Naturally

 A great horned owl flew in front of my car at 4 a.m. The headlights washed out its color. Later, a common yellowthroat called, “Follow me, follow me. Wait up, wait up.” A catbird, appearing tastefully dressed in a stylish gray suit, added scat, a vocal improvisation of jazz. 
 There were flying TVs—turkey vultures as I walked in woods where ticks, mosquitoes and deer flies were my grizzly bears. I strolled around a lake. No mosquitoes. A fellow told me that 95% of mosquitoes come from 5% of the water. That sounds right. Temporary water and changing water levels make for prime breeding habitats for many mosquitoes. Dragonflies, as larvae and adults, feed on mosquitoes. Go dragonflies! 
 I noticed tiny white, frothy blobs on various plants. They were produced by the nymphs of spittlebugs and the “spit” keeps the nymph from drying out and discourages predators. Adult spittlebugs, sometimes called froghoppers, resemble leafhoppers. They’re called froghoppers because their heads are elevated when at rest. Spittlebugs provide food for meadowlarks and other birds.

Wherever you go, there you are

 I spoke at the 100th-anniversary celebration of the amazing Audubon Society of Greater Cleveland. Great people who do great things.
 Matt Valencic and his wife have a horse. Dark-eyed juncos nest between the hay bales stored in the horse barn and have three broods per year. Juncos will nest in hanging flower pots or light fixtures. Matt was superb company as I tended to my steps on beautiful trails in northeastern Ohio. They were up and down, but hospitable. I listened to an eastern towhee call “say towhee” and a willow flycatcher utter “ah-choo.” A red-eyed vireo, which my father called a “preacher bird,” because it went on and on, was counting the leaves of the tree it sang from. Mnemonics for its song include: “Look at me. Way up high. Over here. In a tree.” and “Here I am! Where are you?”
 I joined a nature hike led by a remarkable optometrist named Jim Tomko from Aurora, who saw everything in nature. A big man named Kenny walked with me. Another hiker told the story of being unable to spot a scarlet tanager (it’s the color of a cardinal with its lights on) in a giant tree. Kenny thumped the tree with his bare hand and the bird flew from it.
 John Lillich led a walk through the lovely Hach-Otis Sanctuary in Willoughby Hills. John tries to be two things each day, a student and a teacher. I can attest he’s an outstanding teacher. He showed me a couple of American chestnut trees. American chestnut trees once made up 25% of forests in eastern North America and were so plentiful, folklore says a squirrel could have traveled the chestnut canopy from Georgia to Maine without ever touching the ground. The trees grew to 120 feet tall and lived for 600 years with straight, light and rot-resistant wood. The fungus that wiped out the trees was found in 1904 in New York and by 1912, all the chestnut trees in New York City were dead. By 1950, 90% of the species had died. I met two trees that had survived.

Q&A

 “How did the dickcissel get its name?” The unusual name comes from its song, a sharp “dick dick dick” followed by a buzzed “ciss, ciss, ciss.” Some people call the bird the “little meadowlark,” because its appearance suggests a miniature meadowlark.
 “Why do bats fly close to humans who worry bats might become tangled in their hair?” Folklore asserts a bat will stay tangled in hair until driven out by thunder and lightning. Bats fly low over the heads of people because they are in search of insect prey, not hair. The activities of people flush insects.
 “Why do bats hang upside down?” Most birds have hollow bones, bats have solid bones and hanging upside down allows them to drop and gain momentum for flight.
  “What kind of rabbit is Bugs Bunny?” Without a DNA analysis, I can’t be sure, but I don’t think he’s a rabbit. Looking at the length of his ears and legs, he’s a hare. Hares have precocial babies, born furred, open-eyed and ready to run. Rabbits have altricial babies, born hairless, with eyes closed and dependent on mom.
 “Do carpenter ants eat wood?” Carpenter ants don’t eat wood. They’re too busy doing kitchen remodeling. Carpenter ants nest in hollow areas and inside damp wood. If you have trees, you’ll have carpenter ants.
 John Ruud of Albert Lea asked what baby wood ducks eat. They eat insects, algae, small fish, duckweed, aquatic insects and invertebrates. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “What the Caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly.”—Richard Bach.
 “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.”—Mother Teresa.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A fishing spider, sometimes called a dock spider, is associated with water but is also found away from it. It skates on the water’s surface by using the surface tension. It dives underwater to prey upon aquatic insects, tadpoles and small fish. This large spider is shy and not harmful to humans. Photo by Al Batt.