Al Batt: Is there a most recognizable bird in the world? If so, what is it?

March 20, 2020

Al Batt: Is there a most recognizable bird in the world? If so, what is it?

By Al Batt

Email the author

Published 9:00 am Saturday, March 14, 2020

Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“I’m a dollar or two ahead, so I put a down payment on a free lunch. I have a weather rock. It’d been infallible. A dry rock means fair weather, a wet rock means it’s raining, a dusty rock means it’s a drought, a swaying rock means it’s windy, a shadow beside the rock means it’s sunny, a white rock means it’s snowing, and if the rock is underwater it’s a flood. It no longer works.”

“How can that be?” I said.

“I didn’t update it to the newest operating system.”

Naturally

The sun’s strength was impressive. It enticed chipmunks from their burrows. The trees were encompassed by dark circles at the base of their trunks. When the sun shines, a tree absorbs more heat than the surrounding snow does because of the tree’s dark-colored bark. The trunk warms and radiates heat, which melts the snow around the foot of the tree. The same thing happens to telephone poles and fence posts. A red-winged blackbird sang “Look at me!” House finches tried to sing in the spring. These lovely singers, called Hollywood finches when they were sold as caged birds, are year-long residents here and provide needed flashes of color. Some of them undergo short-distance migrations south. Purple finches look similar, but are winter guests in southern Minnesota. The red on a male house finch is concentrated on head and breast. The redness of a purple finch male spreads to most of his body.

I strolled about the yard, adding mud to my boots. Long walks and birdwatching are prescribed by doctors to patients in Scotland’s Shetland Islands as part of treatments for chronic illnesses. The National Health Service Shetland rolled out what has been called nature prescriptions to help treat a range of afflictions, including high blood pressure, anxiety and depression. I wonder if I could send a bill to my insurance company for my walking shoes? Probably not.

I hope there will be enough good weather.

Q&A

“How big a territory does a pair of hawks have?” The red-tailed hawk is the hawk we commonly see. They usually hold a nesting territory of 1.5-2.0 square miles, but could be larger if food was scarce.

“What is the most recognizable bird in the world?” I’m speculating wildly, but I’d guess it would be the peacock, the male peafowl.

“What good are prairie dogs?” In addition to providing food and shelter for associated species, prairie dog burrows enrich the soil and improve vegetative quality by aerating the soil and allowing water to flow underground. Prairie dog activities increase and diversify the composition of grasses and forbs within their colonies, creating habitat favored by other wildlife. Their long-term use of a grassland appears to promote short, perennial grasses.

“Do robins mate for life?” I read that Aristotle considered earthworms to be the intestines of the earth. Robins consider them lunch. Robins don’t mate for life. Pairs generally stay together during a breeding season, which can involve two or three nestings. Sometimes the two return to the same territory and end up together for another year. A robin has about a 50% chance of living through a year.

“Are horned larks a sign of spring?” Maybe, sort of. Somewhat. Horned larks commonly winter in southern Minnesota, with lower populations found shivering farther north. The horned larks that migrated south begin returning north in early February through late March. They can be seen feeding along the graveled edges of rural roads. They fly at a vehicle’s approach before landing in a field and disappearing by blending into the ground. Horned larks have a horizontal posture and their song is a high-pitched tinkling. High breeding densities of horned larks are found throughout the heavily cultivated regions of the western and southern parts of the state.

“How much does a chickadee eat each day?” Smaller birds generally need more food relative to their weight than do larger birds. A black-capped chickadee eats 35% of its weight per day. A blue jay eats about 10% and a hummingbird as much as 100% of its weight each day.

Thanks for stopping by

“I can’t imagine a world without koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, dunnarts, black cockatoos … compassion.” — from the comic strip “Mutts” by Patrick McDonnell

“The beauty of the trees, the softness of the air, the fragrance of the grass, they speak to me. The summit of the mountain, the thunder of the sky, the rhythm of the sea, speaks to me. The faintness of the stars, the freshness of the morning, the dewdrop on the flower, speaks to me. The strength of the fire, the taste of the salmon, the trail of the sun, and the life that never goes away, they speak to me. And my heart soars.” — Chief Dan George

Do good.

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

Pictured is a male house finch. – Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune

The Hammer family operated Hammer Motel from 1947 to 1987 in Kearney, Nebraska. A smaller replica of the sign was added to the Great Platte River Archway.

March 19, 2020

Al Batt: Things to look for while awaiting spring

March 18, 2020

Al Batt: Things to look for while awaiting spring

Published by rkramer@bluffco... on Mon, 03/09/2020 - 12:52pm

By :

AL BATT

Bluff Country Reader

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. I'm still waiting to see if my morning coffee intake uses its powers for good or evil. I used to be married until she got smart and dumped me. We never fought. I guess I did, but she never fought back."

"How did she control her anger?" I say.

"She cleaned the toilet."

"How did that help?" I ask.

"She used my toothbrush."

Naturally

A tufted titmouse, which fortunately for me had decided to spend the winter in our yard, has fit in well. It even participates in the mobbing of accipiters. I listened to it as it joined chickadees, nuthatches, and blue jays in a verbal assault on a raptor. The birds had mob connections. When smaller birds join forces to ward off larger or predatory birds, it’s called mobbing. The sounds call in the cavalry. Tufted titmice produce fussy, scolding call notes and, when predators are spotted, a harsh distress call that warns others of the danger.

A friend sent me a video of a squirrel burying the blueberries she'd tossed outside. The squirrel was burying the berries in the snow. It was caching food in a refrigerator that would melt. Seems to be a foolish endeavor, but who am I to judge the behavior of a squirrel or anyone else?

Q&A

"Do crows migrate?" Some do. American crows are commonly observed during the winter in the southern two-thirds of the state but are rare in the north. You might notice crows carrying sticks and nesting materials at this time of the year.

"Should bluebird nest boxes face a certain direction?" Research done by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology revealed eastern bluebirds will nest in boxes facing in any direction. In Minnesota and other northern states, nest boxes facing in easterly directions fledged more young on average than boxes facing other directions. This suggests a benefit to east-facing boxes at northern latitudes, where night temperatures tend to be colder. This benefit couldn't be detected in the south.

"Why do birds stand on one leg?" A foot tucked into belly feathers reduces the amount of heat a bird loses through unfeathered limbs. A bird sometimes alternates feet to minimize heat loss and conserve energy. A bird might tuck its beak under its shoulder feathers for warmth and to lessen heat loss.

"Are most spruce trees named Bruce?" Yes.

"What percent of a bag of black-oil sunflower seeds is made up of shells?" The hulls make up 35 to 45 percent of the weight.

"Why are they called cedar waxwings?" The elegant birds were named cedar waxwings because of their strong attraction to the red cedar tree (a juniper) with its blue fruits and due to the bright red on the wing feathers that is waxy red secretions.

"Do bluebirds mate for life?" Sialis.org says, "The answer is probably maybe sometimes." Bluebirds form pair-bonds during the breeding season and are generally socially monogamous — a single male and female form a basic social unit. A study of eastern bluebirds indicated about 95 percent of the time, nestings involved one male and one female.

Things to look for and think about while awaiting spring

1. Maple sap flow is triggered by thawing days followed by freezing nights.

2. Chipmunks are out and about.

3. Migrating Canada geese arrive.

4. Marcescent (withered, but persistent) leaves drop from red oak and ironwood trees.

5. Wild turkeys have started their spring courtship with the toms gobbling, flaring tails, and strutting.

6. The bulk of the noisy, male robins tend to follow the 37-degree average daily isotherm as they move northward. There is a wide variation among individuals, but that temperature means food is available. An isotherm is a line drawn on a map linking places having the same temperature. A customer of this column told me when a robin is sighted near a house, it foretells good fortune for the inhabitants of the house. We should all be lucky folks.

7. House finches sing long, jumbled warbling songs of short notes, which often end with an upward or downward slur, as if the bird was either asking a question or had forgotten its song.

8. Our timepieces spring ahead on March 8. Meteorological spring begins on March 1 and astronomical spring starts on March 19.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: It was springlike in the house, but winter was being an unwelcome companion outdoors. An icy driveway brightens my day like a total eclipse. There was so much ice, I considered getting a polar bear. I decided against it as I'd have to build a polar bear house and I doubt I'd get around to finishing it. It's as the sign on the wall of the cafe read: "We never finish anyth."

There isn’t an off-season for family and friends.

I attended a game in which a group of polite hecklers were bothering an opponent shooting a free throw. "It's not just a boulder, it's a rock," they yelled.

Not long after that my granddaughter, Joey Batt, splashed a three-pointer to help Minnesota State win a game and the courtside announcer proclaimed, "A JB3!" Joey was one of five members of the all-freshmen team for the 16-team NSIC.

I paid my respects to a basketball-playing friend not long ago. I did so by bringing a sympathy card that was too big for its envelope, expressing condolences, hugging, and sharing stories about the deceased. Larry Pence of Albert Lea had been my basketball and softball teammate. I watched Larry play basketball in high school. I was a few years younger and was charged with the task of keeping a shot chart. I was given an official school clipboard and an official school pencil. The Coach gave me the usual advice, "You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead." He'd learned a lot from watching Laurel & Hardy films. The shot chart was made up of letter-sized paper displaying an approximation of a basketball court. Anytime a player shot, I'd jot down the player's number on the paper reflecting the spot on the floor where the attempt occurred. If the shot was made, I circled the number. If the shot was missed, no circling was required. I don't know how I got the job. The responsible students must have been out sick. I kidded Larry that I didn't have to sharpen the official school pencil once during his games because I never needed to circle his shots. That was far from the truth. He was a fine player and a fine friend.

Nature notes

The blue jays were talkative. Mark Twain wrote, “You never saw a blue jay get stuck for a word. He is a vocabularized geyser.”

A snowplow grumbled by. It sounded tired. I was happy to see it. February was cold, but its warm sunlight melted snow. It had given itself plenty of snow to melt. “Light tomorrow with today!” said Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Freed from home by the snowplow’s good work, I drove around entertaining my camera. Most of the miles were on rural roads — some gravel and some hard surface. The snow gave a soft wind visibility. I saw more bald eagles than cows. How times have changed. You could say I drove the wrong roads, but it’s what I saw.

I saw a few pheasants. The loss of food due to a persistent cover of snow and/or ice is a killer. Waste grain, an important food source, becomes unavailable under a deep accumulation of snow. I read once that 300 kernels of corn per day maintains a pheasant’s weight. Captive pheasants have been able to survive several weeks without food, but they don’t expend energy avoiding predators and staying warm. A healthy wild pheasant could go three days without food. The annual survival rate of ring-necked pheasants is around 50 percent. Hens are more likely to succumb to starvation than roosters as the females enter winter in poor condition due to the high energy demands of nesting and rearing chicks. Strong winds can sometimes be beneficial to pheasants as they might free feeding areas of snow. Another problem for pheasants is the lack of suitable winter cover.

Meeting adjourned

"Kind words are like honey — sweet to the soul and healthy for the body." — Proverbs

Do good.

AL BATT/BLUFF COUNTRY READER Trumpeter swans in a heated discussion not involving the presidential primary.

Seen at The Archway in Kearney, Nebraska. The pioneers had arduous journeys. And I find a flat tire painful.

Seen at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota.

Subarus do not come from the factory with bumper stickers on them. It just seems like it.

