Naturally

I watched robins feed on persistent fruit in trees. They dine on the berries of hackberry and other trees at this time of the year.
A house sparrow in the yard was missing a tail. She shivered when a cold tailwind blew. The movie "Cool Hand Luke," starring Paul Newman, made the line, "What we have here is failure to communicate," famous. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little bird had a cool behind.
I saw blue snow in the yard not far from the tailless sparrow. It looked as if someone had stepped on a Smurf, spit out mouthwash or spilled antifreeze. Rabbit droppings came out of the blue. When rabbits feed on the invasive plant buckthorn, they excrete a chemical in their urine that turns blue when exposed to sunlight. Rabbits have round droppings while deer pellets are oval-shaped with one pointed end. I’ve heard that deer produce blue urine, but I’ve noticed deer avoid eating invasive species like buckthorn, garlic mustard and Japanese barberry. I’d never say they never sample those plants. They likely try it to see if they like it. Every kid had to do that, so why wouldn’t deer? I’m not sure if foraging is deterred because deer find them unappetizing or because buckthorn has thorns. Overbrowsing of native plants by large deer populations in some areas has enabled invasive species to flourish and displace native species. Deer don’t bother ferns much either, but extreme hunger tosses out the diet rulebook.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources eagle cam began in 2013. It’s nature’s soap opera. Eagles typically lay eggs in February that are incubated for around 35 days.

Q&A

“What is a gibbous moon?” It’s a moon having the observable illumination part greater than a semicircle and less than a circle. The eight phases of the moon are, in order: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent. A moon headed toward a full moon is waxing, getting bigger and growing brighter. A moon headed toward a new moon is waning, getting smaller. I was taught that if the moon is D-shaped, it’s waxing or developing. If it’s C-shaped, it’s waning or concluding. I hope you have a great day from morning to moonbeam.
“What’s the difference between a woodchuck and a groundhog?” A woodchuck chucks wood and groundhogs are crack meteorologists. They are the same animal, also called whistle-pigs.
“There is a small cup nest in a shrub in my yard. What bird could have made it?” Here are a couple of likely prospects. The yellow warbler nest is typically within 10 feet of the ground in an upright fork of a shrub or sapling and is lined with plant fibers, fur or feathers. The indigo bunting nest is often 3 feet or lower from the ground in the crotch of a shrub or low sapling. It’s lined with grass, roots, bark strips, thistledown or deer hair. The chipping sparrow nest is 3-10 feet off the ground on the tip of a branch. It might be lined with cattle, deer, horse or pet hair. The American goldfinch nest can be found around 15 feet off the ground, usually in the crotch of the plant and is lined with plant down from thistle, milkweed and cattail.
Randy Heideman of Albert Lea saw small squirrels in his yard for the first time. They weren’t much bigger than chipmunks. He wondered if they were red squirrels because their fur showed some gray. That sounds like red squirrels. They live throughout this country’s snowbelt, in mountainous regions and in Canada. They are most associated with coniferous woods but hardwoods and thickets also provide habitat. The squirrel builds a leaf nest or uses a tree cavity. The red squirrel is not a passive observer. It’s an aggressive and vociferous mammal that is a rusty reddish-brown, orange-red, ginger, brownish or olive-gray color, with some fur colors subject to seasonal changes. Its underside is white to grayish-white and its sides can show gray. In Longfellow's “Song of Hiawatha,” the red squirrel is called Adjidaumo. I’ve read that this is an Ojibwe word meaning "mouth-foremost" because squirrels descend trees head first. I checked the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary and found that ajidamoo means a red squirrel.

Thanks for stopping by

“Thirty days has September, April, June and November. Unless a leap year is its fate,February has twenty-eight. All the rest have three days more, excepting January, which has six thousand, one hundred and eighty-four.”—Brian Bilston.
“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”—P. J. O'Rourke.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A cardinal makes a winter day much better. Photo by Al Batt