Naturally
The day was a stunner.
I followed a chickadee and liked it at every opportunity. Each chickadee is a prime symbol of the natural world. As I filled the feeders, a chickadee landed on my arm. I tried not to breathe.
Starlings cornered the yard. I was under a flock of countless starlings one day. It was a murmuration. They zoomed over me and I heard this incredible whoosh that was both thrilling and mesmerizing. It caused the hair on my arms to stand. It was a splendid gift.
Research by biologist Mark Miller in 1929 found that the first robin songs began about 45 minutes before sunrise, but modern neighborhoods flooded in artificial light cause robins to sing much earlier.
A birder in Cleveland, Ohio, discovered a banded 28-year-old ring-billed gull, the oldest individual of that species on record. This proves that a proper diet isn’t always important to longevity.
A report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service said bald eagles have quadrupled in population since 2009.
"Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom" has returned to television. It will air as two original episodes back-to-back each Sunday in its original time slot of 7 p.m. An owner of a trail cam told me his device is occupied with the filming of skunks and raccoons. It's his own Wild Kingdom.
Gee Whiz
The first whooping crane hatched at the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin has died of natural causes. The crane, named Gee Whiz, was 38 years, 9 months old. A whooping crane’s average life expectancy in captivity is about 25 years. The oldest crane in captivity died at age 46, according to the foundation. Gee Whiz fathered 178 cranes and was known for his nasty disposition. Whooping cranes are the tallest birds in North America. The population has grown from fewer than 20 birds in the mid-1940s to around 850 birds today. The Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin, opens May 1.
The mafia hypothesis
I listened to biologist Sarah Winnicki speak about her interesting brown-headed cowbird research on a podcast. She found eight cowbird eggs in one dickcissel nest. She added there is thought that the dickcissels feed their babies more than they do the cowbird babies. Sarah mentioned the mafia hypothesis, which suggests hosts accept parasitism to avoid retaliation against their nestlings.
The NCAA is for the birds
The NCAA men's and women's tournaments have teams with bird nicknames. Some have won national championships — Stanford Cardinal, Louisville Cardinals, Marquette Golden Eagles, South Carolina Gamecocks and Kansas Jayhawks. The Oregon Ducks won the first NCAA men's basketball national championship in 1939. Other avian handles include the Iowa Hawkeyes (few teams are named after the body parts of birds), the Creighton Bluejays (should be Blue Jays) and the Virginia Tech Hokies (a manufactured sobriquet) with HokieBird, a turkey mascot.
Q&A
"What do killdeer eat?" They feed primarily on invertebrates — earthworms, snails, crayfish, grasshoppers, beetles and aquatic insect larvae. They will eat seeds left in agricultural lands.
"Where do the sandhill cranes seen in Nebraska in March nest?" The most numerous and smallest subspecies there is the lesser sandhill crane. The Canadian (intermediate in size) sandhill crane makes up about 15% of the birds staging along the Platte River and the greater sandhill crane comprises about 5%. Greater sandhill cranes nest in the Great Lakes and the Interlake region of Manitoba. The Canadian subspecies breeds throughout central Canada from the Hudson Bay west to the Rocky Mountains. Lesser sandhill cranes nest across the northern reaches of Canada and Alaska, with about 80,000 of the birds crossing the Bering Strait to nest in eastern Siberia. An individual crane spends about 29 days along the Platte where 90% of its diet is corn. Cranes stopping in Nebraska generally winter in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. They arrive in Nebraska in February with their population peaking about the third week of March. Large numbers remain through the first week of April.
"Do polar bears hibernate?" Black and brown bears hibernate. Polar bears don't and only pregnant polar bears den. The female may lower her heart rate, metabolism and breathing rate, but never to the point of true hibernation.
"What is onion snow?" Onion snow is a term originated by the Pennsylvania Dutch and refers to a snowfall that occurs after the spring onions have been planted or is an indication it’s time to plant onions.
Thanks for stopping by
"If only the sun-drenched celebrities are being noticed and worshiped, then our children are going to have a tough time seeing the value in the shadows, where the thinkers, probers, and scientists are keeping society together." — Rita Dove
"What a pity flowers can utter no sound! A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be!" - Henry Ward Beecher
Do good.
©Al Batt 2021
Holy cowbird! These brown-headed cowbird females don’t build nests. They parasitize the nests of over 220 other bird species. Photo by Al Batt