By Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

&8220;How are you doing?&8221; I ask.

&8220;I’m so busy I don’t know whether I just found a rope or lost my horse.&160; I have a complaint.&160; I asked you to provide me with a reference for a job I applied for.&160; I asked you if you’d say I was a steady worker.&8221;

&160; &8220;I did.&8221;

&160;&160;&8220;No, you didn’t.&160; You said that I wasn’t just steady, I was motionless.&160; What did you get your wife for her birthday this year?&8221;

&160; &8220;Oh, she asked for something with diamonds.&8221;

&160; &8220;So you got her another pack of playing cards, eh?&160; Don’t worry, she’ll be over being mad at you by her next birthday.&160; At least you don’t have my Uncle Cavanaugh’s problems.&8221;

&160; &8220;Now what?&8221;

&160; &8220;A few years ago he met a young widow with a grown-up daughter, and they got married.&160; Later his father married his stepdaughter.&160; That made his stepdaughter his stepmother and his father became his stepson.&160; His wife became mother-in-law of her father-in-law.&160; Then the daughter of his wife, his stepmother, had a son.&160; This boy was his half-brother because he was his father’s son, but he was also the son of his wife’s daughter, which made him his wife’s grandson.&160; That made him the grandfather of his half-brother.&8221;

&160; &8220;Wow.&8221;

&160; &8220;That was nothing.&160; His wife and Cavanaugh had a son.&160; Now the half-sister of his son, his stepmother, is also the grandmother.&160; That makes his father the brother-in-law of his child, whose stepsister is his father’s wife. He’s his stepmother’s brother-in-law, his wife is her own child’s aunt, his son is his father’s nephew and he’s his own grandfather.&8221;

This just in from Audubon

The gravest threat facing endangered bird species in the U.S. today is proposed Congressional action to weaken the protections of the Endangered Species Act, according to a report released by the National Audubon Society. &160;Development pressures, invasive species, and global warming are threatening these bird species with extinction: Ivory-billed Woodpecker, California Condor, Whooping Crane, Gunnison Sage-Grouse, Kirtland’s Warbler, Piping Plover, Florida Scrub-Jay, Ashy Storm-Petrel, Golden-cheeked Warbler, Kittlitz’s Murrelet, and 10 island birds of Hawaii.

Screech owls

&160; Dennis Frank reports finding a number of screech owl pellets under a tree.&160; Owls, like many other birds, eat their food whole. Since birds do not have teeth, they can’t chew their food.&160; Therefore, they use their strong and sharp beaks to rip their prey apart and then swallow large chunks whole.&160; The owl slowly digests its meal by separating the softer materials (meat) from the harder material (bones). Many owls will eat rodents whole.

&160; It then regurgitates the harder material along with indigestible items such as feathers and fur in the form of a pellet.&160; Sometimes you can find dozens of these pellets under a single tree (as Dennis did) if a bird has a favorite roosting spot. The size of the pellets is often suggestive of the species. Finger-sized usually means a smaller owl such as Saw-whet or Screech; thumb-size is likely to be a Barred; while Great Horned owls can cast pellets larger than golf balls.&160; They are dark gray ovals that contain fur, bones, feathers, and teeth. Two to four pellets are expelled per day.

&160; An interesting thing about owls is that they are often used as a symbol of wisdom.&160; A crow, hawk, goose, or parrot demonstrates much more intelligence.&160; The &8220;wise old owl&8221; association probably sprang up because, like people, their eyes are in the front of their face, giving them a human, and therefore &8220;wise,&8221; appearance.&160; The frontal position of the eyes gives them excellent binocular vision and allows them to accurately judge distances (depth of field) when hunting and flying.&160; Owls are very good at what they do.

Purple Martins

Shane Tippery asked how to exclude sparrows from a Purple Martin house.&160; If any other species of bird is allowed to claim martin housing first at an uncolonized site, any martins that may come around are not likely to stay because they will be aggressively chased away.&160; All birds set up territories around their nest sites and defend them against other birds. When House Sparrows or European Starlings lay the first claim to martin housing at sites that are unestablished by martins, they fill the compartments with their nests and chase off investigating martins. At established colony sites, House Sparrows and starlings will fight with nesting martins, kill their nestlings, and break eggs.&160; Allowing House Sparrows and starlings to nest in martin housing will significantly reduce martin occupancy and productivity.&160; Controlling nest-site competitors may require repeated lowering of the housing for nest tear-outs, and in the case of the non-native House Sparrow and European Starling, trapping, and/or shooting.&160;&160;

Raptor rehab

&160; What can you do to help an injured raptor?

&160;&160;During business hours, The Raptor Center at the University of

Minnesota, has staff people available to help with injured birds. Their phone number is (612) 624-4745.&160; From until 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., a Raptor Center clinician is available by phone for injured raptor consultations. On Sunday through Friday, please call (612) 702-9924; on Saturday please call 612-702-9931.

&160; Here are some tips for handling injured raptors offered by The Raptor Center.

&160; Do not attempt to rehabilitate a raptor on your own.

&160; If you must handle or move a bird, first cover the bird with a blanket or towel to reduce its visual stimulation, and protect yourself by wearing heavy gloves and safety glasses. Then, gently fold the bird’s wings into its body with your two gloved hands.&160; Gently but firmly lift the bird into a transport container. Remember: Even a seriously injured raptor is potentially dangerous.

&160; The best way to transport a raptor is in a plastic dog or cat kennel, or in a sturdy cardboard box with the top closed. Avoid bird or wire cages, as these can cause feather and soft tissue damage. The carrier should have plenty of ventilation holes and should only be slightly larger than the size of the bird.&160; The less room an injured bird has to move around, the less likely it is to cause more injury to itself.

&160; Never feed an injured raptor unless you have been instructed to do so by a licensed rehabilitator.

&160; Handle an injured raptor as little as possible. Stress resulting from human contact can reduce a bird’s chance of recovery.

Until the bird can be transferred, provide it with a dark, quiet, calm, warm environment.&160; Darkness has a calming effect on birds.

Alaska

Please join me on a tour of Alaska on Aug. 10-17.

For more information on this delightful trip, call

373-4705 or (800) 328-4298.

Thanks for stopping by

&8220;I’ve been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.&8221;&160;&045;&160;Mark Twain

&160; &8220;You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.&8221;&160; &045;&160;Colette

&160; DO GOOD.

&160;

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