There was a headless rabbit in my yard. Was it Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick?

Naturally

 The morning brought the sounds of birds as they celebrated making it through the night.
 The elegant and eloquent American goldfinches begin to resemble their “wild canary” nickname.
 I watched two squirrels fight over a buried acorn one had unearthed. Storage wars.
 An Eaglewatch Cam is offering a live view of the Mississippi River at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota. Watch eagles catch fish, soar over the river, perch on trees and more at https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/eaglewatch-cam/

Q&A

 “What is a group of cedar waxwings called?” A flock. Other collective nouns are museum and earful.
 Jerry Viktora of Ellendale asked why the wild turkeys disappeared from his yard. Turkeys like large, older trees with substantial horizontal branches—just the kind Jerry’s property provides. Oaks are perfect and they like white pines where they can find them. In spring, summer and fall, hayfields, pastures and open woods are important forage areas for insects, berries and seeds. Young turkeys need high-protein insects during their first couple of months of life. By late fall, turkeys depend on acorns, grains, fruits and berries. They flock together for safety. Acorns are a staple of their winter diet and waste corn in fields can be another. South-facing slopes are important foraging and resting areas as increased snowmelt exposes food. Manure spread on fields provides an additional source of grain. Turkeys struggle when powdery snow depths exceed 10 inches for 20 consecutive days. South- and east-facing slopes are preferred by roosting turkeys for early sunlight and for feeding areas sheltered from northwest winds during winter. Turkeys don’t always roost in the same place and are like deer in that they shift to different parts of their home range throughout the year. They spend more time roosting in favored locations than anywhere else. There is a greater roost site loyalty shown by turkeys in open terrain than by turkeys in heavily forested areas. A great horned owl turned out to be the thing making his turkeys nervous enough to go absent with leave.
 “There was a headless rabbit in my yard. Was it Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick?” I’d put nothing past Colonel Mustard, but when folks encounter such a sight and perform a thorough crime scene investigation, they come up with a list of usual suspects (cat, celebrity chef and Colonel Mustard). I’d take Colonel Mustard off that suspect list and guess that the culprit was an owl. A great horned owl’s signature method when dealing with large prey is to behead the victim before it’s taken to the owl’s nest or eating perch. Out of 28 owl kills in a study conducted in Kansas, 60% of the prey items were decapitated. A great horned owl has a deadly grip and uses its bill and talons to cleave a bunny head as fast as a rodeo cowboy can rope a steer. Apparently, rabbit brains and eyes are a delicacy for owls and are nutritious by being full of fats and proteins.
 “I heard you talk about a godwit on the radio. What is the origin of that name?” The origin of its mysterious moniker is obscure. Some have suggested the name comes from the Old English gōdwiht, corresponding to good +‎ wight (“creature”). The Oxford English Dictionary considers the term likely to have been imitative of the bird's call. Most etymological sources find the origin of the godwit name to be unknown.
 “What is a spongy moth?” Spongy moth was adopted as the new common name for the moth species Lymantria dispar (formerly known as the gypsy moth) by the Entomological Society of America. The new name comes from a translation of a French name based on the destructive forest pest's sponge-like egg masses. 
 “Why does the snow on the south side of my shed melt faster than the snow on the north side of the shed?” It’s the tilt of the Northern Hemisphere away from the sun during the winter. This angle allows more sunlight to hit the south side of buildings in winter, which helps to melt away ice and snow. The north side receives less direct sun and casts a shadow. This makes the temperatures cooler north of your shed and keeps the ice and snow around longer than on the opposite side of the structure.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
 “As of today, you have 100 percent of your life left.¨—Tom Landry.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The blue-winged teal is the second most abundant duck in North America, behind only the mallard. They are dabbling or puddle ducks. These three drakes feed by dabbling—skimming food from the surface of the water, dipping their bills just below the surface or by tipping their bodies into a bottoms-up position. Photo by Al Batt

Colonel Mustard had nothing to do with this either.

Embed Block

Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

Do owls eat carrion? Do flickers eat ticks?

Naturally

Geese aren’t afraid of public speaking. I listened to them talk on stubble-covered farm fields lowered by the disappearance of snow.
What do the first migrants think of in the spring? “Too soon?” Many consider strutting grackles the jerks of the bird world. An unfair assessment.
An American white pelican has up to a 114-inch wingspan. A red-tailed hawk’s wings stretch to 52 inches.

Q&A

“Am I seeing trumpeter or tundra swans?” If you see them nesting here, they are trumpeters. Trumpeter swans are larger than tundras, but the difference in size is apparent only if the two species are right next to one another. A fluffed tundra might look bigger than a trim trumpeter. I listen to calls. Trumpeter swan calls are trumpet-like, which sound like a junior high French horn player warming up to me. Lewis and Clark, during their expedition, provided the first written description of tundra swans, where the birds’ whistle-like calls prompted Meriwether Lewis to dub them “whistling swans.” Trumpeters sound remarkably low-pitched and nasal in comparison. If you hear something whistling the theme song to “The Andy Griffith Show,” it will be a TV and not a tundra swan. Tundra swans stay in flocks except when on breeding territory in the arctic. If you see a pair or a few swans, they’re likely trumpeter swans.
“Where do crows nest?” American crows hide their nests in a crotch near the trunk of a tree or on a horizontal branch toward the top third of a tree, preferring to nest in evergreens, but will nest in deciduous trees when evergreens are unavailable. Both members of a breeding pair build the nest and the young from the previous year might help. The nest is made of medium-sized twigs with an inner cup lined with pine needles, vegetation, bark and/or animal hair.
“Do owls eat carrion?” Owls aren’t thought of as scavengers, but the behavior is more widespread than believed, according to University of Illinois researchers. Most of the carcasses fed upon were mammals, especially those with hooves. I’ve seen an owl on a dead deer.
“Do birds have taste buds?” Birds have up to 500 taste buds, while adult humans have 2,000 to 10,000. Parrots have 300 to 400 and chickens have only 24. Birds can taste sweet, sour and bitter, and learn how combinations of those tastes warn them of toxic foods or invite them to feed. Fruit-eaters can detect when fruit is ripe and hummingbirds taste differences in sugar concentrations found in flowers.
“What animals store food?” Mammals, birds and insects (ants, bees and wasps are famous for doing this) cache food to use later. Seeds lend themselves to storage. Nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, jays, crows, falcons, many owl species, shrikes, nutcrackers and some woodpeckers cache. Rodents, foxes, bobcats and mountain lions cache food. Moles store living earthworms, immobilized after having their heads bitten off, for the winter. Moles don’t hibernate and are busiest finding and storing foods during summer’s rainy periods.
“What kind of sandhill cranes do we have in Minnesota?” There are two separate populations, both are greater sandhill cranes with expanding populations. The cranes breeding in eastern Minnesota winter in north and central Florida, and the cranes nesting in northwestern Minnesota winter along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Sandhill cranes that gather along the Platte River in Nebraska primarily winter in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. According to Nebraska Game and Parks, most of those birds are lesser sandhill cranes, the smallest subspecies. The Canadian or intermediate sandhill crane makes up about 15% of the birds staging along the Platte, and the greater sandhill crane comprises about 5%. Lesser sandhill cranes are birds of the high arctic, nesting across the northern reaches of Canada and Alaska, with some crossing the Bering Strait into eastern Siberia.
“How far will a great blue heron travel for food?” Studies found most nesting herons stay within a 2-mile range, but will travel as far as 18 miles.
“Do flickers eat ticks?” I don’t think so. Flickers feed on the ground, hammering on soil as other woodpeckers do on wood, looking for ants, which are 45% of their diet. A flicker’s tongue darts out 2 inches beyond the end of its bill to snare prey. They feed on beetles and corn borers and occasionally catch insects in the air. Other invertebrates eaten include flies, butterflies, moths and snails. Flickers switch to eating seeds; fruit and berries from poison ivy, dogwood, sumac, wild cherry, grape, bayberries, hackberries and elderberries; and sunflower seeds at feeders in the winter. Wild turkeys and opossums eat ticks.

Thanks for stopping by

“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”—Henry Ward Beecher.
“Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

This is a female downy woodpecker. A male has a small red patch on the back of his head. Male and female downy woodpeckers divide winter foraging areas. Males feed more on small branches and weed stems, and females feed on larger branches and trunks. Males keep the females from foraging in the more productive spots. Photo by Al Batt.

Juncos make toy ray gun sounds. Pew, pew, pew!

Naturally

 It’s good to hear the red-winged blackbird males singing on territory. They returned in time for the annual meeting. The earlier males had quietly traveled through on their way farther north. 
 Winter had been a keeper whether we wanted to keep it or not, but there are beautiful things in the yard. Juncos make toy ray gun sounds. The gray birds with white bellies and outer tail feathers come with the season. They are joined by American tree sparrows that look as if they’re wearing tie tacks without neckties. I watch the runways to the airports that are my feeders. I welcome the company of nuthatches. A red-breasted nuthatch is about half the size of a white-breasted nuthatch and is smaller than a chickadee. Red-bellied woodpeckers are common and have expanded their range northward in recent decades. Their population increased by an estimated 0.8% per year from 1966 to 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, while the red-headed woodpeckers declined by over 1% per year, resulting in a cumulative decline of 54%. Non-migratory resident birds such as northern cardinal, Carolina wren, tufted titmouse and red-bellied woodpecker appear to be the most adaptable and have expanded their ranges the most. This seems to be primarily driven by warmer winters and, for some species, is further augmented by bird feeders.