March 18, 2020

Al Batt: Long walks and birdwatching to enjoy spring-like weather

Published by rkramer@bluffco... on Mon, 03/16/2020 - 1:36pm

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm a dollar or two ahead, so I put a down payment on a free lunch. I have a weather rock. It'd been infallible. A dry rock means fair weather, a wet rock means it's raining, a dusty rock means it's a drought, a swaying rock means it's windy, a shadow beside the rock means it's sunny, a white rock means it's snowing, and if the rock is underwater it's a flood. It no longer works."

"How can that be?" I said.

"I didn't update it to the newest operating system."

Naturally

The sun's strength was impressive. It enticed chipmunks from their burrows. The trees were encompassed by dark circles at the base of their trunks. When the sun shines, a tree absorbs more heat than the surrounding snow does because of the tree's dark-colored bark. The trunk warms and radiates heat, which melts the snow around the foot of the tree. The same thing happens to telephone poles and fence posts. A red-winged blackbird sang "Look at me!" House finches tried to sing in the spring. These lovely singers, called Hollywood finches when they were sold as caged birds, are year-long residents here and provide needed flashes of color. Some of them undergo short-distance migrations south. Purple finches look similar but are winter guests in southern Minnesota. The red on a male house finch is concentrated on head and breast. The redness of a purple finch male spreads to most of his body.

I strolled about the yard, adding mud to my boots. Long walks and birdwatching are prescribed by doctors to patients in Scotland's Shetland Islands as part of treatments for chronic illnesses. The National Health Service Shetland rolled out what has been called nature prescriptions to help treat a range of afflictions, including high blood pressure, anxiety and depression. I wonder if I could send a bill to my insurance company for my walking shoes? Probably not.

I hope there will be enough good weather.

Q&A

"How big a territory does a pair of hawks have?" The red-tailed hawk is the hawk we commonly see. They usually hold a nesting territory of 1.5-2.0 square miles, but could be larger if food was scarce.

"What is the most recognizable bird in the world?" I'm speculating wildly, but I'd guess it would be the peacock, the male peafowl.

"What good are prairie dogs?" In addition to providing food and shelter for associated species, prairie dog burrows enrich the soil and improve vegetative quality by aerating the soil and allowing water to flow underground. Prairie dog activities increase and diversify the composition of grasses and forbs within their colonies, creating habitat favored by other wildlife. Their long-term use of a grassland appears to promote short, perennial grasses.

"Do robins mate for life?" I read that Aristotle considered earthworms to be the intestines of the earth. Robins consider them lunch. Robins don't mate for life. Pairs generally stay together during a breeding season, which can involve two or three nestings. Sometimes the two return to the same territory and end up together for another year. A robin has about a 50% chance of living through a year.

"Are horned larks a sign of spring?" Maybe, sort of. Somewhat. Horned larks commonly winter in southern Minnesota, with lower populations found shivering farther north. The horned larks that migrated south begin returning north in early February through late March. They can be seen feeding along the graveled edges of rural roads. They fly at a vehicle's approach before landing in a field and disappearing by blending into the ground. Horned larks have a horizontal posture and their song is a high-pitched tinkling. High breeding densities of horned larks are found throughout the heavily cultivated regions of the western and southern parts of the state.

"How much does a chickadee eat each day?" Smaller birds generally need more food relative to their weight than do larger birds. A black-capped chickadee eats 35% of its weight per day. A blue jay eats about 10% and a hummingbird as much as 100% of its weight each day.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I had a neighbor named Claude Bias. Claudie, as most called him, was one of those people who not only didn't try to keep up with the Joneses, he was most comfortable lagging far behind them. Claudie didn't have electricity on his farm. He had countless canines instead. He had so many dogs, I feared Claudie would succumb to a Roverdose. He didn't.

The legend of Gene Dodge

I headed down the Hog Highway — I-90. It's used to haul hogs to Hormel or to ride hogs to Sturgis. I was on my way to watch a basketball game in Sioux Falls. I listened to a tournament game on the radio. The skilled announcer painted effective word pictures. He talked of referees working with the official timekeeper to make sure there wasn't a second too many or too few on the clock. Being an official of any kind at an athletic event can be challenging. Fans yell, coaches yell, and a few gifted players might consider themselves above fouling. They don’t realize that a star is nothing but a mass of compressed gas.

You've heard the reports. A coach said something harsh to a referee. The referee responded, "What did you call me?"

The coach replied, "Guess. You've guessed at everything else."

Another coach asked a ref, "Would you call a technical foul on me if I thought you were the world's worst referee?"

The official replied, "Definitely not. I'm no mind reader."

"Good," said the coach, "because I think you are the worst."

I had a coach who offered his eyeglasses to a ref saying, "Here, you need these more than I do."

Gene Dodge was a fine man, proprietor of Dodge's Hardware, and heavily involved in community affairs. He was a responsible, well-mannered citizen, but got his blood up during high school basketball games. He had one-sided, strident discussions with referees he found flawed. The story goes that to curb his badgering of the arbiters of fouls and other violations, the school made him the official timekeeper, a serious position.

It worked well until a game when Gene couldn't take it anymore. A referee had become an example of all that was wrong with the world. After taking a heap of heckling, the frustrated referee said to Gene, "I thought you were supposed to be the timer?"

Without missing a beat, Gene said, "And I thought you were supposed to be a referee."

Thoughts during a timeout

If you want your home to be more wildlife-friendly, leave a door open.

If your cellphone battery lasts a long time, you probably have a life.

The ancient Egyptians worshiped cats. Anyone who has been online knows we do too.

Good moods don't need reasons.

Putting money into a vending machine demonstrates optimism.

Nature notes

Winter isn’t an easy companion. The citizens of the yard stay busy because they need to eat. Goldfinches generally become more common customers at the feeders during the second half of winter, as if inspired by a coach’s halftime talk. Juncos trilled as if it were the next season. Horned larks fed on roadsides. The darling of the yard and my minimum daily bird requirement, a chickadee, sang of spring.

I stumbled outside into a day exactly my size and found an owl pellet. Owls swallow small prey whole. The gizzard is a thick-walled organ that uses digestive fluids and grit to grind and dissolve the usable tissue from the prey. The types of tissue that can be dissolved by an owl's digestive system include muscle, fat, skin and internal organs. Bones, teeth, feathers, fur and insect shells collect in the gizzard. The bird regurgitates the indigestible materials as pellets.

Meeting adjourned

This was part of the obituary for a friend, Jack Moon of Kiester: "In honor of Jack, kiss your sweetheart, hug your kids, entertain your grandchildren, go for a long ride in the country, practice your faith, read a good book, sing a song, volunteer in your community, tell a joke (over and over again), enjoy nature, be a good neighbor and live every day as the blessing it is."

Do good.

AL BATT/BLUFF COUNTRY READER Shown is a purple finch male.

It’s a pleasant walk to and from the blinds in the early morning at the Rowe Sanctuary in Minden, Nebraska. It’s a great spot to see some of the 600,000 sandhill cranes there.

If I’m leading a birding trip, it leads to good food at places like Burchell's White Hill Farmhouse Inn outside Minden, Nebraska.

These were cranes I saw in Nebraska. I don’t believe they were sandhill cranes.

Speakers from a drive-in movie theater as seen at The Archway in Kearney, Nebraska.

Batt: Go outside: don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone

March 5, 2020

By :

AL BATT

I went outside to turn over a few rocks. Not literally. As a boy, I'd turn over real rocks. It was amazing what I found under them. Now I think of seeing nature's marvels as turning over rocks.

The house sparrows chirped like 76 trombones. They could see spring from where they were perched. I welcomed the change of sounds. Mary Oliver wrote, "In winter all the singing is in the tops of the trees."

Q&A

"Do pheasants and chickens cross?" Different species of pheasants are known to mate, and there are instances of pheasants and chickens reproducing. About 10% of the 10,000 known bird species have mated with another species.

"What is a cactus buck?" A cactus buck is a deer with an unbalanced testosterone level, which results in velvet persisting on antlers and growing throughout the year.

"Do weasels dance?" There was this kid in junior high who was a definite weasel and he put John Travolta to shame on the dance floor. But I'll bet you're asking about a four-footed animal. Weasels perform a war dance when they’ve cornered prey. They bob and hop in a dance possibly meant to intimidate prey. One theory is the weasel’s twisting and darting about distracts, confuses and/or hypnotizes prey. A research study in the U.K. concluded some rabbits had died of fright after being subjected to the dance. Occasionally, a weasel dances without prey as an audience. Perhaps it's practicing.

"How did the myth of hummingbirds migrating on the backs of geese start?" People have hinted that John James Audubon believed that. I didn't know the man, so I can't say if that's true. It's difficult to understand how such a myth started and why it endures. I've never talked to a single waterfowl hunter who found a hummingbird hitchhiking on a goose. If I were a hummingbird, I'd want a free ride, but it wouldn't work as hummingbirds and geese don't migrate at the same time or to the same places. And geese don't serve meals on their flights. There isn't an overwhelming amount of data about the migration of hummingbirds. I suspect it was because people couldn't get their mind around the fact that such a tiny bird was able to fly such long distances on its own power.

"How do scientists weigh a whale?" At a whale-way station, of course. It's a combination of math, experience and estimation (a good guess). They can use boat slings for live or freshly deceased whales. I walked a beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My walk took me near a beached whale that had a death smell strong enough to gag an entire county. I wouldn't be willing to even guess its weight. Drones are used to photograph the length and width of a whale to determine its volume, which is converted to weight. The blue whale is the largest animal ever known. This marine mammal is up to 100 feet long and weighs as much as 200 tons. Its tongue can weigh as much as an elephant and its heart as much as an automobile.

From the mailbag

Bill Brummond of Truman sent a 1924 Fairmont newspaper clipping stating the Weiderhoft Brothers of Truman had grown an ear of corn with 1514 kernels suitable for seed. Bill added all normal ears have an even number of rows.

You are either into ice fishing or ice evasion

By this time of the winter, the bloom is off the rose. I walked like a penguin on the icy road or like Artie Johnson's character Tyrone, the dirty old man on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" TV show. Slipping and falling on the ice was funny when we're little, but not funny when we're big. Ice is nice in lemonade, but not nice under shoes without skate blades. The good news is that I'm saving a lot of money on sunscreen.

Thoughts at a stoplight

When I was a youngster, social media was a note passed in class.

If I think someone is being judgmental, am I being judgmental?

Keep your friends close and your lefse closer.

How often do you have to feel your toothbrush because you couldn't remember if you'd brushed your teeth? If you do that often, I've got bad news for you. You're normal.

I used a host's bathroom to wash my hands before dining. Towels were labeled "His" and "Hers." There were ornamental towels that should have carried the message "Don't touch."

Nature notes

Squirrels find food under the snow by smell and memory. Studies suggest that squirrels bury food in a series of locations that help form a cognitive map of storage locations. A study done at the University of Richmond found squirrels recover about 26 percent of the nuts they bury. Squirrels are likely to bury red oak acorns because they are less likely to decay in the ground. Squirrels generally consume acorns of white oaks immediately because they germinate in the fall and as they germinate, grow a thick taproot that squirrels don't like.

Solitary coyotes travel over large areas, up to 60 square miles. Dispersing young coyotes often travel 50 to 100 miles (with up to 400 miles documented) in search of a vacant territory or a mate. Adults could move 10 miles a night throughout their territory.

