If a cardinal poops on you, it’s supposed to bring good luck. I took a hit for humanity. It worked. 2020 ended.
A Red-bellied Woodpecker flashes the red belly that has made it the envy of all other woodpeckers.
I am as happy as a lark to see a sparrow. I love the song of the Song Sparrow.
Naturally
My first bird of the year was a cardinal. A white-throated sparrow found food on the ground on New Year's Day. The Christmas chipmunk joined it. The night before, I'd wondered how many stars there were in the sky.
A drive to drop off of Christmas things directed my eyes to house sparrows. They were abundant around livestock. Their numbers were greater when considerable food was available in cities because of horses. House sparrows feed on spilled grain and undigested seeds in manure.
I spotted a Baltimore oriole nest still hanging on. The female chooses the site. She generally builds the nest, a hanging pouch firmly attached to a fork of a slender branch in the upper branches of a deciduous tree (especially cottonwoods, maples and elms). It's tightly woven of plant fibers, strips of bark, grapevines, grass, yarn, string, plant down and hair.
I drove by muskrat mounds (lodges and push-ups). An old trapper told me to count lodges and multiply by five to get the muskrat population of a wetland.
While walking on a Christmas Bird Count, I saw some black knot, a widespread fungal disease that attacks trees of the genus prunus, like plum and cherry trees. The hard, uneven, black galls appear to enwrap twigs and branches. Some trees tolerate black knot while others are stunted or killed.
Voles prefer a white Christmas. They love to be under the snow for Christmas. They prosper in the subnivean zone, the area between the surface of the ground and the bottom of the snowpack. Mice and shrews also retreat there for protection from cold temperatures, bitter winds and hungry predators. Food is available there. It takes about 6 inches of snow to provide the critters with a sturdy roof and roomy living quarters. A bit more snow and the subnivean zone remains near 32° regardless of the temperature above the snow.
Q&A
A St. Peter reader asked what he should do with his bird feeders when he heads south for the winter. The best option would be to ask a kind friend, someone you can blackmail, a family member, a friendly neighbor or someone you could pay a princely sum to fill your feeders while you’re away. The good news is that your birds will do fine while you're gone. Birds adjust and they don't become dependent on a single food source. They will continue to patronize other food sources and find new ones. To prepare for your departure, slowly lessen the amount of food offered in your feeders so your avian amigos won't be shocked when they find the feeders are empty or removed. Even if you remove your feeders, the birds will come back. When you return home and have restored and filled the feeders, it might take a few days for the birds to find the food. When that happens, there is a chance of a tearful reunion. And don't worry, we, the stubborn or stupid who remain in Minnesota all winter, will continue to have nothing but good things to say about you.
"What do beavers eat?" The beaver is the largest rodent in North America weighing 40 to 70 pounds and eats bark, buds, stems, twigs, grasses, mushrooms, leaves, ferns and the roots of aquatic plants.
“How do I know what winter finches from the north might visit my yard?” The movement of some finches and other birds into Minnesota is based on the abundance of food in Canada. Pine grosbeaks might not be traveling much as the mountain ash fruit crop was good in the northern coniferous forests this winter. Pine siskins were reported at many feeding stations in 2020. They feed on spruce seeds in Canada and finch seed at our feeders. Red and white-wing crossbills feed primarily on conifer seeds. Purple finches show up most years and feed on the sunflower seeds we offer. Common redpolls (a redpoll weighs slightly more than four pennies) feed on birch and alder seeds. They eat nyjer seed at feeders. A caller said she'd spotted the largest goldfinch she'd ever seen. I want to see one of those evening grosbeaks in my yard, too. They feed on box elder, maple, ash and locust seeds. They're prodigious eaters of sunflower seeds. Red-breasted nuthatches aren’t finches but depend on conifer seeds when wintering in the north.
“Where does the name sandpiper come from?” I suspect the derivation is due to a combination of a piping cry coming from a bird on the sand.
Thanks for stopping by
"Ring out false pride in place and blood, the civic slander and the spite; ring in the love of truth and right, ring in the common love of good." — Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"There are two seasonal diversions that can ease the bite of any winter. One is the January thaw. The other is the seed catalogs." — Hal Borland
Do good.
©Al Batt 2021
A Baltimore Oriole constructing a nest. Photo by Al Batt
The looming House Sparrow is considerably larger than the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.
This Blue Jay just saw the price of peanuts.
A House Finch in front of a Purple Finch fading into the bokeh.
A little snow goes a long way on a chickadee.
A Red Squirrel is upset more often than I am in a canoe, but not by much.
In a flashback to warmer times, I see an American Avocet.
It’s a lengthy flashback.
I couldn’t find a pumpkin to see if it had frost on it or not.
