Naturally

I cannot not look at a chickadee. It’s my favorite bird. You should look for a chickadee. If you see one, the endearing creature might become your favorite bird. If you can see birds, look at birds. It’s an easy way to achieve an enhanced existence. William Ruckelshaus wrote, “Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.”
I don’t have a least favorite bird (all are lovely), but another one that brings me great joy to see or hear is the wood thrush. It flies 200 to 300 miles during a nightly migration, yet it’s still often referred to as a chunky songbird. Its haunting, flute-like “Frito-Lay” song gives my ear an exciting experience.
The sky was electric. A river of birds stretched across it. A cloud of feathers flew over—a flock of pelicans beautifying the air. It was a glorious sight and an amazing sound. On a windless morning, I could hear the wings of the pelicans. American white pelicans look big enough in the air that they have been reported as UFOs. Closer to the ground, I saw messy songbirds in molt. None of them preferred a chocolate molt. They were the young and the crestless.
I see many vultures. In this country, a vulture is sometimes called a buzzard. In much of the rest of the world, a vulture is a vulture and a buzzard is a hawk. The popular theory is that the interstate highway system increased the availability of food in the form of roadkill and allowed the turkey vulture to extend its range northward. Every driver will see these large, dark birds circling high on warm air thermals.
Joanne Phillips of Hartland spotted a red fox with mange. The sarcoptic mange can be episodic in area foxes. The cause of this mange is a tiny mite, Sarcoptes scabei, nearly invisible to the human eye. Mites are eight-legged creatures that are related to ticks. Thousands of species of mites exist in the world, including the ubiquitous house dust mite that eats flakes of dead skin. Most mites are benign and aid in the decomposition of plant and animal material. Some are agricultural pests or parasites, such as the mites that can decimate honeybee colonies or those that can raise havoc with poultry. Sarcoptes scabei are passed from animal to animal by close contact or in bedding. Male and female mites meet on the animal’s skin and mate. The male mites soon die, while the females burrow into the outermost layer of skin, creating a maze of tunnels and feeding on the fluids oozing from wounds. As they burrow, they lay eggs. The females die and the eggs soon release larvae that work their way to the skin’s surface and move to new sites, make other burrows and go through a series of molts before adulthood. Males find females and the cycle starts anew. During the process, mites deposit excrement that causes an intense immune response, an itchy inflammation. The fox scratches and bites at the irritation, often breaking the skin and allowing various types of bacterial infections. The scratching removes fur, worsening the situation because mites prefer hairless skin. The animal moves incessantly, becoming sleepless and exhausted, and eventually dies from multiple stresses—hypothermia, infection or starvation.
The U.S Fish & Wildlife Service published its 2022 breeding duck population survey. Breeding ducks were 4% below the long-term average (since 1955). The mallard population was down 9% from the long-term average, gadwalls were up 30%, American wigeon -19%, green-winged teal no change, blue-winged teal +27%, northern shoveler +15%, northern pintail -54%, redhead +36%, canvasback -1%, and scaup -28%. Mallards far outnumber any other of the duck species monitored. The last FWS duck breeding population survey was released in 2019.

Q&A

“Do owls migrate?” Some do—short-eared owls, northern saw-whet owls, snowy owls and burrowing owls. Not every bird of an owl species undertakes such a journey and the lengths vary.
“How many wild hogs are there in Texas?” Texas is home to over three million feral hogs and they cause $500 million in property and agricultural damage each year. Feral hogs cause more than $1.3 million in damage to Texas golf courses each year.
“I watched an old movie on TV in which a bald eagle sounded like a red-tailed hawk. Why did they change the calls of our national bird?” Bald eagles produce high-pitched giggles and weak screams. These sounds were deemed unimpressive by Hollywood sound editors who dubbed them with calls they found more imposing, such as those of the red-tailed hawk.

Thanks for stopping by

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”—Walt Kelly.
“You were made and set here to give voice to this, your own astonishment.”—Annie Dillard.
Do good.

©Al Batt 2022

Red foxes can run 31 mph, jump over 6 foot high fences and can swim. ​That makes them triathletes. The males are called dog foxes (or dogs), the female vixens and the young are kits, pups or cubs. Photo by Al Batt.