Q&A

 “What do robins eat during the winter?” They eat berries and fruits persisting on shrubs, trees and vines—hackberry, buckthorn, crabapple, hawthorn, mountain ash and others. Frozen or fresh fruit such as apple slices, raisins, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and cherries could be placed on the ground. Young robins learn in robin school that fruit grows on trees and shrubs. They don't expect to find it elsewhere. They may not be common feeder birds, but that doesn’t mean they never visit feeders. A platform feeder offering raisins, crushed peanuts or mealworms might be welcomed. Some folks say robins eat cranberries in a feeder, but they ignored the domestic cranberries I’ve put out for them no matter how enticingly the berries were arranged. In my yard, I see robins feeding on suet fallen from a suet cake feeder. I crumbled some and placed it on the ground. The robins gobbled it down. I’ve seen a few robins eating hulled sunflower seeds (sunflower hearts) and they will eat jelly. A heated birdbath is a major draw.
 “Can I compost sunflower seed shells?” Yes, but you might want to do so in limited amounts. The entire plant contains chemicals that may inhibit the growth of other plants. There is little research on whether the allelopathic chemicals of sunflower seed shells negatively impact the compost. Alternatively, they may be used as weed-suppressing mulch. Sunflower seed shells contain a plant growth inhibitor, so some people recommend you don’t place raked-up hulls on compost piles that will be used in gardens. However, this compost may help keep weeds at bay when placed between garden rows. 
 “How many times do deer defecate daily?” In 1940, researcher Logan Bennett found deer defecate 12.6 times per day. Observations today find that during fall and winter, most whitetails empty their bowels 10 to 15 times per day. In spring and summer, this frequency spikes, fluctuating between 20 and 30 times. And they do all of that without using a single sheet of toilet paper.
 Lisa Kaye of KTOE Radio in Mankato asked how brood patches on birds form?” Birds need to transfer and preserve heat to their eggs and nestlings by brood patches, bare areas of skin on the belly that lose their feathers toward the end of the egg-laying period. Most birds shed automatically, but some pluck their brood patch and use the plucked feathers to make an insulating lining for their nests.
 “Is there a hunting season on sandhill cranes in Minnesota?” Mark Heinemann of Albert Lea was golfing in Wisconsin when sandhill cranes flew over. He said they were the rib eyes of the sky. His fellow golfers sniggered and mocked him unkindly. Yes, there is a season on cranes. The hunting area includes portions of Kittson, Roseau, Marshall, Pennington, Red Lake and Polk counties. 
 “The inside of a window of my house has many flies on it. What are they?” If they are grayish black and resemble house flies, they are cluster flies, which are found in homes in fall and spring, and occasionally during winter when mild temperatures occur. They don’t harm people or property and don’t reproduce indoors. They are parasites of earthworms.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Because the heart beats under a covering of hair, of fur, feathers, or wings, it is, for that reason, to be of no account?”—Jean Paul Richter.
 “If loons invented the music of being lonely, cranes invented the music of being together.”—Kim Heacox.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The opossum has thumbs and 50 teeth. The female is called a jill, the male a jack and a baby is a joey. Photo by Al Batt.

BIRDING WITH BATT

If you missed “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.

Why do little birds mob bigger birds?

Naturally

 I saw a turkey vulture on March 15, not in Hinckley, Ohio, but in Minnesota. Baby steps into spring. It was a wonderful birthday present. It was a birthday present for me. I’ve no idea when the vulture’s hatch date was. 
 No fiery horse with a speed of light, no cloud of dust, and no hearty “Hi-Yo, Silver!” The Lone Common Grackle continues to saunter about the yard with his faithful companion, a winter-weary starling. A deer with an injured foot comes regularly to feed under the bird feeder. The starling landed on the deer’s back. The bird had always wanted a pony. Starlings are mimics and can be taught to talk. I imagined it saying, “Giddy up!”
 I filled the feeders with black oil sunflower seeds. I’ve found the nutritious seeds to be appealing to the birds in my locale. If you find house sparrows overwhelming your feeders, you might switch to the larger striped sunflowers seeds, which have shells more difficult for house sparrows to open. Cheap birdseed isn’t economical. It doesn’t have enough active ingredients because it has too much filler—things birds don’t eat. 
 A skunk bulldozed snow because of its short legs and a low body. Its feet left small pits. Striped skunks avoid the colder spells of winter by slowing their metabolism and entering into a state of torpor inside dens and have been found cohabitating with opossums and raccoons. The trail in the snow was likely made by a male in search of a mate. Male skunks travel as much as 2.5 miles a night.
 Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary's Crane Camera in Gibbon, Nebraska, features spectacular views of the sandhill crane migration along the Platte River. The five-mile stretch of river covered by this camera is a densely populated sandhill crane roost with 100,000-200,000 cranes at the height of migration. Groups of cranes stay around three weeks once they arrive here and the best viewing times are early morning and evening. Here’s the link to this cam: https://explore.org/livecams/national-audubon-society/crane-camera

Q&A

 “Why do little birds mob bigger birds?” No one has come up with a complete explanation. It may prevent predators from taking smaller birds by surprise or an attempt to drive away danger. I watch crows mob an owl and they seem to use it as an enjoyable bonding experience.
 “Do nuthatches mate for life?” White-breasted nuthatch pairs remain together on nesting territory all year and may mate for life. In a courtship display, the male raises his head, spreads his tail, droops his wings, sways back and forth, and bows deeply. He also performs courtship feeding of the female.
 “Why do birds throw seeds out of a feeder?” Much of it could be birds discarding the hulls covering the seeds they have eaten. It could be done accidentally. Birds could be searching for their favorite seeds or seeds without a shell. Some birds, like native sparrows, scratch by habit. They feed in a platform feeder as they do on the ground when they do a double scratch to unearth goodies from under the detritus. Birds might toss out milo or wheat, fillers birds don’t like. They could throw out wet, spoiled, moldy, old, germinating or poor-quality seeds. 
 “When are a white-tailed deer’s antlers fully grown?” They are by mid- to late August. A buck sports its largest rack when it’s 4.5 or 9.5 years old, with 5 to 7 years being typical. 
 “Is it a good idea to put out dryer lint for birds to use in their nests?” Dryer lint quickly loses its fluffiness and structure when wet, becoming unsustainable in the rain, crumbling and leaving holes in a nest. Wet lint is sticky and can coat birds’ legs, feet and feathers. Chemicals from perfumed and dyed detergents are possibly toxic to baby birds. 
 “Why do deer yard up?” Yarding is another term used when deer congregate in one area and demonstrates the power of food. It occurs during times of severe cold and decreasing food sources. Common places to see deer yard up are south- and east-facing slopes, agricultural fields with waste grain, late-season food plots, cedar thickets and anywhere else they can find shelter from the elements and food. Deer reduce their food intake during the winter by 30% and activity by 50%.
 “Do mothballs keep mice away?” It’s a myth that mothballs repel snakes, squirrels and mice. Scattering mothballs is ineffective and damaging to the environment. Exposure to mothball vapors isn’t healthy. If you can smell the mothballs, you’re breathing in a pesticide.

Thanks for stopping by

 “There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive.”—David Attenborough.
 “To walk in nature is to witness a thousand miracles.”—Mary Davis.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

This singing European starling might be saying “Giddy-up.” Then again, it might not be saying that. The starling is a gifted mimic, so it could be imitating a hawk, a ringtone, a car alarm, a killdeer or a meadowlark. Photo by Al Batt.

BIRDING WITH BATT

If you missed “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.

How can I tell a male red-tailed hawk from a female?

Naturally

Savoring the day, my wife and I were awed by the Venus-Jupiter conjunction (they appear close together) in the western sky early in March. Both were bright but Venus was brighter.
March can be moody. It was snowing. Winter doesn’t meet its demise on March 1 or March 20. Snow brought a concert of silence broken by the honking of Canada geese flying overhead. I saw pairs of that species battling over nest sites.
Spring comes early to the southern side of buildings. I watched a chickadee and a downy woodpecker peck holes into goldenrod galls on a prairie and extract the insect larvae from within. Prairie comes from the French word for meadow. Among the noble citizens of the backyard, the squirrels have been stripping bark from maple trees. They use the bark and buds as food and may use the bark in their nests. Red-osier dogwood looks a bright red, giving it the nickname of the veins of spring. Weeping willows have a golden-yellow glow that seems to grow brighter by the day. Short-tailed weasels are turning from the white winter coats of ermines to the brown summer ones of weasels. Woodchucks are walking around. I’ve seen quite a few kestrels in March. The tiny falcon is about the size of a blue jay.
There was a bald eagle perched on a snowbank along a thin dredge ditch. The young eagle, hoping to be bald one day, might have been looking to feed on carrion partially buried under the snow.
I was dashing through the slush and on a 50-mile drive, I saw three red-tailed hawks on different large green signs showing mileage to cities. Another sign hosted an American kestrel and two crows perched on another. Crows like to keep track of things and they had likely found a menu item to their liking at the Roadkill Cafe.

Q&A

“How can I tell a male red-tailed hawk from a female?” If you see a hawk laying an egg, that’s a female. The plumage color and pattern of this hawk are highly variable, but male and female red-tailed hawks are similar in appearance. As with most birds of prey, the females are larger. It’s called reversed sexual dimorphism. There are several theories. The females' larger size protects them from aggressive males. Another hypothesis proposes that the size difference allows the two sexes to hunt different prey and thus reduce competition for food. A third plausible reason is that females need to be larger because they must accumulate reserves to produce eggs. A female usually spends more time incubating eggs and rearing chicks than her partner, and if she’s bigger she might be able to protect her young more effectively. Not all red-tailed hawks have red tails. Adults typically have red feathers on their tails, while juveniles’ tails are a darker brown. The younger birds molt into adult plumage (including a red tail) at the beginning of their second year. The red-tailed hawk has a loud, high-pitched raspy scream often heard in film, TV shows and commercials as the call of eagles and other raptors because it sounds more majestic than that of other raptors.
“How does the success rate for hawks that hunt birds compare to those hawks that prey on mammals?” Some data indicates the hunting success of bird-chasing raptors is about half that of the raptors preying on mammals and one-sixth of the raptors eating insects.
“I found a deer shed that had been chewed by something? What does that?” Antlers are a rich source of calcium and other minerals and nutrients. The antlers are recycled to build strong bones and teeth for many mammals. Mice, squirrels, voles, raccoons, chipmunks, porcupines, dogs, opossums, foxes, rabbits, coyotes, otters, beavers, bears and wolves have been observed gnawing on deer sheds. Some animals might also gnaw on sheds to wear down their continuously growing teeth. I suspect groundhogs gnaw on deer sheds as I’ve had them chew on the shed where I store the lawn mower.
“Why are domestic turkeys white?” Those white turkeys didn’t become common until the late 1930s and early 1940s. Farmers bred white turkeys because the white feathers are less visible on dressed carcasses and those birds have a lighter skin color, which appeals to consumers.
“How can I attract cardinals?” Plant berry bushes and evergreens. Put black oil sunflower seeds and safflower seeds into bird feeders.
“Do hibernating animals age?” Hibernation doesn't stop aging, but scientists have learned it may delay the effects of aging slightly and thereby slow aging.

Thanks for stopping by

“I dressed and went for a walk—determined not to return until I took in what Nature had to offer.”—Raymond Carver.
“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”—E. B. White.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

If you want to be different, make the common grackle your favorite bird. The grackle looks like a blackbird that has been stretched on the rack. Its song has been described as “kree del eeeek.“ It’s seldom played on Contemporary Hits Radio. Photo by Al Batt.