I couldn’t find a pumpkin to see if it had frost on it or not.
I couldn’t find a pumpkin to see if it had frost on it or not.
I couldn’t find a pumpkin to see if it had frost on it or not.
Firefighter training for squirrels.
A Eurasian Tree Sparrow is hanging around with a gang of House Sparrows in my yard. The bird is a lovely surprise. I’d not seen one in my county before.
A Eurasian Tree Sparrow is hanging around with a gang of House Sparrows in my yard. The bird is a lovely surprise. I’d not seen one in my county before.
What’s that in the feathers of a Ring-necked Pheasant rooster? It’s sheer loveliness.
The stunning gorgeousness of a goldfinch.
Ring-necked Pheasant hens striving to blend in with an environment that doesn’t always look like a pheasant.
Ring-necked Pheasant hens striving to blend in with an environment that doesn’t always look like a pheasant.
Ring-necked Pheasant hens striving to blend in with an environment that doesn’t always look like a pheasant.
That which doesn’t freeze us solid makes us warmer.
What does a spider think when it finds a man in its shower?
Our local Audubon group has a preserve, bees and Wendy’s plants.
Our local Audubon group has a preserve, bees and Wendy’s plants.
Our local Audubon group has a preserve, bees and Wendy’s plants.
And now for something completely familiar — a snowbird (Dark-eyed Junco) and snow.
Notice the tubercle on the pelican’s bill on this sign in Albert Lea, Minnesota. I have been pleased to narrate natural history tours on a boat floating on Albert Lea Lake (glimpsed behind this sign) for many years until the virus shut that wonderful enterprise down.
I’ve been honored by being able to lead nature walks here in Albert Lea, Minnesota. It’s a place where a bird bum like me could walk forever.
A House Finch makes a wonderful neighbor. It beautifies the neighborhood, sings songs I enjoy hearing and never borrows any tools.
It was a good day, but not perfect. I had some egrets.
One goldfinch is worth every penny I pay for finch seed.
A lynx in a Cabela’s store. Not many of them shop there.
A White-throated Sparrow — probably not this one — is still spending time under my January feeders.
Naturally
The snowplow had gone by twice, but enough snow remained on the road to muffle the sounds of cars.
The season is backward or forward, I'm not sure which. I walked 8 miles looking for birds on a Christmas Bird Count (CBC), always needing to see one more bird for good luck. Trees swayed and things lurked. Crows watched me intently. They believe all living things merit further study. I follow the Dr. Seuss school of doing a CBC. He wrote this in "Oh, The Places You’ll Go!" "You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life's a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left." I've done many counts. I know what I’m missing.
Goldfinches had become coldfinches at temperatures well below zero. I didn't see a popinjay. It's an insulting word for a vain or conceited person, one given to pretentious displays. It was also, at one time, the name for a parrot.
I put peanuts in the shell for the jays. I imagine them saying, "Found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now. Just now I found a peanut, found a peanut just now.” A happy blue jay is a blue jay weighing a peanut just as a bowler does when searching for the perfect heft to a bowling ball filled with strikes.
Q&A
"Why do spiders have eight legs and insects only six?" Because if spiders had only six legs, they'd be insects. There probably isn't any definitive reason spiders have eight legs and insects six. Scorpions, harvestmen, ticks and all arachnids have four pairs of legs.
"I received a Christmas card with an English robin on it. Is it related to our robins?" A European legend says on the night Jesus was born, a robin heard Mary's plea to keep the fire from going out. The robin fanned the embers with its wings until they glowed red and tossed twigs into the fire. The flames singed the robin's white breast, turning it red. European settlers to North America gave the name robin to the red-breasted songbird they saw here — the American robin. Bluebirds were sometimes called robins by the British, towhees were ground robins and Baltimore orioles were golden robins. The two robins aren't closely related. The larger American robin is a member of the Turdidae or thrush family that includes the wood thrush and eastern bluebird, and the European robin (robin redbreast) is a flycatcher-thrush in the Muscicapidae family with nightingales and chats. Robin is an Old French diminutive of Robert.
"How many crane species are there?" There are 15 in the world. The U.S. has the most abundant (sandhill crane) and the most endangered (whooping crane). The International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis., is the only place on Earth where you can see all 15 of the world’s crane species. Its mission: The International Crane Foundation works worldwide to conserve cranes and the ecosystems, watersheds and flyways on which they depend. The Foundation will open on May 1.
