Naturally
A neighbor has begun hiding candy bars around his house in preparation for winter. He is scatter hoarding like a gray squirrel that buries acorns throughout its territory.
Swallows gathered on utility wires before becoming snowbirds without campers. I found a northern flicker feather flung in a flicker by a flicker. Warblers are beautiful birds looking as if they'd escaped from picture frames. It may be fall, but Blackburnian warblers are worth getting warbler neck. Yellow warblers, ovenbirds and Nashville warblers aren’t very big, but they are mighty birds. Migration is about normal. There are always variances in species and areas. A bird could be early here and late there or vice versa. Where have all the flowers gone? They've gone to hummingbirds, every one. Flowers and feeders were busily fueling the tiny birds, most of which are headed to Central America on wings beating up to 200 times per second. I need to add that the 200 is during courting displays. Maybe 50-80 times per second during migration. How many wingbeats does it take to get to their winter home? Trying to determine that gives me a math headache. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm thinking it's a considerable amount. Many Baltimore orioles fed on the yard's offerings of nectar and jelly. Common nighthawks flew over. I took the camera for a walk so it could see some of the warblers. A red-breasted nuthatch entertained. I was a bit surprised to see so many purple finches. In these strange days, I'm blessed to be a birder.
Wood ducks floated on a pond made green by algae. Some people call it pond scum. I don’t. I’ve been called pond scum and it hurt. It was true, but it still hurt. Mourning doves feed crop milk or pigeon milk to their nestlings. I've been unable to find either of those at the local supermarket, so I’ll stick with cow and almond milk. I’ve milked many cows, but not one almond. The purple martins have flown the coop for greener pastures, or at least pastures with more insects. Craig Turner could have been wishing them well when he wrote, “So long, Farewell, To every passerbye, To you I hope the sun shines, And you enjoy a wonderful life.”
In "A Sand County Almanac," Aldo Leopold described migrating American white pelicans this way: "Let a squadron of southbound pelicans but feel a lift of prairie breeze… and they sense at once that here is a landing in the geological past, a refuge from that most relentless of aggressors, the future. With queer antediluvian grunts they set wing, descending in majestic spirals to the welcoming wastes of a bygone age." I've visited Leopold's Shack – a rebuilt (in 1935) chicken coop along the Wisconsin River near Baraboo, WI, which has become a metaphor for living lightly on the land. Leopold called for a "land ethic" – a caring, ethical relationship between people and nature. He died in 1948 from a heart attack while fighting a brushfire on a neighbor’s farm.
The woolly bear caterpillar or woolly worm is a famed weather prognosticator. The wider the rusty brown section, the milder the coming winter is supposed to be. The more black there is, the more severe the nearing winter. Orbweavers make my spidey senses tingle. Emerald ash borer larvae kill ash trees by tunneling under the bark and feeding on the part of the tree that moves nutrients up and down the trunk. According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Minnesota has approximately one billion ash trees, the most of any state. The insect is confirmed in 23 of 87 counties.
The butterfly effect is a phenomenon wherein a small change in conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes. I watched a butterfly flutter through the yard and imagined a shingle loosened on a roof in Pocatello, Idaho.
Q&A
Toni Perschbacher of Albert Lea asked how long a honeybee lives. An egg becomes a larva in three days. Drones (male bees) live for around eight weeks. Sterile worker bees tend to live up to six weeks during summer and six months in winter. A queen bee has an average productive lifespan of two to three years (some live as long as five), during which she lays up to 2,000 eggs in a day. The total time it takes to become an adult bee is about 21 days for workers, 24 days for drones and 16 days for queen bees. Queens develop faster due to a rich diet.
Thanks for stopping by
"When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty." —John Muir
"To those who have not yet learned the secret of true happiness, begin now to study the little things in your own dooryard." — George Washington Carver
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
The woolly bear caterpillar or woolly worm is a famed weather prognosticator. The wider the rusty brown section, the milder the coming winter will be. The more black there is, the more severe the nearing winter. This one shows there will definitely be a winter. Photo by Al Batt
Wanted poster seen in Jamestown, N.D. Police warn residents not to approach the suspect but to instead call 911. He is considered armed and very old.
