This House Sparrow shivers when cold, tailwinds blow. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little female had a cool behind.
This fox squirrel is the king of the mountain.
BIRDING WITH BATT
If you missed the “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.
Naturally
I’ve heard from many people in the Twin Cities about the flocks of robins they are seeing. They are winter robins as they are showing no fighting or singing. A good number of deciduous trees are demonstrating marcescence this year, refusing to drop their leaves. Marcescence means withering but persistent. A good number of Minnesotans become marcescent at this time of the year. Blue jays can migrate, but it occurs to me that many stay in an area where they cached food. Why store it if you’re not going to use it?
As Valentine’s Day nears, skunks come out looking for love and to paw-deliver Valentine’s Day cards. They like highways. It’s easier than walking in deep snow. They need to use them to cross the road. Sometimes food is on the road—carrion.
Dark-eyed juncos hop or walk as they move along the ground. They are social during fall and winter, spending the days in flocks. These flocks mix in with other native sparrows, particularly American tree sparrows here.
Q&A
“Were starlings brought to this country because of Shakespeare?” I’ve thought so all my life and have passed on the story that European starlings were introduced to North America in 1890 and 1891 by the American Acclimatization Society (dedicated to introducing European flora and fauna into North America) and the man responsible for it was Eugene Scheiffelin. That is true, but it likely had nothing to do with Shakespeare. Starlings were mentioned once in Shakespeare’s works, Henry IV, because of their ability to mimic. The findings of John Miller of Allegheny College, assisted by a student, Lauren Fugate, showed starlings were released in the U.S. multiple times in the 1870s and 1880s. Wild flocks were reported during that time. Edwin Way Teale in his book, “Days Without Time” published in 1948, had popularized the Shakespeare angle. I read Teale and enjoy his writing. He wrote that Scheiffelin had the curious hobby of introducing all the birds mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. The American Acclimatization Society releases in 1890 and 1891 weren’t their first, having released starlings at least once before in the 1870s. The first assertion of Shakespeare’s influence on those releases happened nearly 60 years after the last release. Despite the starling’s success and large numbers, its population is in steep decline in North America. The current population is half the size it was 50 years ago—down from an estimated 166.2 million breeding birds in 1970 to 85.1 million. The species is declining in Europe, too. Starlings are common and widespread, but their population has decreased by over 1% per year for a cumulative decline of about 50% between 1966 and 2019 according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
“How long can a ring-necked pheasant go without food?” According to the DNR, during extreme winter weather, pheasants can go up to two weeks without feeding. They accomplish this by reducing their metabolism and energy requirements.
Kent Spellman of Albert Lea asked why the birds that feed so heavily in bad weather, leave the feeders early in the day. They might have gotten enough to eat and needed to find a warm place to hunker down and ride out the inhospitable weather. Some of the nomadic feeder birds might have a considerable distance to travel and require an early start.
“Why do crows flock to cities in the winter?” There is more light, which makes it easier to spot owls, their sworn enemies and proficient predators. Cities are a bit warmer than rural areas. Being in a flock spreads the risk of a crow being picked off by an owl. And there are places where the crows could pick up breakfast on their way out of town.
“I have a neighbor who doesn’t like me feeding the birds. What can I tell him?“ You could tell him that you don’t like the color of his house or the make of his car.
“How did house finches end up in the Midwest?” House finches were originally a bird of the western US and Mexico. In 1940, some house finches were released in Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as caged birds called “Hollywood finches.” The population became established and spread throughout the country. House finches are about the same size as house sparrows, but more slender. Most adult males are rosy red around the face and upper breast, with a streaky brown back, belly and tail. Adult females aren’t red but are grayish-brown with indistinctly marked faces.
Thanks for stopping by
“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”― Wendell Berry.
“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”— G. K. Chesterton.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2023
Blue jays frequently mimic the calls of hawks, especially the red-shouldered hawk. This may warn other jays that a hawk is around or deceive other species into believing a hawk is present and eliminate competition at a feeder. Photo by Al Batt.