Black and Gold, Gold and Black, Mallard Ducks go quack, quack, quack.

Naturally

 The snow turns us all into trackers without granting us the acute power of observation that animals have. Humans tend to concentrate our powers of observation on digital screens. It’s a joy to see all the proof of activity in the dark yard, some resembling printable dance steps given to students at the Air Dance Studio.
 Some starlings have started showing yellow in their bills in January, changing from black as the breeding season gets closer.
 I watched mallards float on cold water. My mind took me to Mallard, Iowa, which is south of Curlew and north of Plover. The town has 265 residents and used to have a high school with a memorable school cheer: "Black and Gold, Gold and Black, Mallard Ducks go quack, quack, quack." In Minnesota, I grew up playing “Duck, duck, gray duck.” In Iowa they played “Duck, duck, goose.” I wonder if they played “Duck, duck, bear” in Alaska? They probably didn’t.
 This country adopted the bison as its national mammal in 2016. The oak is the national tree and the national flower is the rose. The bald eagle is our national symbol and our unofficial national bird because it’s never officially been designated as our national bird. I hope the bald eagle runs for that office.
 Rochester, Minnesota, has had a brown Christmas (a day with less than an inch of snow on the ground) in 1944, 1949, 1953, 1958, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1997, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023.

Q&A

 “What do boxelder bugs eat while in my house?” They suck the juices out of leaves and developing seeds of boxelder and maple trees, but not enough to hurt the trees. While they’re happy to spend the winter in the cozy confines of your house, they eat nothing during that time. They’re generally inactive, but might become mobile on sunny days, moving towards windows.
 “I saw a blue jay investigating a mud wasp nest. What was it looking for?” Probably not its car keys. They eat beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars and wasps. It was likely decimating a wasps’ nest to eat the larvae inside.
 “How long does a screech owl live?” An eastern screech-owl lived in the wild for 14 years and 2 months, but the average lifespan of one in the wild is 3 to 7 years. It’s estimated that 30 to 50% of owlets survive into the following year. I’m affiliated with the American Bald Eagle Foundation in Alaska and Dylan, the eastern screech owl living there, is 18 years old.
 “How can one blue jay tell if another is a male or a female?” In ways that we have no clue. They likely see differences in each other’s feathers in the ultraviolet spectrum. 
 “Is it rime or hoar frost?” When supercooled droplets from fog freeze and attach onto an exposed surface, we get rime. All objects need to be at 32 degrees or below, causing the liquid to freeze instantly. Hoar frost typically develops on clear and calm nights, with a dew point below 32 degrees being brought to saturation by cooling. The moisture in the air skips the droplet stage and goes straight to crystallizing, similar to dew, but when temperatures are below freezing.
 “Why is it called a corn snake?” Not found in Minnesota, the corn snake is named for its presence near stored corn, where it preys on mice and rats. Others maintain it’s named for the pattern of the snake's belly scales that resemble the kernels of variegated corn.
 “When did opossums show up in Minnesota?” They arrived in the southeastern part of the state around 1900. They aren’t well-equipped to survive cold winters.
 “Are horses native to North America?” A study, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation, found horses have been present on the Great Plains as early as the 16th century. Horses originally evolved in North America before traveling across the Bering Strait into Asia and further west. North American horses likely died out before Vikings arrived on American shores at the end of the 10th century. It’s unclear whether the Vikings brought horses to America, but the Spanish did in the 15th and 16th centuries.
 “How big a problem is lead for eagles?” The Raptor Center said over 85% of the bald eagles they treat have lead in their blood. Using copper ammunition is an effective and non-toxic option that ensures eagles are spared from unintended harm.

Thanks for stopping by

 “One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion.”—Simone de Beauvoir.
 “How do you know but ev’ry Bird that cuts the airy way, Is an immense world of delight, clos’d by your senses five?”—William Blake.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

This squirrel with a black coat is a color variant of the eastern gray squirrel. Studies have found that black squirrels maintain heat more efficiently than those with gray coats during our frigid winters. Black squirrels seem to thrive in urban environments. Why they do better on urban land cover is up for speculation. Photo by Al Batt.

Our cat, Pinky (I thought she should have been named Nehi because she’s orangish, but I lost the naming rights in a 1 to 1 vote) is a big fan of the Minnesota State Maverick Women’s Basketball team. She is generally well-behaved but does occasionally swat at an official.

Five golden rings or five audacious gallinaceous birds?

Naturally

 In most years, January seems like a month of Mondays, but this year, it had been kind. It got over it.
 The first bird I saw on New Year’s Day was an American crow. It’s challenging to sidestep a crow. It had a scholarly look, so I suspect the crow made a point of being the first bird spotted. Crows are big believers in caws-es. The popular holiday tune “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is a bird lover’s delight. The lucky recipient ends up with 23 birds by the end of the song. It’s one partridge, two turtle doves, three French hens, four calling birds, six geese and seven swans. In the original published version, it was “four colly birds,” not “four calling birds.” In England, “colly birds” was a name given to blackbirds. That blackbird differs from those of this country. It’s a common European thrush, Turdus merula, and the male has a black plumage and yellow bill. Merriam-Webster‘s entry for “colly” notes that it derives from the Old English word for coal and means to blacken with or as if with soot. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “colly bird” as an old popular name for a blackbird. Colly is a dialect word for coal dust. So, a bird the color of coal could be a crow in my version of the song. This colly bird or a calling bird was calling or cawing. That crow knows more than I’ll ever suspect about crows. 
 I do Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). I decide where I think birds might be, then I find them and look at them. Simple, huh? The kicker is that there is math involved. That’s right, I have to count the birds. That’s why it’s called a Christmas Bird Count. Being out among them gives me a wonderful experience. I enjoy visiting with the people I meet, getting some walking in and seeing lovely birds. I looked for rough-legged hawks, which I called Christmas hawks when I was a lad, a hawk with feathered feet for warmth. I can’t grow the feathers, so I wear wool socks. They feed on small mammals—moveable feasts. I saw none. The nice weather might have kept the raptors north. I can’t count the birds in my yard because it isn’t within a CBC circle, but I never cease to be amazed by how the birds know everything about everything in the yard. I feed the birds and they feed my curiosity. It’s a story filled with drama and sunflower seeds.

Q&A

 “What can I feed robins in the winter?” Robins aren’t typical feeder guests, so it’s best to place an open tray feeder, low or on the ground, near a berry-producing tree frequented by the robins and stock it with raisins, apple slices, other chopped fruit, mealworms or suet. Flocks of robins are nomadic in winter and once they have depleted the local berry supply, they’re likely to search elsewhere for another natural berry crop instead of hanging around the feeders. Robins readily visit bird baths for fresh water.
 “How dangerous are coyotes to humans?” I saw a coyote on my deck before Christmas. It was no surprise. I’d ordered something from Acme. Coyotes aren’t as dangerous as potato salad. I love potato salad, but according to the CDC, about 3,000 people a year die from complications related to foodborne illness. Thankfully, not all are from ingesting potato salad. Coyote attacks on humans during the years 1970 to 2015 resulted in two human deaths. Dogs kill an average of 30–50 people per year in the US. Deer-car accidents cause 175 to 200 fatalities. There were 19,196 homicides in this country in 2022.
 “Where can I see swans in Minnesota in the winter?” Where there is open water and an abundant food supply. Minnesota's wintering swans benefit from two power plant sites that discharge warm water: Xcel Energy's Monticello Nuclear Power Plant and Otter Tail Power Company's coal-fired power plant in Fergus Falls. You might find swans in a crossword puzzle. A three-letter word meaning a male swan is a cob and a three-letter word meaning a female swan is a pen.
 “Why do acorns have hats?” The top of the acorn that resembles a hat, cap or beret is called a cupule. It's a tough outer shell that can be prickly, rough, scaly or smooth. It adds extra protection for the delicate embryo inside the kernel, which consists of two fatty leaves called cotyledons.

Thanks for stopping by

 “One has only to sit down in the woods or the fields, or by the shore of the river or the lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round to him.”—John Burroughs. 
 “No matter what it is, if you don’t move your eyes and set the pace yourself, your intellect is sentenced to death. The mind, you see, is like a muscle. For it to remain agile and strong, it must work. Television rules that out.”—Mark Helprin.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

  "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is a cumulative song filled with birds. The recipient might have wanted jewelry, but the five golden rings were likely to have been ring-necked pheasants, audacious gallinaceous birds with white collars. Another theory suggests the gold rings were goldspinks, an old name for goldfinches. Photo by Al Batt.

What does a great horned owl say?

Naturally

  Feeding more than two birds with one seed, I put out sunflower seeds. Chickadees and blue jays were the first to the trough. When I see a chickadee, the whole world becomes a chickadee. The bird causes me to become lost in the moment. A chickadee may eat 35% of its weight each day and a blue jay only 10%, but they both need more calories on colder days than on warmer ones. As I watched a blue jay do blue jay things, I realized that “blue” doesn’t do the handsome bird justice.
  My wife named her Tula, but the yard turkey (a wild turkey hen) doesn’t care. I watched the turkey chase the crows, rabbits and squirrels about the yard. Turkey hens gone wild! She’s serious about her one-turkey stampede. The squirrels climb trees to end the pursuit; the rabbits hop away as fast as they can go. Crows appear to take it as a game of tag in which they will never be it. Male crows are generally slightly larger than the females. It was a chilly day, so the turkey preened and used all 5000-6000 of her feathers. A Canada goose wears 20,000 to 25,000 feathers. When the turkey is in a particularly foul fowl mood or a fowl foul mood, she even chases the starlings.

