The sight of a swallowtail is easy to swallow.

August 3, 2020

There was a cormorant or a pelican eye looking everywhere.

What is there not to love about a Rose-breasted Grosbeak? Nothing, that’s what.

Somewhere, I know not where, this bear is doing you know what in the woods.

August 2, 2020

For the Birds: Duck, duck, gray duck

By Al Batt for The Caledonia Argus

For the Birds

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I told my wife I wanted to be cremated.

It’s good to talk about those kinds of things.

No, it’s not. She made me an appointment for Tuesday.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: The days go by too quickly. I tried to make one day seem as if it’d last forever by walking in the rain. Rain was no strain for Mother Nature as she’d become one of those gardeners whose answer for every problem is, “Just water it more.”

Mosquitoes thought I was a meal they’d ordered from room service. For every drop of rain that fell, a mosquito grew. Mosquitoes can breed in a bottle cap of water.

A picnic beetle bit me and I heard myself snarl, “I’ll fix your wagon.” I remember hearing my father say that very same thing as he stalked a fly with a flyswatter.

I fled the Batt Cave for a few hours to go to a farmer’s market. I followed my new mantra, “Wash up, mask up, back up.”

We’ve had social distancing all my life. It’s called loaning someone money. I’d feel odd without a flu fence on my public face. It’s a second face.

Lou Christie sang, “Two faces have I. One to laugh and one to cry.” In Roman mythology, Janus was the god of gates and doorways. He was depicted as having two faces, one looking back at the past and the other towards the future.

Duck, duck, what?

When I was in grade school, a group of kids sat in a circle, facing inward, while one child who was “it,” walked around them tapping each seated player and calling each a “duck” until declaring one a “gray duck.”

The “gray duck” arose and tried to tag the “it,” before the “it” was able to run around the circle and sit where the “gray duck” had been sitting.

If “it” succeeded, the “gray duck” became “it” and the process was repeated. If the “gray duck” tagged the “it,” the “it” remained “it.”

I’ve heard rumors that Minnesota is the only state that plays “Duck, duck, gray duck.” The other states play “Duck, duck, goose.” The game was brought to this country by the Swedes. There were two versions of the game in Sweden. One translated into “Duck, duck, goose.” The other to “Duck, duck, gray duck.”

The hypothesis is that the Swedes playing the second version were the ones who settled in Minnesota. Or maybe it was because no Minnesota child wanted to be labeled a goose. “Duck, duck, gray duck” is the proper and righteous way to play the game and will undoubtedly become an Olympic event.

Naturally

The red admiral butterfly feeds on tree sap, rotting fruit and bird droppings. Its caterpillar eats nettles. This makes them nearly impossible to cook for. When I was a dear boy, I called the painted lady a “thistle butterfly.” Thistles are host plants for the caterpillars.

I watched an aggressive eastern kingbird fight with a crow, a couple of blue jays and a robin all in one day. Why attack a robin? It must have considered it a threat and the kingbird granted no pardons to anyone. It has a forceful personality.

Eastern kingbirds often perch in an exposed position in the high trees or along utility lines or fences. They fly in shallow, rowing wingbeats, typically accompanied by electric, sputtering calls.

The perfume of flowers lingered in the air. In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the cricket chirps tonight. In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the cricket chirps tonight. Go outside at dusk and listen to a chirping cricket. Count the number of chirps it makes during a 15-second period. Adding 40 to that number will give you the approximate temperature in Fahrenheit.

I look forward to seeing northwestern crows in Alaska each year. Considered a cousin of the familiar American crow until a recent study on the genetics of the two species prompted the American Ornithological Society to conclude that the two species are actually one and the same. It’s a variation within a species.

Mallard drakes have yellow bills. Hens and juveniles sport orange-and-brown bills.

Q&A

“What do squirrels eat?” Acorns, hazelnuts, walnuts, butternuts, hickory nuts, tree seeds, fungi, buds, corn, fruits, berries, sap, eggs, nestlings, sunflower seeds, insects, caterpillars, small animals and snakes, carrion and goodies from the garden. When it comes to a diet, they don’t carrot all. It might have been easier to list what they won’t eat.

