It’s better to have bug deals than drug deals

Naturally

  If you want an incredible adventure, take the same walk or look out the same window as you did yesterday. You’ll see changes because everything changes by the minute, as do you.

  Birds are storytellers. A mass choir of starlings gossiped in a language I couldn’t understand before taking flight in a murmuration. A murmuration is a sight to behold.

  In late summer and fall, when a bird molts, it typically grows and replaces its feathers gradually, but occasionally a bird loses all the feathers on its head at once. This is true of blue jays, many of which molt the feathers of the head in synchrony. The result is a bald bird. This baldness lasts for about a week before new feathers replace the molted ones.

  I watched common nighthawks migrate. They’re long-distance migrants that winter in South America. Nighthawks often take advantage of clouds of insects attracted to streetlamps, ballfield lights and other bright lights. They have long tails, narrow wings that are angled and pointed, and an erratic flight. Their white wing spots appear transparent against a cloudy sky.

  Better there are bug deals than drug deals in the yard, but I haven’t seen many boxelder bugs yet. This native insect feeds on boxelder, maple and ash trees. Boxelder bugs thrive during hot, dry summers (their populations skyrocketed during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s), so maybe their numbers won’t be high this year. We’ll see.

  I saw many yellow butterflies encircling a mud puddle. It was a puddle of sulphur butterflies. Have you ever had a butterfly land on your skin and start licking, and you thought the two of you were best friends? The truth was, it was using you for your sweat, which is a rich source of salt and sugar. Some butterflies enjoy blood and tears. Puddling is a behavior that many butterfly species engage in. Puddling sites can be mud, dung, fermenting fruit, carrion or urine. They are looking for salt and minerals.

Q&A

  “How many deer have twins?” Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign & Illinois DNR found that in 2024, 21% had a single fawn, 71% twins and 8% triplets.

  Jack May of Mankato asked when milkweeds could be cut without doing any harm to monarch butterflies. In September, the butterflies congregate in large numbers in trees and shrubs, and by the end of October, they will have left Minnesota for their wintering grounds in Mexico. The Xerces Society says monarchs fly up to 100 miles per day during their 2,000- to 3,000-mile migration south. Waiting until after a killing frost before felling the milkweeds ensures that no caterpillars are feeding on the plant. In Minnesota, caterpillars can be present until late September or even early October.

  “How many generations do monarch butterflies have each year?” Generation 1 consists of the offspring of the monarchs that overwintered in Mexico. Eggs are laid from late March through April in the southern U.S. and northern Mexico, and the adults fly north. Monarchs in Generation 2 are the grandchildren of the overwintering monarchs. Eggs are laid throughout eastern North America from late April through June. Monarchs in Generations 3 and 4 are the great- and great-great-grandchildren of the overwintering monarchs. Eggs are laid in the northern part of the monarch’s range from late May through July (Generation 3) and late June through August (Generation 4). Generation 3 butterflies who emerge late in August migrate to Mexico, as do Generation 4 individuals. Research has found that fewer than 10% of eggs become butterflies. The eastern monarch butterfly population wintering in central Mexico's forests occupied 4.42 acres in 2024-25, up from 2.22 acres the previous winter.

  Carolyn Smith of Albert Lea asked why there are so many gulls around now. They’re migrating or getting ready to migrate; moving about to find food or a perfect roosting site. Gulls are opportunistic omnivores whose diet varies by location, and they don’t stick to their diet. Many of the gulls are new to the area. They’re tourists. Roofs of buildings offer loafing spots. Landfills and parking lots provide buffets.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December's tsunami [2004], when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran after the ebbing surf, and all the 'dumb' animals made for the hills.”—B.R. Myers.