BIRDING WITH BATT
 If you missed the “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.

Some of the photos in this lovely book caused me to smile. Others made me to feel as if I were looking in a mirror. Every image was awe-producing.

I know when I have an empty bird feeder because I subscribe to a fox squirrel alert that pops up on my windows.

I know when I have an empty bird feeder because I subscribe to a fox squirrel alert that pops up on my windows. Photo by Al Batt.

Naturally

 March is named for the Roman god of war, Mars. March brings the vernal equinox and daylight saving time. December 1 is the start of meteorological winter, which makes March 1 the start of meteorological spring, June 1 introduces summer and September 1brings fall. Blizzards were once common at the time of the March basketball tournaments. I hope March has gotten over that. No month has an exclusive on bad weather.
 Some may think spring is just around the next snowstorm or snowdrift, but I’ve seen signs of spring. A flock of quiet male red-winged blackbirds landed in my yard on March 1 and continued their migration north. If you hear a lot of singing and defending of territories by male redwings, those are resident birds. My wife has been feeding her Peeps habit. She prefers the Peeps candy confections made of a soft marshmallow rolled in colored sugar in either yellow, pink, blue, lavender or green and shaped like baby chickens. I don’t eat them, but I’m fond of saying, “Oh, for Peeps’ sake.”
 I tossed out scratch grain for the blackbirds. That joyful task brought two quotes to my mind. “If you can hear the birds singing, you’re in the right place,” by Benny Bellamacina and “I don’t feed the birds because they need me; I feed the birds because I need them,” by Kathi Hutton.
 I watched a red-tailed hawk mantling prey. Mantling involves the hawk spreading its wings and covering its prey in an attempt to hide it from the eyes of other animals that may want to steal its catch. This hawk was giving a dirty look at several crows standing nearby as if they were jackals at a lion kill. 
 I spotted three bald eagles feeding on a road-killed deer and four crows feeding on another deer nearby. Those birds love venison and carrion makes for easy hunting.

Barfing blue jays

 No, Barfing Blue Jays isn’t a band name. I shouldn’t say that. It might be. The late Lincoln Brower studied monarch butterflies for six decades. When he was a biology professor at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, he’d taken a photograph of a “barfing blue jay,” which had suffered a distasteful experience dining on a monarch. Why did it upchuck? Monarchs feed on milkweeds, plants that contain chemicals called cardiac glycosides that the insects absorb. While the toxins don’t harm the butterflies, they taste bitter and can cause vomiting in birds that chow on monarchs.

Q&A

 “What are baby groundhogs called?” Young groundhogs are called kits, pups or sometimes, chucklings. I’m still chuckling about that last one.
 “Why does a squirrel eat only the white tip of a kernel of corn and why does it hang upside down from my feeder?” I see them doing that acrobatic stunt at my feeders too. They hang by their back feet because that frees their front paws to hold food while the squirrels eat. Squirrels eat only the nutrient-dense heart or germ of a kernel of corn, casting aside the rest for other hungry creatures. The germ has a moderate concentration of lipids (oils and fat) and a variety of proteins that are used during seedling growth. The rest of the kernel is mostly starch, which the squirrel either doesn't need or want.
 “What is a pussy willow?” The pussy willow (Salix discolor) is a native shrub that is one of the first plants to flower in the early spring, does so on bare stems and is a valuable source of pollen for native bees. Pussy willows are usually found growing in damp to wet soil and have a distinctive type of flower that is fuzzy, with no fragrance or petals, and is called a catkin. The word catkin comes from the Dutch word for kitten (katteken), as they resemble a cat’s tail. The pussy willow is dioecious, meaning that the male and female flowers are on separate plants. Both male and female catkins produce nectar, while only the male catkins provide pollen.
 “What were quills for writing made of?” A quill is the hollow stem of a bird’s feather that is used as a writing instrument. Goose feathers were the principal source of quills, but quill pens were also made from the feathers of swans, crows, eagles, owls, hawks and turkeys. The best feathers for making a quill are the first five flight feathers (primaries). Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was a prolific writer who raised geese at Monticello to supply feathers for his quill pens. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “The grackles are here and that is quite clear. The morning is ringing, not with their singing, but with their talking, they’re piping and squawking.”—Clarence Hawkes.
 “Keep a green tree in your heart and … perhaps a singing bird will come.”—Chinese Proverb.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

I watched a follow-me wave of chickadees

Naturally

 I watched a follow-me wave of chickadees lead nuthatches, downy woodpeckers and cardinals on a foraging expedition through shrubs and trees. I saw a downy woodpecker use a small tree crevice as a vice to hold sunflower seeds and crack them open to eat. Opossums fed below the feeders (a male is a Jack, the female a Jill).
 A blizzard modifies the plot line. Tree trunks had absorbed the heat from the sun and melted the surrounding snow, leaving dark circles around the base of trees. A suet feeder rocked in the wind like an amusement park ride. The woodpecker held on tight. It should have been wearing one of those pole-climbing safety straps. Four fox squirrels ate near one another on the snowy ground during a lull in a blizzard. They tolerated the company of one another but chased a fifth one away. It tried repeatedly to join the crowd but was repelled each time. I guess the four had enough for a card game. I threw corn to the fifth squirrel at another location. It found it.
 The rough-legged hawk is a buteo of open habitats. Named for its feathered legs, it breeds throughout the arctic and sub-arctic regions of North America. Compared to a red-tailed hawk, it appears delicate, with small feet and small bill, an adaptation that helps keeps bare parts less vulnerable to cold weather exposure. When perching in trees, it sits on the small twigs at the top of trees, appearing too heavy for frail branches. The plumage is variable. Light morphs pale with a dark belly and dark patches on "wrists." Dark morphs have brown or blackish bodies with banded tails and striking white flight feathers. They can hover when hunting.

Q&A 

 “How long does nyjer seed stay fresh?” When nyjer seed dries out, birds find it easy to ignore. I try to avoid waste by purchasing nyjer in a quantity I'll use in a month or two. Nyjer used to be called thistle seed, but it’s not a noxious weed and the USDA requires all imported nyjer seeds to be heat-treated to sterilize the seed. Nyjer seed has a shell but is vulnerable to spoilage while in a feeder. Check for clumping and mold. If present, a 10% bleach/water solution should be used to clean the feeder.
 “How many eggs can a brown-headed cowbird lay?” The cowbird is a brood parasite that could lay 40 eggs per season.
 “How do birds know when they have laid enough eggs?” Scientists removed eggs soon after they were laid. Some birds replaced them right away. A house sparrow laid 50 replacements, while a flicker laid 71 in 73 days. Birds that keep laying after eggs are removed are called indeterminate layers. The number of eggs is tied to the brood patch, bare skin on a bird’s underbody that transfers body warmth to the eggs. The tactile sensation in this process determines clutch size. Determinate egg layers will not lay extra eggs in response to egg removal or stop laying eggs if eggs are added to their nests.
 “How many eggs does a pheasant nest have?” Hens lay an average of 12 eggs, which hatch in 23 to 25 days, with the chicks leaving the nest in a few hours. If a hen loses her clutch before it hatches, she lays another albeit smaller clutch. Re-nesting attempts could hatch as late as the end of August or early September. A hen hatches one brood per breeding season. Hens will not re-nest if they lose a brood.
 “Do both parent bald eagles incubate eggs?” Both the male and female have brood patches and take turns sitting on eggs, but the female being larger, takes the longer incubation periods overnight and during cold weather and storms. Incubation begins after the first egg is laid, meaning that in a nest with more than one egg there will be the oldest eaglet and the youngest. The eggs are rolled regularly to make sure the lighter yolk doesn’t rise, touch and stick to the shell and kill a developing chick. 
 “When do bald eagles attain a white head and tail?” Approximately 25% of the birds acquire adult plumage at 4 ½ years, but most bald eagles gain adult plumage by 5 ½ years of age. This doesn’t consider any aberrant plumages.

Thanks for stopping by

 “I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.”—John Ruskin.
 “Wildlife in the world can only be protected by the love of compassionate hearts in the world!”―Mehmet Murat ildan.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says a red-bellied woodpecker can stick out its tongue nearly 2 inches past the end of its beak. The tip is barbed and the bird’s spit is sticky, making it easier to snatch prey from deep crevices. Males have longer, wider-tipped tongues than females, possibly allowing a breeding pair to forage in slightly different places on their territory and maximize their use of available food.

Photo by Al Batt.

Woodpeckers find timber with a good timbre

Naturally

Current events include woodpeckers find timber with a good timbre. They drum on resonant wood, tattooing communication to other members of their species. Goldfinches gather yellow around their faces, barred owls become more vocal, red osier dogwood becomes the red veins of spring and weeping willows glow.
I spoke to a wonderful group called the Bronx River Sound Shore Audubon. The organization’s president, Sandy Morrissey, told me that her brother had died recently. Before he shuffled off this mortal coil, he’d built two bluebird boxes. The boxes were placed in a local park. When Sandy visited that park, there was a bluebird perched on one box. The sight made her happy beyond words with the precious memories it carried.
I saw a superabundance of raccoon tracks. They were paw prints with five long, finger-like toes that connect to a C- shaped palm pad. They resemble tiny human handprints, measuring two to three inches across. Raccoons leave a trail with side-by-side tracks with each pair of prints composed of a front paw alongside a hind paw as the rear foot lands next to the opposite front foot when the animal takes a step. The back footprint has a more forward-pointing "thumb" and a larger C-shaped palm pad.
Look for snow fleas. They bear resemblance to specks of black pepper on the snow. These primitive insects are about 1/10-inch long and a dark blue-gray. Snow fleas are wingless but can jump several inches. A snow flea has a forked appendage at the end of its abdomen called a furcula that allows it to jump and gives it the name “springtail.” Snow fleas live in the soil and leaf litter where they eat microscopic fungi, algae and decaying organic matter. They go unnoticed during the summer, but have a high tolerance for colder temperatures compared to most other insects. As the snow begins to melt in late winter, they move up through breaks in the snow. You could find them on top of the snow in potentially large numbers, especially around the base of trees. Snow fleas are harmless to people and are beneficial because they help break down organic matter, enriching the soil. They are a curiosity. People are surprised to see insects active on the surface of the snow during winter.