“Do rabbits tunnel?” The eastern cottontail rabbit doesn’t dig its own burrows. They use deserted burrows of other animals, woody vegetation, decks or brush piles to escape the elements. A Michigan study showed only two out of 226 tagged cottontails lived 2 years. Other studies found about 30% of rabbits survive a winter. A cottontail’s range is around 5 acres.

“What’s the point of a yellow jacket?” It’s on the opposite end of their heads. Seriously, a yellow jacket gives you something to wear with those light orange pants. Yellow jackets are beneficial insects. They feed their young caterpillars, flies and other insects that damage crops and garden plants.

“What kind of gopher is Goldy Gopher?” The mascot of the University of Minnesota isn’t a pocket gopher. He has stripes and looks like a thirteen-lined ground squirrel, which is often called a striped gopher. The original design was based on a thirteen-lined ground squirrel. The state nickname derives from a political cartoon by R. O. Sweeny, published as a broadside in 1858. The word “gopher” is a generic term for any rodent living underground. Some people think the original model for Goldy must have been a chipmunk, an animal more commonly seen than the thirteen-lined ground squirrel (other nicknames include striper, squinney, leopard ground squirrel and striped ground squirrel). I’ve heard a ground squirrel called a grinnie, but that term is more often used for a chipmunk.

Thanks for stopping by

“Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one’s own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality.” — Sheri S. Tepper

“A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. — May Sarton

Meeting adjourned

“Kindness is not without its rocks ahead. People are apt to put it down to an easy temper and seldom recognize it as the secret striving of a generous nature; whilst, on the other hand, the ill-natured get credit for all the evil they refrain from.” —Honore De Balzac.

Do good.

A poor excuse for a photo of a lovely Question Mark Butterfly on the roof of my house. I asked why it refused to pose elsewhere. It had no answer. You can see the white question mark on its wing.

A young American Robin takes a break from bob-bob bobbin' along, an exhausting enterprise.

It was just another day at the sulphur butterfly factory.

August 1, 2020

A Painted Lady Butterfly trying not to fall off the world.

The Cardinal Vine is lovely, but so far it hasn’t grown a single Northern Cardinal.

A small grandson made a bird feeder for me and it works — it really works.

This pair of Canada Geese raised a large number of goslings. Now they are all flying together, a family of aviators.

July 31, 2020

A hybrid Canada Goose/domestic goose gives my eyes a goose in the right direction.

Meanwhile, back at the Self-Defense Class for Geese, one participant practices kicks.

Once upon a time, I led a nature walk for kids beyond herding to a state park. Scarlet Tanager males were more numerous than untied shoes. I relish those glorious memories.

July 30, 2020

Nyjer seeds are tiny. It takes a few birds to find one.

A Tree Swallow considers getting a slingshot.

Work had piled high, so I was late getting out for my hike today. A cardinal helped me put one foot in front of another by offering an encouraging “Boogity, boogity, boogity.”

July 29, 2020

A firefly (lightning bug) taking the time to recharge its batteries.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird checked out the grape jelly feeder aimed for orioles, catbirds, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, etc.

looking old around the ages

July 28, 2020

The larval host for the Red Admiral butterfly is the nettle.

The nickname for the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is the rose-breasted grosbeak.

Is “007” the collective noun for goldfinches?

Yellow bill and black eyes. It’s not me glaring at an ancient invoice. It’s a Barred Owl.

July 27, 2020

Purple Coneflower or Echinacea from the Latin echinus, “hedgehog.”

Butterfly Weed, unlike many of the other milkweed species, doesn’t have milky-sapped stems.

An Eastern Kingbird in front of a green screen that is a pond.

Mallard may mean wild drake or duck and derive from Old French malart or Medieval Latin mallardus or Latin masculus (male), but this is a Mallard hen.

Catbirds creating cozy nests

July 26, 2020

For the Birds: Catbirds creating cozy nests

By Al Batt

For the Birds in The Caledonia Argus

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

I set a record time for jogging last week.