  “Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living things, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life’s breath, the ocean of air that envelopes the earth.”―David Suzuki.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

A green heron blends into its surroundings. Its most common calls are “skeow!” or “kuk-kuk-kuk.” Their diet consists of small fish, frogs, crayfish and small rodents. They forage at the edge of shallow water, standing still or slowly stalking prey. They quickly dart forward, grabbing prey with a spear-like bill. They sometimes drop a feather or an insect into the water to act as a fish lure. Photo by Al Batt

I was dancing to the stridulation and the crepitation

Naturally

  A kestrel, roughly the size and shape of a mourning dove with a larger head, perched on a utility wire.

  A cardinal sang with gusto, a definite showboat. I’ve seen a painted bunting elsewhere, a rainbow with wings. I’d love to see one in my yard one day. That’s unlikely to happen. I’m lucky to be thrilled by the sight of a cardinal. Minnesota’s first record of a cardinal was in Minneapolis in the fall of 1875. The first confirmed nesting was in Steele County in 1925 when a cardinal’s nest with eggs was discovered. The first record of a cardinal in Iowa was one that was captured in Iowa City in 1882.

Q&A

  “Do crickets and grasshoppers produce sounds the same way?” No, crickets and katydids rub wing parts together to make sound, whereas grasshoppers rub wings against hind legs to create their sounds. Crickets use a process called stridulation, which involves rubbing one forewing against another forewing. Grasshoppers use stridulation by rubbing their hind legs against their forewings. Some grasshoppers also use crepitation, snapping their wings together in flight to create a crackling sound.

  “What am I seeing on roadsides that look like giant dandelions with leaves resembling those of a thistle?” If it looks like a tall dandelion with leaves resembling those of a thistle, but the spines lack sharpness, it’s a sowthistle, a perennial, that blooms July-October and grows up to 4 feet high. Prickly lettuce is an annual or biennial herb that blooms from July to September and can grow up to 6.5 feet tall. Prickly lettuce leaves have prickly edges that can be sharp, and a prickly midrib on the underside, while sowthistle leaves lack the prickly midrib. Sowthistle leaves tend to stay more parallel to the ground than prickly lettuce leaves. Prickly lettuce flower heads are small and yellow, turning blue as they wither, and are arranged in panicles. Sowthistle flower heads are yellow and produced in clusters at the branch tips. Both plants exude a milky sap when cut or wounded.

  “Where did the name ‘pelican’ come from?” The word "pelican" comes from the Ancient Greek word, pelekan. This word is related to pelekys, which means "axe." Long ago, this word was used for both pelicans and woodpeckers.

  “What is the thornapple?” It’s a shrub or tree of one of the species commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, hawberry or thornapple, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America.

  “What determines if the “Lake” part comes first or second in a water’s name?” There are no rules. In French, “Lake” often comes first, and the regions colonized by English-speaking people and Germans tended to put “Lake” second. Lakes with more surface area were more likely to be called a name where “Lake” comes first, which often emphasizes a feature of the lake and frequently comes second in the names of smaller, lesser-known features. The names aren’t consistent and are subject to local preference. I don’t have a guess as to why Lake is in the middle of the rock group’s name of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

  “Why is the pelican so often depicted in Christian art?” Medieval observers saw red on the bill or the breast of pelican parents feeding their young and mistakenly believed the adult had pierced its own breast and fed its blood to the chicks. In Christian symbolism, the pelican is a powerful symbol of Christ's love and self-sacrifice, but the legend is scientifically inaccurate. Pelicans don’t self-mutilate to feed their young. The pouches of certain species of pelicans turn red in the breeding season, something that might have contributed to the myth. The pelicans macerate the fish before giving it to their young, and a bloody fish could stain a breast. Regardless, the pelican remains a beautiful and inspiring image.

  “How do I tell a red oak from a white oak?” In general, the white oaks produce leaves that have rounded lobes, whereas the red oaks typically exhibit pointed lobes with a tiny bristle on their tips. Another clue is the acorn. The top cap of the red oak acorn is scaly, while the white oak acorn has a knobby top cap. The acorns of white oaks have a broader, shorter appearance and mature in a single year. Their caps are deeper, often covering about half the nut, and they’re more appealing as a preferred food source for many wildlife species. The acorns of red oaks are more elongated or ovoid and mature in two years. Their caps are shallow, often covering only the top quarter or third of the nut.