Thanks for stopping by

“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep and teach our muscles to work without thinking and I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked, and I dare you to notice. Don’t try to get anything out of it, because you won’t. Don’t try to make use of it, because you can’t. And that’s the point. Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be, whatever you are with whatever you have, and realize that that is enough to be happy. There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” – Charlotte Eriksson

Do good.

PHOTO BY AL BATT American goldfinches are beginning to show more yellow in their feathers.

A blue jay sticking around.photo by Al Batt

Winter weary but hopeful. Photo by Al Batt

AL Batt: How did myth of hummingbirds migrating on backs of geese start?

February 29, 2020

By Al Batt

Albert Lea Tribune

Published 9:00 am Saturday, February 29, 2020

Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I’ll remember your birthday this year because it falls on garbage day. I even went to the Dollar Dump to see if I could find you a birthday present. They had circus peanuts only six years old. I know you don’t like them, so I got you two bags.”

Naturally

I went outside to turn over a few rocks. Not literally. As a boy, I’d turn over real rocks. It was amazing what I found under them. Now I think of seeing nature’s marvels as turning over rocks.

The house sparrows chirped like 76 trombones. They could see spring from where they were perched. I welcomed the change of sounds. Mary Oliver wrote, “In winter all the singing is in the tops of the trees.”

Q&A

“Do pheasants and chickens cross?” Different species of pheasants are known to mate, and there are instances of pheasants and chickens reproducing. About 10% of the 10,000 known bird species have mated with another species.

“What is a cactus buck?” A cactus buck is a deer with an unbalanced testosterone level, which results in velvet persisting on antlers and growing throughout the year.

“Do weasels dance?” There was this kid in junior high who was a definite weasel and he put John Travolta to shame on the dance floor. But I’ll bet you’re asking about a four-footed animal. Weasels perform a war dance when they’ve cornered prey. They bob and hop in a dance possibly meant to intimidate prey. One theory is the weasel’s twisting and darting about distracts, confuses and/or hypnotizes prey. A research study in the U.K. concluded some rabbits had died of fright after being subjected to the dance. Occasionally, a weasel dances without prey as an audience. Perhaps it’s practicing.

“How did the myth of hummingbirds migrating on the backs of geese start?” People have hinted that John James Audubon believed that. I didn’t know the man, so I can’t say if that’s true. It’s difficult to understand how such a myth started and why it endures. I’ve never talked to a single waterfowl hunter who found a hummingbird hitchhiking on a goose. If I were a hummingbird, I’d want a free ride, but it wouldn’t work as hummingbirds and geese don’t migrate at the same time or to the same places. And geese don’t serve meals on their flights. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of data about the migration of hummingbirds. I suspect it was because people couldn’t get their mind around the fact that such a tiny bird was able to fly such long distances on its own power.

“How do scientists weigh a whale?” At a whale-way station, of course. It’s a combination of math, experience and estimation (a good guess). They can use boat slings for live or freshly deceased whales. I walked a beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My walk took me near a beached whale that had a death smell strong enough to gag an entire county. I wouldn’t be willing to even guess its weight. Drones are used to photograph the length and width of a whale to determine its volume, which is converted to weight. The blue whale is the largest animal ever known. This marine mammal is up to 100 feet long and weighs as much as 200 tons. Its tongue can weigh as much as an elephant and its heart as much as an automobile.

From the mailbag

Thanks for stopping by

“Go outside. Don’t tell anyone and don’t bring your phone. Start walking and keep walking until you no longer know the road like the palm of your hand, because we walk the same roads day in and day out, to the bus and back home and we cease to see. We walk in our sleep and teach our muscles to work without thinking and I dare you to walk where you have not yet walked and I dare you to notice. Don’t try to get anything out of it, because you won’t. Don’t try to make use of it, because you can’t. And that’s the point. Just walk, see, sit down if you like. And be. Just be, whatever you are with whatever you have, and realize that that is enough to be happy. There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” — Charlotte Eriksson

“I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.” — Emo Phillips

Do good.

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

American goldfinches are beginning to show more yellow in their feathers. Photo by Al Batt

Batt: February decided it'd be no more mist and ice guy

February 25, 2020

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. All my life I wanted fame and fortune. I've given up on the fortune, but I finally have fame."

"How so?" I say.

"Google Earth has put me on the map."

Naturally

Inspired by The Old Farmer's Almanac saying winter’s back breaks around the middle of February, I trudged outside into the land of Mark Trail. Mark Trail is a newspaper comic strip created by Ed Dodd in 1946, which centers on environmental and ecological themes. The snow was deep as February had decided it'd be no more mist and ice guy. The trees appeared solemn in the storm. When the sun arrived the next day, each tree had a single follower, its shadow.

I love what is near. I treasure the familiar. I don't wonder where my sense of wonder went. I carry it with me. The jays cried "Here, here, here" and nuthatches traveled briskly up and down the trunk of a tree. I found enchantment in a pair of cardinals. Their name comes from the red plumage resembling the robes of the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. The word comes from the Latin cardo, meaning pertaining to a hinge. Things with cardinal qualities are principal, chief or essential.

A reader reported a barred owl perched on a shepherd's hook in the yard and wondered why it was there. Barred owls eat many kinds of small animals, including a winter menu of squirrels, mice, voles, rabbits and birds. They hunt by perching on an elevated perch and using their sharp senses to scan for prey. They'll also perch near water and drop down to catch fish. Barred owls swallow small prey whole and large prey in pieces, typically eating the head first and then the body. They occasionally store prey temporarily in a nest, on a branch, or on a snag to eat later.

I walked past an old Toyota Tercel in town. A tiercel or tercel is the male of any of the raptors used in falconry. It caused me to think of other old cars carrying bird names. Ford Thunderbird, Ford Falcon, AMC Eagle, Buick Skylark, Pontiac Firebird, and Plymouth Roadrunner.

Dorothy Nielsen of Albert Lea spotted seven trumpeter swans in February. Swans nested not far from Dorothy's home. Swans were once hunted for their meat, skins and feathers. By the 1880s, trumpeter swans disappeared from Minnesota and by the 1930s, only 69 trumpeter swans remained in the lower 48 states (in Montana). The DNR Nongame Wildlife Program released 21 swans in 1987 near the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge in Becker County. One of the most beautiful sights I've seen in Alaska, a place filled with beautiful sights, was a pair of swans flying soundlessly through a mist over the Chilkat River. The white plumage in the haze and against the blurred mountains was breathtaking.

Q&A

Vern and Kay Rasmussen of Albert Lea asked where cardinals roost. They prefer thickets and evergreens for roosting. Dense shrubbery and brush, and tangles of grapevines, honeysuckle and cedar are ideal

"Is rhubarb native to Minnesota?" Rhubarb is from Central Asia. Records date back to 2700 BC in China where rhubarb was cultivated for medicinal purposes. Marco Polo found rhubarb on his travels to China in 1271. Pie plant came to America when a Maine gardener obtained seed or rootstock from Europe in 1790-1800. He introduced it to growers. It became popular and by 1822 it was sold in markets.

"What bird migrates the farthest?" The Arctic tern, a 4-ounce bird, follows meandering, round-trip routes between Greenland and Antarctica each year, racking up 44,000 to 59,650 frequent flier miles. This tern lives up to 30 years,

"What owls are seen at the Sax-Zim Bog?" The Bog, three hours north of Minneapolis, 50 minutes from Duluth, and 40 minutes from Hibbing, has a bird list of 240 species. Possibilities are great gray, northern hawk, great horned, snowy, barred, long-eared, short-eared, boreal, and northern saw-whet owl. The species vary from common to uncommon to rare. A barn owl was seen at the Bog this year, where there are 30 to 40 days a year of below zero temperatures.

Things Mark Trail wants you to see

1. Goldfinches have been shopping for yellow feathers.

2. Shrews make small tunnels into the snow beneath bird feeders.

3. Weeping willows are a golden-yellow.

4. Pussy willow catkins are early signs of spring.

5. In German: "Der Spatz in der Hand ist besser als die Taube auf dem Dach." That means, "The sparrow in the hand is better than the dove on the roof."

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I used my pen to fill in all the capital O’s and zeroes on the papers in front of me as I sat at a desk waiting for a phone call from a radio station. I typically limit my filling to those two things. It’s not a compulsion, it’s just a thing I do.

I'd gotten to the hotel in Lincoln somewhere between late night and early morning. Getting to my room, I discovered the TV was on and there was no remote control. I checked the TV and found no on/off switch. I went back downstairs to the desk clerk. He gave me the remote from the lobby TV. It worked on mine.

Commercials with a little football mixed in

A friend of mine has a radio show. Dennis Green, who was the coach of the Minnesota Vikings at the time, was her guest. My friend, not knowing much about sports, asked Green to sign her Homer Hankie, which promoted the Minnesota Twins. He did.

A guy asked how I liked the Super Bowl. He bushwhacked me because he didn't say anything about the weather first. Common etiquette says you should never ask a man a question until you've mentioned the weather. I was stumped for an answer and said, "I took the good and left the rest."

I didn't watch the Super Bowl. I loved playing football but watching can be a challenge for me – especially an NFL game. The Super Bowl runs four hours with 15 minutes of action.

I realize people watch the Super Bowl for reasons other than football. There are parties, betting, music and ads. I saw some of the commercials. Some were funny. I like the movie "Groundhog Day," so I enjoyed the commercial featuring it. Some ads encouraged me to make poor food decisions and others urged me to buy a new vehicle to make friends, family and strangers envious. I'll try to eat healthy while driving a car no one notices.

I enjoy reading George Will who wrote, "Football combines two of the worst things about American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings."

I have people I know and people I love who are athletes. None of them are in the NFL, but I'll watch them instead.

There are two sides to every argument and thousands are online

I used to stop at a Minneapolis cafe and order pancakes. They had a good rating from the Batter Business Bureau, but I came to watch a gifted guy flip the pancakes. I read a newspaper while eating.

A relative gets his news from social media. I tried that one day and now believe in 29 conspiracy theories and am certain the earth is flat. I learned what kind of doughnut I'd be and received more bad advice than a dozen ex-brothers-in-law could give. I discovered there is regular crazy and then there is online crazy. The internet gave my brain a painful twist. There were many sick and tired people commenting on the news. That noted philosopher, Will Ferrell said, "Sleep is so cute when it tries to compete with the internet."

Bill Nye the Science Guy said, "The information you get from social media is not a substitute for academic discipline at all." Everybody knows that. Or do we?

Nature notes

There are winter days when it seems as if everything I'm even remotely interested in had been canceled due to weather. That’s when nature and its great cavalry of things come to the rescue. I watched rabbits dancing by the light of the moon. Red osier dogwood and willows showed color as if they'd been tanning.

February is National Bird Feeding Month. Feeders attract many species of birds, each an unexcelled beauty. American tree sparrows fed under the feeders. Poorly named, this sparrow nests on or near the ground. Woodpeckers drummed on resonant wood, making Pinocchio nervous.

Red squirrels moved through shallow tunnels in the deep snow. Traffic backed up. One squirrel peeked out of a hole, checking for those on its enemies’ list, when another squirrel goosed it from behind. The lead squirrel shot from the subway as if it were a miniature rocket launched from Cape Canaveral.

Thanks for stopping by

"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child." – Marie Curie

"Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?" — Kahlil Gibran

Do good.

