Trumpeter swans involved in a disagreement. The mallards wisely stayed out of it. Trumpeter swans have loud calls resembling a bugle or trumpet, while tundra swans have a high-pitched call that earned them the nickname “whistling swans.” Photo by Al Batt.
Naturally
Something was missing. I went outside. That was it. That was what was missing.
J.R.R. Tolkien provided words to describe the in-between season in which we’re suspended now: “A morning of pale Spring still clinging to Winter’s chill.”
I watched a nuthatch move around the trunk of a tree. It was “As the nuthatch turns.” I saw a meadowlark and its yellow belly.
Turkey vultures fed on a road-killed animal. Perhaps vultures are grateful to their avian gods for the gift of roads. A vulture relative, an Andean condor in Patagonia flew over 100 miles (five hours) without flapping a wing. The condors, with 10-foot wingspans, were found to spend 1% of their time aloft flapping wings, most of it during takeoffs.
I watched and listened to the cardinals in my yard. I’ve seen flamingos in Florida. They didn’t look kitschy. Cardinals always look regal even when they’re lawn ornaments. I talked to a friend in the waiting room of a dental office. He told me how unbelievingly cool it was for him to see the handsome cardinals on his farm.
Many starlings attacked the suet. The moat I’d installed didn’t deter them. Their numbers have declined markedly across much of northern Europe and the UK. The cause of the starling decline there is unknown. Long-term monitoring by the British Trust for Ornithology shows starling numbers falling by 66% in Britain since the mid-1970s.
Q&A
Loren Kaiser of Albert Lea asked if a bald-faced hornet nest needed to be treated to preserve it. It isn’t necessary to treat a collected nest in any way. It will last if suspended in a dry location where it won’t be damaged by handling or vibration. That wasp doesn’t winter in its nests.
“Do Canada geese ganders incubate the eggs?” Incubation is done solely by the female. The male zealously guards the nest and will attack intruders. Both adults, especially the gander, vigorously defend their broods for 10-12 weeks after hatching. Pairs usually stay together for life. Ideal nesting sites are places providing concealment near water, including a islands, muskrat houses, manmade nesting structures, shoreline vegetation, the base of a mature tree, under shrubs, thick aquatic vegetation such as cattails, in flower boxes in urban and suburban landscaping; in doorways, or on structures, especially rooftops. A Canada goose took up residence in a former Decorah bald eagle tree nest this spring.
“How did the muskrat get its name?” Muskrats aren’t even in the rat family. They’re more closely related to voles and lemmings. The name is believed to come from the Algonquian language, “musascus,” “musquash” or “moskwas,” which referred to its reddish fur color. It’s thought because of the musky smell it produces to mark territory and its naked tail, the name was altered to muskrat, but it’s possible English speakers took the Algonquian word and morphed it into muskrat.
“How did feral hogs come to be in Texas?” They are intelligent, adaptable and fertile. Wild hog populations had been nurtured on ranches that sold hunting leases. Captured hogs were released in other parts of Texas. Improved animal husbandry reduced disease among domestic pigs, thereby lessening the incidence among wild hogs. While in that state, I was told over 4 million feral hogs were messing with Texas. They compete with native wildlife and destroy ecosystems by foraging and destabilizing soil in wetlands. They damage landscaping, fencing, irrigation systems, golf courses and parks. Wild pig-vehicle collisions result in significant property damage, human injury and death.
“How many trumpeter swans are there in Minnesota?” It’s estimated over 30,000. In the 1700s and 1800s, swans were hunted for their meat, skins and feathers. Swan habitat diminished as settlers moved across North America. By the 1880s, trumpeter swans had disappeared from Minnesota. By the 1930s, only 69 trumpeter swans remained in the lower 48 states, living in the remote Red Rock Lakes area in Montana. In 1966, what is now the Three Rivers Park District began experimenting with the reintroduction of trumpeter swans to Hennepin county’s park reserves. Forty swans were secured from the Red Rock Lakes NWR, but initial efforts proved unsuccessful until the first release of young occurred in 1978 and the first successful nesting occurred in 1979. The DNR’s Nongame Wildlife Program released 21 trumpeter swans in 1987 near Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge in Becker County. In 1988, five trumpeter swans were released at Swan Lake in Nicollet County. This lake, known by a Sioux name that translated to “Lake-of-the-many-large-birds,” and where I just enjoyed the company of the lovely swans.
Thanks for stopping by
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”—Thomas Jefferson.
“Make a little birdhouse in your soul.”—They Might Be Giants.
Do good.
©Al Batt 2022
Good-natured nature talk on the radio.
I’m always happy to have the company of a Brown Thrasher. I love it when a thrasher hits the shuffle button.
One of the wonderful souls hiking with me wondered why Pileated Woodpeckers make oblong holes in trees. I told him it was because oblong carpenter ants are one of their favorite foods.