Q&A

Mike Bonner of Courtland asks when bluebirds return. Some migrants return as early as February, but most arrive in early March. They nest from late March to early August.
“There is a Carolina wren coming to my feeders. What could it be eating?” They eat mealworms, sunflower chips, suet, peanut butter and peanut pieces.
I spoke at the Prairie Smoke Annual Meeting in Chatfield and delighted in spending time in the company of such good folks. Several of those people mentioned seeing American kestrels this winter. One asked what they eat. Most of the Minnesota breeding population of kestrels migrates south for the winter. Males, on average, winter farther north than females. Some kestrels seen here in the winter could be northern birds that have migrated south to our area. The trend has been a general decrease in American kestrel numbers. Evidence comes from the North American Breeding Bird Survey, the Christmas Bird Count, nest box surveys and counts at migration watch sites. Predation by other raptors, herbicide and pesticide exposure, loss of habitat and competition for nest cavities likely contribute to the decline. The American kestrel, often called "sparrow hawk" in the past, isn’t a hawk. The tiny bird of prey with pointed wings and beautiful plumage is a falcon, and the smallest falcon in North America at 10 inches long, about the size of a mourning dove. I don’t think any other bird of prey in North America is as richly colored. Both sexes have a pair of black vertical slashes on the face, like sideburns and tears. Male kestrels have slate-blue wings and the wings of the females are reddish brown. They often bob their tails when perched. Unlike other falcons, which capture most of their prey in the air, kestrels capture much of their prey on the ground. Their diet includes young ground squirrels, gophers, shrews, voles, mice, young rabbits, rats, small birds, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, worms, snakes, salamanders, frogs and toads. They prefer open habitats and are seen perched prominently on tree branches or utility poles while hunting. On their migration over Hawk Ridge in Duluth, kestrels catch dragonflies on the wing and eat the insects as they fly.

Thanks for stopping by

“There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.”—Alfred Austin.
“Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”--Joseph Addison.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A mallard drake has a yellow bill and a mallard hen has a dirty orange bill. If it sounds like a duck, it’s a hen. The standard “quack” of a duck is produced by the female mallard. The male mallard makes a rasping or grunting sound. Photo by Al Batt.

Cool Hand Luke or Cool Behind Bird?

Naturally

I watched robins feed on persistent fruit in trees. They dine on the berries of hackberry and other trees at this time of the year.
A house sparrow in the yard was missing a tail. She shivered when a cold tailwind blew. The movie "Cool Hand Luke," starring Paul Newman, made the line, "What we have here is failure to communicate," famous. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little bird had a cool behind.
I saw blue snow in the yard not far from the tailless sparrow. It looked as if someone had stepped on a Smurf, spit out mouthwash or spilled antifreeze. Rabbit droppings came out of the blue. When rabbits feed on the invasive plant buckthorn, they excrete a chemical in their urine that turns blue when exposed to sunlight. Rabbits have round droppings while deer pellets are oval-shaped with one pointed end. I’ve heard that deer produce blue urine, but I’ve noticed deer avoid eating invasive species like buckthorn, garlic mustard and Japanese barberry. I’d never say they never sample those plants. They likely try it to see if they like it. Every kid had to do that, so why wouldn’t deer? I’m not sure if foraging is deterred because deer find them unappetizing or because buckthorn has thorns. Overbrowsing of native plants by large deer populations in some areas has enabled invasive species to flourish and displace native species. Deer don’t bother ferns much either, but extreme hunger tosses out the diet rulebook.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources eagle cam began in 2013. It’s nature’s soap opera. Eagles typically lay eggs in February that are incubated for around 35 days.

Q&A

“What is a gibbous moon?” It’s a moon having the observable illumination part greater than a semicircle and less than a circle. The eight phases of the moon are, in order: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter and waning crescent. A moon headed toward a full moon is waxing, getting bigger and growing brighter. A moon headed toward a new moon is waning, getting smaller. I was taught that if the moon is D-shaped, it’s waxing or developing. If it’s C-shaped, it’s waning or concluding. I hope you have a great day from morning to moonbeam.
“What’s the difference between a woodchuck and a groundhog?” A woodchuck chucks wood and groundhogs are crack meteorologists. They are the same animal, also called whistle-pigs.
“There is a small cup nest in a shrub in my yard. What bird could have made it?” Here are a couple of likely prospects. The yellow warbler nest is typically within 10 feet of the ground in an upright fork of a shrub or sapling and is lined with plant fibers, fur or feathers. The indigo bunting nest is often 3 feet or lower from the ground in the crotch of a shrub or low sapling. It’s lined with grass, roots, bark strips, thistledown or deer hair. The chipping sparrow nest is 3-10 feet off the ground on the tip of a branch. It might be lined with cattle, deer, horse or pet hair. The American goldfinch nest can be found around 15 feet off the ground, usually in the crotch of the plant and is lined with plant down from thistle, milkweed and cattail.
Randy Heideman of Albert Lea saw small squirrels in his yard for the first time. They weren’t much bigger than chipmunks. He wondered if they were red squirrels because their fur showed some gray. That sounds like red squirrels. They live throughout this country’s snowbelt, in mountainous regions and in Canada. They are most associated with coniferous woods but hardwoods and thickets also provide habitat. The squirrel builds a leaf nest or uses a tree cavity. The red squirrel is not a passive observer. It’s an aggressive and vociferous mammal that is a rusty reddish-brown, orange-red, ginger, brownish or olive-gray color, with some fur colors subject to seasonal changes. Its underside is white to grayish-white and its sides can show gray. In Longfellow's “Song of Hiawatha,” the red squirrel is called Adjidaumo. I’ve read that this is an Ojibwe word meaning "mouth-foremost" because squirrels descend trees head first. I checked the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary and found that ajidamoo means a red squirrel.

Thanks for stopping by

“Thirty days has September, April, June and November. Unless a leap year is its fate,February has twenty-eight. All the rest have three days more, excepting January, which has six thousand, one hundred and eighty-four.”—Brian Bilston.
“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”—P. J. O'Rourke.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A cardinal makes a winter day much better. Photo by Al Batt

This House Sparrow shivers when cold, tailwinds blow. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little bird had a cool behind.

This House Sparrow shivers when cold, tailwinds blow. Luke may have had a cool hand, but this little female had a cool behind.

This fox squirrel is the king of the mountain.

BIRDING WITH BATT

 If you missed the “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.

Naturally

I’ve heard from many people in the Twin Cities about the flocks of robins they are seeing. They are winter robins as they are showing no fighting or singing. A good number of deciduous trees are demonstrating marcescence this year, refusing to drop their leaves. Marcescence means withering but persistent. A good number of Minnesotans become marcescent at this time of the year. Blue jays can migrate, but it occurs to me that many stay in an area where they cached food. Why store it if you’re not going to use it?
As Valentine’s Day nears, skunks come out looking for love and to paw-deliver Valentine’s Day cards. They like highways. It’s easier than walking in deep snow. They need to use them to cross the road. Sometimes food is on the road—carrion.
Dark-eyed juncos hop or walk as they move along the ground. They are social during fall and winter, spending the days in flocks. These flocks mix in with other native sparrows, particularly American tree sparrows here.

Q&A

“Were starlings brought to this country because of Shakespeare?” I’ve thought so all my life and have passed on the story that European starlings were introduced to North America in 1890 and 1891 by the American Acclimatization Society (dedicated to introducing European flora and fauna into North America) and the man responsible for it was Eugene Scheiffelin. That is true, but it likely had nothing to do with Shakespeare. Starlings were mentioned once in Shakespeare’s works, Henry IV, because of their ability to mimic. The findings of John Miller of Allegheny College, assisted by a student, Lauren Fugate, showed starlings were released in the U.S. multiple times in the 1870s and 1880s. Wild flocks were reported during that time. Edwin Way Teale in his book, “Days Without Time” published in 1948, had popularized the Shakespeare angle. I read Teale and enjoy his writing. He wrote that Scheiffelin had the curious hobby of introducing all the birds mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. The American Acclimatization Society releases in 1890 and 1891 weren’t their first, having released starlings at least once before in the 1870s. The first assertion of Shakespeare’s influence on those releases happened nearly 60 years after the last release. Despite the starling’s success and large numbers, its population is in steep decline in North America. The current population is half the size it was 50 years ago—down from an estimated 166.2 million breeding birds in 1970 to 85.1 million. The species is declining in Europe, too. Starlings are common and widespread, but their population has decreased by over 1% per year for a cumulative decline of about 50% between 1966 and 2019 according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
“How long can a ring-necked pheasant go without food?” According to the DNR, during extreme winter weather, pheasants can go up to two weeks without feeding. They accomplish this by reducing their metabolism and energy requirements.
Kent Spellman of Albert Lea asked why the birds that feed so heavily in bad weather, leave the feeders early in the day. They might have gotten enough to eat and needed to find a warm place to hunker down and ride out the inhospitable weather. Some of the nomadic feeder birds might have a considerable distance to travel and require an early start.
“Why do crows flock to cities in the winter?” There is more light, which makes it easier to spot owls, their sworn enemies and proficient predators. Cities are a bit warmer than rural areas. Being in a flock spreads the risk of a crow being picked off by an owl. And there are places where the crows could pick up breakfast on their way out of town.
“I have a neighbor who doesn’t like me feeding the birds. What can I tell him?“ You could tell him that you don’t like the color of his house or the make of his car.
“How did house finches end up in the Midwest?” House finches were originally a bird of the western US and Mexico. In 1940, some house finches were released in Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as caged birds called “Hollywood finches.” The population became established and spread throughout the country. House finches are about the same size as house sparrows, but more slender. Most adult males are rosy red around the face and upper breast, with a streaky brown back, belly and tail. Adult females aren’t red but are grayish-brown with indistinctly marked faces.

Thanks for stopping by

“Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.”― Wendell Berry.
“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”— G. K. Chesterton.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Blue jays frequently mimic the calls of hawks, especially the red-shouldered hawk. This may warn other jays that a hawk is around or deceive other species into believing a hawk is present and eliminate competition at a feeder. Photo by Al Batt.