PHOTO BY AL BATT The bill of the starling is beginning to turn yellow – a sign of lengthening days.

It was a pleasant pheasant day. Photo by Al Batt

Al Batt: The different owls that can be found at Sax-Zim Bog in Minnesota

February 23, 2020

Al Batt: The different owls that can be found at Sax-Zim Bog in Minnesota

By Al Batt

Published 9:00 am Saturday, February 22, 2020

Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. All my life I wanted fame and fortune. I’ve given up on the fortune, but I finally have fame.”

“How so?” I say.

“Google Earth has put me on the map.”

Naturally

Inspired by the “Old Farmer’s Almanac” saying winter’s back breaks around the middle of February, I trudged outside into the land of “Mark Trail.”

“Mark Trail” is a newspaper comic strip created by Ed Dodd in 1946, which centers on environmental and ecological themes. The snow was deep as February had decided it’d be no more mist and ice guy. The trees appeared solemn in the storm. When the sun arrived the next day, each tree had a single follower, its shadow.

I love what is near. I treasure the familiar. I don’t wonder where my sense of wonder went. I carry it with me. The jays cried “Here, here, here” and nuthatches traveled briskly up and down the trunk of a tree. I found enchantment in a pair of cardinals. Their name comes from the red plumage resembling the robes of the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. The word comes from the Latin cardo, meaning pertaining to a hinge. Things with cardinal qualities are principal, chief or essential.

A reader reported a barred owl perched on a shepherd’s hook in the yard and wondered why it was there. Barred owls eat many kinds of small animals, including a winter menu of squirrels, mice, voles, rabbits and birds. They hunt by perching on an elevated perch and using their sharp senses to scan for prey. They’ll also perch near water and drop down to catch fish. Barred owls swallow small prey whole and large prey in pieces, typically eating the head first and then the body. They occasionally store prey temporarily in a nest, on a branch, or on a snag to eat later.

Dorothy Nielsen of Albert Lea spotted seven trumpeter swans in February. Swans nested not far from Dorothy’s home. Swans were once hunted for their meat, skins and feathers. By the 1880s, trumpeter swans disappeared from Minnesota and by the 1930s, only 69 trumpeter swans remained in the lower 48 states — in Montana. The DNR Nongame Wildlife Program released 21 swans in 1987 near the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge in Becker County. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen in Alaska, a place filled with beautiful sights, was a pair of swans flying soundlessly through a mist over the Chilkat River. The white plumage in the haze and against the blurred mountains was breathtaking.

Q&A

“Is rhubarb native to Minnesota?” Rhubarb is from Central Asia. Records date back to 2700 BC in China where rhubarb was cultivated for medicinal purposes. Marco Polo found rhubarb on his travels to China in 1271. Pie plant came to America when a Maine gardener obtained seed or rootstock from Europe in 1790-1800. He introduced it to growers. It became popular and by 1822 it was sold in markets.

“What bird migrates the farthest?” The Arctic tern, a 4-ounce bird, follows meandering, round-trip routes between Greenland and Antarctica each year, racking up 44,000 to 59,650 frequent flier miles. This tern lives up to 30 years.

“What owls are seen at the Sax-Zim Bog?” The Bog, three hours north of Minneapolis, 50 minutes from Duluth, and 40 minutes from Hibbing, has a bird list of 240 species. Possibilities are great gray, northern hawk, great horned, snowy, barred, long-eared, short-eared, boreal, and northern saw-whet owl. The species vary from common to uncommon to rare. A barn owl was seen at the Bog this year, where there are 30 to 40 days a year of below zero temperatures.

Things ‘Mark Trail’ wants you to see:

1. Goldfinches have been shopping for yellow feathers.

2. Shrews make small tunnels into the snow beneath bird feeders.

3. Weeping willows are a golden-yellow.

4. Pussy willow catkins are early signs of spring.

5. In German: “Der Spatz in der Hand ist besser als die Taube auf dem Dach.” That means, “The sparrow in the hand is better than the dove on the roof.”

Thanks for stopping by

“All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child.” — Marie Curie

“Hate is a dead thing. Who of you would be a tomb?” — Kahlil Gibran

Do good.

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. Email him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

The bill of the starling is turning yellow — a sign of lengthening days. – Al Batt/Albert Lea Tribune

A Black Crowned Crane leaving the beauty shop.

February 19, 2020

Al Batt: ‘Critter-sizing’ on a quiet afternoon

February 17, 2020

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. I'm still getting all my table utensils at Wendy's. The whole political scene thing is something. I haven't seen such a ruckus since Hiram sat on the gopher trap down at the hardware store. I never talk politics with friends because most of them are morons. I'm thinking of taking up running, but I pulled a hamstring just thinking about it. I haven't done that since I ran cross-country in high school. I should have started with a smaller country."

Nature by the yard

It was calm and quiet. There was no eerie groaning caused by the rubbing of one tree or branch against another in winter's bluster. I might have been able to hear a squirrel breathing had I listened hard enough. Squirrels carried on their ancient business. I'm not prone to criticizing. I'm into critter-sizing. I have three species of tree squirrels in the yard – red, fox and gray. The red is the smallest and the fox the largest. As you have already deduced, the gray squirrel is the middleweight entry of the three.

The quiet was disrupted by the sound of a murder of crows feeding on a raccoon carcass. It wasn't death most fowl. It was death by Kia. Folktale says that crows gather to decide the capital fate of another crow. Crows are scavengers, but the term "murder of crows" reflects a time when collective nouns of animals had colorful and poetic names.

A deer or white-footed mouse ran across the snow. I'm surprised it wasn't in someone's house. Their presence is pervasive. They become squatters to find shelter from the elements.

I shoveled snow and considered how parts of Minnesota are blessed or cursed by more or less snow. According to Current Results, which uses weather data collected by the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, Albert Lea receives 37.8 inches of snow each year, Mankato 38.6, Brainerd 46.8, Rochester 51.9, Minneapolis 54, International Falls 71, and Duluth 86.1 inches of annual snowfall.

Indoors, while searching for something else, I came across some seed packets. I wondered if the seeds were still viable. Seed viability varies depending on the plant and how they were stored. They should be stored in well-sealed, watertight containers in cool (50 degrees), dark locations. I could conduct a ragdoll test. The ragdoll is a rolled tube of a moistened paper towel containing the seeds to be checked for germination, placed in a plastic bag, and stored in a warm place for several days. I'd assess the number of seeds germinating over the next few days. If the rate was less than 75 percent, I'd be better off buying new seeds. If the rate was between 75-90 percent, I'd use them but plant more seeds per planting.

Q&A

"How good is a turkey's eyesight?" Wild turkeys have excellent vision during daylight hours. Turkeys see color, have a wide field of vision, and generally, their eyesight is about three times better than ours. You might not see them, but they see you.

"How many kernels on an ear of corn?" The number of kernels per ear of field corn can vary from 500 to 1,200. A typical ear has about 800 kernels. Much of the field corn plants are bred to develop just one large ear. This approach usually yields better production. A bushel of shelled corn weighs 56 pounds.

"Why do dogs turn in circles before lying down?" Robert Benchley observed: "A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down." I've been told that it's an act of self-preservation in that a dog may innately know it needs to position itself to check for threats and to ward off possible attacks. Others have told me wolves sleep with their noses to the wind so they could detect a threatening scent and circle to determine wind direction. Still others think circling is done to roust vermin or to discover any stones or prickly vegetation that might prove uncomfortable. I think the theory that is most credible is dogs are creating a nest for themselves by trampling down grass or perceived grass before settling down for a nap.

Keep an eye and an ear out for

1. Starling bills are dark in winter but begin to turn yellow as the breeding season approaches. They are changing now.

2. House finches singing their exuberant, tumbling song.

3. Cardinals whistling "what-cheer" in honor of a town in Iowa.

4. Wild turkeys gobbling.

5. Red-tailed hawks perching close to one another. This is a sign of Valentine's Day.

Thanks for stopping by

“The point of life is to help others through it” – Peter Matthiessen, "In Paradise"

"The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work." – Robert Frost

Do good.

PHOTO BY AL BATT Why the red-bellied woodpecker is called a red-bellied woodpecker.

The snow shovel was hoping for a day off.

Al Batt: Widdershins is my default direction

February 11, 2020

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. I'm already suffering from election fatigue. I've stopped watching reality TV shows. Who needs more reality?"

"Philip K. Dick said, 'Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.'" I add.

"Boy, you slobbered a bibful there. I had a tough day yesterday. I'd gotten the feeling that nobody loved me and the whole world hated me. Then I realized that couldn't be true. There are many people who don't even know me."

Naturally

White-tailed deer change from grazers to browsers in winter.

There were pheasants under the feeders in my yard. It’s a place where I can’t imagine them wanting to be. I saw a hen and a rooster walking through the snow together. It warmed me on a cold day.

Red foxes stay warm with their thick winter coats. An adult rarely retreats to a den in winter, but curls into a ball in the open, using its bushy tail to wrap around its nose and footpads instead. I've looked through spotting scopes and seen foxes nearly blanketed in snow.

The river was open but wrinkled in the wind. I watched a hawk perched in a cottonwood. The hawk had quite a slice and it wasn't anywhere near a golf course. In falconry, a slice is when a hawk propels its droppings out and away from a nest or perch. A bigger bird, like a bald eagle, can add serious velocity to that action. Falconers refer to hawk droppings as mutes. For some reason, I thought of a line from a book I'd read, “The hawk was everything I wanted to be: solitary, self-possessed, free from grief, and numb to the hurts of human life.” I'm guessing Helen Macdonald wasn't thinking about slicing when she wrote that part of her delightful book, "H is for Hawk."

I squinted to see the rabbit on the moon. The man on the moon is a myth. The moon looked yellow, silver or white, but was likely gray in color.

Q&A

"Do carpenter ants eat wood?" No. Termites do. Carpenter ants nest in weakened wood.

"What is the difference between a bird's song and its call?" Songs and calls are the cellphones of the avian world. A bird's song is generally related to mating. Birds may sing to attract mates, claim territory or for pair-bonding. Songs are often sung repeatedly. A call is more flexible in usage. Many calls are short notes or phrases that birds use to convey alarm, provide identification or maintain contact. The dapper black-capped chickadee's "chick-a-dee-dee" call can be used to communicate danger, with research suggesting the number of dee notes increase in proportion to the perceived threat. A chickadee is as good a ventriloquist as Jeff Dunham, so it could be hard to place when it vocalizes without moving its lips.

"Squirrels aggravate me. I wish I could appreciate them more." Your wish is granted, and you still have two wishes remaining. Here are five reasons to treasure squirrels: They eat some insects, they plant trees, they are accomplished acrobats, they run down trees headfirst, and they speak highly of you.

"I like my window feeder, but how do I get the suction cups to stick?" Wash the window, wash the feeder, and place the suction cups in hot water for a few minutes to make the cups pliable. After you've dried the suction cups, apply a little vegetable oil on each cup and then wipe lightly before applying the feeder to a window that has been warmed by the sun or a hair dryer. Don't fill the feeder until you're sure it's securely held in place.