Thanks for stopping by

  “All creatures are merely veils under which God hides Himself and deals with us.”―Martin Luther.

  “Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.”―Luther Burbank.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

A rose-breasted grosbeak brings exclamation marks to a yard. Its song is reminiscent of a robin, only sweeter, which some people refer to as operatic. It also makes a sharp chink like the squeak of a sneaker on a basketball court. The male has the colorful colloquial name “cut-throat.” It spends the winter in Central and South America.  Photo by Al Batt.

Lovely ditch weeds

Naturally

  It’s the time of the year when I’m reminded of how beautiful “ditch weeds” are. The flowers are dazzling. Sunflowers (yellow), asters (not yellow) and bergamot (bee balm). I enjoy the vibrant purple/magenta flowers of prairie ironweed blooming on shorelines in late summer and early fall from July through September.

  On a day teetering on hot, the roar of a crop-dusting airplane tended to drown out better sounds, but a male indigo bunting’s voice proclaimed the day’s goodness. A helpful mnemonic for remembering his song is "Fire, fire! Where, where? Here, here! See it? See it?" He sang it repeatedly, perhaps trying to overcome the plane noise. The indigo bunting sings when most other songbirds have muted.

  When the soil is damp, there are more slugs, snails and pillbugs to feed firefly larvae, which means more fireflies for us to see.

  The Carolina grasshopper has black hindwings and is commonly found in open, dry and sunny areas where it blends in with the bare ground, earning it the nickname “road duster.” They look like tiny, parked Tesla Cybertrucks. Males are known for their "crackling" sounds, called crepitation, in flight.

Q&A

  “What birds eat bees and wasps?” The summer tanager snatches bees and wasps in mid-air. Northern mockingbird, scarlet tanager, western and eastern kingbird, blue jay (eat larvae primarily), various woodpecker species, purple martin and others.

  “Do crickets fly?” Some crickets make short-distance flights. Many prefer to jump rather than fly. Camel crickets are wingless and rely on jumping and crawling for movement. House crickets and field crickets can fly. Crickets use their wings to sing.

  “Are pavement ants called Labor Day ants?” No, pavement ants aren’t the same as Labor Day ants. Pavement ants are a common species that nest under pavement and search for food indoors. They’re commonly associated with building small, volcano-shaped mounds of dirt in the cracks of sidewalks. Labor Day ants are larger than pavement ants and are another common species that swarm during a mating season in late summer, often around Labor Day. They nest in open areas like lawns, fields and roadsides. They’re commonly called cornfield ants or turfgrass ants.

  “Do all goldenrod plants develop galls?“ The round stem-balls are called galls. They’re the plant’s response to the parasitic goldenrod gall fly. The female fly lays eggs at the base of goldenrod flower buds. Upon hatching, the larvae eat into the stem, whereupon they secrete chemical compounds that trigger the plant’s cells to form the gall. The gall grows around the larva, forming a hard outer layer and a softer fibrous interior, and the larva eats the inner tissue and grows, but the plant isn’t harmed. The fly will have no other food throughout its life cycle, as adults lack mouthparts and don’t eat at all. The fly prefers particular goldenrod species. A parasitoid wasp seeks the galls. The female wasp inserts her ovipositor through the gall’s outer wall, laying an egg in the chamber that holds the gall fly’s larva. Upon hatching, the wasp larva devours the fly larva, then consumes gall tissue until it pupates. A different threat to the gall flies arises in fall and winter, as downy woodpeckers and black-capped chickadees peck open the galls and eat the larvae. Fly larvae survive better in large galls, whose walls are more difficult for the wasp’s ovipositor to penetrate. Downy woodpeckers favor large galls because they’re more likely to contain a fly larva than a smaller wasp larva, which is less nutritionally rewarding. Naturalist John Muir described goldenrod: "The fragrance and the color and the form, and the whole spiritual expression of goldenrods are hopeful and strength-giving beyond any other flowers that I know. A single spike is sufficient to heal unbelief and melancholy." Minnesota has a number of goldenrod species: prairie goldenrod, Riddell’s, stiff, rough-leaved, zigzag, early, Missouri, northern bog, gray, velvety, cliff, hairy, showy, Canada, giant, late and elm-leaved goldenrod. Goldenrod doesn’t cause hay fever. Wind-pollinated plants, notably ragweed, are primarily responsible for late summer and early fall hay fever. Goldenrods are insect-pollinated. That makes them fantastic insect zoos, attracting a significant number of species.