Snood, wattle, dewlap, caruncles and slicing

NATURALLY


 The owl flew as if its wings were oars, rowing through the air. I watched a fox squirrel carrying an ear of corn excavated from the snow in the middle of what had been a large cornfield. There were no trees and only a few utility poles where a hunting hawk might perch. Not much later, I spotted a red fox carrying what appeared to be a cottontail rabbit. Red and gray foxes are similar in name and appearance. Gray foxes have black-tipped tails and red fox tails are tipped in white. The red fox is an opportunist that eats many other things besides rabbits—rats, mice, ground squirrels, birds, snakes, fish, insects, turtles, frogs, berries, fruits, nuts and seeds. Red foxes hunt primarily at night and hide uneaten food under litter or bury it to be eaten later. 
 I slowed to a crawl as 16 wild turkeys walked or flew in front of my car. They traveled across four lanes of traffic. No turkeys were hit. Jerry Viktora of Ellendale sent me a video of turkeys fighting in January. In the fall, turkeys segregate into groups—young males (jakes) in one group, adult males (toms) in another and the females in a third. Jake groups tend to hang out close to hen flocks. It seems I see more squabbles among the jakes than with the toms or hens. The young birds are trying to find their places in the pecking order. The groups dissolve in the spring. Turkeys survive the winter by feeding on mosses, buds, seeds, fern spores, acorns, scattered corn left after the harvest, seeds beneath birdfeeders and manure piles. Other than an adequate supply of food, they need a safe place to roost in the winter. They try to roost in trees giving thermal protection—pine or oak trees. If they have fed well, they can take the bitter cold. They struggle in deep powdery snow, which makes foraging for food and escaping predators challenging. They can scratch through 6 inches of fluffy snow and a foot of packed snow. When the ground is covered with powdery snow, flocks congregate in stands of pine and other softwoods, trees that hold snow in the canopy, leaving less on the ground for the turkeys to contend with. 
 The snood is the fleshy flap of skin that hangs off a turkey's beak. The wattle is a fleshy flap of skin under the turkey's chin. Some people call it a dewlap. A male turkey has a beard that hangs from its chest. It’s made of coarse, rough feathers. A beard is 3-4 inches long on a young male and can grow 10 inches or longer on a turkey at least 3 years old. A small percentage (10-20%) of female turkeys have beards. Male turkeys have sharp spurs on the back of their legs that they use when fighting with other turkeys. Caruncles are bumpy patches on a turkey's neck. The caruncles may play a role in attracting a mate. 

Q&A

 “How long do red-tailed hawks live?” Red-tailed hawks could hang around for a good spell, but most don’t live long. More than 70% survive until fledging. The survival rates plummet after that. More than half of the young hawks perish during the first year and 20% die each year thereafter, based on banding data. The oldest known wild red-tailed hawk was at least 30 years, 8 months old when it died in Michigan in 2011. It had been banded in that state in 1981. Most live less than two years.
 “I went to a raptor show and the bird handlers were giggling about slicing. I know what slicing is in golf, but what were they talking about?” Slicing is a term used by falconers and other raptor folks to describe the way a hawk defecates. Bird poop is brownish, the white pasty excrement is uric acid, the equivalent to a mammal’s urine. Eating mostly fish results in mostly white droppings because fish can be absorbed almost completely. This leads to whitewashing. Hawks, falcons and eagles forcefully eject their droppings, shooting them away from the nest to keep things sanitary. This process is called slicing. 
 “What kind of insect is a white sock?” It’s another name for the black fly, buffalo gnat or turkey gnat. Black flies develop in rivers and streams, can fly 10 miles away and be carried farther on the wind. Rubbing imitation vanilla extract on the skin repels them for some people.

Thanks for stopping by

 "Our mental life, like a bird's life, seems to be made of an alternation of flights and perchings."—William James.
 “Have I gone mad? I'm afraid so. You're entirely Bonkers. But I will tell you a secret, all the best people are.”―”Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The tail feathers of this lovely hen ring-necked pheasant are showing some winter wear. Photo by Al Batt.

What do you do when you’re diagnosed with cancer and lose your dream job? You hit the bottom in a pit with 200,000 snakes, and discover the pit isn’t the bottom but is the peak. Pat maintains the childhood wonder and amazement in our natural world and that made all the difference. As one who has had cancer, I found the book not only interesting, but inspiring.

The birds were moving left to right on my radio dial

Naturally

 It was above 30° in January, skunks and raccoons were moving around in the warm weather. 
 I look at the natural world with wonder and wonder what I’m looking at. I counted goldfinches and house finches at the feeders. I hoped for redpolls, siskins and purple finches. Birding is a game of finches.
 I saw a few flocks of snow buntings on roadsides. Snow buntings have an overall white appearance. Dark-eyed juncos often migrate to the same area every winter and stay within 10 to 12 acres. There is a social hierarchy to the winter flocks. Males are dominant over females and adults are dominant over the younger birds. Males tend to winter farther north than females.

A Kentucky cogitation

 I recall gathering around the radio. I gathered, because there was always something crawling on me. I twisted the dial until I heard the legendary Cawood Ledford call the Kentucky Wildcats basketball game over the crackling of an AM radio prone to chronic static. Ledford began by saying, “Hello, everybody, this is Cawood Ledford.” He likely originated the now commonplace description that goes something like this: “The Wildcats will be moving left to right on your radio dial.” The radio was a magical thing filled with information and imagination. It caused me to want to visit the Bluegrass State.
 It was a Chamber of Commerce day. I worked at Kenlake State Resort Park in western Kentucky near the Land Between the Lakes, a 170,000-acre nature paradise. Kentucky Lake, found there, has the longest shoreline of any manmade lake in the eastern U.S. I enjoyed seeing the elk and bison prairie. Kentucky has the highest elk population of any state east of the Mississippi River with 11,000 animals.
 Cawood Ledford had shuffled off this mortal coil. It’d be difficult to see him. I thought about that as I walked a trail. I had something else I wanted to see—birds. I saw just enough. They were moving left to right on my radio dial. Dreams do come true. Kentucky was a great place to see a Kentucky warbler.

Q&A

 “When is the breeding season for coyotes?” The mating season begins in January and lasts through February. After breeding, females search for dens, either digging one in loose soil or enlarging the den of another animal. Five to seven pups are born in April. When they're eight to 12 weeks old, the female teaches them to hunt. From fall to mid-winter, the pups leave the den and search for territories.
 “Why do some people call cicadas ‘locusts’?” Some people associated the emergence of cicadas with the Biblical plague of locusts. While cicadas might be colloquially called locusts, they're a different species. Locusts are a type of short-horned grasshopper and belong to the order Orthoptera along with other grasshoppers and crickets, while cicadas are Hemipterans, which are true bugs and related to aphids and leafhoppers. Locusts swarm in large groups and are more damaging than cicadas, eating substantial amounts of vegetation. Cicadas don't destroy crops and feed on juices from trees. In 1970, the buzz saw-like calls inspired Bob Dylan to write the song “Day of the Locusts.” Dylan heard the cicadas while receiving an honorary degree from Princeton University. The cicadas inspired these lyrics: “As I stepped to the stage to pick up my degree and the locusts sang off in the distance. Yeah, the locusts sang such a sweet melody. Oh, the locusts sang off in the distance. Yeah, the locusts sang and they were singing for me.”
 A group of cicadas carries a reminder of its incorrect moniker as it’s called a plague or a cloud. 
 “I watched my chickens preen. Why do they need to waterproof their feathers?” Preening is a bird's way of grooming its feathers to keep them in good condition. Preening removes dust, dirt and parasites from their feathers and aligns each feather in the optimum position relative to adjacent feathers and body shape. This alignment optimizes insulation, creates a more attractive mate, makes for more efficient flight and reduces friction and wear. The oil produced by the uropygial or preen gland found near the base of the tail helps with friction reduction. This gland produces an oily, waxy substance that adds waterproofing to feathers and keeps them flexible and strong. This helps the feathers withstand the stress of flight. Birds spread this oil to their feathers. Preen oil is a major source of avian body odor. Emus apparently don’t have a preen gland. They look as if that is ticking them off, but I can’t say for sure. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.”—Marianne Moore.
 “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”—F. Scott Fitzgerald.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A house finch takes a nap during a blizzard. Perhaps it dreams of warm days and green things. Photo by Al Batt.

The wild turkeys haven’t picked up a lick of trash

Naturally

 There is a gang of wild turkeys that have adopted a stretch of highway not far from my humble abode. I haven’t seen them pick up any trash yet, but I hope that’s their intention. They eat the spilled corn and soybeans they find there. The road is busy, but the turkeys claim the right-of-way. I had to come to a near stop before the turkeys grudgingly vacated my lane. They were telling me to go around. 
 Occasionally, a turkey is hit by a car and the carcass of the big bird becomes a meal for bald eagles and crows in the daytime and coyotes at night. I saw bald eagles feeding on road-killed deer and snow buntings feeding on seeds on the roadside near the turkeys. I listened to the sounds of birds. It’s nice to know who’s there.
 I thought I thaw a thaw. On average, January 23 is the coldest day of the year in much of the Northern Hemisphere. The warmest day of the year, on average, is July 24. A January thaw is defined as at least two straight days with temperatures above 32 degrees. 

Birding with Batt

 If you missed the “Birding With Batt” on the airwaves this week, you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU radio streaming app. The app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists and listen to shows on-demand.

Q&A

 “What good are blue jays? They are bullies.” The aggressive nature of jays is the main reason many birders don't like them. Blue jays are loud, eat a lot and they're domineering. They’re much like us. In the words of Mark Twain, "There's more to a jay than any other creature. You may call a jay a bird. Well, so he is, in a measure, 'cause he's got feathers on him and he don't belong to no church perhaps, but otherwise he's just as much a human as you and me." It’s a handsome bird. Their lovely colors are welcome on gray days. Males and females look alike. Blue jays play an important role in the ecosystem. They enjoy eating acorns, and cache acorns, which has played a role in forest restoration. They cache acorns farther from the mother tree than do squirrels. They eat grasshoppers and tent caterpillars.
 “When is the breeding season for opossums?” Opossums mate between January and May, bearing two litters of 6 to 20 young each year. The young aren’t fully developed at birth. They climb up the mother's belly and into her pouch where they attach themselves to a teat. There they remain for 60 to 70 days. For a month after that, the young opossums climb in and out of the pouch, never straying far. When mouse-sized, they climb onto their mother's back, where they spend much of their time before becoming more independent. Opossums eat almost anything: worms, snakes, insects, eggs, young birds, fruit, grain, garbage and carrion. After eating, opossums wash much like a cat.
 “When did cardinals first come to Minnesota?” Northern cardinals are a common breeding species in Minnesota, spreading from southeastern Minnesota into Minneapolis and west to Owatonna by the 1920s. The state's first record for a cardinal was in 1875. Many of the first arrivals were lone males that appeared in the fall, winter, or spring in scattered locations in southern Minnesota. After the 1875 record, cardinals appeared in Sherburne County (1887), Kandiyohi County (1894), Fillmore County (1898) and Martin County (1913). T.S. Roberts, the father of Minnesota ornithology, wrote that the first confirmed nesting of a cardinal was in Steele County in 1925 (nest with eggs). Nesting was documented in Hennepin County in 1927 (young being fed by adults) and in Goodhue County in 1930 (nest with eggs). The Cornell Lab attributes the cardinal’s expansion to two factors: More bird feeders and more landscaped yards with shrubbery, which provide fruit for food, shelter for nesting habitat and cover in winter.
 “Why am I hearing great horned owls calling now?” December and January are when great horned owl pairs engage in vigorous hooting while establishing territories and courting. They’ll be incubating eggs by February. The breeding pair may perform a duet of alternating calls, with the larger female’s voice noticeably higher in pitch than the male’s.
 “What is the old saying about fishing and the wind?” Wind from the west, fish bite the best. Wind from the east, fish bite the least. Wind from the north, do not go forth. Wind from the south blows bait in their mouth.” 