"Do polar bears hibernate?" They definitely don't in Minnesota. The farthest south that polar bears live all year is James Bay, Canada. In winter, polar bears move as far south as Newfoundland and the northern Bering Sea. Pregnant females dig a den in the snow, give birth, and emerge three months later. Females can go up to eight months without eating, but they don’t hibernate in the strictest sense. Adult males and non-pregnant females don’t hibernate or go into torpor.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

I suppose that put you in a foul mood?

Not until I walked face-first into that wall.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: Far from home, I pulled into a convenience store for fuel. The pump had a TV showing the news. I appreciate a break from the world's problems and loud commercials while pumping gas, so I pushed the mute button repeatedly, but the talking heads refused to stifle. I got my fill of the news long before my car's tank was filled with gas. Not much later, I wiped road salt off my bunion Buicks – my shoes. I had the time to do that because my hotel room wasn't ready yet because it wasn't my room yet. If it had been my room, I'd have had it ready for me.

The delay caused me to dig out a pen and a receipt. If I don't have a notebook, I write things on newspapers, napkins, bookmarks, receipts, and anything else I can scribble upon. I'm a chronic note taker. I write things down. I'm not about to spend my time trying to remember things. I've got better things to do. Things like trying to remember what I wrote on and where I put it.

The sports report

There were 1,100 people at the basketball game. The $5 entrance fee allowed each to become the world's greatest referee.

I walked at halftime, trying hard to stay out of the way of those headed to the concession stand for grub. I aim to walk counterclockwise unless signage says otherwise. Widdershins is my default direction. Widdershins means in a contrary or counterclockwise direction. I try to put on a certain number of steps every day. That number is both too many and not enough. Some days it's more of a challenge than on others. When I was in grade school, I could put on 10,000 steps per day just by walking to the front of the classroom to spit forbidden gum into the wastebasket.

I heard a sports guy on the radio report a heart-wrenching injury during an athletic endeavor. His sidekick said he saw the game and agreed it was heart-wrenching. I shuddered at the thought of a player's ticker being wrenched. It turned out that a knee had been damaged. I shuddered again. I'm sure heart-wrenching has found its way into some dictionaries, but the image of someone using a crescent wrench on a heart is disturbing. Gut-wrenching might be what they meant. Guts do twist, both literally and figuratively. Perhaps they were aiming for heart-rending, which means causing great sadness or distress.

In local news

A 100-year-old man sets off alarm when he tries to leave the historical museum.

Local cheese store owner believes in the Loch Ness Muenster.

Store welcomes its one-millionth annoyed customer.

Local man to marry Rose Thorn after finding a Rose among the Thorns.

Man sells his house for more than his asking price. He was ecstatic, but his landlord was furious.

Nature notes

“Is wild asparagus a real thing?” In the 1960s, Euell Gibbons wrote a book about eating wild edibles titled, "Stalking the Wild Asparagus." I enjoy asparagus. One of my father’s favorite dishes was creamed asparagus on toast. I enjoy asparagus pickles. Our asparagus patch was treated with reverence. It seemed as if everyone grew asparagus. The wild plant we commonly see along roadsides is the same species as tame asparagus – Asparagus officinalis. Wild asparagus produces without human assistance or manipulation. Asparagus plants are insect pollinated and its seeds are spread by birds, allowing domesticated crops to escape into the wild.

“What is Smokey the Bear’s middle name?” The.

“What causes deer to drop their antlers?” Diminishing daylight and falling hormones after the breeding season initiate the antler-weakening process. Testosterone controls the antler cycle, but production of testosterone and the annual antler cycle is ultimately controlled by photoperiod. Large-antlered older bucks typically shed their antlers earlier than young bucks with small-antlers. Weakened bucks may shed earlier than those in better physical condition. Genetics has some effect on the time of shedding.

Meeting adjourned

"There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." — Edith Wharton.

The black-capped chickadee’s song is a whistled “fee-bee.”

Batt: Scoping out birds in the winter months

February 3, 2020

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. I've come to the realization that the only way I'm ever going to get my name in the lights is by changing it to ‘Exit.’ It was so cold that I cracked a tooth. Frozen coffee on-a-stick was a bad idea. I put my sweatshirt on backwards this morning, and I've spent all day going where I'd just been. I've started calling my bathroom the gym. That way I can tell my doctor that I go to the gym every day. I just learned that I'm colorblind. That diagnosis came right out of the yellow."

Naturally

I wanted to go for a walk, but I didn't want to bother the rooster and hen pheasants foraging under the feeders. They were pleasant pheasants. When they finished breakfast, I became an errant exerciser. Gretel Ehrlich said, "Walking is also an ambulation of mind."

I heard a red-bellied woodpecker call. It sounded peeved. And why not? It had to deal with winter. A chickadee sounded off, it's "fee-bee" song triggered by hormones. A downy woodpecker drummed along, hoping to establish a territory. The days grow longer at both ends. That should excite everyone.

People have reported high numbers of blue jays. There was a good mast crop this year in most places. That means there were plenty of acorns for eating and caching. Jays and crows know far more than they let on. A reader from Mora has a varied thrush in the backyard and a column customer in Mankato is being visited by a Carolina wren.

I saw a fox squirrel clutching an ear of corn on a “No Passing” sign. A nice find for the squirrel, which jumped down and ran across the snow. Then it suddenly disappeared into the deep snow like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff.

I peered through my binoculars at a perched bald eagle. It was a young bird. For some reason, I focused on its bill. It was dark. It was a bi-colored beak that immature bald eagles have. This beak is a dark, blue-black and lighter in color nearer the eye. As juveniles mature, the beak color gets lighter from the base outward, gradually becoming the light yellow of an adult. Northern eagles are generally larger than their southern brethren. There’s a biological rule of thumb called Bergmann’s Rule which states that, within a species, individuals living in colder climates have larger body sizes than those in warmer climates. Bergmann found large animals have a lower surface-area-to-volume ratio, so they lose heat more slowly in cold climates. Small animals have a higher surface-to-volume ratio and cool off faster when it’s hot.

From the mailbag

Brian Schofield of Fairmont wrote, "I have seen oddities that nature presents to us: a whitetail doe with antlers, a two-headed painted turtle, but what I have been seeing the last week is something I haven't even heard about before: a ringneck pheasant hen with wattles. For the past week this hen has been haunting our bird and squirrel feeders gleaning scraps that have fallen to the ground. This little hen has provided us hours of entertainment and we have supplemented her foraging with shelled corn to assist her survival through the winter."

I've not seen a hen like that, Brian, but some older females or those with damaged ovaries may assume rooster-like characteristics. I found this in The Condor from 1961: "Intersexes (gynandromorphs) were birds with supposed abnormal chromosomal complements which had mixed male and female feathers, and sex-inverts were birds undergoing change from one sex to the other — usually female to male."

Q&A

"If birds don't like milo, why is it in seed mixes?" Milo (sorghum) is used in livestock feed, ethanol production and as feed for birds. Generally, birds don't eat it. According to the trade group Wild Bird Feeding Industry, economy mixed seed mixes, which usually include milo, account for a third of the market. Single-seed products, such as sunflower seeds, make up 26 percent. If birds refuse to eat it and it's nothing more than wasteful filler, why milo? Two words. It's cheap.

"Why don't I ever see an owl in a tree?" It's because they are good at hiding. They excel at blending in and remaining motionless. I typically see them after outraged crows have found them.

"Why were my bird feeders quiet for part of the winter?" The winter was well-behaved for a time. Birds forage elsewhere when winter weather is mild with little snow or ice covering natural foods. Birds need fewer calories during warmer weather to maintain body temperatures.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

I went to a movie yesterday that made me cry.

A really sad film, eh?

No, really high-priced popcorn.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I donned warm clothes and comfortable shoes, and I went walking on a nice day for winter. I returned to the house with thoughts of taking a shower before hitting the road. The shower held a new bar of soap with its brand name etched deep into its flesh. Fresh out of the wrapper and mighty nice.

A friend experienced being an owner of cows calving in January during a storm. It wasn't epic, but it was a storm, nonetheless. He ventured out into the great outdoors to be of help where he could. There was a problem and he needed to carry a calf to the warmth and safety of a barn. The world holds countless people who have never had that experience. I'm not one of those. I recall similar happenings from my cattle-filled past with a smile and a shudder. I now limit my calving adventures to watching glaciers perform in Alaska.

My friend didn't need to summon a veterinarian but told me a story about a guy we both used to know, named Irving. Irving had a sick cow. He called the veterinarian who came to the farm and treated the cow. The cow died. Not long after that, Irving received the vet's bill in the mail. Irving paid it, but sent a note along with his check reading, "If I call you again, don't come."

Nature notes

I drove down the highway, looking at the road and glancing at raptors. Red-tailed hawks patrolled highway margins. When snow covers much raptor hunting grounds, highways provide prime places to pursue prey like voles. At the edge of town there was a highway turkey. A wild turkey standing nonchalantly in the middle of the road as cars went by on both sides of the big bird. It was obviously a turkey with street smarts.

This is a list of athletic teams nicknamed for plants or parts of plants but is by no means complete. The one I'm most familiar with is the Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms. Others include: Ohio State Buckeyes, Toronto Maple Leafs, Moorhead Spuds, Indiana State Sycamores, The Roses (an English rugby team), Scottsdale Community College Fighting Artichokes, Delta State Fighting Okra, and the Cedar Rapids Kernels (minor league baseball team). Another minor league baseball squad was the Visalia Oaks, which changed their nickname to Rawhide.

Thanks for stopping by

"If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments." – Earl Wilson

Do good.

Blame the groundhog, woodchuck or whistle-pig for the weather

February 2, 2020

The clean-up crew aT the bird feeders.

January 26, 2020

Batt: Reflecting during a winter snowstorm

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. I can't tell if it's late last night or early tomorrow morning. In my dream, I wanted to become a glassblower, but I blew my chance and became a snowplow driver in the freezer of a supermarket instead. Despite the troubled sleep, I was ready for the recent storm of the century when it hit. I'd fashioned a crude ice scraper out of a spear."

Naturally

It was as if I were walking in a snow globe. The snow fell all friendly and benign. The days before were windy and had given the yard its first snowbank of the year – in front of the garage. I mumbled "amain." Herman Melville in "Moby Dick," wrote, “The wind now rising amain, he in vain strove.” Emerson wrote, "The soul strives amain to live and work." Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word as: With all one’s strength, at full speed or with great haste. With that as inspiration, I recalled another word from the cobwebs of my mind and walked widdershins, meaning in a counterclockwise direction.

A bald eagle flew over the yard just as the sun was in the right position to create a shadow flapping across the snow. Talk about casting a giant shadow.

The sun became scarce and a true winter storm hit. It brought more snow. Snowbanks became abundant. The Old Farmer's Almanac said this about that. "Now is the time of the deep snows and thrice blessed is the neighbor who will plow you out."

A skunk had awakened long enough to make a few trips in and out of a culvert, its trail showing it had plowed snow in the process. A group of skunks is a surfeit. I prefer scurry as a collective noun for squirrels, although I call them a surfeit when there are too many.

I watched a snowplow go by. It's always a welcome addition to winter.

Q & A

"When do great horned owls nest?" In Minnesota, courtship and territory formation begin in December and early January with eggs laid at the end of January through February. The owls have thick feathers, even their legs and feet are feathered, to handle the cold. The young hatch with fluffy down to keep them warm. The owls are able to incubate eggs successfully at -27 degrees and eggs have been recorded to withstand a mother's absence for 20 minutes at -13°. The incubation period is 30-37 days and the nestling period lasts about 42 days. Early nesting might give the young time to learn hunting skills before the next winter.