Q&A 

  “Why don’t turkey vultures stay here all winter?” Why doesn’t your brother-in-law Herb stay here all winter? Herb needs to go to the Lower Rio Grande Valley and learn how to make stained glass windows. There are likely turkey vultures in that class with Herb. I kid because I love. Turkey vultures migrate to avoid challenging environmental conditions and resource limitations. Herb does something similar. Birds require more energy to maintain their body temperature when it’s cold. Food resources become scarcer in the winter, forcing turkey vultures to move southward where it is easier to survive. They are scavengers that feed on the carcasses of animals. In winter, reptiles, amphibians and some mammals hibernate or go into torpor, which means there are fewer food sources for vultures. The vultures return in the warmer months when carrion doesn’t freeze. The increasing deer populations and the rising number of vehicles on highways help turkey vultures, as the combination of deer and cars leads to more road kill for more vultures to dine on. If road kill went unfrozen during the frozen part of the year, vultures might stay here in the winter. The Cherokee Nation called them "peace eagles" based on their resemblance to an eagle from a distance and the fact that they don’t kill their prey.
   “I know a barred owl’s call is described as “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” What does a great horned owl say?” The mnemonic of a great horned owl’s hooting is, “Who’s awake? Me, too!” The female’s voice is higher in pitch than the male’s.
   “Is an opossum the Irish cousin of a possum?” I’ll ask one and get back to you on St. Patrick’s Day.
  “Why would a bird sing in the winter?” To declare and defend a feeding territory. They may sing to communicate with others or to express vitality and energy. As the days lengthen, which signals the approach of the breeding season, they sing to attract mates and as part of the courtship process. I typically hear the black-capped chickadee singing a clear, sweet, whistled “fee-bee” or “sweet-ie” starting in January. If the bird sings “Spring’s here,” it’s speculating at that time.
  “What is the function of the gold dots on a monarch chrysalis?” They could act as camouflage by reflecting the colors of the surroundings, breaking up the shape of the pupa or resembling dew droplets. They may act as a warning coloration or filter the wavelengths of light that might be harmful to the monarchs.

These and them

  I enjoyed reading “Birding a Cornfield County” by a friend named Wayne Feder of Blue Earth. It’s a lovely book chronicling the author’s “Year of the Bird” in Faribault County in 2018.
  Mario Benassi of Haines, Alaska, showed me his red-tailed hawk, Gavilancito, which he explained meant “little hawk” in Spanish. Mario is a falconer who uses his 2.6-pound raptor to hunt rabbits, grouse and ducks for Mario’s winter table.
  I enjoyed visiting with Jim Wright of New Jersey, who, with Scott Weston, coauthored a swell book titled, “The Screech Owl Companion,” everything you need to know about these beneficial raptors. And then some. 

Thanks for stopping by

  “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.”―Leonard Cohen.
  “We need laughter in our lives. Laughter is carbonated holiness. It’s like the cavalry arriving to help us get our sense of humor back.”—Anne Lamott.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Tula the wild turkey’s class yearbook photo. She was active in Turkey School. Cross country, Choir, Ag (specializing in shelling corn and manure handling), Primary Preener at the Class Play and Folk Dance (her turkey trot brought the house down). She was voted Most Likely to Catch a Squirrel. Photo by Al Batt.

Wild turkeys can run at speeds up to 25 mph and fly up to 55 mph

Naturally

 Wild turkeys can run at speeds up to 25 mph and fly up to 55 mph. The wild turkey hen in our yard chases pheasant roosters and flies high into trees to harass crows. I think the crows relished the company. Once those tasks are completed, it’s as if someone flipped a switch and the turkey gets the zoomies, frenetic random activity periods (FRAPs) or frenetic activity periods (FAPs), a delightful and common behavior exhibited by dogs and cats when they sprint around the yard or house at full speed.
 Red-tailed hawks hunt from perches and from the air. As they circle and soar, they can spot a mouse from 100 feet high.
 One billion birds die from colliding with windows in the U.S. each year. This is the second leading human-related cause of death to birds after outdoor cats. These collisions are frequently caused when birds are drawn to lights or confused by the outside habitat reflected in windows. Methods could be implemented to alert birds that windows are solid and not an extension of their habitat. Adding closely spaced decals to the outside of windows, striping windows with tempera paint or soap, using UV-reflective tape or using one-way transparent film over windows are all temporary ways to protect birds from window strikes. More permanent solutions include using etched or bird-friendly glass, and windows with screens or netting on the outside.

Q&A

 “How many eggs does a pileated woodpecker have in a clutch?” There will be 3-5 eggs.
 “How does a blue jay swallow so many sunflower seeds on a visit to a feeder?” They have a throat sac called a gular pouch, which they can fill and cough up the seeds later to eat or cache.
 “Why are snowy owls so often seen at airports?”  Snowy owls are accustomed to the Arctic tundra, so they prefer open, flat areas, which make it easier to spot their prey. It’s a different kind of tundra. It’s a busy and noisy tundra with bright lights, but it’s still tundra to the owls. 
 “Why do birds migrate at night?” Most birds migrate at night. The stars and the moon aid night-flying birds’ navigation. Free of daytime thermals, the atmosphere is more stable, making it easier to maintain a steady course. Cooler temperatures at night help keep birds from overheating. There are fewer predators (cats and hawks) of those flying under the cover of darkness. Plus, they can eat during the day when food might be easier to find.
 Duane Miller of Hartland was out at midnight hoping to see the northern lights. What he saw instead were birds on the highway. He wondered what they were doing there. The birds might have been looking for the northern lights. Or not. Pavement absorbs heat and holds it, causing birds to land on roads when the temperature drops. On a chilly day, I watched a manhole cover in a city being visited by house sparrows who found warmth there. Other temptations are found on roads: food, grit (just until birds get their teeth—“giggle”) and the potholes, cracks and rumble strips holding water. Pheasants stand on roads in wet weather to keep out of waterlogged grass. Many birds feed at roadsides on spilled grain and windblown seeds caught in the vegetation on the edge. Those things happen in the light of day. Nocturnal owls hunt the roads at night. They get a clear shot at prey there. Members of the nightjar family fly up from the road to capture flying insects and the open road gives them good looks at both prey and predators. I’ve encountered mourning doves and horned larks on roads before daybreak. Why the doves are there so late or so early, I don’t know. Maybe they forgot to go to bed. I suspect other ground-roosting birds other than the horned larks—snow buntings and Lapland longspurs—could be found there in the dark. Something could have rousted a bird from its preferred parking place, causing it to land on a nearby road. More things to wonder about.
 “Are mosquitoes pollinators?” Just like bees or butterflies, mosquitoes transfer pollen from flower to flower as the insects feed on nectar. A female mosquito seeks a blood meal for the protein when she lays eggs and the males feed only on flower nectar and never bite. 
 “How often do we get a brown Christmas?” The Minnesota DNR says that 29% of the years, there is no measurable snow cover in the Twin Cities. Northern Minnesota has a 100% chance of a white Christmas in some areas. Southern and western border counties have a 60% or lower chance. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “Kindness is like snow. It beautifies everything it covers.”—Kahlil Gibran.
 “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention.”—Mary Oliver.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

A leucistic eastern kingbird. Leucism is an abnormal condition of reduced pigmentation that results in a bird being marked by pale and muted colors or irregular patches of white. Birds with leucism have dark-colored eyes rather than the red or pink eyes characteristic of albinism. Leucism is more common than albinism. Photo by Al Batt.

You can observe a lot by just watching

 Heaven and nature sing—naturally

 I keep looking. Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot by just watching.” Surrounded by wonder, I watched a chickadee enter a cavity in a dead tree. Life and death, death and life. On a chilly night, a chickadee roosts in a cavity or dense vegetation. It caches food. Being a bird is hard work, but a chickadee carries a jauntiness with it. A joy of being among the living.
 Some of the wind-rustled leaves had become cardinal-wannabes and flew past as I filled the feeders where chickadees and cardinals are valued customers. I want them to turn the feed into feathers and flights.

The annual hint list

 What do you give a nature lover for Christmas other than your undying appreciation or raucous cheers extolling their perfection? 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 useful on a cellphone as a field guide in your pocket or on a tablet. The Audubon app offers detailed descriptions, bird songs, range maps and color photos. There is a search function for identifying a bird by song, wing shape, time of year, state, locomotion and more. 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 offers a potential identification. If you take a photo of a bird or pull one from your camera roll, Merlin’s photo ID offers a short list of potential matches. Many other outstanding 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) or flip-top mittens allow the wearer to fold back the mitten to reveal fingerless gloves. I love the arm freedom vests provide. Books of all kinds. 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, but your preferences may vary. A small book showing the birds of only one state is suitable 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 (one that hollers at you when you are about to forget it somewhere—please let me know if you find one), a pocket-sized notebook or a back, day or fanny pack. Binoculars are lovely gifts but are easier to buy for a child than for an adult. Get a gift receipt or be accompanied by the adult gift recipient at the time of purchase. A membership in a local Audubon or bird club, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, American Birding Association, Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union, Wild Ones or Izaak Walton League. Please don’t fall for the scam and join the Mosquito Lovers of Minnesota group. I’ve been the only one there at the last three meetings. A state park sticker, feeders, birdseed, a subscription to BWD magazine (a birding publication) and a bunch of things I’ve neglected to mention would make lovely gifts.

Q&A

 Jerry Viktora of Ellendale asked why he hadn’t seen any cardinals in his yard since the summer. By late summer, when nesting is over and cardinals relax the defense of their territorial boundaries, the birds sing less and flocks form. They don’t migrate but can expand their range while foraging for food. They determine where to spend the winter. The flocks are ever-changing and dependent on weather and available resources. If you continue to offer food and water, they are likely to make return visits.
 “What is the mortality rate for nestling songbirds?” I have seen various references saying for typical passerines or perching birds, juvenile mortality in the nest is around 50%. I cannot cite a study.
 “Why do vultures circle dying animals?” Ah, the dreaded circle of death, seen often in cowboy movies and jungle films. Turkey vultures don't circle dying animals, waiting for them to go onto the menu. They ride thermals to travel and to find food. They do investigate possible prey.

Thanks for stopping by

 "For somehow, not only for Christmas, but all the long year through, the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you."—Margaret Elizabeth Sangster.
 "Christmas is the season for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart."—Washington Irving.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

It was a bluebird day when a couple of bluebirds of happiness showed up. As the song “Over the Rainbow” said, “Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly. Birds fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh, why can't I? If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow. Why, oh, why can't I?” Eastern bluebirds photo by Al Batt.

