Naturally
I’ve never met anyone who has had a bat tangled in her hair.
Voles are primarily vegetarians, feeding on grasses, tubers and seeds. They can girdle young trees by removing a continuous strip of bark and cambium around the circumference of the tree. This can kill the trees.
Q&A
“What is a thousand-legger?” Millipedes, commonly called “thousand-leggers”, have elongated, cylindrical bodies with 25+ pairs of short legs, two pairs per body segment. The legs are held beneath a light brown to black body and appear to ripple in waves as it moves. They feed on decaying vegetable matter. Millipedes do a mini-migration when it’s too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry. Centipedes are commonly called “hundred-leggers”, with elongated, flattened bodies with fewer than 25 pairs of long legs that project laterally from the body. Just behind the head are jaws that contain venom glands used to paralyze insects and spiders. Centipedes are beneficial because they control insect populations.
“How many times can a skunk spray?” Skunks can’t run over 10 mph, so they spray instead. Skunks warn perceived predators by stomping their feet, clicking their teeth and raising their tails. They hold their ground or run directly toward a threat. Skunks can spray at about a month old. Skunk spray can be smelled a mile and a half away. Skunks can spray 5 or 6 times before needing to replenish, taking 8 to 10 days to refill. Skunks aren’t thought of as being vocal other than Flower or Pepe Le Pew but can squeal, chirp, whimper, whine, grunt and smack their lips. Tomato juice isn’t an effective way to get rid of a skunk’s stench as it only masks the smell. Mix ¼ cup baking soda, 1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide and 1 to 2 teaspoons of liquid dish detergent. Keep out of eyes and don’t store.
“How long does it take bald eagles to build a nest?” From 1 to 3 months. A pair often uses it year after year, adding sticks and making repairs.
“What causes dust devils?” Jackalopes. They run 50 mph during a breeding season limited to lightning flashes. They’re most often seen by taxidermists. The jackalope is a mythical animal described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns and their name is a portmanteau of jackrabbit and antelope.
“I saw a cardinal this winter with no tail. Will it grow back?” The cardinal might have avoided capture, had its tail frozen to a perch or been caught in something. During a fright molt, all the tail feathers are simultaneously ejected from their follicles in an escape, leaving the predator with a mouth or talon full of feathers or a puff of feathers behind. The tails grow back quickly. If a feather is broken, it remains broken until the next molt, but if a feather is pulled out at the root, regrowth starts immediately. Tailless birds can survive this slight disadvantage.
“What are the black things wrapped around power poles?” The plastic wrap on utility poles discourages the ascent of squirrels and other adventurous climbers such as raccoons and cats. It’s UV-stabilized to withstand prolonged sun exposure and prevents animals from accessing vital equipment and causing power outages.
“When was the last wolverine seen in Minnesota?” The last official record of a wild wolverine in Minnesota was a specimen taken in 1899 in Itasca County. The University of Minnesota says wolverines were more common in northern Minnesota until nearly extirpated by trappers by the 1920s. The Wolverine Foundation says the most recent verifiable record of wolverine occurrence in Minnesota was from 1899; but mentions a documented record from northeastern Minnesota in 1965. A wolverine shot and killed in North Dakota in 2016 was the first wolverine reported in that state in almost 150 years.
Bird cams
Young eagles https://explore.org/livecams/bald-eagles/decorah-eagles
Probable nesting sandhill cranes near Steamboat Springs, Colorado. https://coloradocranes.org/crane-nest-camera/
Thanks for stopping by
“A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.”—Charles Evans Hughes.
“Teach the children. We don’t matter so much, but the children do. Show them daisies and the pale hepatica. Teach them the taste of sassafras and wintergreen. The lives of the blue sailors, mallow, sunbursts, the moccasin-flowers. And the frisky ones–inkberry, lamb’s-quarters, blueberries. And the aromatic ones–rosemary, oregano. Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school. Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit. Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms. Attention is the beginning of devotion.”—Mary Oliver.
Do good.
©️Al Batt 2023
Hepatica blooms in April and May and is named for its three-lobed leaves, which resemble the three lobes of the human liver. Early herbalists believed plants with shapes resembling parts of the human body were an effective treatment for diseases of those parts. This “Doctrine of Signatures” suggested the three-lobed leaves of hepatica would prove effective in liver diseases. That hasn’t proven to be correct. Some people call hepatica “liverwort,” but it shouldn’t be confused with the non-vascular plants called liverworts. Photo by Al Batt
I’m a sucker for photos of birds perched on handles and/or the heads of plastic owls. This book is a classy class on photography.
It used to be a grain bin.
They may look guilty, but Blue-winged Teal have never once been arrested for littering.