Lessons from nature

Published Saturday, January 31, 2009

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Well, either I’ve been missing something or nothing has been going on. Everyone tells me that we want and need change. So I’m making changes. I’m lessening my carbon footprint. From now on, I’m burning only one side of the toast. Because I got carpal tunnel from dipping the fries in ketchup, I’m trying to eat healthier. I knock the sugar off my doughnuts before I eat them.”

“Speaking of change,” I say, “did you read that some schools say that it’s not a good idea for teachers to use red ink to correct papers because it is too confrontational and unpleasant for the children?”

“I heard that. I thought it was because of the red ink shortage that you caused when you were in school. Say, now that driving through a yellow light is the only thrill I get, I’m giving some thought to my retirement. I’ve always been a firm believer that hard work pays off in the future and laziness pays off now, but I need to start saving more for my golden years.”

“You do have all of those ketchup packets from fast food restaurants stashed away,” I interject.

“You have a mind unclouded by thought. My investments are liquid. I look at them and I want to wet my pants.”

Nature lessons

The shrike is a songbird that preys on other songbirds. Nicknamed the “butcherbird” because of its propensity for impaling prey upon a thorn or barbed wire, the shrike is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

A friend says that he knows only two birdcalls — one is the cardinal’s and the other isn’t.

I met a man named Freeman Hall in California. Freeman is 80 years old and began at the age of nine to keep a list of birds he had seen. The first bird on his list was the California condor.

The winter chickadee’s plumage has 25 to 30 percent more feathers than its summer one.

Q and A

“Why is ‘to show a white feather’ a sign of cowardice?” A white feather in a gamecock’s tail was taken as a sign of inferior breeding and hence of poor fighting abilities.

“Is the civet cat that we have the same one that helps produce Kopi Luwack?” No, the spotted skunk that we once had in Minnesota is Spirogale putorius. Civet cat is a nickname. The real civet cat, Civettictis civetta, lives in Africa and Asia. On the island of Sumatra, the civet cats eat the fruits of the coffee plants and the beans pass through the animals’ digestive systems and are excreted. The beans are collected from the jungle floor and processed as a coffee called Kopi Luwack. The taste is supposedly much richer than the typical cup of coffee.

“Why can’t I see the breath of a bird at my feeder?” Water can be suspended in the air as vapor. The concentration of water that can be held decreases as the air cools.

Condensation is the conversion of a vapor to a liquid. You are able to see your breath as the water in it condenses when the temperature has fallen to a level at which your breath has more water in it than the air can hold. Birds have a better system of recycling water from their breath than do most warm blooded creatures. Their nasal cavities are designed to strip as much water vapor on exhale as possible allowing it to drip down their throats. This allows birds to remain hydrated better than most other animals. It is rare to see a bird’s breath on a cold day. I have seen it, but not often.

“Is there a way to tell if the nuthatches coming to my feeders are males or females?” The white-breasted nuthatch male’s black crown matches his black nape. The female’s black nape contrasts with its brownish to grayish crown.  

Morro Bay

I left Minnesota when it was 22 degrees below zero. I got off a plane in California where it was 82 degrees.

I celebrated by breaking into a sweat.

I spoke in Morro Bay, California. Morro Bay is a delightful city located on the coast about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A prominent feature of the area is the 576-foot high Morro Rock, named by Portuguese navigator Cabrillo who explored the Pacific Coast in 1542. He called the rock El Moro because it resembled the head of a Moor — people from North Africa known for their turbans. Morro Rock is a protected nesting ground for peregrine falcons and up until the 1950s, was being chipped away to provide material for road construction. Franklin Riley founded the city of Morro Bay in 1870 as a port for the export of dairy and ranch products. In the 1940s, Morro Bay developed an albacore tuna fishing industry. The stocks of albacore have declined significantly due to overfishing, but it remains a fishing port for halibut, salmon, rockfish and albacore. A portion of Morro Bay is designated as a bird sanctuary.

It was a treat to see monarch butterflies fluttering by in January. The monarch butterflies living east of the Rocky Mountains migrate south to spend the winter in Mexico. Those living west of the Rockies migrate to the coast of central and southern California. By November, the butterflies are sheltered in trees stretching from the San Francisco Bay south to San Diego. The winter monarchs live six to eight months. I saw many monarchs in the eucalyptus trees that were planted to stabilize the windblown sand.

Grizzly bears once lived in this area located not far from the Hearst Castle — see the movie, “Citizen Kane.” The bear, the symbol of California, was hunted to extinction.

I found great joy in examining the tide pools and watching shorebirds dance along the edge of the water. I walked through the El Moro Elfin Forest where pygmy oaks rarely top 12 feet. I visited Montana de Oro State Park’s chaparral, dunes and wetlands.

The birds were glorious and included Brandt’s cormorant, pelagic cormorant, brant, long-billed curlew, western gull, California gull, black oystercatcher, American avocet, marbled godwit, brown pelican, bushtit, wrentit, scrub jay, California thrasher, Hutton’s vireo, California towhee, spotted towhee, Nuttall’s woodpecker, Anna’s hummingbird, chestnut-backed chickadee, California quail, Townsend’s warbler, wandering tattler, oak titmouse, etc.

Thanks for stopping by

“There’s no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn’t tell you about it?” — Kin Hubbard

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” — John Quincy Adams

DO GOOD.

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. E-mail him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

---

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?

---