  “Why are there so many gnats this year?” Gnats love warm, humid and wet environments. If you encounter high numbers of gnats outside, it's likely happening due to high moisture. The presence of many gnats in homes is linked to warm, moist environments and the presence of decaying organic matter. This includes overripe or rotting fruit, damp soil in houseplants, food scraps, residue in drains, or standing water.

Thanks for stopping by

  “My profession is always to be alert, to find God in nature, to know God’s lurking places, to attend to all the oratorios and the operas in nature.”―Henry David Thoreau.

  “Sometimes Mother Nature has the answers when you do not even know the questions.”―Keith Wynn.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

The painted lady is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world. It’s found throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and Central America, and is present on all continents except Australia and Antarctica. The caterpillars feed on the leaves of a wide variety of host plants, with preferred foods including calendula, hollyhock, mallow, sunflower and Canada thistle. Painted lady butterflies are called the thistle butterflies because of the thistle caterpillar’s appetite for the leaves of the Canada thistle. Photo by Al Batt.

It was a day that would have made Goldilocks happy. It was just right.

Naturally

  It was a day that would have made Goldilocks happy. It was just right.

  It was a rare morning—no wind, no rain and no vehicle noise. I heard the whoosh of bird wings beating the air. I looked up to see a flock of Franklin’s gulls headed south. The flock was stretched in a long line with every gull appearing to be striving to pass the one on each side. The flock was in the form of a V trying to become a straight line. Named for the Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, the graceful flyers are notably smaller than ring-billed gulls with nonbreeding adults sporting a patchy black to gray hood, black legs and feet, and black bills with red tips. They forage in agricultural fields, pastures, landfills and on the surface of water. They used to follow my tractor to feed on the earthworms, grubs, beetles and grasshoppers dislodged by the farm implements trailing the iron horse.

  I didn’t own the morning, but nature’s gifts made me feel as if I did.

  A red-winged blackbird male stopped at a feeder for a snack. His is a highly polygynous species, which means males may have many females as mates–up to 15. In some populations, 90% of territorial males have more than one female nesting on their territories. He isn’t exactly a supreme ruler because 1/4 to 1/2 of the nestlings in his territory were sired by someone other than the territorial male.

  A tiny chickadee on a feeder was busily converting sunflower seeds into enough cuteness to make it through another day.

  White sweet clover and yellow sweet clover are similar in appearance. They’re biennial herbaceous plants in the legume (pea) family. First-year plants don’t bloom, and second-year plants grow 3 to 6 feet high. Yellow sweet clover has yellow flowers, is usually the shortest of the two, and blooms earlier than white sweet clover. And white sweet clover (I’ll bet you’ve already guessed this) has white flowers. Sweet clovers are fragrant and reproduce by seed with plants producing thousands of seeds, which can remain viable for 40 years.

  Vultures surfed the sky. It’s what they are programmed to do. I find it nearly impossible not to watch turkey vultures wheeling toward the heavens. They leave Minnesota from late August or early September to mid-October, going to the southern United States, Mexico, Central America and South America.

  I patrolled the garden, ready to battle the cabbage worms. I was in charge of kraut control.