Thanks for stopping by

 “Enjoy every bird.”--Al Batt.
 “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”—Emily Post.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A dark morph rough-legged hawk. Rough-legged refers to the feathering that extends to the base of the toes, which conserves heat in frigid weather. I called them Christmas hawks when I was a boy because I saw them in winter. They hover while facing into the wind as they hunt. A sighting was and is always a welcome gift. Photo by Al Batt.

How you could watch a bird feeder without having a bird feeder

Naturally 

 I walked at night. Moonlight and a starry sky brought me comfort. A walk brings things to light. A means of discovery.
 As dawn interrupted the night, I heard a woodpecker drumming on a resonant tree, the bird proclaiming its territory.
 Mallards found the cold water of a lake companionable, but I couldn’t get my ducks in a row. It was like herding mallards.
 I heard the song of the black-capped chickadee, a fabulous sound that said, “Love you,” “Sweet-ie” or “Spring’s here.” It might have been a case of listener bias, but I think not. It was good to know that spring had arrived on a gelid winter day. A friend, Keith Wakefield, had died before Christmas. I did a Christmas Bird Count just after Christmas, a chance to binge-watch birds. I take great pleasure in counting chickadees, being grateful to see a single chickadee. There were at least 22 of them in one feeding flock. They were accompanied by nuthatches and cardinals. Many of our warm-weather birds are subject to seasonal dismissals, but not chickadees. They hang with us. Keith’s favorite bird and mine, too, the tiny chickadee stays. And I’m the better for it and for having known Keith.

How you could watch a bird feeder without having a bird feeder

 The FeederWatch cam is located in a residential neighborhood in Manitouwadge, Ontario. This site is an excellent location to see winter finches (redpolls and grosbeaks) as well as two species of jays. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/ontario-feederwatch/

Q&A

 “Is it a crow or a raven I’m seeing?” I love Robert Frost’s poem, “The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.” A crow heralds its presence with a caw, while a raven's call is a hoarse, deep krronk. Ravens are considerably larger than crows and have more robust bills. A raven sports a shaggy beard of pointed feathers and its tail is diamond-shaped in flight with its wings and aerial behavior appearing raptor-like. A crow has a fan-shaped tail and a rounder wing shape in flight. Ravens are icons of northern Minnesota and seldom venture far from where they hatched, while crows are common city dwellers and are found throughout the state. Northern Minnesota crows may drift southward far enough to find food. In fall and winter, crows can form huge flocks. Ravens are expanding their range south with sightings in the Twin Cities area. One crow is bigger than any raven. An 18-foot crow sits atop a 31-foot-long branch on a 25-foot-tall cement pedestal in Belgrade, Minnesota.
 Rick Draper of Albert Lea asks how a squirrel nest persists. The well-engineered leaf nests (dreys) are constructed from twigs, leaves, moss and other material. The twigs, often gnawed from a tree when the leaves were still intact, are loosely woven together to create the floor of a nest. Squirrels add stability by packing damp leaves and moss on top of the twig platform to reinforce the structure. A spherical frame is woven around the base, forming the outer shell. It’s finished by stuffing it with leaves, moss, twigs and/or paper to build up the outer shell. The inner cavity of its leaf nest is lined with shredded bark, grass and leaves. The thick walls keep wind, water and snow from penetrating the interior and keep cold air out and warm air in. Bernd Heinrich, in “Winter World,” wrote of a 12-inch diameter drey having 26 layers of flattened, dried and overlapped oak leaves.
 “Why did I see a bald eagle perched near its nest in December?” It might have been checking its nesting site for any maintenance issues or other concerns. Eagle pairs usually begin defending their nest sites in mid-January. The eagles’ treetop nest increases in size each year as the couple adds sticks and plant material. Part of that is a pair-bonding exercise. Eagles typically lay two eggs (occasionally three) in early February to early April.
 “Is striped sunflower seed a good thing to feed birds?” Because of its tough shell, it’s best for larger birds with strong bills. Striped sunflower appeals to blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers and grosbeaks while discouraging starlings, house sparrows and cowbirds. Black oil sunflower seeds are best for attracting most seed-eating finches, sparrows, chickadees and nuthatches.
 Harvey Benson of Harmony wrote, “When you were a youngster did you read Thornton W. Burgess books? My favorites.” I’m sorry, I did not.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Still round the corner there may wait, / a new road or a secret gate.”—J.R.R. Tolkien.
 “If you want to test your memory, try to remember what you were worrying about one year ago today.”—E. Joseph Cossman. 
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A superstition maintains that saying “rabbit rabbit” aloud before saying anything else on the first day of the month brings a month of good luck. The beloved Gilda Radner said “bunny, bunny” to ensure laughter, love and peace. FDR said “rabbits.” If you forget to say “rabbit, rabbit” the first thing, say "tibbar, tibbar"—“rabbit” backward. Photo by Al Batt.

Did you miss 'Birding With Batt' this week? Now you can hear it any time you like via the free KMSU streaming app! The KMSU app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists, and listen to shows on-demand.

Slow Birding is a good thing

Naturally

 I’d finished a radio show about nature. After its completion, the station played The Mamas and Papas singing, “I've been for a walk on a winter's day. I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A. California dreamin' on such a winter's day.”
 I went for a walk with no California dreaming. The feeders were busy. The weather could have been considered nasty. Mild winter weather leads to lessened feeder activity. Bad weather coming brings birds to the feeders just as it brings people to the grocery stores. My Christmas Bird Count started in the company of sun dogs. “Bad weather, good birds,” I told myself. I birded a couple of cemeteries and was taken with how the American flags, on tombstones backlit by the sun and hit by the wind, left shadows dancing on the snow. Thanks to its big voice, I saw a pileated woodpecker. While binge-watching snow, I saw a pair of American white pelicans—the white birds on the snow and ice should have been snowbirds and gone. They winter along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Mexico and return in early spring as lakes and rivers thaw.

Book report

 If I taught a bird appreciation class, and I have, Joan E. Strassman’s “Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard” would be a perfect textbook. She presents new and old information in pleasing and memorable ways. A dark-eyed junco loses 7% of its body weight when at rest overnight. Robins have found that regurgitated insects and earthworms make a great baby formula. Thanks to jays burying acorns to cache, “mighty oaks from little blue jays grow.” Cooper’s hawks, once known as chicken hawks, have created another definition of the term “feeder bird.” It’s a fun book and a fine read.

They’ve been studying

 A new study by researchers at Durham University, the British Trust for Ornithology and Princeton University examined the relationship between nest design and the time offspring spend in the nest before fledging across species of weaverbirds and icterids, two bird families renowned for their complex woven nests. They found that birds build hanging nests, particularly those with extended entrance tunnels, to help protect offspring against nest invaders like snakes and parasitic birds. They found that species building the most elaborate nests produce offspring with longer developmental periods. Nests with longer entrance tunnels are more effective at hindering access by nest invaders than shorter tunnels and limit the exposure of developing offspring to nest invaders.

Q&A

 “What do and don’t house sparrows like?” They love millet and cracked corn. Two of their least favorite feeder foods are safflower and striped sunflower seeds.
 “Is it true male peppers have three bumps and female peppers have four bumps?” It’s a myth. All pepper fruits are ripened ovaries containing seeds formed after pollination. The bumps or lack thereof are related to variety and growing conditions.
 “How many sparrow species are there?” According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, there are 43 species of New World sparrows commonly found in the United States and Canada (the family Passerellidae includes towhees, juncos, and lark bunting). Most birds with “sparrow” in their name are small and brown, many have streaked backs and all have conical bills perfect for husking seeds. Bright colors and bold patterns are rare. When most people think about sparrows, the first one that comes to mind is the house sparrow, once called the English sparrow. They are the little birds seen rounding up stray french fries in fast food parking lots, nesting under supermarket signs and invading bluebird and martin houses, farm buildings and home improvement stores. House sparrows were first recorded in ​Eurasia, North Africa and the Middle East, and introduced into the U.S. in the middle 1800s. House sparrows belong to a group called Old World Sparrows, which are native to Eurasia and Africa. This group meets at the Holiday Inn on the second Thursday of each month. Some sources indicate that house sparrows are weaver finches instead of sparrows and put them in the family Ploceidae. Taxonomy based on DNA studies found the house sparrow to be an "Old World sparrow" and a member of the family Passeridae. Weaver finches are sometimes considered a subgroup of this family. Others consider them as members of a separate family, Estrildidae. "New World sparrows," like the song sparrow, white-throated sparrow and chipping sparrow, are members of the family Emberizidae.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Good mashed potato is one of the great luxuries of life."—Lindsey Bareham.
 “These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraphs and kerosene and coal stoves—they’re good to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on ’em.”—Laura Ingalls Wilder. “By the Shores of Silver Lake.”
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The American white pelicans I saw in Minnesota on December 30. They had open water for fishing and each other for company. Photo by Al Batt.

Fogs have frosted the trees with rime regularly this January. These white-tipped trees guard a rural cemetery not far from my humble abode.

Did you miss 'Birding With Batt' this week? Now you can hear it any time you like via the KMSU streaming app! The free KMSU app is available for Apple and Android devices, allowing you to livestream 89.7 the Maverick, find playlists, and listen to shows on-demand!