If you need some peanuts in the shell weighed, call a blue jay



Naturally

 I put out some peanuts in the shell for the birds. The blue jays weigh the peanuts by picking them up as if they are miniature barbells and, after some consideration, take the heaviest ones first because there is more food in those. My wife says blue jays are just a bit smarter than I am. She’s not giving them enough credit. They are more than a bit smarter. I imagine a blue jay looks at those peanuts and says to itself, “Wow! I’m rich.”
 A reader from Connecticut places peanuts in plain sight scattered around her yard. Then she watches how quickly the blue jays find the goobers. Jays notice anything different in their world—that’s how they survive.
 I examined a rotting stump, evidence of a tree gone by. Crows squawked a lot, just as people squawk a lot. The crows kept their eyes on me. It’s part of their job description. They’ve learned that humans are always up to something.
 A turkey hen preens on our deck. An adult turkey has 5,000 to 6,000 feathers and she appeared intent on sprucing up every feather her bill could reach. She sorts through her feathers as if she might have been counting them. You can tell a female turkey’s poop from a male’s. That’s a handy skill to have and will astound your family when you share this bit of knowledge at next year’s Thanksgiving meal. Take that Aunt Agatha, who claims to have once shaken hands with Ross Perot and reminds everyone of that at every opportunity. The female scat is clumpier, rounder, potentially curly or spiraled and green-brown with white uric acid on the surface. The male scat, both from the jake and the tom, is long, narrow and straight, sometimes with a J-shape at the curved end. The larger the diameter, the older the bird. The hen keeping me company has no beard. Turkey beards start growing when poults are five months old and keep growing throughout their lives. They are permanent and not replaced during molts. The older the male, the longer the beard. Turkeys can lose their beards when a vitamin deficiency results in their beards being sheared off, snapping off from the weight of snow and ice that collects or fraying from being dragged on the ground. Some toms grow more than one beard. The National Turkey Wildlife Federation found one tom had 13 beards. The longest beard was on a turkey in Texas and was 22.5 inches long. That turkey played a guitar with the band ZZ Top. A less prominent version of the beard occurs on about 10% to 20% of females. 
An unmitigated gull stole my hot dog and laughed
 I spoke at a thing in Florida. I call it work; my family and friends call it bloviating. I was out on the beach because there was a beach there that was hard to avoid. It was a shore thing. I lacked a laser pointer, so I used my hot dog as a pointer, as any sane man would do when pointing out a bird. A gull took that as an invitation to have a bite. It snagged it from my hand but struggled to carry it away, even though I had taken a bite, dropping the tasty morsel, mustard and all, which was greedily consumed by its bickering followers, who numbered more than those of Elon Musk. A kerfuffle or maybe a hullabaloo ensued. The gulls laughed at my unwanted dietary restriction. They laughed because they were laughing gulls. I didn’t ask, but I doubt the hot dog vendor offered refunds on pilfered frankfurters and who carries insurance for that sort of thing?

Q&A

 “Where do Canada jays hide the food they steal from me when I’m camping?” The Canada jay is also called the camp robber, whiskey jack or gray jay. This bird has eyes that seldom miss food. A friend told me of a Canada jay swiping a strip of bacon from a frying pan. “Whiskey jack” doesn’t derive from tales about these birds highjacking Al Capone’s trucks hauling whiskey to a speakeasy. It comes from the Cree (and other Algonquian languages) name for the bird, which was Wisakedjak. Wisakedjak was a sacred figure known as a trickster. The gregarious Canada jays hide food in conifer needles and cram it into the nooks and crannies of tree bark, using their sticky saliva to roll bits of food into gooey packages like ABC (Already Been Chewed) gum on the bottom of a student’s desk. Tree sap might be an aid. Like other jays that cache food for their winter’s larder, Canada jays have terrific visual memories and are able to find hidden morsels months later.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Perhaps one day we will kneel down and ask the animals for forgiveness.”—Dalai Lama.
 "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere."—Laura Ingalls Wilder.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Crow or raven? Check a range map. Crows caw, while ravens have a deeper, throatier croak or gronk. Ravens have thicker bills and shaggy necks. A crow’s tail is fan-shaped in flight and a raven’s is wedge- or diamond-shaped. Ravens soar, crows flap. A crow is about 2/3 the size of a raven, which is the size of a red-tailed hawk. Crows are more common in urban areas where a big crow is typically a big crow. Common raven photo by Al Batt.

It was the match of the century: a pecan-eating Steller’s jay versus the windows



Naturally

  The opossum’s pink fingers produce awe and awwww. My job description was defined by Mary Oliver, who wrote, “Instructions for living a life. Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” Things are always happening. Pine siskins are goldfinches wearing striped pajamas. Deer think they have the right-of-way. They don’t always pay attention. It’s not fair, but we have to pay attention for them.

  Raccoons spend most of the winter hunkered down in dens but emerge occasionally to forage for food and drink water. They aren’t true hibernators, entering a prolonged state of inactivity called torpor in which they can sleep for weeks at a time, relying on their accumulated fat stores.

  Dena Selby of Haines, Alaska, kindly fed a few pecans to Steller’s jays and now the jays are attacking the windows of her house, demanding more pecans. What can Dena do? Feed them more pecans.

  I was tooling around Chicago in a rental car, while someone on the radio marveled at the traffic savvy of the city’s coyotes, which allegedly look both ways before crossing the street and use crosswalks at red lights. They have surpassed our ability to do that.

  It happens every fall; a hen turkey decides to trot around our yard. I don’t know why she does it, but I’m sure she has a good reason. In the fall, hen turkeys live in flocks with their female offspring. Hens that weren’t successful hatching chicks may form smaller flocks with similar lone hens. Male turkeys form their own flocks, which might be segregated by age. Young male turkeys, commonly called jakes, band together and older males form their own groups. They likely hold clandestine meetings. They interact with others within a flock and call frequently to each other. An essential part of a flock’s life is establishing dominance, which leads to squabbles, dominance displays, fights and kerfuffles. A gobble can be heard occasionally as the pecking order is sorted out.

Dr. Splatt

  Brewster Bartlett, a retired science teacher at Pinkerton Academy, a high school in Derry, New Hampshire, once ran the RoadKill Project, a program connecting students from schools around the nation to study flattened fauna. Students involved in the RoadKill Project adopted roads and kept track of the dead critters they encountered from the tiniest frogs to stray pets to deer. Bartlett, known as “Dr. Splatt,” found that daylight-saving time had no effect on the roadkill count, but more dead animals were counted during a new moon than a full moon, perhaps because the animals moved more freely under the cover of darkness. Roads posted at 35 mph had more carnage than highways because the slower roads are often winding and travel through wooded, rural or suburban areas.

Q&A

  “How do you tell if a crow is a male or female?” Individuals vary in size and there are regional differences, but it's nearly impossible to tell male and female crows apart. The only way to differentiate between them is if they're perched close together when a slight difference in size might be detected. Males are generally larger than females.

  “What is another name for a mountain lion?” Ralph or Betty would be suitable names, but I doubt they’d come if you called them. Cougar, panther, puma, painter, el leon and catamount are other handles.

  “Where do garter snakes go in the winter?” Garter snakes are found throughout Minnesota. To keep from freezing during the winter, garter snakes spend the entire winter below the frost line in a state of brumation. Hibernation in reptiles differs from mammals because a reptile doesn’t survive on its fat reserves. In reptiles, hibernation is called brumation. Snakes are ectothermic (cold-blooded) animals and a garter snake's metabolism slows and its low activity prevents it from burning energy. Sluggish but not asleep, snakes move farther underground if severe winter temperatures and a lack of insulating snow cover drive the frost line deeper. They congregate in a rocky outcrop, a crevice, a natural cavity, an ant mound or a tunnel made by a burrowing animal. Some winter dens are used by garter snakes year after year. Garter snakes may come out to bask in the sun for a few hours on warm days before returning to the hibernaculum.

Thanks for stopping by

  “It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.”―Wendell Berry.

  “It is my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you understand the most amusing.”—Winston Churchill.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

 A hen turkey spends a lot of time looking in the windows of our house. My wife says that the big bird is seeing its reflected image, but I’m certain it’s because she has a crush on me. Men sense these things. A crow named Splat has hit my office window with significant droppings that run down the glass, creating an odd form of art. I think she’s jealous of the turkey. Photo by Al Batt.

Heckle and Jeckle are magpies



Naturally

 John Muir said, “The mountains are calling and I must go.”
 I was in southeast Alaska—Haines and Juneau. Frank Sinatra sang, “The moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free. The stars belong to everyone, they gleam there for you and me.” The same could be said for the northern lights that decked out the sky during my visit.
 American dippers walked on the bottoms of fast-moving water and probed under stones for aquatic larvae, insects, worms, small fish and fish eggs. They thrilled me by singing like a melody of wren and thrush songs, bubbling like the water around them. Dippers were once called water ouzels, a great name for a garage band. Dippers might navigate down a slope or downstream to find more food.
 Steller’s jays made harsh "shack" sounds as I watched an eagle fight with another eagle over the catch of the day. While they tussled, a gull snuck in to eat some fish. Then a raven flew in, chased the gull off and dined on the salmon. The original catcher of the salmon, having vanquished its challenger, flew back and chased the raven away. While this took place, black-billed magpies darted in and out, grabbing beaks full of salmon. Magpies steal from eagles as jackals steal from lions. Magpies have long tails that stream behind them in flight like advertising banners behind small airplanes. They make "mag" calls and the cartoon characters Heckle and Jeckle are magpies. 
 Worried that bald eagles might deplete fish populations, the Alaska Territorial Legislature offered a bounty on eagles in 1917. The bounty was removed in 1953 and when Alaska became a state in 1959, the eagles came under federal protection. The Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve near Haines was formed in 1982 and set aside for the protection of the eagles.  

Bird bobbleheads

 I’ve coached baseball and one of my players told me his goal was to have his own bobblehead one day. I wonder if he got one? The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum unveiled the first Pūteketeke Bobblehead. The pūteketeke, also known as the Australasian crested grebe, has gone viral in New Zealand’s Bird of the Century competition.

Four-letter words

 Four-letter codes are commonly used as a shorthand for a bird’s name. Two different sets of  codes are in use. The first codes were created by the Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) for use by bird banders in submitting data and are referred to as “banding codes.” The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) published a second set of codes. The northern goshawk (NOGO) has been renamed the American goshawk (AGOS) and the American goldfinch, formerly AMGO, is now AGOL to avoid confusion.

