Column: Nature’s World

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I got up too early. Up before 7, tired by 11. Soon it will take me longer to drive everywhere.”

“How can you say that?” I say. “Winter roads are such that you need to drive slower than you do in the summer.”

“What do you know? You’d be an ignoramus if you could spell it. Hot temperatures expand things. The roads become longer. I’m planning my world famous garden. Last year, my watermelon vines grew so fast that I had to put roller skates on the melons so that the vines wouldn’t drag them to death. My tomatoes were so large that one could feed a family of four for a week. Pete Moss stopped by last summer and said he had potato bugs. I told him that I had them once. I used wood ashes. Pete asked if he should put the ashes on the plants or around them. I had sprinkled the ashes directly onto the plants. A few weeks later Pete showed up at the farm. He told me that the wood ashes had given his potatoes scab.”

“What did you say?” I ask.

“I told Pete that it did the same thing to my potatoes.”

Rusty blackbirds

Song sparrow photo by Al Batt.

I am willing to go where spring takes me. Spring magnifies the world. The swelling buds make trees look closer. My yard was knee deep in birds. The earth renews in birdsong. Soon the robins will be singing before dawn. The only fertilizer my lawn receives is compliments of rabbits, but dandelions will bloom on my drug-free lawn. I watched an opossum take an undisciplined walk across my field of view. In a herd of cowbirds under my feeders, I spotted a couple of rusty blackbirds. The rusty is a rapidly declining species with a song like a rusty hinge. The appearance of the rusty blackbirds made my day. I know that life isn’t a Norman Rockwell painting but most days come close.

Waterfowl

The melted snow had created a vernal pond in a tiled farm field. I saw good-sized flocks of ducks fly into the temporary wetland. I set up a scope in my office and my bride and I watched the waterfowl with a mixture of wonder and awe. I watched northern shovelers (spoonbills) waddle across the muddy water that would be transformed into a cornfield. Northern pintail, mallards and American wigeons (baldpates) joined them.

The ducks might not have known that the water would be leaving. They might not have cared. Too much water is a problem for so many people, but I couldn’t help but enjoy its brief abundance. I knew that the ducks and the water would both leave. I hoped they would take their time.

Window feeders

I have come to depend upon not being able to depend upon the weather. I placed black oil sunflower seeds wherever I’d seen a bird’s bill in my yard. My seed bill would be enormous compared to the size of each bird’s bill. Starlings, grackles, cowbirds, red-winged blackbirds and rusty blackbirds fed on the ground like there would be no tomorrow. The peanut feeder filled blue jays, nuthatches and chickadees. I like the small platform feeders attached to the windows via suction cups. I think they offer seed in an enticing way while discouraging birds from colliding with the window. People found an extra benefit this winter. When the snow was deep and the feeder was near a crank-out window, the feeder could be filled from indoors. This saved shoveling snow or trudging through the deep white stuff.

Q and A

“Are robins listening for worms when they cock their heads?” Robins use their sight to find worms. With one eye down searching for worms, the other eye can look up, looking for predators.

“Do birds have ears?” Most birds look as if they have no ears. A great horned owl and a screech owl sport tufts of feathers that look like ears atop their heads. Despite the lack of visible ears, birds hear well. Some birds, like owls, locate prey by their hearing. Why are bird ears inconspicuous? Have you ever had a conversation on a windy day? If birds had ears like us, they’d hear nothing but wind while they were flying. The ear openings of most birds are covered with feathers designed to cut down on wind noise. Some diving birds have strong feathers over ear holes to protect the inner ears from intense water pressure.

“Where do birds go on stormy days?” They take shelter on branches under leaves or evergreen boughs. Birds’ feet have muscles that default into a clamped position and hold them in position. This keeps birds from falling when asleep and it allows them to hang on in the wind. Some duck into thick bushes for shelter. Grassland birds huddle under thick grass. Birds that use cavities use them. Some venture out to brave the elements.

Nature notes

According to Bat Conservation International, one little brown bat can eat 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in a single hour.

A monarch butterfly can lay hundreds of eggs. A female leaves a trail of eggs behind as she travels the way of the milkweeds. The monarchs that return here are the offspring of the monarchs that wintered in Mexico.

Bob Goetz of Austin said that the purple martin population has dropped 67 percent since 1970.

Harry Potter’s snowy owl, Hedwig, is supposed to be a female. Males played the part in the movies because the males have whiter plumages. And they are more used to taking orders.

BBRP

It may sound like a burp but it is not. It’s bluebirds. To find out more information about the Blue Bird Recovery Program Expo, go to www.bbrp.org.

Thanks for stopping by

“What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” — Yiddish Proverb

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.” — Eleonora Duse

DO GOOD.

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