Why we have evergreen trees

Naturally

It was -14°. It was so cold Jack Frost quit and nose hairs were snapped off. I used a fur-lined teacup and welcomed warm thoughts. Winter is for the birds. The crows expressed their displeasure at the presence of a raptor. The blue jays had stolen the colors of the sky on a sunny day and of the water when it was ice-free.
It reminded me of a similar day in Southeast Alaska that offered all the things people want in a day—deep snow, cold and ice. I wandered alongside a river, pointing my camera at worthy subjects and there were many worthy subjects. There was enough spawned-out salmon for everyone. Crows, ravens, magpies, gulls and bald eagles fed at the buffet. I know we’re told not to anthropomorphize, but I think doing so can add to our understanding. I watched a bald eagle eating with gusto. It was taking the advice of an old Schlitz Beer commercial that said, "You only go around once in life. So, grab for all the gusto you can." Its epicurean delight attracted the attention of other birds, including other eagles. Humans display similar behavior. Somebody else’s lunch often looked better than ours when we were kids. As adults, we’re enjoying our food at a restaurant until we see what someone else is having. “I should have ordered that,” we think. The owner of the salmon repulsed any attempts at fish thievery. A bold raven snuck up on the eagle from behind and yanked its tail. It did this several times until the infuriated eagle reacted. When it did so, a gull grabbed the fish and dragged it off where a squabble of gulls fought over the delicacy.
The bald eagle, freed of the responsibility of a fish dinner, flew into a tree and preened. The gulls continued to battle for control of the salmon. The eagle, having had enough, flew down from its perch and dispatched one gull, as the remaining gulls fled the scene. The bald eagle flew back to its perch and continued to preen.
The tail-tugging raven got the salmon.

Why we have evergreen trees

When I walk on a cold, windy winter day, I appreciate the evergreen trees for their good work in blocking the bitter winds. There is a Native American folktale about a sparrow with an injured wing. He was unable to fly south with his flock as winter approached. Despite that, the sparrow continued to sing his lovely song. When the first snow fell, the sparrow became desperate and sought shelter and warmth in the leaves of an oak tree, then a maple, an elm, a willow and an aspen, but each tree had a small heart and rejected the tiny bird with considerable rudeness. The pine tree, however, welcomed the sparrow and apologized for its sticky branches and needlelike foliage. The pine tucked the little bird comfortably into a sheltered and welcoming branch. When his flock returned in the spring, the sparrow's wing had healed. The Creator admonished the trees that had so much but refused to share. The Creator proclaimed those trees would lose their leaves each winter, but because the pine tree had shown compassion, it would remain green all year.

Q&A

“What should I do if I find an injured bird?” Make the bird as comfortable as possible and call the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota, located in Roseville, at 651-486-9453. If you find an injured raptor, contact the University of Minnesota Raptor Center at 612-624-4745.
“Why do I see robins and mourning doves here in the winter?” There are migratory robins and there are those that don’t migrate. Scientists are studying the migratory robins and the resident robins, finding they interbreed little. There may be genetic differences. Overwintering robins tend to travel in flocks of 40-50 birds and reside in ravines and other wooded areas where they have an open water source. They can be nomadic and move to where there is an adequate supply of food. Robins survive in the winter on the fruit of trees like buckthorn, crabapple, cherry, mountain ash, hackberry and hawthorn. Robins seldom visit feeders but might eat raisins, currants, blueberries or small pieces of suet placed on the ground or platform feeder. Most mourning doves move south, but some are year-round residents in the southern part of the state. If they find food (cracked corn, millet or safflower seeds at feeders) and water to drink, they can withstand winter. Off the subject, a dove has a structure in its throat that produces pigeon milk or crop milk for nestlings. The milk looks and smells like cheese and has some nutrients found in cow's milk.

Thanks for stopping by

“As the pressure of population increasingly regiments us and crowds us closer together, an association with the wild, winged freedom of the birds will fill an ever growing need in our lives.”—Edwin Way Teale.
“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.”—Alice Walker.
Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

The Harris's Sparrow is the only North American songbird that breeds in Canada and nowhere else in the world. It was named after Edward Harris (not the actor), a friend of Audubon, in 1843. Thomas Nuttall had named it the "Mourning Finch" in 1834. Photo by Al Batt.

I tried to get my ducks in a row, but it was like herding mallards.

A collective noun of squirrels scurried away

Naturally

 I stood where the wind often hits hard, but it had taken the day off.
 When snow falls, nature listens. I need to listen, too. If I can’t be quiet, what can I do? When it snows, I have three choices: shovel, make snow angels or listen. 
 A kind reader sent this quote from “Red Deer Runs in Darkness,” “It became obvious to me that nature has her own language. She speaks through the animals, the trees and the cool summer breeze. She whispers, ‘Embrace me.’ And I do.”
 I watched a red-breasted nuthatch fly into a feeder, grab a sunflower seed and leave quickly as if it had swiped the seed. Two pheasants and two rabbits fed under that bird feeder. It was below zero and they were hungry, so there was little fussing. They were a group. A group of rabbits has been called a bevy, bury, colony, down, drove, herd, husk, litter, nest, trace, trip and warren. Collective nouns for pheasants include bevy, bouquet, brace, creche, head, nide, nye, plume, plump, trip and warren. I could rightly call the mixed group a bevy, trip or warren. Later, a fox squirrel joined the group, but only for a short time. A collective noun for squirrels is a scurry and that’s what the squirrel did after being chased by a rooster pheasant. 
 There was another group moving through the yard on a cold and sunny day. It was a noisy group of starlings. The collective noun for that vociferous bunch is a chattering. They are often referred to as a murmuration because of the background murmur caused by the many wings of a flock beating in flight.
 I went indoors to thaw after a walk. I decided to delete a few of my overabundant herd of photos. I started with some Costa Rica pictures. I looked at photos of an eyelash pit viper, a small arboreal viper most active at night. It feeds on rodents, lizards, frogs, bats and birds. Its color varies—green, brown, brownish, grayish, pinkish, yellow, yellowish, white and more. It has small horn-shaped extensions on the supraocular scales (above the eyes). It’s named for these bristly scales that resemble hoods or eyelashes over its eyes. Another snake found in Costa Rica is the fer-de-lance, a highly venomous pit viper inhabiting the region from southern Mexico to northern South America, whose name means “spearhead” in French. It feeds on rats and other rodents, opossums, rabbits, frogs and geckos. It’s said to be the most dangerous snake in Central and South America, and causes more human deaths than any other American reptile. On average, a fer-de-lance injects 105 mg of venom in one bite, although a venom yield of up to 310 mg has been recorded while milking the snakes. The fatal dose for a human is 50 mg. It’s responsible for almost half of all snakebites in Costa Rica. However, even with its high venom yield and huge fangs (around 1 inch long in large females), the species has a low mortality rate of 1 to 2%. 
 I fed a handful of peanuts to the blue jays. Vanessa Sorensen wrote, “Though temper and crest May flare Striking beauty.” Feeding the birds is a Christmas gift to me. An ancient Italian proverb said, “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.” One of the significant benefits of being a birder is that it gives me something to talk about besides the weather. 

Q&A

 Mark Sorenson of Hollandale saw a gray squirrel using the walnut in its mouth to bang on a window of Mark’s house. He wondered why. It might have been a Christmas gift for Mark, but I suspect the squirrel was looking for a place to cache food, in this case, a walnut.
 “Why are they called angleworms?” Angleworms are commonly called earthworms. The name originated because these common ground worms are a preferred bait used by anglers, a person fishing with an angle (a rod with a baited hook on a line) rather than a fisherman using a net. The angle of the hook makes an angler; from the Old English angul means “fishhook.” The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center said earthworms are native to the US but aren’t indigenous to some northern parts because the glaciers covering North America as far south as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio wiped out native earthworms. European settlers introduced earthworm species from Europe and Asia to North America in the 18th century; likely introduced unintentionally in ship ballasts or in the roots of imported plants.

Thanks for stopping by

  “We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late.”—Marie Beynon Lyons Ray.
 “Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more."—“How the Grinch Stole Christmas!”—Dr. Suess.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

The handsome male house finch named Snowy McSnowface. Photo by Al Batt

A superstition maintains that saying “rabbit rabbit” aloud before anything else on the first day of the month brings a month of good luck. Gilda Radner said “bunny, bunny” to ensure “laughter, love and peace” and FDR said “rabbits.” If you forget to say “rabbit, rabbit” the first thing, say "tibbar, tibbar"—“rabbit” backward. Warranty available for purchase.

I forgive those squirrels who trespass against us

Naturally

 There are no ordinary moments.
 I marveled at a starry sky. Marissa Meyer wrote, “I’m still thanking all the stars, one by one.”
 As I thanked as many stars as I could, I recalled the words of James Thurber, “There are two kinds of light—the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.”
 The sky illuminates and is immense, but so is a square foot of my yard.
 The next morning, firmly in the spirit of the season, I forgave those squirrels who trespass against us.

Christmas gifts

 What do you give a nature lover other than your undying appreciation? Here are a few other welcome gifts.
 The birds come already wrapped. Share your love of them with another.
 The Audubon Bird Guide app and the Merlin Bird ID app (from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology) are free and come in handy on a cellphone (a field guide in your pocket) or tablet. Check your storage space available before downloading them. The Audubon app offers detailed descriptions for over 800 birds, 2,300+ bird songs and 3,500+ high-quality color photos. There is a search function for identifying a bird by song type or pattern, wing shape, time of year, by state, locomotion and more. There are up-to-date range maps with wintering maps for many migrating birds. The Merlin app allows you to answer three simple questions about a bird you are trying to identify and Merlin gives you a list of possible matches. It has a sound ID that listens to the birds around you and shows real-time suggestions for what is singing. You can compare your recordings to the songs and calls in Merlin to confirm what you’ve heard. If you take a photo of a bird or pull one from your camera roll, Merlin’s photo ID offers you a short list of potential matches. The photo ID works offline, so you can identify birds in the photos no matter where you are. Merlin has the capability of building a digital scrapbook of your birding memories with Save My Bird. Tap “This is my bird!” each time you identify a bird and Merlin adds it to your growing life list. Many other wonderful field guide apps require payment.
 Warm socks, warm gloves or mittens, cap (I’ve found that the dorkier a hat looks, the warmer it is). Flip-top mittens allow the wearer to fold back the mitten to reveal fingerless gloves. Vests. I love the arm freedom they provide.  

Books. I enjoy the tactile sensation of paper field guides and they are all excellent. I prefer painted birds over photos and guides covering more than a single state. A small book showing only the birds of one state is good for those who do their birding from the kitchen window or at a feeder. I advise you to look at field guides in a bookstore before deciding on which one fits. 
 A Leatherman, ice cleats, trekking or hiking poles, snowshoes, a dependable travel mug, a pocket-sized notebook and a back, day or fanny pack. Binoculars are wonderful gifts but are easier to buy for a child than for an adult. You’ll want to get a gift receipt or be accompanied by the adult gift recipient at the time of purchase.
 Membership in a local Audubon or bird club, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology or the American Birding Association. State park sticker, feeders, birdseed or a subscription to BWD magazine (a birding publication).