Q&A

 Jim Muyres of Mankato asked if he should be concerned about suet becoming rancid in hot weather. Suet can soften and foul birds’ plumage in hot weather and it can become rancid. Some suet manufacturers state their blocks will withstand high temps without melting; however, they might go rancid if extremely high temperatures persist.
 “What’s the difference between invasive and exotic?” Exotic means non-indigenous to an area and invasive means tending to spread prolifically and undesirably/harmfully. The Japanese beetle, common buckthorn and garlic mustard are both exotic and invasive. Many exotics aren’t considered invasive. Soybeans, cattle, apples and ring-necked pheasants originated in Asia, corn was first cultivated in Mexico, tomatoes came from South America and tulips were native to Europe.
 “Why don’t chickadees migrate?” Because I need them here with me. Chickadees think only wimpy birds fly south and are non-migratory, year-round residents throughout their range. It takes a lot of energy for a bird to migrate, but they need food to stay home. Chickadees are good at finding food and they work overtime at it. They cache food to eat later. They are opportunistic feeders who eat between meals, have amazing memories and wear jackets (they fluff up their feathers for insulation). Chickadees are meant to be here and figure out how to get what they need. They make do and they get by. They always have.

Thanks for stopping by

 “In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,’ and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”—Carl Sagan.
 “The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”—Wendell Berry.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

American dippers walk on the bottoms of fast-moving water and probe under stones for aquatic larvae, insects, worms, small fish and fish eggs. They thrill me by singing like a melody of wren and thrush songs, bubbling like the water around them. Dippers were once called water ouzels, a great name for a garage band. Photo by Al Batt.

A wild turkey did some trotting on the snow-covered deck of this old house.

WKRP viewers want to know how far a turkey can fly.



Naturally

 I’ve said goodbye to many of summer’s birds and insects, little things that made a season. I did a good deed and put out some birdseed in their memory.
 Lots of flowers are blooming in the middle of November—mostly dandelions. A caller said raccoons got into a garbage can. I said they were seeking canned goods.
 I saw a pair of bald eagles on a nest site in Alaska in November. I’ve seen that in Minnesota in November, too. They come in to do a little repair or remodeling, or maybe it’s just a bonding practice. 
 Cooper’s hawks are prospering in urban areas. Their preferred prey can be readily found there—rock pigeons, mourning doves and Eurasian collared-doves. I watched a Coop chase house sparrows under a minivan, while a downy woodpecker froze in place, trying to be invisible. Freezing in position is a common strategy for the downy, as woodpeckers aren't fast fliers. It’s the bird’s best defense, hoping to escape a predator's notice. Its slow, undulating flight isn’t a good escape mechanism.

Q&A

 Five-year-old Lillie wanted to know how many pecks it would take a red-bellied woodpecker to get to the inside of the tree. What a wonderful question. It would depend if the bird used power tools. It takes only 7 to 10 days for a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers to carve a foot-deep home in a dead tree. Foraging would take a second (a single peck) without bark and slightly longer if the bark is in place. It takes as long as it takes.
 “How many young do opossums have?” The only marsupial in North America has two breeding seasons from January through May. The average litter size is between six and 20 babies (called joeys) that weigh less than a penny at birth. The joeys are carried and nursed in a pouch after birth like kangaroos and koalas. Newborn opossums remain attached to their mother’s nipples for 60 to 70 days before leaving the pouch, but continue to cling to their mother’s fur. Reaching mouse-size, they ride on their mother's back. They’re approximately four months old when they become independent. 
 “Are black squirrels a separate species?” They’re gray squirrels wearing black coats, which tend to exhibit more aggressive behavior than the grays. Kent State University is known for its black squirrel population. The black color results from two recessive genes coming together. If a dominant gene gray squirrel mates with a recessive gene black squirrel, the offspring will be gray. Two black squirrels produce black offspring. I’ve seen the larger fox squirrels with black on their heads in North Carolina.
 “When did cardinals come to Minnesota?” In John James Audubon’s day, the northern cardinal was considered a southern bird and rarely seen as far north as Philadelphia. It’s the northern cardinal because it’s the most northerly representative of its genus, Cardinalis. The first Minnesota record was in Minneapolis in the fall of 1875. Many of the first arrivals were single males seen in southern Minnesota. Redbirds appeared in Sherburne County (1887), Kandiyohi County (1894), Fillmore County (1898) and Martin County (1913). The state’s first confirmed nesting was a nest with eggs found in Steele County in 1925. Nesting was later documented in Hennepin County in 1927 and Goodhue County in 1930.
 “Do pheasants lay eggs in the nests of other birds?” They are occasional brood parasites, laying eggs in nests of ducks or other gallinaceous birds like partridge, grouse, quail and turkey.
 “How far can a turkey fly and how old are they before they can fly?” Turkey poults can fly when they’re 8-10 days old. The adults rarely fly over 100 yards, but are said to be capable of flying 1/4 mile. Pheasants can fly 600 feet, although the Cornell Lab of Ornithology says a 1941 report noted a pheasant was observed flying 4 miles across a body of water. Baby pheasants can fly 150 feet when they’re three weeks old. 
 “What’s the difference between a deer rub and a scrape?” A rub is created when a buck rubs its antlers on saplings, brush, small trees or fence posts, peeling away the bark or surface of the object. Bucks place scent from the forehead and preorbital glands on the wood to let other bucks know they’re around. A scrape is made when a buck paws the ground with its hooves and deposits secretions from its interdigital glands.

Thanks for stopping by

 “I don't ask for the meaning of the song of a bird or the rising of the sun on a misty morning. There they are, and they are beautiful.”―Pete Hamill.
 “After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on—have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear—what remains? Nature remains.” —Walt Whitman.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

American crows have an outsized intelligence. Young crows don’t breed until they’re at least two years old, and most don’t until they’re four or more after helping their parents raise young for a few years. This gives them the time and energy for learning and play. Baby crows are chicks, but I think they should be called crowlets. Collective nouns for crows are murder (maybe because they’re scavengers), horde, mob or parliament. Photo by Al Batt.

Over 27% of American kestrel males are named Bob

Naturally

  I have to look at everything in the fall. Even a sign reading “Ignore this sign” makes me look.

  Time to break out the worry about winter. I watched an American kestrel bob on a utility wire it perched on during a brisk wind. Interesting fact: 27% of male American kestrels are named Bob.

  I had a nice visit with Mario Benassi, a falconer in Haines, Alaska, who has a new red-tailed hawk he’s attempting to train. The raptor was interested in some grouse until a raven with a piece of meat in its bill flew by. The hawk forgot about the grouse and pursued the raven until the corvid dropped the meat.

The names they are a-changing

  The American Ornithological Society (AOS) will rename 70 to 80 species in the US and Canada that are named after people or have names deemed offensive or exclusionary. This effort will start in 2024. The AOS feels the changes will help people understand the species: names that describe the bird, its habitat, its range or something else about the species convey more information about the bird than a person’s name. The decision to scrap eponyms entirely as an opportunity for positive discussions that focus on the birds. The list of names to be changed include Bachman’s sparrow, Steller’s jay, Anna’s hummingbird, Cooper’s hawk, Audubon’s shearwater, Wilson's warbler, Wilson's snipe, Harris’s sparrow, Harris’s hawk, LeConte’s sparrow, Franklin’s gull, Ross’s goose, Lewis’s woodpecker, Baird’s sandpiper, Bonaparte’s gull, Forster’s tern, Swainson’s hawk, Swainson’s thrush, Henslow’s sparrow, Lincoln’s sparrow, Brewer’s blackbird and many more. The AOS makes name changes occasionally. The northern goshawk was changed to the American goshawk, oldsquaw became long-tailed duck and the name of McCown’s longspur was changed to thick-billed longspur. AOS president, Colleen Handel, said “There is power in a name, and some English bird names have associations with the past that continue to be exclusionary and harmful today. We need a much more inclusive and engaging scientific process that focuses attention on the unique features and beauty of the birds themselves. Everyone who loves and cares about birds should be able to enjoy and study them freely—and birds need our help now more than ever.” Scientific names will not be changed.

  I’m intrigued as to what the names will become and excited about the changes. Maybe we’ll look at some birds with fresh eyes.

Vultures versus pumpkins

  Dr. Heather Huson of the Department of Animal Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, showed me photos of a red-tailed hawk and a turkey vulture eating meat she’d placed in pumpkins. She’d put the food there to stimulate the birds. A great horned owl refused to become involved with a jack-o’-lantern. Vultures are intelligent birds and each year, I see some feeding on rotting pumpkins in fields. They eat some, nibble on some and shred some. I’ve been told they also eat grapes.

A finny walk

  The Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery is the world’s largest walleye-producing hatchery with ten million fingerling walleyes released annually in North Dakota and Wyoming. This hatchery’s role includes the spawning and stocking of endangered pallid sturgeon in the Missouri River, and the restoration of sauger and shovelnose sturgeon in Wyoming. In addition, it has a role in managing the fish population for North Dakota's salmon and trout, and fills stocking requests for walleye, northern pike and a variety of other cool-water species in the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. A stroll down the hatchery’s trails offers a fishy education. Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery is 58 miles north of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Q&A

  “What is the old saying about sedges and grasses?” Sedges have edges, rushes are round and grasses have nodes all the way to the ground. 

  “What animal is most prone to getting rabies?” A 2021 study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association showed 91.5% involved wildlife, with bats making up 33.9% of that total, raccoons 28.1%, skunks 18.9% and foxes 8.6% representing the primary hosts confirmed with rabies. Rabid cats 5.9%, cattle 1.1% and dogs 1.0% accounted for 94% of rabies cases involving domestic animals.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider's web?"

  "Oh, no," said Dr. Dorian. "I don't understand it. But for that matter I don't understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle."

  "What's miraculous about a spider's web?" said Mrs. Arable. "I don't see why you say a web is a miracle—it's just a web."

  "Ever try to spin one?" asked Dr. Dorian.”―E.B. White, “Charlotte's Web.”

  “Better to wonder than to know it all.”—A.B.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The American Ornithological Society is changing all English-language names of birds within its geographic jurisdiction that are named after people (eponyms) and other names deemed offensive and exclusionary. A name that doesn’t describe a bird well can make it harder to identify and remember. A name can increase our understanding of a species and descriptive names are helpful. It will be interesting to see what name this stellar Steller’s jay ends up with. Photo by Al Batt.

A dry cabin in Alaska. It’s quite roomy.

Can some insects taste with their feet?

