“You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking...you talking to me? Well, I'm the only one here. “ — Travis Bickle the Bald Eagle
A Bald Eagle uses an eagle eye in an attempt to see what the deal is with 2020.
I hoped the Bald Eagle was OK, but the drooping wings concerned me.
Why did the Bald Eagle cross the road? The eagle could see many roads from its perch on this lovely cross.
Why did the Bald Eagle cross the road? The eagle could see many roads from its perch on this lovely cross.
I asked myself if I could ever see too many Steller’s Jays. I think not.
It was so foggy, I could barely tell it was a Brown Bear.
Did Anne Murray sing of this junco or the Snow Bunting in her famous song “Snowbird”?
The Harris's Sparrow was named after Edward Harris, Audubon's pal and a horse breeder. The breeding range of this species is all in Canada.
The oldest known bald eagle in the wild was at least 38 years old. It was hit and killed by a car in New York in 2015. Photo by Al Batt
Naturally
I watched a nuthatch take peanuts from a feeder. It was a white-breasted peanuthatch. A grumpy-looking bird, either the bluebird of crankiness or the bluebird of Minneapolis perched nearby. I studied squirrels gathering leaves at the tops of the trees. They were nest contractors.
This is an irruption year for finches. Pine siskins have been numerous and we’ll likely be seeing common redpolls. I'm keeping sharp eyes out for evening grosbeaks. I've had four people in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa tell me they'd seen these beautiful yellow, black and white birds. The birds are good eaters and when they visit a feeder, they're like hogs at a trough. There was a good crop of spruce budworms in the north this year. Those are prime food for the grosbeak nestlings and produced a good crop of grosbeaks.
I've been a member of the board of the American Bald Eagle Foundation (ABEF) in Haines, Alaska, for a goodly number of years. Each year, we hold a festival where people come from all over to see the eagles and other wildlife. Smithsonian Magazine did an article recently titled, "Behold the Largest Congregation of Bald Eagles in the United States." The subtitle was, "Every November, hundreds if not thousands of the birds of prey gather in Haines, Alaska, to feast on salmon." The festival was canceled this year because of COVID-19 and the Canadian border being closed. A friend, Cheryl Roberts of Haines, drove the route along the Chilkat River where the birds typically congregate and counted 25 eagles. Another friend, Dave Olerud of Haines, drove the same road and counted 20 eagles. If there was a festival this year, we'd have had to put up cardboard cutouts of eagles. Low salmon runs are believed to be the cause for the poor eagle crowd and combined with a poor berry season has caused bears to seek other food sources. Add that the local landfill has become more secure and you have bears raiding things like garages in search of food. At least 40 brown bears were killed, some to protect property, in Haines during the regulatory year running July — June. Those numbers are unprecedented as the previous high was 22. Residents were cautioned to do a better job securing bear attractants. In other sad news, a wild brown bear broke in and killed Caesar, a 16-year-old alpaca and unofficial mascot of the zoo in Anchorage. Wildlife officials euthanized the bear.
At the ABEF, a magpie got into the mew of Bella, a bald eagle. There was no damage done to either bird and the two were seen perched on the same roost.
Q&A
"What is the chicken hawk?" The misleading moniker is typically applied to three raptors. The Cooper's hawk is the one I first think of. It's also nicknamed big blue darter, hen hawk, quail hawk, striker or swift hawk. The sharp-shinned hawk is also called bird hawk, bullet hawk, little blue darter or slate-colored hawk. The red-tailed hawk is the other bird of prey.
"How many bald eagles spend the winter in Minnesota?" I don’t know the number. The eagle is a regular in winter in southeastern Minnesota and other parts of Minnesota where there is open water. Wabasha, Read's Landing, Camp Lacupolis and the surrounding riverfront areas hold lovely viewing spots for wintering bald eagles. The birds overwinter in the Red Wing and Wabasha areas near the Mississippi River, where the current of the inflowing Chippewa River maintains open water.
Susan Wegner of Maine wrote, "Here is a bird plumage question for you. After watching the gyrations of little birds at the feeders, I became aware of the white-breasted nuthatch’s chestnut-colored "undergump" as the Norwegians say. Or undertail coverts as my 1980 Peterson says. So, rather than ask the "source of all knowledge" (internet through google search), I thought I would ask you, humorous human source of bird knowledge. So why the colors down under?" It's related to courtship. Arthur Cleveland Bent wrote in 1948, "Standing back to her, he bows slowly downward as he sings, then in the interval before another song he straightens up, then bows as he sings again. The songs come with perfect regularity over and over again and can thus be recognized even in the distance as the courtship song. We may imagine what a changing color scheme is presented to the female bird, if, as his song invites her to do, she glances his way — the black of his crown and his rough raised mane, then the blue-gray of his back, then the variegated black and white pattern of his expanded tail, then, perhaps, at the end of his bow, a flash of ruddy brown."
Thanks for stopping by
"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." ― G.K. Chesterton
"Be curious, not judgmental." — Walt Whitman
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
Red squirrels have cute noses.
It’s a bat house.
The Mallard is probably one of our most researched birds.
This is the way a Mallard wears a mask.