Nice going.

Yup, it took me less than a minute to decide I wasn’t going to jog anymore.

Old Sears years

In visiting with Bob Hargis of Riverton, WY, he mentioned a J.C. Higgins bicycle. I remember drooling over one owned by a kid I knew.

Sears was known for Kenmore appliances, Craftsman tools, Allstate insurance, DieHard batteries, David Bradley lawn equipment, Christmas Wish Books (catalogs) and J.C. Higgins sporting goods.

John Higgins started as the manager of the company’s bookkeeping office and retired as company comptroller in 1930. He didn’t have a middle initial, Sears added the “C.”

The J.C. Higgins trademark covered baseball gloves, baseballs, footballs, basketballs, volleyballs, boxing, fishing, boating, tennis and camping equipment, luggage and bicycles.

The J.C. Higgins name disappeared after Sears introduced the Ted Williams brand of sporting and recreation goods in 1961. I never got one of those bikes. My niece got a riding vacuum cleaner instead.

Who was that masked man?

It was hotter than a burning stump. I had to wear sunglasses as I walked to the meeting. The heat brings out men’s legs. Shorts uncover legs white enough to be used as light sources.

The meeting at the Courthouse was about the Coronavirus Relief Fund. It was an interesting session on funds available to small businesses.

It was good being in the company of others, even if social distancing placed the nearest individual to me a quarter of mile away. We were required to wear masks. It was a wise thing to do for others, like driving on the right side of the road. Plus, it saved having to shave.

Nature notes

I walked while having a heated argument with the temperature and inciting conflict with biting insects. I visited with a cellphone caller who’d asked what it had been like to appear on Ron Schara’s “Minnesota Bound” TV show. I was about to give an answer when an unseen skunk held me smellbound. A skunk is an amazing anti-air freshener.

I watched soaring turkey vultures. A vulture’s heart rate when soaring is about the same as it is when the bird is sleeping. A half-dozen angry red-winged blackbirds hammered on a Cooper’s hawk. There was no movie on that flight.

Earwigs star in folklore claiming they will crawl into your ear and lay eggs. They don’t. Earwigs eat pests like aphids, mites and nematodes. They will chew on ornamental and vegetable plants, particularly dahlias, zinnias, hollyhocks, lettuce, strawberries, potatoes, roses, beans, beets and the silk of sweet corn. They’re preyed upon by tachinid flies, centipedes, toads and some birds.

Lightning bugs continue to flash when a thunderstorm is producing lightning. Fireflies don’t fear flashy competition.

Naturally

A black-throated brown strutted past. It was a male house sparrow.

Six young house wren siblings were crammed into a small house; not one had its own room or cellphone.

Goldfinch males flew overhead in undulating flights while calling “potato chip.” In 1947 and again in 1949, the goldfinch was proposed to the state legislature for consideration as the official state bird. Other proposed state birds during the 1940s and 1950s included the wood duck, scarlet tanager, mourning dove and pileated woodpecker.

I listened to purple martins that migrate to Brazil – traveling more than 9,000 - 10,000 miles round-trip.

I pulled some persistent bittersweet nightshade, but had to stop before the job was completed because a catbird let me know there was a nest in the jumble of vegetation.

Catbirds usually build nests on horizontal branches hidden at the center of dense shrubs, small trees or vines. Nests are typically around 4 feet off the ground, but may be as high as 60 feet.

Females build the nests, which take 5-6 days to build. The final product is a bulky, open cup made of twigs, straw, bark, mud and sometimes trash. It has a finely woven inner lining of grass, hair, rootlets and pine needles.

Sap beetles, also known as picnic beetles, have become a nuisance in the garden and on my hummingbird feeders. Picnic beetle adults are about 1/4-inch long and are black with four orange-rust spots on the wing covers.

They can injure fruits and vegetables, but are more common on fruits and vegetables that have been damaged or infected with a disease.