• 

• Naturally
  
  
   “Down in front!” I yelled.
   The Canada geese flying in front of me paid me no mind.
   It was a genial fall day. The festival of the falling leaves was coming into the homestretch. The leafless trees added a lovely homeliness to the landscape as they watch us wear flannel shirts.
   Every cornfield I see is a food plot for deer, but on November 1, I saw the fields being used by wild turkeys, sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans. 
   A bald eagle fed on a road-killed raccoon. The crows nearby looked as if they were cheering for the eagle, but I know they were jeering.
   I am an on-demand bird feeder and scattered millet seed on the ground for native sparrows like juncos, white-throated sparrows, fox sparrows, Lincoln's sparrows and white-crowned sparrows. I relish the presence of birds, but opossums are nice, too. There were four young ones in the yard—Pogo, Gopo, Opgo and Ogpo. How do I know their names? By the name tags they were wearing. Opossums are nocturnal, spending the day in dens or protected spots, but they’re active at any time of the day, especially when food is scarce. I hear them going bump in the night.
   American tree sparrows are present from early November through early April and usually arrive and depart with the juncos. Chipping sparrows spend early April through late October in my company. It’s a common LBJ (little brown job) or LBB (little brown bird)” in yards. Edward Forbush, a noted 19th-century ornithologist, called the chipping sparrow “the little brown-capped pensioner of the dooryard and lawn, that comes about farmhouse doors to glean crumbs shaken from the tablecloth by thrifty housewives.” Its song is a dry, fast, high-pitched trill of chip notes that gives the bird its name and is sometimes mistaken for the sound of insects. The chipper is a dapper little sparrow, handsome and tame. It has been called a hair sparrow due to its habit of lining its nests with hair.
   I was happy to see some redbelly snakes this fall. It’s Minnesota's smallest snake, about the size of a nightcrawler, named for its bright red, pink or orange underside. I’ve heard it called a fire snake and it feeds on slugs, snails and earthworms.
   For yellowjackets, it’s every female for herself this time of the year. The workers die and the queens survive. I saw a meadowhawk, a relatively tame dragonfly that flies into fall. I’m not sure of its flight speed, but dragonflies have been clocked at 35 mph. According to Rachel Crane, a biologist at the University of California Davis, dragonflies catch up to 95% of the prey they pursue, a rate she described as wildly high compared to other predators.
   On the subject of yellow, the “wild” asparagus turns a lovely yellow. Wild asparagus is the same species as the asparagus cultivated in gardens but has escaped into uncultivated areas where it  persists. Seeing it causes me to imagine what the sound of the color of asparagus yellow would sound like.

• 
  Q&A

• 
   “Do Canada geese mate for life?” They do unless they discuss politics.
   “Can some insects taste with their feet?” Yes, and it makes a real mess in a pizza parlor. Butterflies, flies, bees, wasps and many others have taste receptors on their feet and legs.
   “Can skunks spray when their feet are off the ground?” Some naturalists believe they can’t, but I’m not willing to test this myself, so I will answer with this from the University of Nebraska Extension. “The following points contradict the more common myths: Skunks can spray whether their feet are on the ground or not; skunks do not disperse the spray by shaking their tails; and a covered trap does not prevent skunks from spraying—it only reduces the likelihood.”
   “What insect lives the longest?” A termite queen lives for 50 years and some scientists believe she lives for 100 years.
   “Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes?” Black with white stripes. Beneath the fur, zebras have black skin. A shaved zebra would be all black.
   “What is the world’s largest insect?” The world’s longest insect is the Chinese stick insect, which is 24.5 inches long, but no thicker than a forefinger. The heaviest is the royal Goliath beetle of Africa weighing 3.5 ounces, the approximate weight of a blue jay. There are about 400,000 beetle species known to science—that's around a quarter of all known animals—and countless more still to be identified.

• 
  Thanks for stopping by

• 
   “There is always more goodness in the world than there appears to be, because goodness is of its very nature modest and retiring.”—Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
   “The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”—Henry Miller.
   Do good.
  
  ©️Al Batt 2023

Dark-eyed juncos (snowbirds) are birds of the ground. They hop around our yards looking for fallen seeds. Juncos make toy ray gun sounds. “Pew, pew, pew!” They have white outer tail feathers that flash open in flight. Photo by Al Batt.

World Series birds migrating through



Naturally

 I didn’t know it, but the first time I laid eyes on a chickadee, it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. I was eating on the road, not like a turkey vulture on a road-killed raccoon; I was eating in a roadside cafe. My food cooled as I watched chickadees find their food in a window box of wilted flowers.
 All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. I miss both frogs and toads during our cold weather. Frogs leap, toads hop. Frogs have longer legs that allow them to take big, long jumps. Toads make shorter hops.

Dis and data

 A bar-tailed godwit holds the non-stop distance record for migratory birds by flying 8,435 miles from Alaska to Australia. The 11-day journey without rest or food was tracked by a satellite tag on the bird.
 Pigeons hear sounds as low as 0.05 Hz, making their hearing powerful enough to detect distant earthquakes, storms, volcanoes and other natural calamities.
 World Series birds migrating through Hawk Ridge in Duluth include common redpolls, snow buntings, red crossbills, purple finches, pine siskins and northern shrikes—birds indicative of the change of seasons.

A bird is worth 2,349 bird words

 A synchronized wave of birds produced a significant sound as they made a seasonal shift. 
 It was roosting time in the fall and it was all noise and black feathers when the clamorous cloud landed on branches clinging to the few remaining leaves, the blackbirds creating silhouettes against a darkening sky.
 They weren’t in the tree long before they dropped like grains of sand in an hourglass before heading back up into the tree as if the hourglass had been flipped. Perhaps it involved a seating rearrangement of the red-winged blackbirds and common grackles.
 A flock in flight is an amazing thing to see. Scientists have figured each bird tracks and responds to a finite number of its closest neighbors—seven in the case of starling flocks—and maintains its distance from each, preventing the flock from turning into a horde of bumper cars.
 A flock offers strength in numbers by fostering cooperation and provides eyes to watch for predators and search for food. There are many discordant voices to call out warnings.
 Jim Muyres of Mankato asked why they are so noisy when going to roost in the fall. An excellent question, which I can only suppose an answer. It might have been a political debate, a planning and zoning meeting or a competition for prime roosting places that led to loud bickering. It might have been a report on food availability and procurement. I wouldn’t think it’d be to confuse or frighten predators, but maybe it was.
 It was certainly communication of some sort, as birds excel at communication, and it might have involved the establishment of a pecking order. Roosting males don’t want to be crowded and aim to maintain a roosting territory by protesting any intrusion. No matter what its purpose, this behavior from a long ribbon of blackbirds twisting their way across the landscape is a harbinger of a changing season.
 Guglielmo Marconi, the godfather of radio technology was convinced that no sound ever dies. It decays beyond the point our ears can detect it, but he believed it’s forever recoverable with the right device. That device might be the memory the birds give us.

Q&A

 “Why is a young sandhill crane called a colt?” New cranes are precocious and able to run on gangly legs within 24 hours of hatching. Someone long ago observed cranes running and thought they galloped like horses, which led to them being called colts. The male is called a roan and the female a mare. A group of cranes is a flock, sedge, siege, team or herd. A sedge is a grassy or marshy habitat that cranes frequent. Cranes are famous for their dancing, so I think dance would make an excellent collective noun.
 “Why so few fireflies this year?” They have a lot of things going against them: habitat loss, overuse of pesticides and light pollution. Their larvae feed on snails, slugs and millipedes, things that thrive in wet environments. Food would be harder to find in a drought.
 “Do all birds migrate in flocks?” No. Many birds migrate in flocks: blackbirds, common nighthawks, American robins, swallows, ducks and geese, but some species migrate alone—the hummingbird is a prime example. 
 “Do house finches and purple finches interbreed?” The Birds of North America mentions one documented case of a purple X house finch hybrid in the wild,  in 1996. House finches, particularly males, can vary in plumage due to differences in diet.

Thanks for stopping by

 “See everything, overlook a great deal, correct a little.”—Pope John XXIII.
 “We don't laugh because we're happy—we're happy because we laugh.”—William James.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2023

In the early 1830s, on an expedition to Canada led by Sir John Franklin, ornithologists detected the bird we know as Franklin’s gull, first naming it Franklin’s rosy gull because it often shows a rosy pink cast on its breast and abdomen. The color fades as the breeding season progresses. It was called the “prairie dove” by the early settlers. The gulls follow tractors and eat the insects uncovered by the disturbance of the land. Photo of Franklin’s gull in nonbreeding plumage by Al Batt

Traveling on an Alaska Marine Highway System ferry brings out the readers. That makes me smile.

The platform is a silent memorial to a young life lost in a mudslide in Haines, Alaska. I’d think the view seen while standing on it would be what the deceased saw from a window of his home.

The Hammer Museum In Haines, Alaska, has a collection of 7,000 hammers, with 2,000 on display including this 20-foot tall pounder.

Haines, Alaska.

How do I read a woolly bear caterpillar?



Naturally

 It was feather weather. I watched a barred owl watching me. Years ago, a raptor guy told me that an owl could hear a mouse’s heartbeat under a foot of snow. 
 I saw a coyote run across the road. It struck me that Wile E. Coyote is the only coyote I’ve ever seen hit by an anvil. It was an Acme Anvil, of course. Wile E. Coyote’s middle name is Ethelbert.
 I stopped to admire some plants carrying dead flowers. Wabi-sabi (“wah-bi sah-bi”) is an ancient philosophy tied to Japanese culture. Wabi-sabi sees the beauty in imperfection and impermanence,  appreciates simplicity and accepts that change is inevitable.
 A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated there are a staggering 20 quadrillion (20,000,000,000,000,000) ants in the world or about 2.5 million ants for every human. The researchers said that was a conservative estimate.
 I watched whirligig beetles moving about like madcap bumper cars without involving any bumping. They have a simple form of radar that allows them to detect food and other whirligigs on the water’s surface. They resemble big, thick watermelon seeds floating on the water. Whirligigs are carnivorous and are predators of insects that have fallen into the water and have difficulty breaking away from the surface tension and invertebrates. They’re beneficial and many fish won’t eat them because of the beetle’s chemical defense system.
 Paul Douglas is a crack meteorologist who wrote that El Nino might give winter a milder nudge. It will be cold and it will snow. Beyond that the details are murky. During El Nino winters the jet stream, the main superhighway for storms, often whisks big storms south of Minnesota. There are notable exceptions, but odds favor a milder and drier winter based on previous El Nino events. Thank you, Paul Douglas, for those words offering the hope for a kind winter. 