"When do the cranes visit Nebraska's Platte River?" I tell myself the sandhill cranes arrive by Valentine's Day, reach peak numbers on St. Patrick’s Day, and are gone by Tax Day, but this varies from year to year. Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary near Minden and Gibbon (in the Kearney area) offers blinds March 6 — April 11. The Crane Trust near Wood River (closer to Grand Island) has blinds available from March 1 to April 1. These are subject to change. Neither are far from I-80 and both morning and evening blinds are available to see some of the 600,000 cranes. The fall migration doesn't offer huge gatherings of cranes. Rowe's phone number is 308-468-5282and Crane Trust's is 308-382-1820.
Thanks for stopping by
"I part the out thrusting branches and come in beneath the blessed and the blessing trees. Though I am silent there is singing around me. Though I am dark there is vision around me. Though I am heavy there is flight around me." — Wendell Berry
"For a large and growing number of people, birds are the strongest bond with the living world of nature. They charm us with lovely plumage and melodious songs; our quest of them takes us to the fairest places; to find them and uncover some of their well-guarded secrets we exert ourselves greatly and live intensely. In the measure that we appreciate and understand them and are grateful for our coexistence with them, we help bring to fruition the agelong travail that made them and us. This, I am convinced, is the highest significance of our relationship with birds." — Alexander E. Skutch
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
Contrary to popular belief, the sandhill cranes in Nebraska aren’t all Cornhusker fans. Photo by Al Batt
Some days, they are all snowbirds.
A House Sparrow taking a bough.
A January fog will freeze a hog or a dog, but it will frost a tree.
After big freshman season, Batt ready to raise her game
She won’t say she was born to be a Minnesota State basketball player, but New Ulm native Joey Batt knew from a pretty young age that the Mavericks would be at or near the top of her list if she decided to play college ball.
“I always thought it would be cool to play here,” Batt said at Bresnan Arena this week. “My family came to watch a lot of games here as I was growing up. I was familiar with the campus and arena and all that stuff.”
After a standout career at New Ulm, the 5-foot-5 point guard played well enough to make the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference’s All-Freshman team. She averaged 9.4 points, 1.7 steals and 20.1 minutes per game.
Both Batt and MSU head coach Emilee Thiesse admit it was a good start to a career, but neither is satisfied.
“At the end of last year I asked her, OK, you’ve had a good season, but are you ready to take the next step?” Thiesse said. “Are you going to be content or do you want to elevate your game and the team to the next level?”
Judging by what she’s seen in practice, the answer is yes to both questions. Batt is the quintessential gym rat who is a tireless worker in practice.
She is expected to be an integral part of a team that went 18-11 a year ago and has been picked to finish first in the Southern Division of the Northern Sun by league coaches.
The Mavericks did not have a star player last season but instead relied on their balance and depth to be successful. Thiesse expects more of the same in 2021.
“We’re an up-tempo team so we expect all 12 players to contribute,” the coach said. “We want to rotate as many fresh players into the game as we can.”
Leading scorer Kristin Fett (10.3 points), a 6-5 junior center, is back. She is the only player returning who averaged double figures in scoring a year ago.
Among the other top returning players are 5-10 senior forward Tayla Stuttley (8.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 66 assists), 6-0 senior forward Rachel Schumski (7.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 13 blocks), 5-4 junior guard Maddy Olson (6.6 points, 59 assist) and 5-7 senior forward Brooke Tonsfeldt (4.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 44 steals).
Junior forward Jinda Guidinger is a transfer from Western Illinois.
The incoming freshmen are guard Taylor Theusch, guard/forward Grace Mueller, guard/forward Ali Hunstad and 5-11 forward Emily Russo.
“We like our freshman class,” Thiesse said. “They’re going to have to work for playing time because we have so much depth and experience coming back, but that’s the way it should be.”
By Jim Rueda. The Free Press
Happy New Year! Things are looking up.
Life can be hairy. Keep looking.
Count the cardinals not the thorns.
Here’s something you don’t see every day — a squirrel sitting in the snow while eating an avocado.
This House Sparrow is unlikely to stay awake long enough to see the ball drop at midnight.
A starling looks as if tiny birds with wet paint on their feet had walked on its feathers.
A colorful American Goldfinch hangs on until 2020 has left.
The memory of an Indigo Bunting shines on a cold day. Such warm thoughts are appreciated.
The sight of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak is always warming. I hope it’s wintering well in the tropics. It’d be nice if it sent me a postcard.
Here’s looking at you. Happy New Year!
We are available as cardboard cutout fans at sporting events.
I spent one afternoon leaning out my window and talking trash with a trash panda (raccoon).
2021 will have a May and its May will have a female Indigo Bunting. It’s wonderful how that works.
Winter is crushing it with its artistry but it struggles with cursive.
Winter is crushing it with its artistry but it struggles with cursive.
I’m pleased this isn’t my living room chair.
The old fisherman watches a successful student.
The gull was not gullible enough to get any closer.