Q&A

  A nest of northern house wrens had fledged in the yard, and my wife asked how long their nestling period was. Because it was my beloved bride posing the question, I gave an immediate, if not sooner, answer. The nestling period is 15-17 days, following an incubation period of 9-16 days. The clutch consists of 3 to 10 pale eggs densely marked with tiny reddish-brown or cinnamon-brown dots. On average, the second brood is smaller. Male wrens replace the old nesting material between clutches. Wrens often add spider egg sacs to the nest materials. In lab studies, once the spiders hatched, they made a wren’s life easier by eating nest parasites. The female wren incubates the eggs with full incubation beginning with the laying of the antepenultimate or penultimate egg. Both parents feed the nestlings and continue to feed them for a while after they’ve left the nest. Nearly every food delivery includes the removal of a poop sac. It’s diaper duty, with the diaper acting like a tiny sandwich bag. A parent takes the sac away and drops it. So be careful of wren bombs falling from the sky. The fledglings typically leave the nest within a few hours of one another.

  “Are carpenter ants skilled laborers?” They build a home (nest) and tunnels (roads) without the use of a single power tool, so, yes, I’d say they are skilled.

  “There are tiny flies that run across the kitchen counter and aren’t likely to fly. What are they and why are they keeping me company?” When encountering small flies that scurry quickly across surfaces instead of flying, you're likely seeing phorid flies, also known as "humpbacked flies" or "scuttle flies." They are roughly 1/8 inch long and demonstrate a rapid and erratic running or "scuttling" behavior as if they are trying to get open while running a pass route. A distinct humpbacked shape to its thorax gives the fly its other common name. This fly feeds and thrives in the organic material in pipes, drains and food sources such as fruits and vegetables. A prime location is rotting bags of potatoes or onions.

Thanks for stopping by

  “If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in you.”―Minquass proverb.

  “Before eating, always take time to thank the food.”―Arapaho proverb.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

Goldenrod soldier beetles are often seen on goldenrod, hence the common name, but visit many other late-summer flowering plants. The adults are seen from July to September, but are most abundant in August. They feed primarily on pollen and nectar but may eat small insects such as caterpillars, eggs and aphids. They don’t damage plants, bite or sting. Photo by Al Batt.

This was a smile on the horizon after 4.7 inches of rain.

Ozzy Osbourne could have sung, “I am ironweed.”

When in need of an altitude adjustment, I look up to watch swallows feeding on flying insects

Naturally

  When in need of an altitude adjustment, I look up to watch swallows feeding on flying insects.

  I kept company with butterflies—monarch, eastern tiger swallowtail, red admiral, painted lady and mourning cloak. I looked at bluets (damselflies) and widow skimmer dragonflies. When perched, a dragonfly's wings stick straight out like an airplane's wings. A damselfly's wings fold back in line with its body, giving it a sleek, slender appearance at rest.

  I saw many Critical Habitat vehicle license plates. Contributions allow the Minnesota DNR to purchase critical resource lands and improve habitat for fish, wildlife and native plants. The plates present images of anglers, deer (two different plates), black-capped chickadee (on my car), lady slipper, loon, moose, pheasant, rusty patched bumble bee (this plate includes a monarch butterfly and a purple prairie clover), and turkey.

  Bindweed blooms in ditches and on fences. It resembles a morning glory. Dogbane, bergamot, Joe-pye weed, blue vervain, black-eyed Susan and various sunflower species bloom. The name "Joe-pye weed" is believed to have originated from a historical figure, a Native American herbalist named Joe Pye, who reportedly used the plant to treat various ailments, including fevers and dysentery. Asters bloom August-October. The name "aster" comes from the Greek word for star, a nod to the flower's star-shaped blooms. In Greek mythology, asters came from the tears of the goddess Astraea, who cried because there weren't enough stars in the sky. When her tears hit the ground, star-shaped asters sprouted in their place.

  Juvenile bald eagles, trumpeter swan cygnets and sandhill crane colts roam the Earth. A red-headed woodpecker, a vision of delight, left its position on a utility pole and swooped low across the road to catch insects in the air or on the ground.

  Fleabane has tiny white flowers; its genus name (Erigeron) comes from the Greek words eri meaning early and geron meaning old man in reference to the early bloom time and its downy plant appearance, suggestive of an old man’s white beard.

