Naturally
The rain had turned into a heavy snowfall. An eastern bluebird found shelter in a window feeder and hunkered down. I couldn’t read his mind, but he didn’t appear to be the bluebird of happiness. “I wish you bluebirds in the spring. To give your heart a song to sing,” is from the song “I Wish You Love” written by Charles Louis Trenet and Albert Askew Beach. I wished the bluebird would have other bluebirds for company.
Northern flickers arrive in my yard in April. These lovely birds pecked the ground in search of insects. They love to eat ants.
I see oak and ironwood trees clinging to their dead brown leaves. This retention of dead plant matter is called marcescence. The new spring growth eventually dislodges these dead leaves.
I watched a wild turkey tom strut around, trying to impress hens. He thought he was all that because he had a bourbon named after him. Wild Turkey is a brand of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey produced in Kentucky. The tom shook his fanned tail because he was a mover and a shaker. A wild turkey can run up to 25 mph and fly 55 mph. How smart is a turkey or birds in general? It depends on who is giving the test.
Q&A
“I love hearing the chickadee call its name. What other birds do that?” These are onomatopoeic names. Other birds include the killdeer, eastern phoebe, eastern wood-peewee, eastern whip-poor-will, Chuck-will's-widow and northern bobwhite. An imagination like one used to name the constellations is helpful in hearing what words a bird is saying, even if it doesn’t know it’s speaking our language. The blue jay calls “jay” and some human ears insist a crow says “crow” instead of “caw.”
“When do rooster pheasants crow?” They might be heard crowing throughout the day all year round, but mostly at dawn and dusk in spring and summer. A rapid beating of the wings often follows a rooster's loud crow. Roosters also often cackle when they fly. It seems to me that they crow more often when the skies are clear, and there’s little to no wind.
“How can I tell if it’s a downy woodpecker or a hairy woodpecker drumming?” I just heard a pileated woodpecker drumming. The big bird was on a big tree and produced an impressive, powerful, resonant sound. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the downy woodpecker has about 17 beats per second, which makes it almost sound as if we could count them. The hairy woodpecker has faster-paced drumming, with about 26 beats per second and sounds impossible to count.
“What is a spatzie?” Spatzie or spotsie are names that people call the house sparrow. Others refer to it as the English sparrow. The name likely comes from the German word Spatzen which means "sparrows." Spätzle, Spätzla or Spatzen are a kind of Central European egg pasta.
“I saw an owl pellet. Do other birds produce pellets?” Owls swallow prey whole or in large pieces, but cannot digest fur, teeth, bone or feathers. Birds, which consume food that has indigestible matter, cast pellets as part of the digestive process. Other birds that cast pellets include hawks, falcons, eagles, herons, cormorants, egrets, grebes, gulls, kingfishers, swallows, grouse, nighthawks, swifts, shrikes, crows, ravens and jays, and many species of shorebirds.
“What bird runs the fastest?” Ostriches can’t fly, but no birds can match their speed on land. They are the fastest birds in the world when it comes to running. They have been clocked running continuously at speeds of 30-37 mph and sprinting up to 43 mph. In North America, our speediest land bird is the greater roadrunner. It speeds along at 20 mph, and it can reach about 26 mph when in top gear. And as any TV cartoon watcher can attest, that’s fast enough to elude Wile E. Coyote.
Jim Muyres of Mankato wrote, “I am wondering if the spring migration is different than the fall? In the spring, it seems like more of a free-for-all or are there big flocks I am missing?” The spring migration occurs within a shorter period than the fall migration. In spring, birds are driven to fly north to find breeding territories and to nest. This gives the spring migration more urgency. The spring migration typically follows more distinct migratory patterns and routes. The fall migration occurs over a more extended period, with birds taking a wider variety of routes to their wintering grounds. Flocks tend to be larger during fall migration than in spring because birds gather to increase their chances of survival, while in spring, they’re more focused on finding breeding territories.
Thanks for stopping by
“A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.”—Leo Buscaglia.
“By discovering nature, you discover yourself.”—Maxime Lagacé.
Do good.
©Al Batt 2025
My family’s elders insisted that a returning robin needed three snows on its tail (back or toes) before it was truly spring. Sometimes, they were right. Of course, this doesn’t apply to the rockin’ robins who were here in the winter. A common mnemonic for remembering the ballad sung by an American Robin is "Cheerily, cheer up, cheer up, cheerily, cheer up." Photo by Al Batt.