"Why is a species of tree named the hackberry?" It's an unfortunate name for a tree. It makes it sound as if the tree is about to cough up a ball of berries or has done some criminal things to your computer. Colonists called this canopy tree a hagberry, probably because they found it similar to the wild cherry species by that name in Scotland. Eventually the name morphed into hackberry. Its bark resembles warts on young trees and changes into deeply furrowed, corky ridges on mature trees. Witches’ broom, a dense cluster of branches resembling a broom or bird’s nest growing from a single point, is a disfiguring disease common on hackberry trees. These deformities are typically caused by mites or powdery mildew. Hackberry produces small, pea-sized berries that change from light orange to dark purple when ripe in the fall. Birds feed on the fruits both on the tree and on the ground. Some humans eat them too.

"Have wild turkeys always been here?" Do you mean in your house? If so, I'd say "no." If you refer to Minnesota, my answer is a definite "maybe." Prior to European settlement, wild turkeys were found only in southeastern Minnesota along the Iowa border. Those turkeys were eliminated by hunting and habitat loss.

"Are all spiders poisonous?" I'm not certain that any of them are poisonous, but most spiders are venomous. Poisonous generally refers to something you eat, drink, or is taken into the body in other ways. Mushrooms might be poisonous, but spiders or snakes aren't. The venom found in the majority of spiders isn't strong enough to injure a human, but I wouldn't recommend eating any of them.

"Is the cedar tree really a cedar?" The eastern redcedar is a juniper and is sometimes called a pencil-cedar because, prior to 1940, pencils were made almost entirely from cedar. Pencils are now made from other woods or synthetic materials. The tree's berries are an important food source for birds and mammals.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

I wish I knew then what I know now.

What did you know then?

Nothing.

Then your wish has come true.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I stopped at the clinic for a little-get together. The little get-together was helping put a jigsaw puzzle together. I helped by staying out of the light and eating a Rice Krispie treat. I don't have the desire to slap a jigsaw puzzle together, but I admire those who have the patience to do so. The last jigsaw puzzle I attempted to piece together was a used one missing a couple of pieces. It left me feeling unfulfilled.

The two ladies attempting to conquer the puzzle found it a challenge. "Idiot!" one of them proclaimed. I'd been found out. It turned out she wasn't talking to me. She was being hard on herself for trying to punch a puzzle piece into a place where it didn't fit. I offered to find her a scissors. Not just any scissors, but the good scissors. I might have even run with the scissors as we were already at the clinic.

I'm an idiot. I believe my father thought idiots were drivers who passed him and morons were those who tailgated him. "What's that idiot (moron) doing?" he'd say. I suppose I could be a moron. Idiot or moron, there's nothing I can do about it. My dues are paid for life. I once tried writing a paper for school on an Etch A Sketch.

Despite those shortcomings, I teach classes on writing. With a couple of minutes left before one class ended, I asked if anyone had a friendly riddle or knock-knock joke to end the day with a few chortles. A young woman raised her hand. "Why did the chicken cross the road?" she asked.

I gave the standard answer that it did so to get to the other side. She shook her head. I offered, "To show the opossum it could be done." That, too, was wrong. I surrendered.

"To get to the idiot's house," she said, a bit smugly I thought. Then she added, "Knock, knock."

"Who's there?" I responded cleverly. I'd answered that door before.

The young woman smiled before saying, "The chicken."

The cafe chronicles

The day, as each day does, offered a plot twist. The slurping was deafening. Everyone was eating the please-don't-let-me-get-sick soup. The chicken noodle soup could have been served in a long trough. Apparently, the heads of chickens are good for our immune systems.

Thoughts while watching sundogs

I remember when I learned how to count. It was odd even then.

The only thing some people will do right away is to procrastinate.

Do lawyers believe in free will?

It's OK to talk to yourself when you need expert advice.

Who was it that thought we wanted TV commercials featuring someone yelling at us?

Nature notes

“I watched a bald eagle fly over ducks on a lake. Some ducks flew and some didn’t. How does a duck decide what to do?” Its choice of predator evasion tactics might be decided by what kind of duck it is. A dabbling duck (puddle duck) is a type of duck that feeds primarily along the surface of the water or by tipping headfirst into the water to graze on aquatic plants, vegetation, insects, and larvae. These ducks are infrequent divers and are more likely to fly to escape danger. Diving ducks propel themselves underwater with large feet attached to short legs situated far back on the body. When threatened by an aerial predator, they tend to dive to safety. A mallard is a common example of a dabbler and mergansers are divers.

“Can a large insect fly farther than a smaller insect?” I don’t know. I do know the fragile looking monarch butterfly can travel 2,500 miles during its migration. You’d think that would win a gold medal, but it doesn’t. The Pantala flavescens dragonfly, about 1.5 inches long, flies across continents and oceans from India to Africa, about 4,400 miles. According to Smithsonian, dragonflies are known to travel at a speed of 35 miles an hour. Hawk moths, clocked at a speed of 33.7 miles an hour, come in as the second fastest. I’ve read there is a horsefly that is faster, but not according to Smithsonian. I'm sorry I was unable to provide a proper answer.

Meeting adjourned

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other." — Ephesians

Thanks for stopping by

"Nature poets can't walk across the backyard without tripping over an epiphany." — Christian Wiman

"There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.” ― Charlotte Eriksson

Do good.

PHOTO BY AL BATT This young deer is often caught raiding the bird feeders.

I’m pleased to see my photo of bald eagles perched on this cover

January 24, 2020

I’m pleased to see my photos of bald eagles perched upon this cover..

Population 307

January 20, 2020

Batt: Birdwatching helps cure winter blues

By :

AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. I've been watching some high school basketball games. I remember when the fans used to chant for me to enter the game."

"I recall that. Those fans were rooting for the other team. How is your class at the college going?" I say.

"I quit."

"Quit? Why?" I ask.

"Because you're never too old to stop learning."

Nature by the yard

It was snowing. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face – at least until I took it out of my pocket. I thought of albedo. No, that isn't the name of an infamous mobster. The reflection of sunlight from the Earth's surface is an important control on the temperature. The percentage of sunlight reflected from a surface is called its albedo. Generally, the greater the albedo, the cooler the surface because less sunlight is absorbed. Snow acts as a reflective blanket. It reflects the sun's heat, cooling the overlying air, and it insulates the ground in winter, preventing some upper soil layers from freezing solid and protecting underlying vegetation from damage by severe frost. Snow reflects more of the sun's energy because it's white and more reflective than the darker ground.

There was a cawcus of crows sorting through the snow. There was likely carrion there or perhaps the crows we're building a snowbird. Earlier, the crows and blue jays had been hassling a sharp-shinned hawk in the yard. That accipiter had taken a junco.

I've been seeing more coyotes and their accompanying tracks. The mating season for coyotes begins in January and lasts through February. After breeding, females search for dens where five to seven pups are born in April. I'd seen a coyote, with tail curved to its body, running down the road not far from my mailbox.

Canada geese flew overhead. There was a lot of honking. Road rage in the air?

Q&A

"What is a group of squirrels called?" A scurry. When there numbers are high, I call them a surfeit. An interesting collective noun. Surfeit is a word meaning an overindulgence, and an excessive or immoderate amount.

"If I were to give a popsicle to a beaver, would it eat only the stick?" Yes, unless it's a red popsicle. They're quite tasty.

"Do daddy longlegs have the world’s most powerful venom?" No. The living thing we most often call a daddy longlegs is an arachnid, but it's not a spider. It's a harvestmen and it has no venom of any kind. Some people call the long-legged crane flies daddy longlegs. They are harmless insects that have the appearance of large mosquitoes. They have no venom at all.

"How fast can a hunting peregrine fly?" According to PLOS Computational Biology, the peregrine falcon is capable of snatching prey from the air at speeds of 186 to 223 mph. This stoop gives the falcons an element of surprise and allows them to outmaneuver their prey. The falcons are more maneuverable at higher speeds because they are able to generate more turning force.

"Are the birds at my feeders this winter the same ones that were there last year?" There is a definite possibility of that being the case. Most songbirds aren't typically long-lived, but are creatures of habit just as we are. Bird banding studies have shown that many of our winter birds return to the same wintering location yearly. Keep the feeders filled and there is a good chance the birds will be loyal customers.

"We dissected owl pellets in school. Do any birds other than owls regurgitate pellets?" A pellet is the mass of undigested parts of food that a bird regurgitates. The contents, dependent on diet, could include bones, fur, feathers, the exoskeletons of insects, plant matter, bills, claws and teeth. In falconry, the pellet is called a casting. In addition to owls, there are many other birds that produce pellets including gulls, herons, hawks, songbirds and many species of shorebirds.

"How big do Minnesota wild turkeys get?" The heaviest documented bird tipped the scales at just over 30 pounds. The wingspan of a turkey can be a bit over 4 feet.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

I'm trying to eat healthy this year.

Good for you.

Yes, I have a little lettuce on every double cheeseburger.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: Life is a road. Each day is a mile marker and a good reminder to slow down. I was on a driving tour of the great rest areas of America. I brought along enough foodstuffs from home that my car was a touring cafe. Even so, I asked about an eatery in a small-town gas station. One man recommended a restaurant, but another said their knives were more tender than their steaks.

I parked my car in a downtown hotel parking ramp in Chicago. Actually, I didn't park it. A valet did that. It cost more to park the car than it did to drive it.

An Austin man told me had two cats. He used masking tape to make a square on the floor. His cats sat in that taped square as if it were that dreaded cat trap, a cardboard box.

I stopped in a coffee shop in Fayette, Iowa, where I enjoyed an Iowa sweet corn cookie. It was a sugar cookie as full of sweet corn as an Iowa summer.

I visited with a fellow in Montana who told me that he was from a town with a population of two. I've been to that kind of place. If you've ever taken a wrong turn off the freeway and lost your cell service, you might have been too. "I lied," he said. "Make that a population of one. I'm out of town."

The cafe chronicles

They were men who go anywhere and talk to whoever is there. One of them told me about a champion eater. I ate a side salad while considering Joey Chestnut who had eaten 74 Nathan's hot dogs, buns and all, in 10 minutes to win an eating contest. He consumed 22,200 calories in the process. That's fast eating. He must wear starting blocks on his elbows.

A checks mix

I'd planned on watching a granddaughter play basketball on TV, which was an iPad on my desk. I had paperwork to do and checks to write. I thought it would be easy to do that during commercial breaks and at halftime. It wasn't. My mind stayed with the game and was intent on avoiding work. I messed up one check and I had only two checks to do. I've made a note to myself to never try to multitask with those two tasks again.

Those exciting days of yesteryear

Uncle Bill asked me, "Do you want a haircut, or do you want them all cut?"

I didn't need to reply. Uncle Bill always had more to say. Two great talkers can't walk far together.

Mom couldn't avoid kicking the hornet's nest. She told Uncle Bill, "I want you to notice that Allen had two ears when I brought him in."

Nature notes

I tell myself that winter is on my side, but it can be ornery. At least I don’t have to shovel the cold. Here at my field station in January, I turn to the birds as sunflowers turn to the sun. I try to notice things. It’s an expression of life and of hope. The crashing temperatures painted frost patterns resembling ghostly plants on the window glass.