   A bird landed on a scarecrow, which gave the figure a chirp on its shoulder.

  Crows had expressed their objections in the morning. Crickets voiced a great amen to the end of day.

Q&A

  Mike Murtaugh of Albert Lea asked where fireflies spend the day. Fireflies stay near the ground in damp areas during the day, often hidden in leaf litter or tall grasses. At night, they emerge to fly and flash, especially after dusk, to attract mates. Females stay lower, often on the ground or in low vegetation, while males fly and flash to locate them.

  Ken Nelson of Clarks Grove asked when the Baltimore Orioles leave. I think they leave far too soon. As their young become independent, parents molt their body and flight feathers. Migration peaks in August and September. They winter in Florida, the Caribbean, Central America and the northern tip of South America.

  Joel Erickson of Albert Lea asked when and where purple martins go. They’re the largest swallow in Minnesota. Other swallow species are bank, tree, northern rough-winged, barn and cliff. On my walks, barn swallows fly lowest, tree swallows in the middle, and purple martins the highest. After nesting is completed, martins congregate at a roost, typically near water. I’ve seen thousands roosting at Lake Osakis in Todd and Douglas counties in west-central Minnesota after the breeding season. Individual roosts could remain active for six weeks, but individual birds stay at a roost an average of four weeks. Purple martins begin leaving Minnesota in late July, hitting a peak in August, and departing by early September for their wintering grounds in South America.

  “Do bats have a sense of smell and good eyesight?” Bats have a variety of senses, and their vision and sense of smell are both well-developed. The saying "blind as a bat" is a myth, but bats often rely on other senses, like echolocation, for navigating and hunting in the dark. The idea that bats are blind likely originated from their nocturnal nature and their remarkable use of echolocation. If they flew and hunted seamlessly in the dark, many assumed they must not rely on vision at all. The truth is that most bats can see well. Different species have varying abilities, with some capable of seeing ultraviolet light. Bats have a unique way of combining echolocation and eyesight, making them skilled hunters both day and night. All eight bat species found in Minnesota each weigh less than one ounce, the weight of a standard letter, are insectivorous and eat up to their body weight in night-flying insects, including moths, beetles and mosquitoes.

Thanks for stopping by

  “When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.”― Cherokee proverb.

  “A good chief gives, he does not take.”―Mohawk proverb.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

The wild turkey was once considered extirpated from Minnesota. The National Wild Turkey Federation says a turkey’s vision is five times better than that of humans, its hearing is estimated to be four times better than ours, and a gobble can be heard up to a mile away. That’s why I hired this hen to be the yard’s official watch turkey. Photo by Al Batt.

Is that cool lightning really heat lightning?

Naturally

  "Sometimes", said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

  I enjoy watching butterflies flutter past me on their meandering routes. I watched cabbage white butterflies, which aren’t uncommon in my yard, flying here and there. They are native to Europe and Asia, and are an introduced species in the U.S. Cabbage white caterpillars feed on members of the cabbage or mustard family.

  I watched a flicker feed on ants. I wondered if the woodpecker ate enough ants, it might need an antacid.

  I watched American white pelicans hunt for food. They are fish herders. They hunt by herding fish into shallow water and taking part in a feeding frenzy, rather than diving like brown pelicans. White pelicans often fish together in groups, coordinating their movements by forming lines and driving fish toward the shore or other pelicans. They dip their bills into the water to catch the fish in their throat pouches. Contrary to cartoon portrayals and common misconceptions, pelicans do not carry food in their bill pouches. They use their bills to scoop up food but swallow their catch before flying off. Pelicans feed their chicks by regurgitating partially digested fish from their gular pouches into the chicks' mouths or onto the ground. As the chicks grow older, they learn to reach directly into the parents' throat pouches to retrieve a meal. American white pelicans and double-crested cormorants are frequently found swimming together and sometimes forage together. They do hunt at different depths—pelicans are surface-feeders and cormorants are divers and deep-feeders. Two pelican species are native to the United States: the American white pelican is commonly found inland and in freshwater habitats, and the brown pelican is primarily found along coastal areas, including beaches, lagoons and islands.