A raccoon kit grabbed a couple of fireflies out of the air with its paws and snapped another from the air in one bite. It ate them with relish. Or it may have been with onions. I’ve read many mammals find fireflies distasteful, but not this young’un.

Pandemic birding

Try identifying 12 (a dandy dozen) birds from the windows of your home. Then use each bird name in a sentence before identifying a 13th. You’ll discover that most birds are weatherman handsome.

Q&A

“What color of flowers do bees like best?” Scientists have found the he most likely colors to attract bees are purple, violet and blue.

“Where could I see the most hummingbirds?” Colombia has 144 species and Ecuador hosts 132-134.

“Where do crows nest?” Crows typically nest in a crotch near the trunk of a tree or on a horizontal branch, generally towards the top third or quarter of a tree. They seem to prefer to nest in evergreens. A nest is usually about 1.5 feet across and 8-12 inches deep. The life of a typical nest is about 10 weeks (1-2.5 weeks building, 6 days egg-laying, 20 days incubating and 4 weeks of nestlings). The nests are well-made structures largely made of twigs and can remain intact for years. Occasionally a pair repairs and reuses an old nest or builds a new nest on top of an existing one.

Thanks for stopping by

“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.” — Langston Hughes

Do good.

Meeting adjourned

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” — Anne Frank. Be kind.

A gray catbird is both gray and a catbird. It meows like the average cat wishes it could.Photo by Al Batt — A gray catbird is both gray and a catbird. It meows like the average cat wishes it could.
Photo by Al Batt

I love gardening. What’s not to love? I get to listen to Nat King Kale, Frank Cilantro, and best of all, the Song Sparrow.

July 25, 2020

A female Indigo Bunting, a male Indigo Bunting and a stick.

A pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers is called a “nice.” Or, at least, it might woulda had oughta.

We’ve all had those days when it’s difficult to get our heads on straight. Red-winged Blackbird.

What is yellow, weighs 4000 pounds and sings?

July 24, 2020

An Eastern Chipmunk describing the cherry tomato that got away.

The Brown Thrasher pair goes shopping. The male often repeats what he says just as I do.

I didn’t think it was possible to take a bad photo of five Indigo Buntings, but I managed to do it. It didn’t help that they insisted on social distancing.

I’ve been spending so much time decompressing in nature, I’ve gone from being 6-foot-4 to standing 5-foot-4.

July 23, 2020

Canada Thistle is nest-building material for the American Goldfinch.

Virginia Creeper leaves showing evidence of stress by turning red. When I was a dear boy, it was called five-fingered ivy because of the five leaflets and to help differentiate it from poison ivy and its warning, “Leaves of three, let them be!”

A Blue Jay sunbathing in front of a window in dire need of cleaning.

Roses are red. Violets are blue. But not as blue as that bird.

July 22, 2020

Roses are red. Violets are blue. But not as blue as this bird.

There’s gold in them thar trees! American Goldfinch.

A blue jay works for peanuts.

July 21, 2020

A young Baltimore Oriole contemplates the vastness of the universe. Or maybe not.

Some of these Purple Martins are out of their gourds.

The dude abides.

July 20, 2020

My wife feeds an avocado to a hand-reared fox squirrel.

This Snow Bunting photo from February takes the mind off the heat.

My people aren’t always good with hot weather, so we build big fans outdoors.

The pencil points to toad poop. American Toads are incredible creatures in other ways, too.

July 19, 2020

By Al Batt for the Caledonia Argus

For the Birds

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club Meeting

When I was a kid, there were always a couple of never-going-to-run-again junker cars in our yard.

Did that bother you?

You bet. Most of the neighbors had twice as many.

Driving by Bruce’s drive

I have a wonderful neighbor, named Bruce. Whenever I pass his drive, thoughts occur to me, such as: When I was a dear boy, parents told their children, “I told you to go before we left home, but go if you can’t wait. But don’t touch anything.”

It took strength, courage and a flashlight to use a gas station bathroom in those dark days. They were grotesque things with overflowing toilets, locked doors to keep in the overpowering smell and a key attached to an anvil the size of a Gopher linebacker. It was impossible not to touch something.