I watched a handsome red-bellied woodpecker fly to a feeder. It was a male with a red crown and nape. The female has the red nape but lacks the red crown. I saw a pair of critically acclaimed birds – cardinals. Each time I take a good look at a bird, I’m reminded why I’m a card-carrying birder.

A squirrel chattered at me the entire time I filled the feeders. Squirrels have a salty vocabulary. I enjoy squirrels even though they can be hard on feeders. It’s as the psalmist said, “Harden not your hearts.” I reckon that applies to all things including squirrels.

We’d received somewhere between 1 and 143 inches of snow – most of it parked illegally. It reminded me that Harmony became the Minnesota state annual precipitation record holder by receiving 60.21 inches in 2018. This proves that planning and hard work pay off. A downy woodpecker flew in as I was filling the feeder. I wondered if a downy finds winter weather a downer? I told it about Harmony’s record in hopes it might bring cheer, but the woodpecker wasn’t interested.

Meeting adjourned

We don't have to agree on anything to be kind to one another.

Thanks for stopping by

"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasqueflower is a right as inalienable as free speech." – Aldo Leopold

"You have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy." – Ken Kesey

Do good.

PHOTO BY AL BATT Maybe this look is why a junco is called a snowbird.

PHOTO BY AL BATT A male red-bellied woodpecker has red from his nape to his bill and lacks the gray crown of this female.

The sundogs were barking

January 16, 2020

This house sparrow keeps an eye on the thermometer.

Batt: Goldfinches spectacular in any color, even olive green

January 13, 2020

By : AL BATT

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. New Year’s is a holiday created by the calendar companies who don’t want anyone reusing last year’s calendar. I had to buy a piece of farm equipment because I needed a new jacket."

"You know, you can purchase a jacket without buying a new implement," I say.

"I know, but I wanted the jacket for free."

Naturally

The point in Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun where it's closest to the sun is called a perihelion. It happened on Jan. 5. I hope you remembered to send it a card.

There were many creatures in the yard trying to keep their New Year's resolution to not be eaten by a predator. A shrew was under the feeders eating what it could find. The tiny mammal has the metabolism of a blast furnace.

Squirrels wore trails in the snow to get to the corn I'd put out for them. Squirrels are locavores. They eat where the locals eat and that includes bird feeders.

Goldfinches fed upon the nyjer seed. Sometimes I wish the American goldfinches were a bright yellow all year, but then I realize they are spectacular in any color. They experience a complete molt twice a year. In the fall, the male trades his bright yellow feathers and black cap for an olive-green wardrobe with dark, blackish wings and pale wing bars. He becomes yellow again in the spring. Adults and juvenile goldfinches have similar dull olive-green plumages during the late fall and winter. The color of the bills of goldfinches change with each molt, too. In winter plumage, their bills are drab grayish brown. In breeding plumage, they change to an orange color. My father often referred to them as wild canaries.

I took part in a Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Everyone who counts was there. Everyone dressed for a pleasant winter day. It was a regular fleece circus. One of the participants, Mark Johnson, gets a CBC haircut every year. This year, his hair was trimmed to resemble a zebra. Last year, it was a pileated woodpecker. Other years have featured an indigo bunting and a tufted puffin. When asked why he does it, Mark replied, "It keeps me single."

I walked six miles counting birds. It was a lovely day, but a breeze did find a way of intruding. I've been told by those who suspect things that the wind here blows 364 days a year (365 on Leap Year) and then takes one day off to catch its breath.

Q&A

"Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?" A fruit is a seed-bearing structure that develops from the ovary of a flowering plant, whereas vegetables are all other plant parts, such as roots, leaves and stems. That means tomatoes, beans, peppers, pumpkins, and peas are fruits, but look for them in the vegetable department of your favorite grocery store.

"Are wild turkeys stupid?" No, and I doubt you'd find any turkey hunter who'd accuse them of it. They'd say that hunting a turkey is a great challenge. I suspect the young males (jakes) come the closest to acting stupid.

"Are there fewer insects today?" I'd be surprised if there weren't. We've been waging a constant war against them.

"A hawk is getting after my birds at the feeders. What can I do?" It's likely a Cooper's hawk (they nest here) or a sharp-shinned hawk. Try hitting the pause button. Shut down the feeders for a bit. The birds will stop showing up and the hawk will get the hint and hunt elsewhere.

"What is the territory size of a rabbit?" According to the DNR, the range of an eastern cottontail is no more than five acres (about the size of four football fields).

"Why have I been seeing and smelling skunks this time of year? Shouldn't they be hibernating?" Once settled into its winter home, the striped skunk becomes dormant, but doesn't enter a full state of hibernation. Skunks enter a state of torpor – a deep sleep from which they awaken occasionally. They may emerge briefly from their dens at any time during winter.

"Is seeing a cardinal supposed to bring good luck?" I think so. I consider myself lucky whenever I see one. I've been told that when we hear a cardinal sing, our sadness will soon be lifted. And when we see a redbird in winter, we will prosper in spring. I've also heard it said that if a bird poops on you or anything you own, it foreshadows good luck.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

Your last name is Batt? Any relation to Al Batt?

I am Al Batt

It’s a small world, isn’t it?

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: I read in Business Insider that McDonald's serves about 1% of the world's population daily. Trying to avoid the crowd, I joined family at Buffalo Wild Wings. It was filled with people who regularly remembered their passwords. Buffalo Wild Wings was originally called Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck. They offered beef on weck sandwiches. Weck is kummelweck, a kaiser-like roll. The company shortened its name to Buffalo Wild Wings, with the acronym BWW pronounced: “bee-double-you,” which was shortened further to “B-Dubs.”

There were TVs everywhere. They got in the way of one another. Each displayed a sporting event. I asked a server how many TVs there were. She thought 80, but she wasn't sure. That seemed high, but I wasn't sure.

The meal came with silverware. A TV remote would have been nice.

The cafe chronicles

There were fenderbergs on the highway. They are clumps of ice, snow and slush that accumulate under a vehicle's fenders. I stopped at the cafe to wish everyone a happy New Year, but everyone wasn't there. I ordered a peanut brittle on whole wheat sandwich. They were out of those. A sister-in-law had given me lefse for Christmas. I went home and ate peanut butter on lefse. It was scrumptious.

The Shepherd and Ingeborg

I sat at my desk as nice weather swirled about outside. I had more work to do than I could shake a stick at if I were the kind to shake a stick at work. I listened to Frederick Forsyth's "The Shepherd" read by Al Maitland on CBC radio as I do every year. Forsyth, known for the thrillers "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Odessa File," leaned one word perfectly against another in the story. A Royal Air Force pilot was headed home from Germany on Christmas Eve 1957. Fog set in, radio communication was lost, and he found himself flying over the North Sea without navigational aid. Hope was nearly lost when a ghostly silhouette of a World War II de Havilland Mosquito airplane rose from the mist below him. It's a breathtaking Christmas mystery with remarkable imagery. If I'd have been standing up, I'd have had to sit down. I'll not spoil it by divulging more.

In an unrelated event from years ago, Aunt Ingeborg called to tell me of going to Duluth to get an award for her accomplishments as a teacher. Ingeborg was someone who fed an opossum on her front steps because she worried about it. I had a photo of that animal hanging on a wall in my office until my wife found a better place for it. Back to Ingeborg's call. She described the bus she rode in, meals, venue, weather, and award ceremonies (there were no airplanes involved) before mentioning the man seated next to her had died on the trip home. She buried the lede. She said the pleasant fellow told a couple of jokes and then he up and died. I thought of the song "Mr. Bojangles," "He spoke with tears of 15 years how his dog and him traveled about. The dog up and died. He up and died. After 20 years he still grieves."

Nature notes

I pay attention to the things in my yard. Mary Oliver wrote, “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” She also wrote, “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”

I spied with my little eye, snow and a deer in the distance. One of them was looking my way. High numbers of deer reflect a productive landscape. One study found a white-tailed deer will eat over 600 plant species and 3.5 percent of its weight daily.

A bald eagle flew overhead. The DNR estimated there were 9,800 pairs of bald eagles in Minnesota in 2017. A 2018 survey found nearly 1,700 bald eagle nests in Iowa.

I busied myself providing room service at my bird feeders. I remember seeing evening grosbeaks some winters. I don’t see them in my yard anymore. Those handsome “grocerybeaks” displayed prodigious appetites.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there is no official difference between hills and mountains. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names once indicated the difference was a mountain rose at least 1,000 feet above its surrounding area, but this is no longer applicable.

Meeting adjourned

“Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

Thanks for stopping by

"Wonder is the salt of the earth." – Maurits Cornelis Escher

"This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in." -– Theodore Roosevelt

Do good.

PHOTO BY AL BATT The rusty blackbird breeds in bogs and around beaver ponds in the boreal forests of the far north.

Despite its name and the fact this one is grabbing a tree branch, the American tree sparrow is most comfortable on the ground. Photo by Al Batt

Al Batt: Black squirrels are really gray squirrels in disguise

January 7, 2020

Published by rkramer@bluffco... on Mon, 01/06/2020 - 3:18pm

By :

AL BATT

It was another day in paradise with no normal to the weather. The nice weather had coaxed a raccoon from its winter napping place. Trash pandas have sharp minds and strong paws.

A window is a lens to the outdoors. It's nature near at hand. Everything is new and different. Every window is unique. John Muir said, “Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.”

The morning had gathered enough light that I was able to marvel at a handsome white-tailed deer. The buck, with impressive antlers, paid little attention to me as it was watching a coyote trotting past. The coyote paid no attention to either of us. I gloried in the lovely red color of the red-twig dogwood, otherwise known as: red-osier dogwood, red willow, red brush or dogberry tree. Charismatic chickadees attacked a feeder's sunflower seeds. Like any cafe owner, I appreciated the regulars.

Phil Morreim of Albert Lea had 24 squirrels on the deck of his home. He gets that many because he feeds them well so they'll leave his bird feeders alone. Among this scurry were four black squirrels. Black squirrels are gray squirrels in disguise; a color variation, not a separate species. The color is the result of a genetic mutation that causes excessive pigmentation. They are melanistic, which refers to melanin, a dark pigment. The black fur offers a thermal advantage, enhancing survival during extremely cold winters.

There are eight members of the weasel family in Minnesota — short-tailed weasel, long-tailed weasel, least weasel, American marten, fisher, river otter, badger and mink. I watched a mink lope along. I had a bit of nature awareness available that allowed me to notice the mink and realize that it wasn't wishful seeing. I used a technique I'd learned years ago. I stood motionless with a fixed gaze. I hoped to gain the wide peripheral vision of an owl. Stillness and a wide-angle vision cause motion to become evident. It's not difficult. Imagine you're an owl. Look straight ahead and pretend your eyeballs cannot move in their sockets. Pick a spot directly ahead of you and train your eyes on it. Hold that spot in the center of your vision as your focal point. If your eyes wander, bring them back to your focal point. Always return to that spot. While staring at it, you can see some ground between you and that spot, and some sky between you and that focal point. You can see the ground, the sky, and that spot all at the same time using your peripheral vision. This is called having owl eyes.

An easy way to see things in nature is to look beyond your cellphone.

As winter begins, I had a thought. I have one occasionally. The warblers wintering in warmth are counting the days until they return here.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

I can't believe it's 2020.

Time flies. May all your troubles last only as long as your New Year's resolutions.