I need to get in my steps even when it’s dark in Haines, Alaska.
The centerline of the main drag in Hartland melts away every June.
Naturally
I heard a bird singing merrily on high. It was a crow.
It was 30 years ago. I still played basketball. After a hard-fought battle on the hardwood, I stopped at a supermarket to make my shopping list happy. There was a stack of heated dog dishes by the door. They were not big sellers as they'd been reduced to $2. I bought one as any big spender would have. I should have bought the entire stack, as I used it as a bird waterer until it became dog-tired. It worked well and didn't spin the electric meter. A birdbath with a built-in heater draws birds to a backyard. Birdbaths can sit on the ground as my dog dish did or be mounted on a pole or deck railing. There are heaters that can be added to a birdbath to keep the water open all winter. I have a new dog dish. It cost way more than $2. It's popular because the birds think it's a bird dish.
I saw a red fox on the road. A red fox has a white-tipped tail and is seen in forests and fields, often in the open. Gray foxes have black-tipped tails and are found in forests and forest edges, not likely seen in open areas. Gray foxes can climb trees. Because they prey upon small mammals, a healthy population of foxes tends to lower the incidence of Lyme disease.
A bird feeder and a state park sticker are splendid gifts. They keep on giving. The blue jays in the yard appreciated the gift of peanuts in the shell. It was fun making them happy. The Christmas chipmunk made its appearance. Chipmunks aren't true hibernators. Instead, they enter a torpid state, in which their body temperature and heartbeat decrease, but they wake every few days to feed on stockpiled food and to defecate. A chipmunk's burrow system has an entrance hole about 2 inches in diameter and goes down around 2 feet before paralleling the surface for up to 10 feet. Chambers for sleeping, storing food, defecating and giving birth are excavated to the side of the tunnel. Chipmunks love tomato juice — when tomatoes ripen, chipmunks eat holes in the bottoms to get the juice. Despite the propensity to attack my tomatoes, I gave the Christmas chipmunk some peanuts. It made the chipmunk happy. And me, too. Merry Christmas.
Q&A
"How long do bald eagles feed their young?" Eaglets are nestlings for 10 to 12 weeks and are fully grown at 9 weeks. They are fed raw meat directly one to eight times a day, receiving no regurgitated food as some other birds do. The male provides most of the food for the first two weeks. After 3 or 4 weeks the female provides as much food as the male and by the late nesting period, the female is providing most of the food. The parents will continue to provide food for some time after fledging as the newly flighted birds hone their hunting and flying skills. It takes 4-12 weeks on average for young eagles to hunt successfully. Fully refined, specialized hunting skills probably take years to develop.
"Are flying eagles courting when they interlock talons?" They could be, but talon-grappling and tumbling have been observed behaviors in all combinations of eagles. Four possible reasons for such actions are pair-bonding, aggression, learning and play.
"What are two porcupines called?" A prickly pair.
Marian Bahl of Faribault wrote, "Where are the finches? Nothing is eating at my thistle seed feeder!" I’ll send some goldfinches your way. It might take a couple of days, what with it being near Christmas and all. The pine siskins blew through some yards. Their winter movements are erratic and depend partly on the state of cone crops in northern North America. The weather has been kind to finches and they are finding plenty of natural foods to eat. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, they’ll be back.
"I raise chickens. I watched roosters preening before a fight. What's going on there?" Displacement behavior occurs when an animal performs an act that's irrelevant to the behavioral context. It includes self-grooming, touching or scratching displayed when an animal has a conflict between two motivations, such as the desire to fight another while being afraid of that opponent.
"Do robins reuse nests?" Not typically. Old nests crumble during winter, parasite eggs or larvae may overwinter in a nest and attack nestlings, and female robins have a powerful impulse to build a new nest each year.
Thanks for stopping by
"Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won't make it 'white.'" — Bing Crosby
"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together." — Garrison Keillor
Do good.
©Al Batt 2020
What do you call a goldfinch on a boomerang that won’t come back? A goldfinch on a stick. Photo by Al Batt
There is nothing like a little suet on a snowy day.
A House Sparrow dressed for winter.
A Pine Siskin knows a storm can ruffle a few feathers.
A starling warms its feet on cold medal.
Purl the cat had wanted an ex-box for Christmas.
I see this here and there, and especially way over there. So many reasons have been given for hanging shoes, it keeps us wondering.
At well below zero temps, a goldfinch becomes a coldfinch.
I had an expert decorate the Christmas trees.
It’s winter. Let the festivities begin.
What does a good Minnesota man do in this predicament? He wishes he were somewhere else.
The utility wires have been frosted, greasing the skids for Santa’s arrival.
The snow had disguised bushes as large cauliflower heads.
My angel wife made a snow angel.