Q&A

 “How can I tell rabbit tracks from squirrel tracks in the snow?” I read an interesting item from the Hickory Knolls Discovery Center (Illinois), saying when a squirrel hops and lands, its larger back feet land parallel and in front of its smaller front feet. The resulting shape is square-ish. Rabbits land with one forefoot in front of the other. The line of those two prints behind the two larger hind footprints resembles the letter Y. SQuirrels leave SQuare tracks and Ys are the tracks of a bunnY. I’d add that rabbit tracks can have the shape of a triangle and that rabbits stop to nibble and squirrels dig for nuts buried under the snow. A rabbit has furred toes, blurring the toes in a track, while a squirrel has long, skinny toes that are likely to appear in the tracks. If the tracks lead to a tree and stop, it’s a squirrel.
 “My grandfather was born in Kentucky and he talked about a “wasper.” What is that?” It’s a southern name for a wasp. Waspers is the slang for the plural of wasp and it might be easier to say than “wasps.”

Thanks for stopping by

 “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.”—Willie Nelson. 
 “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners to make our souls blossom.”—Marcel Proust.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

Ring-necked pheasants were successfully imported from China to the United States in 1881 with 26 of the 30 birds surviving the journey. The first successful release in Minnesota was in 1916. A rooster's crow is often followed by a loud, rapid beating of his wings. Roosters frequently cackle when they fly. I cackle when I fly, too. Photo by Al Batt.

If these pheasants could book a flight to Texas, Arizona or Florida, the airports would be full of feathers. Photo by Al Batt

From “Zen Birds.”

The Christmas Bird Count was postponed as the area reels from a blizzard. The birds couldn’t postpone their days.

The highways closed because of weather conditions, but the feeders remained opened.

On a day buried in white snow, birds bring splendor.

Do polars bears hibernate?

Naturally

 Blue jays and peanuts. Pluck and chuck.
 It was gray anatomies as juncos covered the ground feeding on the millet I’d put out for them. The dark-eyed juncos flash white outer tail feathers in flight.
 It was a gray sack hanging from a branch.  I’d walked the nearby trail regularly and didn’t notice the Baltimore oriole nest until the tree had shed its leaves. It had been a bustling bag of baby birds not long before. The female is the primary architect with an unbelievable weaving artistry. They build nests well enough that some survive several years. A nest includes hundreds of fibrous strands of plant material (grapevine, various kinds of grass, dogbane, milkweed and others) as well as yarn or string.
 Hanging around with the juncos are some American tree sparrows. European settlers incorrectly named them because the birds reminded them of Eurasian tree sparrows back home. American tree sparrows are ground birds. They forage on the ground, nest on the ground and breed in scrubby areas near the northern treeline. It’s a small sparrow with a long, notched tail and an unstreaked gray-brown breast and belly with a dark spot in the center. The upper mandible of its bill is dark and the lower is yellow. It has a rusty cap and eye-line, and a gray face.
 Birds are fine company. I watched chickadees enhance my yard. How do they survive winter? Birds have systems in place. Small songbirds migrating through and those who winter here often associate with chickadee flocks. These followers listen to the voices of their chickadee leaders chasing the moment and when they hear an alarm note, they react.

Q&A

 “Do polar bears hibernate?” Only the pregnant polar bear females enter a den for months at a time (October-March) to give birth to cubs and nurse them for the first three months of their lives. Other polar bears are outside during the winter, hunting seals and getting by. The female may lower her heart rate, her metabolism and breathing rate in the den, but not to the point of a true hibernator. She is in a state of “light hibernation,” which allows her to minimize the amount of energy needed to stay alive while tending to her cubs. Prior research had hinted that all polar bears were capable of a walking hibernation, a period of decreased metabolism undertaken by bears during the summer and fall in response to a lack of hunting opportunities. A new study found no evidence to support this theory. There was no indication that polar bears could adjust their metabolism enough to deal with a scarcity of prey.
 “I saw a catbird feeding on the white berries of poison ivy this fall. What else eats them?” Here are some plucked from a long list of chowhounds who refuse to let the leaves of three be: American robins, deer, raccoons, cardinals, eastern bluebirds, woodpeckers, crows, wild turkeys, bobwhite quail, squirrels, chickadees, tufted titmice, black bears, yellow-rumped warblers, cedar waxwings and more.
 “Why don’t small birds fly in V-formations like geese?” A goose gets a lift from the wingtips of the goose flying in front of it. Small songbirds wouldn’t create enough of an updraft to make a V-formation useful. 
 “What duck dives the deepest?” The long-tailed duck is likely the champion diver as they dive as deep as 200 feet to forage. 
 “Why don’t the feet of songbirds freeze?” Their feet are mostly bones, sinew and scale with little muscle or nerves. The feet lack sweat glands, so they stay dry. The arteries that transport blood to the legs are in contact with the veins that return blood to the bird’s heart. This allows the heat to be transferred between the two, keeping the feet warm.
 “Give me some weather folklore involving birds.” Your wish is my command. When cranes are aloft, the day is soft. Swallows soar, good weather more. A robin singing at dawn while facing west, means a change in the weather by noon. If a robin sings loudly from the top of a tree, expect a storm. When a woodpecker pecks low on a tree, expect warm weather. A loon calls loudest before a storm.
 “What is a meadow wink?” It’s a nickname for the bobolink. Other nicknames include skunk blackbird, ricebird, reedbird and butterbird. Breeding male bobolinks are the only North American bird with a white back and black underparts, and have been described as a bird wearing a tuxedo backward.

Thanks for stopping by 

  “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”—Jonathan Swift.
  “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way she or he handles three things; A rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights”—Maya Angelou.
  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

The sight of a bluebird has long been associated with happiness, good luck and joy. I hope this photo brings you all of those. Have a bluebird day. Eastern bluebirds photo by Al Batt.

An award-winning children’s book on collective nouns presented wonderfully.

There are stories, lessons and tips galore for animal lovers who get to shadow a world-class veterinarian in the pages of this book.

This fine book led me to recall sitting in all-day-breakfast eateries, talking with friends about slow birding—taking the time needed to really look at and learn about a bird. Joan found blue jays are the 6th most googled bird, and white brows on a male white-throated sparrow suggest it might be a philanderer.

The Thanksgiving opossum

Naturally

 I saw several inert bodies of wild turkeys hit by cars. The big birds can be stubborn when it comes to surrendering a road. I’ve fond memories of spreading my fingers and outlining them in pencil on construction paper to create a make-believe turkey in grade school.
 Northern shrikes migrate south from the arctic to Minnesota for the winter. Slightly smaller than a blue jay, it has a distinctive black mask and noticeable white patches on the wings in flight. Shrikes are predatory songbirds, catching insects, small birds, small mammals and reptiles. They impale their prey on the thorns of trees.
 A chipmunk appeared to have impacted wisdom teeth. A chipmunk’s cheek pouches are like cargo pants and can expand up to three times their normal size to allow the chipmunk to carry food. National Geographic reports that a hardworking chipmunk can gather 165 acorns in a single day. In his book “Winter World,” Bernd Heinrich counted 60 sunflower seeds packed into one cheek pouch. In a good year, one 4-ounce chipmunk can stockpile 8 pounds of food and do it without renting a single storage unit. Caching food allows an industrious chipmunk to snack while watching Netflix on nasty winter days. I’ve heard from a reader who reported one chipmunk stuffing 31 corn kernels before taking its food to go. An interesting fact: Most chipmunks are named Chip, Dale, Alvin, Simon or Theodore. 
 A New York Times article said scientists at the University of Hong Kong published the most complete census of ants ever assembled. The study estimated there are at least 20 quadrillion—20,000,000,000,000,000—ants on Earth, about 2.5 million ants for every human. 

The Thanksgiving opossum

 It was a beautiful photo that had outgrown its frame. Three deer and a Virginia opossum showed up under the feeders. The opossum is nearsighted, suffers in cold weather (tail and ears are subject to frostbite) and plays dead or ‘possum for up to 4 hours when threatened. It’s an omnivore with 50 teeth that eats ticks, slugs, mice and rats. I love seeing an opossum, often called a ‘possum, because it’s one more interesting thing for me to look at and I’m thankful for that.

Q&A

 “Are bluebirds here in the winter?” Eastern bluebirds are occasionally present in the winter months, primarily in the central and southern regions of Minnesota. The Iowa DNR said up to a third of its bluebirds stay in Iowa. Red cedar, Virginia creeper, sumac, bittersweet, hackberry and hawthorn are native plants that feed wintering bluebirds.
 Jena Kauffmann asked for advice on safe bird feeders to make at home—Pinecones with peanut butter? Is lard a safe alternative? Anything harmful we should know? Pinecone feeders are great. Feeders made from cans, milk cartons or jugs, orange halves, etc. are limited only by the imagination. Make homemade suet with equal parts lard and peanut butter, melting and mixing them over low heat. You could add a variety of ingredients to this mixture: Black-oil sunflower seeds, unsalted nuts, dried fruit, peanut butter, cornmeal or flour, other kinds of birdseed or rolled oats. Avoid bacon grease, table scraps, meat, salted nuts and sugar. Keep the blend refrigerated until you’re ready to use it. 
 Arlene Kjar of Northfield suggested I write about discerning house finches from purple finches. The two closely related species are sparrow-sized with stout bills. I could fill a column on this subject, but I’ll go with what I hope proves useful. Most males can be distinguished by the shade of red, with a house finch tending to have an orangish tint and a purple finch appearing wine-red. This can be helpful, but ambiguous. Females can be distinguished by the contrasting dark and light markings on purple finches, including a light eyebrow stripe, and the muted gray-brown coloration on house finches. Look for a slight headband effect (peak) on the head of a purple finch and a smoothly rounded head on a house finch. A purple finch has a distinct notch at the tip, while a house finch has a longer tail that is slightly notched. A purple finch has a broad-shouldered look and a house finch looks slimmer. A good method of telling the male finches apart is to look at the birds’ lower flanks (below the wings to the tail). If the flanks are streaked with brown, it’s a male house finch. If the flanks are white with a hint of pink, it’s a male purple finch, which has a cloudy white belly. To my mind, purple finches are calmer at the feeders.

Thanks for stopping by 

 “In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”—Robert Lynd.
 “Modern man has lost the option of silence.”—William S. Burroughs.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2022

I think the Virginia opossum is cute. I don’t hold the majority opinion. Photo by Al Batt.