If this is 2020, that means it's been an entire year since I gave up trying to become a better person than I'd been in 2018.

Driving by Bruce's drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: Every year, something incredible comes along. It's called Christmas. I want it to stay, but it's like hanging onto smoke. My wife made delicious biscuits, an acini de pepe salad with mandarin oranges and maraschino cherries (no eye of newt), and Swedish pancakes served with lingonberry preserves on Christmas Eve. There aren't any better things to pile into a piehole. I'd acquired a small jar of asparagus pickles. I'm fond of pickles — dill, okra and asparagus are particular favorites. My wife took the asparagus pickles along with her cherished watermelon pickles to a Christmas party I was unable to attend. I worried that the people there would snarf down the asparagus pickles as if there were no tomorrow. That wasn't the case. Each pickle returned just as tall as it had been when it left our abode. Not a single one was eaten. I wasn't unhappy about that.

I can't sing. I can barely clap, but I can listen to powerful good music like Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan singing, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"/"We Three Kings" as we opened gifts. A gift should warm twice, once when given and again when received.

I took possession of a few pairs of socks. They were new, which means that now some of my socks match. I garnered tasty cashew and almonds. I scored a lovely book. The world lives in the written word. Between family things and work, I read a couple of books at Christmas time. One was about the Harriman Alaska Expedition and the other about the Navajo. I started reading a book by Malcolm Gladwell. I must appreciate his writing as it will be the sixth book of his I've read. I enjoyed reading the recent issue of The New Yorker. I started reading that magazine when I was 17, thanks to the encouragement of a high school librarian named Mrs. King. I don't believe I ever thanked her properly. Shame on me.

My wife and I gathered donated edibles for the local food shelf from the Kiwanis Holiday Lights at Sibley Park in Mankato. We picked up 1,113 pounds of nonperishable foods that more than filled my car. My stuffed vehicle resembled an overly optimistic food truck. Laina Rajala came to our aid. She not only helped loading and unloading the foodstuffs, she transported the overflow from Mankato to the food shelf. Every gift should warm twice. Laina's gift certainly warmed us both.

Thoughts while eating Swedish pancakes

Never say that a day is the worst day of your life. It will give the next day a challenge.

I'm leaving my body to science, but I'm keeping the oil and mineral rights.

Any music with its volume turned off is easy listening.

Nature notes

The temperature was supposed to drop. I think it was likely due to the cold. A little winter snarkiness there. Sorry. The night’s activities are often inscribed in the snow, but the snow had melted or hardened, making clues difficult to find. I picked up trash from the road ditch. Like a crow, I pick up shiny things from the ground. Blue jays had a collective cow as I walked. Jays are known to eat eggs and nestlings of other birds, but in a study of blue jay diets, only 1 percent of jays showed evidence of having eaten eggs or baby birds. The diets of the jays studied were composed of mostly insects and nuts. The oldest known wild blue jay was at least 26 years, 11 months old.

On the subject of studies, researchers discovered that opossums have impressive memories when it comes to food. Opossums were found to be better at remembering food locations than were cats, dogs, pigs, and rats. Any mammal can get rabies, but the chance of finding rabies in an opossum is extremely slim.

A white-tailed buck’s antlers begin growing in April and are fully grown by mid-August. Depending upon the source of the information, his antlers grow one-fourth inch to an inch per day.

A red fox has a white tip to its tail and a gray fox has a black tip to its tail.

Neighbor stops by

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Everything is nearly copacetic. Once you get past the first day of winter, there are only 300 days of winter left. I'm saving on my fuel bill this year. I bought a heated toilet seat and turned the furnace down."

Q&A

"How far away should I haul a squirrel I've live trapped to make sure it won't return?"

I don't know. There is a paper, “Movement and Mortality of Translocated Urban-Suburban Grey Squirrels,” published in 2004 by Adams, Hadidian and Flyger, which focused on live-trapped, radio-collared squirrels that were moved from a suburb of Washington, D.C., to a large wooded area. The study found that 97% of the relocated squirrels died or disappeared from the release area within three months. Relocated squirrels have difficulty finding food, water, safe hiding places and shelter. Being dumped in the home range of other squirrels leads to territorial disputes. There are rules and regulations that could apply. It's unlawful to release wildlife on state-owned lands without permission.

"Why do snowy owls fly south in the winter?"

Scientists once believed the owls left because they were starving in the Arctic, having exhausted the supply of their primary prey item, lemmings. However, many of the travelers are relatively healthy and well-fed. Their visits may indicate it was a boom year for the birds and the population was so high they couldn’t all stay in the Arctic. The owls move for food availability or due to population density.

Listen for these current events with your good ear

1. The whistled "fee-bee" song of the black-capped chickadee.

2. The drumming of the downy woodpecker on a resonant surface.

3. The blue jay's pump-handle call.

Meeting adjourned

Measure your words, but be free with compliments. Happy New Year!

Thanks for stopping by

"At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough." — Toni Morrison

"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." — Thomas Paine

Do good.

Black squirrel or gray squirrel in disguise? Photo by Al Batt

I hope this female cardinal brings you good luck. Photo by Al Batt

Christmas season revelations with Al Batt

January 2, 2020

Batt: Christmas season revelations with Al Batt

Published by rkramer@bluffco... on Mon, 12/16/2019 - 3:36pm

By :

AL BATT

Shoofly pie and fruitcake

I was at a Christmas party with friends. One had made shoofly pie, a molasses crumb cake baked in a piecrust. It was powerful good. There was no fruitcake at this particular feast day for friends. I like fruitcake.

There, I've admitted it. I like it best when none of the ingredients is sawdust. I'm keen on fruitcake wearing a layer of whipped cream. I like some fruitcake better than others, but that's true about all foodstuffs.

I wish I’d been eating fruitcake instead of a salad, greens and walnuts at a banquet in Sitka, Alaska. I broke a tooth. I didn't do it for me. It was a Christmas gift for my dentist.

December weather folklore

A windy Christmas is a sign of a good year to come.

If Christmas Day be bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.

White Christmas, green Easter. Green Christmas, white Easter.

December changeable and mild, the whole winter will remain a child.

Thoughts while in the dentist’s chair

If someone signs your paycheck, they can't be a complete idiot.

You become an adult when you've lost the desire to become a grownup.

Familiarity invites repeat customers to restaurants.

Nature notes

I got a nice Christmas card from a Baltimore oriole. It said he was warm and eating fruit and nectar in Costa Rica.

After reading the card, I moved to a pretty place. The window. There were chickadees at the feeders. My favorite bird eats about 35 percent of its weight per day. A Cooper’s hawk had been hunting/haunting the yard. That raptor eats 12 percent of its weight daily.

An opossum was nibbling on seeds that had fallen from feeders. I'd eaten an apple and tossed the core outside, nearly hitting the opossum. I didn’t mean to come that close. It didn’t alarm the animal.

An opossum’s eyesight isn’t the greatest, but it smelled the apple and grabbed it with its mouth of 50 teeth and ambled away. I felt good about my simple gift.

A male house sparrow in the yard had an impaired wing. Birds don’t fly well on one wing. I tried to catch the little bird, but it was too quick for me. I’ve been feeding it. Many would say that it’s just a house sparrow.

Even though I’m more than willing to trap a mouse or swat a mosquito or stable fly, I try not to judge creatures. They are what they are. I remain hopeful on the sparrow’s behalf.

I saw a coyote feeding on a deer killed by a car. Coyote mating season is January and February. Five to seven pups are born in April. Their mother teaches them to hunt when they are 8 to 12 weeks old. From autumn until mid-winter, the pups leave the den and search for their own territories.

Deer are nature’s “reduce speed” signs. Just think how fast people would drive if it weren’t for deer.

I went outside and stayed a while

Rick Mammel told me about decoys affixed to Albert Lea Audubon's purple martin houses as a tool to attract martins. They were attacked by Cooper's hawks, which destroyed the decoys.

The Eurasian collared-dove is grayish brown with a black collar. It's chunkier than a mourning dove and has a blunt-tipped tail unlike the mourning dove’s longer, pointed tail. Males give a distinctive koo-KOO-kook call.

Snowmobilers, snowshoers, skiers, and those making money by moving snow aren't the only ones happy to see snow. Voles live in a subnivean zone, the area between the surface of the ground and the bottom of the snowpack. Voles retreat to that grocery store for protection from the cold, wind, and predators.

Male pheasants crow throughout the year. "Cow-cat" they proclaim while making a drumming sound with their wings. During severe winter weather, pheasants can go two weeks without food by reducing their metabolism.

They are able to detect sounds or ground vibrations from long distances. The Department of Game and Fish acquired 70 pairs from Wisconsin and Illinois, and released them in 1905. None survived.

In 1916, the Minnesota Game Protective League established a game farm on Big Island in Lake Minnetonka.

The Game and Fish Department assumed the operation in 1917 and by 1922, pheasants had been released in 78 of Minnesota's 87 counties. Minnesota held its first hunt in 1924.

Phun with phenology

Great horned owl pairs hoot duets.

Raccoons aren't true hibernators. They may forage when temperatures hit 20°F or above.

Most white-tailed deer bucks shed antlers in mid-January, but some do so in December when stressed by severe weather conditions.

Q&A

"I saw a cowbird recently. Shouldn't it have left here?"

Most of the brown-headed cowbirds have flown south, but some overwinter in southern Minnesota and are reported on Christmas Bird Counts. I sometimes see them in the winter on the backs of livestock. A cowbird feeding on the ground might show a raised tail.

"When I was a boy, I had an ant farm. What kind of ants worked on that farm?"

They were likely harvester ants. I find ants fascinating. Ohio State researchers discovered the American field ant can withstand pressures up to 5,000 times greater than its own body weight. The black garden ant queen, found throughout Europe and in certain parts of Asia and North America, can live 15 years, with claims of up to 30 years. Despite their name, no ants are found in Antarctica.

"I'm thinking of getting my wife a bug zapper for Christmas. Do they work?"

Yes and no, you romantic devil. The Rutgers Center for Vector Biology found bug zappers kill a lot of insects, but kill few mosquitoes. The continued popularity of the zappers is probably due to the sound effects, which assure owners that their investment is working.

Most of the popping sounds are moths lured into the trap while attempting to navigate by the moon. Bug zappers aren't the only useless thing foisted upon folks attempting to avoid mosquito bites.

Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that electronic mosquito repellers do little in the way of reducing mosquito annoyance.

Citrosa plants are another way someone takes advantage of consumers. Mosquitoes are able to alight upon the leaves of these plants. Mosquitoes produce that annoying buzz by beating their wings 300 to 600 times per second. They don't live long, but they make up for it by volume and irritation.

"Do you have suggestions for Christmas gifts for my birdbrained brother?"

Here is a long, but far from exhaustive list for birdbrains everywhere: Binoculars, calendar, backpack, warm socks, trail camera, bird feeder, membership to a nature organization, book or field guide, state park sticker, camp chair, fanny pack, gloves or mittens, and subscription to Bird Watcher's Digest or Audubon magazine.

Thanks for stopping by

"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child." — Erma Bombeck

"God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December." — J. M. Barrie

Meeting adjourned

"Happiness is the new rich. Inner peace is the new success. Health is the new wealth. Kindness is the new cool." — Syed Balkhi

Do good.

The day may darken too soon, but its beauty lingers. Haines, Alaska.