The work of a skilled beaver — or not.
November is some summer, a bit of fall and a bunch of winter.
From the Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska.
The Steller’s Jay is black and blue just as I was during my football playing days.
The Steller’s Jay has one of the most often misspelled bird names. Despite that, it remains stellar.
The weather forecast in Sitka, Alaska, had been for humpback whale showers.
The Eurasian Eagle-owl at the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines, Alaska, is a crowd pleaser.
The Eurasian Eagle-owl at the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Haines, Alaska, is a crowd pleaser.
Naturally
I find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Fall, summer and winter showed up in November and fought it
out. The air became crisper, the nights cozier and the socks woolier. The view out a window can be exquisite and some would argue there were days when the weather was best enjoyed that way. Especially when the wind with its cold teeth threatened to peel back the day.
A gray catbird was in my yard on Nov. 7. That's late for that bird species to be here. It was joined by immature Harris's sparrows, eastern bluebirds and drab-colored goldfinches galore. The cedar waxwing is a stylish bird, which means I have nothing in my closet it'd ever be caught wearing. A flock of waxwings fed on berries. The hum of farm equipment and the roar of tractor-trailer rigs swallowed any sounds the waxwings might have been making as I pulled impaled leaves from my rake.
Buckthorn has many branches and thorns. It keeps its leaves longer and greens up earlier than most deciduous trees. It sprouts profusely. I saw a great blue heron (Big Cranky, Long John or Poor Joe) standing as still as a statue along the Le Sueur River.
A woolly bear caterpillar moved across the walk. These caterpillars shed their skins several times and their colors change before fall. The caterpillar’s coat helps it survive winter. The woolly worm was searching for a place to curl up and hibernate until building a cocoon in the spring. The length of the bands is based on the caterpillar's age, with nutrition, genetics, habitat and species being other possible determinants.
It resembled a big mosquito but doesn't bite humans. It was a crane fly with a 1.5-inch long body and a 3-inch wingspread. In colloquial speech, crane flies are sometimes called mosquito hawks or daddy longlegs. To me, mosquito hawks are dragonflies and daddy longlegs are the arachnids called harvestmen. They aren't spiders. They don’t produce silk and aren't venomous. I've found daddy longlegs with fewer than eight legs because they'll shed legs grasped by predators and cannot regrow them.
Q&A
"My yard has noisy squirrels. What are they talking about?" A researcher at Auburn University wondered the same thing and learned the most common sounds squirrels make are danger warnings. The kuk is a sharp bark of alarm, usually issued in a series and intended for other squirrels and predators. The study showed that when a squirrel starts kukking, a cat gives up, knowing it had lost the element of surprise. The quaa sounds a bit like a cat screeching and is issued after the threat level has dropped. A quaa moan sounds like a chirp followed by a meow. It's ventriloquial, making it difficult to determine the sound's location. It's given in hopes the predator had left but suggests continued caution. Some experts claim to be able to tell if the squirrel is warning about an aerial or terrestrial predator. Muk-muk resembles a stifled sneeze or buzz-like phfft, phfft. Nesting squirrels use it when hungry and males make it during mating chases.
"How many trumpeter swans are there in Minnesota?" A 2015 statewide tally counted over 17,000 swans. A current estimate is 30,000. Some winter in Minnesota, settling on open water on the Mississippi River in Monticello (2,000 winter there) or along the St. Croix River. Native to Minnesota and the largest North American waterfowl species, trumpeter swans inhabited wetlands from Illinois northwest to Alaska. Throughout the 1800s, they were hunted for their meat (no supermarkets available) and feathers (some used for quill pens). Swan habitat diminished as settlers moved across North America. By the 1930s, an estimated 69 trumpeters remained in the lower 48 states, living in remote southeastern Montana. When the DNR started the swan reintroduction program in the 1980s, its goal was 350 swans.
"This fall, something made holes as big around as a pencil in my lawn. There were no mounds of dirt and the holes went down a few inches before stopping or turning. What is making them?" A northern flicker, with its white rump patch and black bib, creates holes like your description. The woodpecker regularly feeds on the ground, eating ants or grubs.
Thanks for stopping by
"It is perhaps a more fortunate destiny to have a taste for collecting shells than to be born a millionaire." — Robert Louis Stevenson
"Great blue heron is the color of gray mist reflecting in blue water. And like mist, she can fade into the backdrop, all of her disappearing except the concentric circles of her lock-and-load eyes. She is a patient, solitary hunter, standing alone as long as it takes to snatch her prey. Or, eyeing her catch, she will stride forward one slow step at a time, like a predacious bridesmaid. And yet, on rare occasions she hunts on the wing, darting and diving sharply, swordlike beak in the lead." ― Delia Owens, "Where the Crawdads Sing"
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
There’s something fishy about a great blue heron’s diet, but it will eat anything that comes within striking distance. I’ve seen one eat birds, ground squirrels and chipmunks. Photo by Al Batt
A Great Gray Owl is great for an owl of any color.
The Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska.
With a big enough hammer, a square peg will fit into a round hole.
Just like Blue Jays, Steller’s Jays love peanuts.