My father drove up to visit me when I lived in Minneapolis — once. He was just as proud of how few miles he had on a car as he was of how many one carried. He was more attuned to driving on gravel roads than in the big city.

He told me that traffic had been backed up for miles and every car was honking. I learned later that all those vehicles had been behind him. He was a stranger in a strange land.

Thoughts while trying not to touch my face

Why does patience take so long?

“There are a lot of weird people here,” thinks everyone shopping in a store.

A clean desk is a sign of full desk drawers.

Nature notes

A deer’s coat provides thermoregulation and camouflage. Summer coats are reddish and thin, allowing deer to cope with heat stress. Hormonal changes turn that coat into a two-layered, faded gray or brown winter coat with hollow and stiff, outer guard hairs. The inner layer is soft and dense, equipping the animal with insulation. Coat color tends to be darker in forested areas and lighter in agricultural lands.

“You carrot chompin’, flop-eared, bob-tailed rabbit! I hope your innards turn to outards and your ears go visey-versey! I hates rabbits!” Yosemite Sam said that. I wonder if he had a garden? I don’t hate them, but I yell at the rabbits. I’m unable to wave them away.

Milkweed and wild parsnip bloom. Wild parsnip was brought to North America by European settlers and grown as a root vegetable.

It escaped from cultivation and is now common throughout the U.S. It grows 4-6 feet tall with compound leaves arranged in pairs, with sharply toothed leaflets that are shaped like mittens. Yellowish green flowers form umbrella-shaped clusters.

Umbels are 2-6 inches wide and contain many small, five-petaled flowers that bloom from June through August. Wild parsnip is highly invasive and replaces native plant habitat. Its sap contains toxic chemicals activated by sunlight and can cause serious burns and blisters to skin after contact.

A catbird tossed out a bunch of random notes it had slapped together. It sounded as if the bird had a good attitude. Red-winged blackbirds, song sparrows, indigo buntings, red-eyed vireos (singing “Here I am, where are you?” repeatedly) and common yellowthroats all still sing. The yellowthroat’s is a galloping tune and I heard a bobolink sounding like R2-D2 over-caffeinated. Birdsong is a sign of normalcy.

If I’d have named the characters on “Gunsmoke,” Marshal Dillon would have been Marshal Peregrine, Miss Kitty would have been called Miss Daylily (I’m not sure why), and Festus would have been Festus.

Ask Al

“What is a large flock of crows called?” Velcrows. They stick together.

“What do you call someone who has lived in your small hometown for 50 years?” A tourist.

“What bird puts in the longest days?” The cuckoo. It works around the clock.

In local news

The mystery book section disappeared from library. Police have no leads.

Grilled chicken admits to crime.

The Lazy Man’s Gym specializes in the diddlysquat.

Man surprised to learn that he’s color blind. The diagnosis came like a bolt out of the yellow.

Q&A

“My grandmother told me peonies need ants to bloom. True?” That’s an oft-repeated myth. The relationship between peonies and ants is a type of mutualism in which peony flowers provide food for ants and in turn, ants protect the plants from harmful insects. Peony nectaries secrete nectar composed of sugars, amino acids, lipids, and other organic compounds that are a food source for ants.

“How many bald eagles live a year?” The first year of a fledged eagle’s life is perilous with the mortality rate of eaglets during that period being over 50%.

“How do ants find food?” A scout ant searches for food by walking randomly until it finds some. It takes a tiny piece of the eats back to the nest, leaving a trail of a scent-emanating pheromones for other ants to follow.

I wonder

Most injuries in the home happen in the bathroom. Would we be safer in an outhouse?

Why are bad commercials the most memorable?

When did we start pulling pork apart?

Thanks for stopping by

“I meant to do my work today — but a brown bird sang in the apple tree and a butterfly flitted across the field, and all the leaves were calling me.” – Richard Le Gallienne

“If ant hills are high in July, the coming winter will be hard.” – Proverb

Meeting adjourned

If you can count your blessings, you are blessed. Be kind.

Do good.