Naturally
I walked to the intersection of birds and me, hoping to discover new things. There were songs in the trees. They made me want to join the band.
A great blue heron lumbered through the air. It’s about the size of a sandhill crane, each about 4 feet from tip of beak to tip of tail and they have similar wingspans. The heron weighs 5 pounds and a crane could be double that.
An insect hatch provides a food crop of caterpillars for upcoming warbler arrivals. I watched a brown creeper on the trunk of a tree, looking as if it were a piece of animated bark. A flicker called, “Flicka, flicka, flicka.” I didn’t grade any of the birds. I merely marked them present.
I watched a ring-billed gull looking as if it were landing on top of a hooded merganser on the water. The merganser dived out of the way. The gull repeated the behavior several times. I suspect it was an attempt to steal any fish the diving duck might have caught.
I saw a pair of trumpeter swans. I recalled a time I stood along a river on the foggiest of days. Two swans emerged from the fog, their white color enhanced by the contrast. They made no vocalizations as they flew over my head, but I heard their wings. I knew it was a cool experience because the hair on my arms stood up and a shiver ran up my spine. It was a glorious moment.
European starlings imitated meadowlarks, peewees, robins, cowbirds and house sparrows. I loved seeing horned larks paired up on nesting territories and a stunning brown thrasher, enjoyed the beautiful songs of house finches and western chorus frog practices. Confrontational red-winged blackbird males called into the cattails. I walked around the Mayo Clinic Campus in Rochester while watching a peregrine falcon flying overhead. It was a superb aerialist. Amazingly, I bumped into neither post nor person. The strong winds blew the nyjer seeds from a feeder. It was a thistleblower.
It’s we over me. Multi-colored Asian lady beetles overpowered me with their numbers.
Q&A
Donna Swenson of Waseca found wood duck eggs under a nest box and wondered what happened. Egg carrying by female ducks has been reported for several species, including wood ducks, but I’d think they’d carry them away. Raccoons are prime predators, and their paws are capable of remarkable things. Fishers are notable predators in parts of the state. Several bird species and squirrels damage eggs. Starlings try to usurp boxes.
“Can you tell a female blue jay from a male?” I can. The female is the one that lays the eggs. Male and female blue jays look the same. This is called sexual monomorphism. The males are slightly larger.
“Do geese poop in flight?” Geese are less likely to defecate when flying than when grazing on the ground, and they tend to discharge droppings upon takeoff. A strange incident occurred at Disneyland in 2017 when flying geese pooped on 17 people near the Sleeping Beauty Castle. Police and a hazmat crew responded. They found no crime had occurred.
“Why does it rain cats and dogs?” No one is certain. One suggestion is the phrase derives from mythology. Dogs were attendants to Odin, the god of storms, and sailors associated dogs with rain. Witches took the form of cats and rode the wind.
“How many bird species hybridize?” Of the 10,446 species, at least 16.4% do. Waterfowl are notorious for hybridizing.
“How many female birds sing?” A study at the University of Maryland Baltimore County found 70% of female birds sing.
The Book Club
“The iPhone Photography Book” by Scott Kelby aims to get professional images using the camera you always have with you. Here are a few of the book’s ideas. Keep the flash off, hold the camera still, silence the shutter by muting the phone and get close to the subject. Optical zoom is the good zoom. Tap the 2X lens at the bottom of the screen to get it. Pinch-and-zoom (digital zoom) is the bad zoom. Light makes good photos and direct sunlight can be problematic. Shoot outdoors when the sun is low or on cloudy days. A photo of three things is more likely to be liked than photos of two or four. Hold your phone high and aim down while you look up for selfies. Focus on the eyes in portraits and don’t leave too much space above the subject’s head, which should be moved forward and tilted down slightly. Shoot flowers from a low angle, not down at them. This 250-page book is filled with helpful hints.
Thanks for stopping by
“It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.”—Barbara Kingsolver
“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.”―H. L. Mencken
Do good.
©Al Batt 2021
This great blue heron landed a lunker. Photo by Al Batt