Q&A

 “What bird is the state bird of the most states?” The most popular bird chosen by seven states is the northern cardinal; these include Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. The beautiful western meadowlark is the state bird of Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon and Wyoming. The northern mockingbird is third with five states, including Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. The American robin is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin, and the American goldfinch is the state bird of Iowa, New Jersey and Washington.
 “How do the wildfires in Canada’s boreal forest affect birds?” To some degree, birds are accustomed to wildfire. Some birds thrive in the habitat that grows after a fire. Birds that prefer mature forests might be pushed out. The severity of these fires would require birds to make changes and we all know how difficult change can be. Smoke might be the greatest threat. We know what it can do to a human, but there isn’t a clear understanding of the impact of smoke on the health of birds.
 "How do I read woolly bear caterpillars?" Folklore says that the darker the caterpillar, the harsher the winter will be. If the rusty band is wide, it will be a mild winter. The more black there is, the more severe the winter. As to the accuracy of a woolly bear’s prediction, please remember that it isn’t a trained meteorologist. One year, there were so many woolly worms on the road that I couldn’t help but hit some. I learned that when driving over woolly bear caterpillars, turn into the skid.
 “Does a pelican’s bill really hold more than its belly can?” Dixon Lanier Merritt was right. Its large bill pouch can hold about 3 gallons of water while its stomach holds only about a gallon.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Don't be seduced into thinking that which does not make a profit is without value.”—Arthur Miller.
 “Bird watchers top my honors list. I aimed to be one, but I missed. Since I'm both myopic and astigmatic, My aim turned out to be erratic, And I, bespectacled and binocular, Exposed myself to comment jocular. We don't need too much birdlore, do we, To tell a flamingo from a towhee; Yet I cannot, and never will, Unless the silly birds stand still. And there's no enlightenment in a tour Of ornithological literature. Is yon strange creature a common chickadee, Or a migrant alouette from Picardy? You can rush to consult your Nature guide And inspect the gallery inside, But a bird in the open never looks Like its picture in the birdie books—Or if it once did, it has changed its plumage, And plunges you back into ignorant gloomage. That is why I sit here growing old by inches, Watching a clock instead of finches, But I sometimes visualize in my gin The Audubon that I audubin.”—Ogden Nash.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

It’s a rare trick-or-treater who dresses as a differential grasshopper, but just wait until Marvel makes a movie about one. Giant ragweed, a big promoter of hay fever, is one of this grasshopper’s favorite foods. It feeds on a wide variety of grasses, leafy plants and crops (including corn, soybeans, sunflowers, cotton, vegetables, wheat, alfalfa and leaves of fruit trees). An adult could travel 10 miles in a day in search of food.
Photo by Al Batt

No matter when the first snow arrives, it always seems too early. October 28.

Can you have too many tote bags? I thought so, but I was wrong. I needed one more. When something requires toting, do it in style with a canvas bag from Xplorer Maps. If you need to be puzzled, Xplorer Maps has that covered, too. Various bags are available.

https://xplorermaps.com As members of 1% for the Planet, Xplorer Maps donates a percentage of proceeds from every product they sell to a variety of non-profit organizations around the world.

The Hamm's Bear was so popular that some newspapers printed the time that the television commercials featuring him would air.

If you combine Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Kingsolver and coyotes, what do you get? You get a book with rich illustrations, lyrical language and gentle lessons that will entice young readers to learn more about coyotes. It’s a fine read for adults, too.

Near the Freeborn County Courthouse in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

What state is most deerly loved?

Naturally

 There was a lot of scurrying going on. It must have been the squirrel series. Chickadees were busy in an endless pursuit of food. Birds make my life a little tweeter.
 The first fall dark-eyed junco showed up in my yard on October 8. It’s a type of sparrow that is mostly gray with a white belly, white outer tail feathers and a pink bill. The juncos are nicknamed “snowbirds” because soon after they arrive we can expect our first snowfall. They nest in northeastern Minnesota.
 The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study’s research found that part of the hippocampus increases in male squirrels during the caching season in the fall. This doesn’t happen in the brains of females. Females already can remember where they put that acorn or where their husband’s dress shirt can be found. This seasonal plasticity is necessary for males to think like females in the fall when they’re hiding all these nuts. It’s possible that the hippocampus, the memory and spatial organization area of the brain, increases 15% in size in the fall.
 Rudy Hanson of Albert Lea was a buttermaker, teacher, lawyer and state senator. He was a voracious reader and I never saw him without a book. He loved watching the birds and the squirrels, and died in 2002 at the age of 99, still reading books and watching birds.

Q&A

 “What do woolly bear caterpillars eat?” Woolly bears feed such plants as dandelion, dock, aster, goldenrod, nettle, lamb’s quarters, burdock, violet, plantain, clovers, birches, maples and grasses. They overwinter under bark or inside cavities of rocks or logs. When spring arrives, woolly worms spin fuzzy cocoons and transform inside them into full-grown Isabella tiger moths.
 “When do loons leave?” Plants and animals must respond to seasonal changes. Biologists often summarize the changes with the acronym MAD: Move, Adapt or Die. Adult loons typically leave the state in early October and head to Lake Michigan, where they gather with other loons from Canada and the Upper Midwest. They spend about 28 days on the Great Lake, feasting on small fish, before heading to their wintering grounds on the Gulf of Mexico or Florida's Atlantic coast. The young birds stay longer, practicing the Minnesota goodbye, and even though no one taught them how to fly, they fly straight for southern Florida in November. 
 “How do flying squirrels fly?” Their "flight" is made possible by a fold of skin, a membrane that extends from the front to the hind feet. When their legs are outstretched, the skin stretches to form a large wing-like surface, which enables the squirrel to glide as far as 150 feet, though most glides are 20-30 feet.
 “What state has the most deer?” Texas has an estimated white-tailed deer population exceeding 3 million wild deer. If captive deer are included, Texas has more than 5 million deer. Other states with droves of deer are: Michigan (1.7 million), Alabama (1.7 million), Mississippi (1.7 million), Missouri (1.4 million), Wisconsin (1.3 million), Pennsylvania (1.3 million), North Carolina (1.3 million) and four states with 1 million: Minnesota, Arkansas, Georgia and Kentucky. Deer are crepuscular, so be watchful for them at the shoulders of the day.
 “What’s the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon?” Moths and butterflies go through a four-stage life cycle: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Butterfly caterpillars create a protective case called a chrysalis during their final molt, where they transform into a butterfly. The moth caterpillars produce silk from glands and spin a silky covering around itself before it forms a hard inner case in which it transforms into an adult. This is called a cocoon. Butterfly caterpillars make chrysalises and moth caterpillars make cocoons.
 “Why do some owls have ear tufts?” There are about 225 owl species and about 50 have feathered ear tufts (plumicorns). They aren’t used for hearing. The exact function is uncertain, but there are theories galore. They may be for camouflage, helping a roosting owl blend into a tree by breaking up the owl’s shape. They might make the owl look like a broken branch. The tufts could be used for communication with others of its species—courtship, recognition, display aggression or territorial behavior. Perhaps the presence of ear tufts gives an owl the look of a mammal and appear more menacing to mammalian predators. If the last were true, why wouldn’t all owls have plumicorns? As an aside, it still amazes me that great horned owls begin nesting in January or February.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.”—Hal Borland.
  “I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that the delicate motion should reside in all the things around us, revealing itself only to him who looks for it.”—Edmund Burke.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The red-headed woodpecker stores food, as does the red-bellied woodpecker. It stuffs seeds, nuts and insects into crevices in wood, tree cavities, and under shingles or bark, providing a reliable source of food. It catches aerial insects and grasshoppers are regularly cached alive. In Longfellow’s epic poem “The Song of Hiawatha,” Hiawatha gave the bird its red head. It has several nicknames including half-a-shirt. Photo by Al Batt.

Puffballs, roses and New England asters make time’s rapid passage a bit more palatable.

Puffballs, roses and New England asters make time’s rapid passage a bit more palatable.

Puffballs, roses and New England asters make time’s rapid passage a bit more palatable.

What is a lake vulture?



Naturally

 A turkey vulture cut through the sky like a flying scissors. A blue jay, a symbol of communication, unleashed its extensive vocabulary. Bird counters at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve in Duluth tallied a whopping 78,544 blue jays flying over through Oct. 8. That’s a record for the fall count (August 15-November 30), which counted 60,523 last year. There should be enough acorns to go around. There were 13,224 American robins counted on Sept. 30. The total robin count for last fall was 14,639.

Dis and data

 Red colors on leaves appear to be on trees getting high levels of direct sunlight.
 A collective noun for flamingos is a flamboyance. A group of mallards is called a sord.
 The waistline of the Platte River in Nebraska fluctuates.
 The great bustard is the largest landbird in Europe weighing up to 40 pounds. It sounds like it's sneezing.
Fox news
 I saw a fox as we both greeted the dawn’s sun. A red fox likes to hunt before sunrise and after sunset. Its thick, soft coat keeps it warm. In the fall, a red fox hangs out alone. The babies have grown and gone. Foxes grow longer, thicker coats for winter. Instead of hiding out in a den, a red fox usually curls up in the open. Wrapped in its big, bushy tail, the fox stays nice and warm even when completely covered by snow.

A Lewis’s woodpecker

 In October 2018, I watched a smaller bird flying like a crow in Becker County. A Lewis's woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker with a dark red face, gray collar and a dark iridescent green-black back. The belly is pinkish or salmon red; the wings and tail are all dark, without spots or patches; the cap, bill and legs are black; and the feet are gray. The woodpecker was named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition where the bird was first recorded. This species rarely excavates wood for boring insects. Instead, it gleans insects from a tree’s surface or catches them in the air. Its breeding territory spans from British Columbia to New Mexico and as far east as South Dakota. A Lewis's woodpecker has a steady, buoyant flight, with slower wingbeats and longer glides than most woodpeckers. Its flight resembles that of a crow. There have been nine documented sightings of Lewis’s woodpeckers in Minnesota. 