John Muir wrote, “I must break away and get out into the mountains and learn the news.” These are in Haines, Alaska.
This immature Bald Eagle had good luck fishing.
An oily photo of a lovely Rusty Blackbird.
A youngster, carrying some fancy binoculars, is a about to release a hawk at, of all places, Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota.
A White-throated Sparrow checks the menu.
It was either the bluebird of crankiness or the bluebird of Minneapolis.
This gang of ducks was hanging out at what they thought was a safe distance from the sign.
I don’t know if ducks believe in astrology, but none of them want to be under this sign.
Definitely not waterfowl.
The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a goober grabber.
A White-crowned Sparrow looking princely while hoping to wear a white crown one day.
A Red-breasted Peanuthatch.
Would misidentifying a Pied-billed Grebe be a grebous error?
Naturally
The yard crows were kicking up a fuss. Crows can't keep a secret. There was a puff of cold wind that led to a puff of house sparrow. A bird’s body heat warms the air between its feathers, so birds fluff up in the cold to trap as much warm air in their feathers as possible. The more trapped air there is, the warmer the bird. An American goldfinch and a pine siskin shared a feeder table that allowed them to maintain social distancing. There was a chickadee eye looking everywhere. The Ginkgo tree completed its annual striptease by dropping all its leaves in a single day.
Q&A
"I have mullein growing on my property. Do birds feed on it?" Common mullein is a biennial that in its first year has a basal rosette of large, velvety leaves. Its second year produces a tall dried skeleton of seeds after the fuzzy stem has dropped its yellow, five-petalled flowers. Once it has gone to seed, mullein provides winter food for finches, chickadees and downy woodpeckers.
"I watched a blue jay pick up several peanuts in the shell on my feeder before flying off with one. What was it doing?" A study published in the Journal of Ornithology suggested that the bird was weighing peanuts and possibly shaking them to determine the quality. When presented with ten empty and ten full identical pods, the jays rejected the empty ones and accepted the full peanuts without opening them. The jays preferred the heavier nuts.
"What is the smallest mammal?" By total mass, the Etruscan shrew, a shrew species found from southern Europe to southern Asia, is the smallest mammal, weighing up to two grams. The bumblebee bat or Kitti’s hog-nosed bat occurring in Thailand and parts of Myanmar is the smallest mammal by length, measuring barely over an inch long. The smallest mammal in North America is the pygmy shrew, which weighs 0.07 ounces and has a body 1.5 to 2 inches long.
"Why don't I find many dead birds?" There is no secret avian graveyard. Vulnerable birds seek secluded places, hoping rest would help them recover. Scavengers and predators find those weak or deceased birds. Those that aren't found by predators or scavengers decompose rapidly, with the help of bacteria and insects.
"How much does a pelican eat?" According to the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, an adult American white pelican consumes 20-40% of its body weight daily, with its average weight being 15 pounds, which means 3-6 pounds of fish per day. Approximately 150 pounds of food is needed to feed one chick from hatching to fledging. The food caught is always swallowed, never carried in a pouch.
"Have you heard about Bird Names For Birds?" It's a campaign to abandon eponyms in taxonomy and honorific common names for birds to support equity, diversity and inclusion in the American birding community. The campaign writes "Eponyms (a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or thought to be named) and honorific common bird names (a name given to something in honor of a person) are problematic because they perpetuate colonialism and the racism associated with it. The names that these birds currently have—for example, Bachman’s Sparrow — represent and remember people (mainly white men) who often have objectively horrible pasts and do not uphold the morals and standards the bird community should memorialize." I wouldn't be unhappy with more descriptive names.
"What bird migrates the farthest?" The arctic tern breeds in the Arctic and sub-Arctic and winters in the Antarctic. Tracking studies have found the birds make annual journeys of about 44,100 miles, with one bird flying round trip from England to Antarctica on a journey of 59,650 miles.
"Were canaries used in coal mines or is it just a story?" Canaries are early detectors of carbon monoxide because they’re vulnerable to airborne poisons. In 1986, a mining tradition dating back to 1911 ended the use of canaries in coal mines to detect carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they were harmful to humans.
"Why is Iowa the Hawkeye State?" The nickname was partially inspired by the scout, Hawkeye, in James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" and was suggested as a tribute to Chief Black Hawk.
Thanks for stopping by
"We have probed the earth, excavated it, burned it, ripped things from it, buried things in it, chopped down its forests, leveled its hills, muddied its waters, and dirtied its air. That does not fit my definition of a good tenant. If we were here on a month-to-month basis, we would have been evicted long ago." — Rose Bird, the late Chief Justice of California Supreme Court
"Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like." —Will Rogers
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
A pine siskin can store up to 10% of its body weight in seeds inside its crop to sustain the bird during frigid nighttime temperatures. Photo by Al Batt
I thought by now you'd realize There ain't no way to hide your lion eyes.
I have fond memories of September and its flowers, bees and soldier beetles.
After learning there were no squirrels in Iceland, this one made travel plans.
A Red-breasted Nuthatch. Another term for “cute.”
A threshing machine in retirement.
If life gives you hay, you build a tractor.
A house finch and her shadow.