that make crackling sounds called crepitations in flight. Their grayish-brown color blends into dry soils. Rainbow on wings, dragonflies and damselflies are fierce predators of flying insects.
The two operate each of their four wings independently allowing for nimble flights. Damselflies are more slender than dragonflies and fold their wings over their bodies while at rest, while dragonfly wings are held horizontally.
Naturally
The Royal Guild of the Stable Fly Appreciation Club met. There was no one in attendance. I hoped the darner and meadowhawk dragonflies find the flies appetizing.
Bull thistle is more robust than Canada thistle with redder flowers. Yellow flowers of goldenrods and sunflowers delighted. Dew-covered spiderwebs proved photogenic.
Young Baltimore orioles swamped the jelly feeders. As the great philosopher Adam Sandler sang, “Oh, so many things for me to wonder. Oh, I love grape jelly!”
Q&A
“How many species did Audubon discover?” John James Audubon practiced the first bird-banding in North America in 1804, ringing silver thread, yarn or wire around the legs of eastern phoebes.
Audubon claimed 40% of his tagged phoebes returned home. An “Archives of Natural History” paper doubted that as larger scale studies found much lower return rates and suggested Audubon was in France at the time of the phoebes’ return. Audubon’s method of painting birds was specimen-based ornithology.
He killed them with small shot, before arranging them with wire into natural-looking tableaux that might include nests, stumps, branches and/or predators. He compiled his works into a masterpiece called “Birds of America.”
It was common for authors to seek subscriptions from members of the public willing to pay for the work’s completion. In 2010, a copy of “Birds of America” sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $11.5 million. Audubon is credited with discovering around 25 species and 12 subspecies, but there are other mystery birds that appear nowhere but in Audubon’s watercolors: the Bartram’s vireo, carbonated swamp-warbler, Cuvier’s kinglet, Townsend’s finch (or Townsend’s bunting), small-headed flycatcher, and blue mountain warbler.
They were likely hybrids, birds with aberrant plumages, immature birds, sexually dimorphic specimens or birds no one else saw. Audubon had been known to stretch the truth. And then there was the Washington eagle. Audubon first saw one on a trip up the Mississippi River in 1814.
A few years later, he shot one in Kentucky and according to his measurements, it stood 3 feet, 7 inches tall and had a wingspan of 10 feet, 2 inches. The journal “American Naturalist” opined that it was a large, immature bald eagle. Was it a case of avian misidentification or a con that duped people for financial gain (subscriptions)? Either way, he was a brilliant bird artist.
The Massachusetts Audubon Society began in 1896 when people became alarmed at the number of waterfowl being killed for use as feathers in hats. The National Audubon Society was founded in 1905.
Thanks for stopping by
“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” — Elbert Hubbard
“That which is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole Law. The rest is commentary. Now go and learn.” - Rabbi Hillel
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
No murder hornet. It’s a cicada killer wasp.