Q&A

 “Can baby loons swim?” Unlike adults, a loon chick can walk upright on land. They can swim immediately after hatching, but spend much time riding on their parents’ backs during their early days. This regulates their body temperatures and protects them from underwater predators. Chicks depend on their parents for food. One parent remains on the water’s surface with the chicks while the other catches fish to feed them.
 Mary Guggisberg of Freeborn asked when trumpeter swans leave Minnesota? This swan is a regular breeding resident distributed throughout the state. Most Minnesota trumpeter swans remain here through the winter months where open water is available. It’s considered a short-distance migrant with the majority of Minnesota’s breeding population migrating only as far south to find open water and an abundant food supply. Power plant sites are welcome sights for wintering swans.
 “Why did sunflower seed prices escalate?” There are many reasons: the war in Ukraine (Ukraine is a major exporter of sunflower products), increased shipping costs, seeds being planted for the production of sunflower oil used as a frying oil in foods, some farmers able to make more money by devoting sunflower acres to other crops, and, of course, the number one reason is that baseball players are eating too many sunflower seeds.
 “We can put a man on the moon, but I can’t tell a downy woodpecker from a hairy woodpecker. Help.” If you can see them both at the same time, the hairy is much larger. The hairy is the approximate size of a robin and the downy is the size of a house sparrow. The downy is more abundant and the hairy likes the company of larger trees. I’ve found the best way to differentiate the two is by their bills. The downy’s bill is much shorter, roughly 1/3 the length of its head and the hairy’s bill is nearly the length of its head. When sizes and bills are compared, a downy is dinky and a hairy is huge.
 “What is a lake vulture?” It’s a name I’ve heard people call bullheads or catfish because they are generalists and will eat whatever fits into their mouths.

Thanks for stopping by

 “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”― Jane Goodall.
 “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 2023

I put out an extra birdbath for the American robins and binge-watched their joyful splashing. Yes, I not only put out another birdbath, I put water in it, too. Their bliss was tempered by an occasional squabble due to creative differences. Estimates from Partners in Flight suggest the robin is the most abundant landbird in North America. The robin is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin. Although the superhero Batman’s sidekick Robin was inspired by N. C. Wyeth’s illustration of Robin Hood, a later comics version had his mother nicknaming him Robin because he was born on the first day of spring. Photo by Al Batt.

Dixon Lanier Merritt



Naturally

  I wanted to applaud the lovely combination but I was driving. I watched a long, twisting line of blackbirds flying past a double rainbow on my way home from a church where I’d done readings and led prayers at a funeral. The deceased’s wife hugged me and said she and her husband had been arguing over the identification of a woodpecker and a finch—red-headed or red-bellied, house or purple. “We each said, if Al was here, he’d know.” She paused before adding, “Thank you for being here today.”
 Ruby-throated hummingbirds don’t travel in flocks during migration. Each bird follows its instincts as to departure dates and routes.
  A skunk smelled as if it wanted to be left alone. Multi-colored Asian lady beetles and minute pirate bugs sampled Al Batt. They are biting beetles and bugs, but I’ve not been stung by a wasp. Yellowjackets are hangry at this time of the year. This summer, they were well-behaved pollinators and beneficial predators. I like boxelder bugs. They’re beautiful and they don’t bite.

The Lower Rio Grande Valley

 I stayed in a camper in Mission, Texas, where a common sound was “Kis-ka DEE! Kis-ka-DEE!” The great kiskadee, a feisty, striking-colored flycatcher, shouted its name. Named for its loud "kis-ka-dee" call, it aggressively protects its nesting territory. One of its most feared predators is the coral snake and the kiskadee stays away from anything with the same color pattern as the coral snake. Several harmless snakes are similarly marked, but never with the red and yellow touching. Coral snakes are found in the southeastern half of Texas in woodlands, canyons and coastal plains. The rhyme of caution is “Red touches black, venom lack. Red touches yellow, kill a fellow.”

The Old Farmer’s Almanac

 Snowfall will be above normal, so we’ll need to keep a shovel at the ready early, because snow will arrive beginning in November with storms, showers and flurries continuing through the start of spring. Along with above-normal snow, we’ll see normal to colder-than-normal temperatures. To sum it up in four words: cold, snowy and normal.

Q&A

 “When goats are brought in to browse vegetation from a park, do the buckthorn seeds they eat still germinate?” University of Minnesota research published in The Natural Areas Journal found that 2% of buckthorn seeds passed through goat guts intact and of the seeds that appeared in the goats’ feces, 11% were viable. For comparison, 63% of seeds not eaten by goats were capable of germination. 
 “How do I tell if it’s Virginia creeper or woodbine?” Virginia creeper has aerial roots and hairy leaf stalks and stems. Woodbine lacks aerial roots and has hairless stalks and stems.
 “When do pelicans migrate?” American white pelicans migrate to the Gulf of Mexico with October and November being the peak migration months. In “A Sand County Almanac,” Aldo Leopold described migrating pelicans this way: “Let a squadron of southbound pelicans but feel a lift of prairie breeze… and they sense at once that here is a landing in the geological past, a refuge from that most relentless of aggressors, the future. With queer antediluvian grunts they set wing, descending in majestic spirals to the welcoming wastes of a bygone age.”
 “What is the world’s most dangerous bird?” The cassowary, although ostriches and emus can be dangerous. The cassowary is a flightless bird native to Australia and New Guinea and has killed humans with slashing blows of its feet, which have long dagger-like toenails. It will surprise few people to learn that a pet cassowary killed a man in Florida.
 Darwyn Olson of Hartland asked where multi-colored Asian lady beetles lay their eggs. They’re laid on the undersides of leaves of low-growing ornamentals, trees, roses, wheat, tobacco, soybeans and other plants. Common buckthorn is a woody shrub or small tree and is the overwintering host plant of the soybean aphid, which lays eggs on buckthorn in the fall. The eggs overwinter and hatch in the spring.
 “How do I register a large tree?” Minnesota's Big Tree Registry covers 53 native tree species. You’ll find the application here: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/trees_shrubs/bigtree/nominate.html
 “What is the electric light bug?” It’s a nickname for the 2-3-inch-long giant water bug that’s attracted to stadium lights.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Oh, a wondrous bird is the pelican! His bill holds more than his belican. He can take in his beak enough food for a week. But I’m darned if I know how the helican.”–Dixon Lanier Merritt.
 “Here is your country. Cherish these natural wonders, cherish the natural resources, cherish the history and romance as a sacred heritage, for your children and your children’s children. Do not let selfish men or greedy interests skin your country of its beauty, its riches or its romance.--Theodore Roosevelt.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

The sequence of hues commonly described as making up a rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. A mnemonic used for remembering this color sequence is the name Roy G. Biv. When the light is reflected twice in a drop, a double rainbow appears. The secondary rainbow is lighter in color than the primary and has the colors reversed. Double rainbows are often seen as symbols of good luck and happiness. I hope seeing this photo brings you both. Crummy photo by Al Batt.

A chipmunk not only chased its tail, it caught it.

A Great Egret and a Painted Turtle look at the world.

Eyeshine is the mirror-like reflection of the light from the eyes of opossums and many other animals.

The Minnesota Vikings should change their name to the Screaming Pihas

Naturally

 The sweet smell of wild cucumber greeted me on my walk. Having a bird feeder is like having a backstage pass. I watched mourning doves drink at the birdbath. Pigeons and doves suck up water like a horse and both males and females produce pigeon milk in their crops which they feed to their young. Rock pigeons were introduced to North America from Europe in the early 1600s.
 If the Vikings have a poor year, I hope they will consider changing their name to the Minnesota Screaming Pihas. The pihas are famous for their loud, whistled three-part song, one of the signature sounds of Amazonia. 
 I watched pelicans herd fish into the shallows for easy eating. It ended in a fierce feeding frenzy. It was a great fish drive, similar to but wetter than the cattle drives Rowdy Yates participated in as the ramrod of the crew that drove bovines on the Sedalia Trail in the TV series “Rawhide.” Rowdy, played by Clint Eastwood, worked under trail boss Gil Favor. They moved cattle from San Antonio, Texas, to Sedalia, Kansas, while being prodded along by Frankie Laine’s voice singing, “Move 'em out, head 'em up, Rawhide.”
 I have a cat. I like the cat. It never leaves the house, which keeps it healthy and increases its chances of having nine long lives. I have cats hunting my bird feeders. They’re not mine and I don’t appreciate their visits. If my cow went over to a neighbor’s yard repeatedly and ate their garden, my cow would be in trouble even though it was doing what comes naturally. If a cat comes to my yard and kills the birds I’ve been feeding (they kill whether or not they’re hungry), it has worn out its welcome.

Q&A

 “I found a few dead moles on a trail. What happened?” Moles rarely come to the surface where owls, hawks, weasels or snakes might get them. Because of their musky odor, moles are unpalatable to some mammalian predators, but raccoons, coyotes, foxes and skunks dig them out. Moles are killed by domestic dogs and cats but are rarely eaten. Maybe it was the work of a cat. A mole eats earthworms, Japanese beetle grubs, cutworms and more.
 Dean Muesing asked if hummingbirds can smell sugar water? They find food sources by sight. Hummingbirds aren’t believed to have a well-developed sense of smell, but it’s still a sense of smell. I’ve not heard of them being able to smell nectar. Fall migration is more complicated than the spring migration for our local hummingbirds. There is more overland travel than flying across the Gulf of Mexico in the fall because there isn’t quite the urgency as there is in the spring. It’s good to feed hummingbirds, as many live their lives a few hours from starvation. You could clean the feeders with a vinegar solution (1 part vinegar to 2 parts water) and an old toothbrush. Rinse thoroughly with clean water before refilling. 
 Jerry Viktora of Ellendale asked how long to keep hummingbird feeders up and when rose-breasted grosbeaks leave. I keep my hummingbird feeders up until October 1 to catch latecomers and stragglers. The grosbeaks are mostly out of here by the end of September, but I do see some in October.
 Jim Muyres sent photos of something digging for grubs in a cemetery and asked what they could do to prevent this. Skunks create holes by pushing their noses into the lawn and using their front paws to dig out the area. There can be many holes merging into a large, disturbed patch of grass. Raccoons use their front paws like hands to lift and flip pieces of sod over. It appears as if someone rolled it back for transplanting. Management is difficult as extensive digging can happen overnight and there are few reliable controls for the animals. An insecticide could be applied to kill the grubs in the soil, a curative insecticide application that is most effective if done in August and early September. 
 “What eats yellowjackets?” Black bears, raccoons,  skunks, badgers, opossums, shrews and birds (summer tanagers are noted for it, gray catbirds, blue jays, kingbirds and others) feed on the protein-rich food.
 “Where did “naked as a jaybird” come from?” It has an uncertain origin. The expression from the 1800s was naked as a fledgling jaybird, naked as a fledgling robin or naked as a fledgling. At some point, the word “fledgling” was dropped from the idiom. In the 1920s, J-bird was an abbreviation of the word jailbird. When new inmates were processed in jails, they were stripped naked and disinfected before receiving uniforms.

Thanks for stopping by

 "Nature is not a place to visit, it is home."—Gary Snyder.
 "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."—John Muir.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Feathers are made of lightweight material called keratin, just like our fingernails and they don’t last forever. They need to be replaced and molting is the process of replacing feathers. Molt is variable with patterns differing by species, by individual or from year to year. It requires a lot of energy to build new feathers and birds typically time molts to avoid other high energy demands like nesting and migration. A molt can be a hard on a guy. Cardinal photo by Al Batt.

At the Freeborn County Historical Museum, Library & Village in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

A hummingbird flies backward to keep the dust out of its eyes

Naturally

 The surgeon told me to think of a pleasant place before I went under the knife. I thought of staring at a chimney. I’m not a chimney sweep, I haven’t even played one on TV, but I travel around each year, hoping for a good crop of chimney swifts. When the swifts go into a chimney to roost, the bats begin their nightly hunt. I’ve seen flocks of swifts zoom into chimneys. Swifts may look like flying cigars, but they are memories on the wing. In tough times, I remember those moments.
 I listened to the clucking or chucking of chipmunks. They issue these warnings of a predator in the sky while stationary.
 Pale green corn rootworm beetles wander away from cornfields in late summer to visit gardens where they feed on flowers and vegetables.
 I’m seeing murmurations of starlings, those wondrous shape-shifting flocks. I listened to the hummingbirds—the hum of the wings and their chittering. Hummingbirds drop their internal temperature, inducing a temporary state of torpor, and need less energy, and therefore less food, to withstand frigid temperatures. If you spot a motionless hummingbird, don’t be alarmed. It’s torpor. Young hummers migrate along the same routes and winter in the same places their ancestors have, some making an 18-hour flight across the Gulf of Mexico.
 One group of pelicans will drive prey towards another group of pelicans. The American white pelican eats up to three pounds of fish per day. It also eats salamanders, tadpoles and crayfish.
 The downy woodpecker makes a whiney call that descends in pitch at the end. The hairy woodpecker’s call is similar but doesn’t descend in pitch at the end.
 Mast is a term used to describe the fruit of trees and shrubs. A mast year is when a particular species produces more fruit than normal. Oaks have cycles of high and low yields. Oak masting happens every 2-5 years. In a mast year, seed-eating animals are unlikely to eat all the seeds produced, leaving the rest to sprout. An abundance of acorns is said to augur a bad winter—not true.
 In September, monarch butterflies congregate in large numbers and by the end of October, they have left the state in a mass migration to their winter grounds.

Q&A

 “Which bird builds the largest nest?” Bald eagles build the largest nest of any bird in North America. The nests are reused annually and increase in size.
 “Why does a hummingbird fly backward?” To keep the dust out of its eyes. A hummingbird's wings are unlike any other bird's and allow them to fly forward, backward, hover, and fly upside-down for a short period. Their shoulder joint is a ball and socket that allows the hummingbird to rotate its wings 180° in all directions. Hummingbirds don't flap their wings, they rotate them. When hovering, they move their wings in a figure-eight motion.
 “What’s the most populous landbird?” According to Partners in Flight, here are the numbers in millions. Starlings and house sparrows have 93 million each in North America, the same population as the yellow warbler. The common grackle is 67, not as many as the indigo bunting at 77. Blue jay is 17 million and American crow 28. Red-winged blackbird, savannah sparrow and yellow-rumped warbler are 170 million each. Dark-eyed junco is at 220, chipping sparrow 230 and leading the flock is the American robin with a population of 370 million.
 “Do bats open their mouths to echolocate?” Bats open their mouths to improve sensory localization.
 “Do yellowjackets or bald-faced hornets reuse a nest?” Nests of both species are abandoned and not reused.
 “Do pelicans mate for life?” American white pelicans are monogamous and likely pair each year on their breeding grounds. Adults breed when three years old and bonds last through the breeding season, but whether pairs continue in subsequent years is uncertain, although many people believe they do mate for life.
 Kevin Linn of Belle Plaine sent a photo of a bald cardinal. When northern cardinals and blue jays finish nesting, it’s time for them to molt and replace old feathers with new ones. Some cardinals and jays lose all their head feathers at once.
 “Do birds sleep while flying?” The Avian Sleep Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology found frigatebirds sleep in flight, usually only one of their brain hemispheres sleeps, but occasionally both. The birds sleep around 42 minutes of each 24 hours flying with each sleep phase lasting an average of 12 seconds.
  “How old are turkeys when they begin to roost in trees?” By two weeks of age, poults can fly to low branches to roost. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “Let us try to recognize the precious nature of each day.”―Dalai Lama XIV.
 “If you can’t be in awe of Mother Nature, there’s something wrong with you.”—Alex Trebek.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

Not all black birds are blackbirds and not all blackbirds are black. Members of the blackbird family, Icteridae (ick-TARE-a-dee), include blackbirds (red-winged, Brewer’s, rusty, yellow-headed), grackles, cowbirds, meadowlarks, orioles and bobolinks. Baltimore orioles are named for their orange-and-black plumage, the colors of the heraldic crest of England’s Baltimore family who also gave its name to the city. Photo by Al Batt.

What to do when a hummingbird parks in your garage

Naturally

 My wife had left to volunteer at the food shelf. I had a Zoom meeting of a board I serve on in Alaska (I’m the token Minnesotan) and then I was going to a local in-person Audubon meeting. She sent me a text alerting me to a hummingbird trying to get into the garage. A hummingbird had gone in and out of the garage before she could get the door closed. Why did the tiny bird want in the garage? Was it hoping to find a 2010 Hummer parked there? No, it was attracted by the dangling red handle on the garage door pull, which if you have a good imagination and a hummingbird does, resembles a hummingbird feeder. Once inside a garage, the hummingbird flew up because hummingbirds don’t understand a roof. How do you evict a hummingbird from a garage? Open the garage door so it can fly out on its own. If it’s slow in leaving, place a hummingbird feeder or a red object near the open garage door to lure it outside. 
 I didn’t see many toadlets in my yard this year. The tiny toads eat small insects. A toad has parotoid glands producing a poisonous secretion that helps the toad defend itself against predators. All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads.
 I came across a spiderweb holding a few raindrops. It was so beautiful, it could have been a construct of a highly skilled jeweler. I was birding at a state park. There were waves of warblers and some were waving goodbye—mostly American redstarts with a pleasant mix of other species. Patient green herons opened offices for foraging. Deer walked through the sucking mud, leaving the ungulates black-legged on shore after quenching their thirst. The drought caused turkeys and squirrels to make the same long muddy walk to drinking water. A great flock of great egrets and a leucistic eastern kingbird glowed in the leafy green foliage. I savored every moment. As I drove home at dusk, I was presented with a lovely sky of common nighthawks. Their bat-like flight earned the bird the nickname "bullbat." I saw a couple of bats hunting the twilight with the nighthawks. The tiny bills of the nighthawks become commodious mouths when consuming flying insects on the wing at 12-35 mph. Primary insect prey varies with availability—ants, beetles, moths, true bugs and caddisflies.

Roadside pheasant survey

 The numbers in Minnesota DNR’s annual roadside pheasant survey increased 101% in the southwest region and 38% in the west central. Other areas saw decreases, with numbers dropping 39% central, 63% east central, 11% south central and 50% in the southeast regions. Pheasants averaged a 10% increase statewide over 2022 and 26% above the 10-year average. This year’s statewide pheasant index was 53 birds per 100 miles of roads driven, compared to 48 in 2022. Weather and habitat are the major influences on pheasant populations. Weather causes annual fluctuations and habitat drives long-term population trends. Populations benefited from favorable weather in the southwest and west central. An area’s increase in pheasant numbers doesn’t continue without a corresponding increase in habitat.

Q&A

 “Why are there turkeys along the roadside?” They aren’t hitchhiking. They have no thumbs. Roadsides become courtship areas in late winter and flocking areas before spring breakup. Juvenile and adult hens use roads in early spring because green forage, seeds and insects are more abundant in open, sunny habitats. Roads can be a source of food or a crossing point.
 “Do we have hornets in Minnesota?” All our hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets. The bald-faced hornet is a wasp. All species of “true hornets” (genus Vespa) are endemic to Eurasia and northern Africa; none are native to North America. The northern giant hornet was formerly named the Asian giant hornet and nicknamed a murder hornet.
 Glenda Batt of Albert Lea asked when hummingbirds leave Minnesota. They migrate south as early as mid-August, with most leaving the state by the end of September—although stragglers are found well into October.
 A River Falls reader asked why hummingbirds dance. It could be a courting or territorial display, or hunting flying insects which can look like dancing.
 Ken Nelson of Clarks Grove asked when barn swallows and house wrens leave? Barn swallows gather in migratory groups in July with a peak migration in August. They winter in Central and South America. House wrens become secretive and silent after nesting (two broods). The secondary cavity nesters leave in September for southern US or Mexico. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.”—Alice Walker.
 “When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.”—John Lennon.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2023

 A tall white bird with a yellow bill, black legs and long S-curved neck has made the great egret a chiropractor’s dream. At the beginning of the 20th century, it neared extinction due to market hunting. The egrets’ feather plumes were used to adorn women's hats. The great egret has been called the American egret, common egret and great white egret. Photo by Al Batt.

A condensation of swallows.

A disagreement at the old swimming hole.

Scenes from Farming of Yesteryear in Kiester, Minnesota

Sorghum making.