  The first red sumac fruiting clusters (drupes) in Minnesota typically appear in late summer to early fall (August-September).

Q&A

  “I saw shorebirds that weren’t killdeer in southern Minnesota in July. Are those birds migrating already?” Yes, the southward migration of shorebirds through Minnesota begins in July. The earliest migrants are generally those that had unsuccessful breeding attempts in the Arctic and boreal regions. By mid-July, the successful breeders begin their southward journey.

  “What is heat lightning?” On warm, humid nights, the phenomenon known as “heat lightning” is commonly observed. The sky flickers with light, even on a clear night with stars visible in the sky. No sound goes with the flash, although if you’re listening to an AM radio, you will hear crackles of static when you see a flash. What we see is the light from a distant thunderstorm at a distance too far for the sound of the thunder to be heard. Thunder’s sound rarely travels over 10 miles. The term “heat lightning” comes from the fact that it’s most often seen on warm, humid nights during July and August, causing an association with sultry temperatures. The light from an intense thunderstorm can be seen as far away as 100 miles.

  “Does the bill of a bird keep growing?” Bird beaks or bills (they are the same thing) are much like human fingernails and grow at a constant rate. This outer layer of the bill is rich in keratin, which is the same material found in our hair and nails. The inner bones of the bill don’t grow as the bird ages. 

  “How can I keep squirrels off my bird feeders?“ Place the feeder atop a pole or post, 20 feet from a branch or roof, and attach a metal squirrel guard (a cone-shaped baffle or a stovepipe-like tube) slightly below the feeder. Good luck. Squirrels are amazing acrobats and excel in their pursuit of food.

  “Is peanut butter harmful to birds?” Peanut butter is a good high-fat, high-protein food that is safe to feed to the wild birds. You could smear it on tree bark, but it can stain that bark. If you use a feeder, keep the feeder clean and free from mold. In hot weather, put the peanut butter out in small quantities to keep it from turning rancid. Some people dilute it with birdseed or cornmeal to reduce its stickiness, but it’s not necessary.

  “Are birds smart?” Yes.

  “When do goldfinches nest in Minnesota?” American goldfinches are vegetarians and delay nesting until milkweed, thistle and other plants produce seeds enough to ensure there would be plentiful food sources to feed their young. In Minnesota, this means nesting begins in late June, July and into August. They line their nests with thistle down, milkweed silk and cattail fluff.

Thanks for stopping by

  “I declare this world is so beautiful, that I can hardly believe it exists!”—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

  “Listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”—John Lubbock.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

The northern house wren weighs about as much as two quarters, which means its name is bigger than it is. The tiny birds fill the day with bubbling songs and are willing to nest in any natural or artificial cavity they can find for rent or wrent. Dad  called it a Jenny wren, and its Chippewa name translates to “making a big noise for its size.” Photo by Al Batt.

It’s a good year for fireflies

Naturally

  I put peanuts in the shells in a feeder sheltered from the rain. Blue jays went nuts for them.

  Rain has been generous this year. Many people have told me that robins sing before a rain. Many others shared their belief that robins sing after a rain. The wet weather has made it difficult for a robin not to do one or both. I walked in the rain. That wasn’t my intention, but the rain caught up with me. A robin, a fine sort of a bird, sang in the rain. I’ve always considered that song to be a rain song, even if it isn’t. There is rain and a song. It seems right.

  Our backyard looks like a home for wayward ferns. And I didn’t even have to start a GoFrondMe campaign.

  It’s a good year for fireflies. Fireflies do well in damp conditions. The same can be said for mosquitoes. It’s a good year for mosquitoes, too. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, and what’s good for the lightning bug is good for the skeeter. Each time I slap a mosquito, I’m reminded that my swatting, no matter how frenetic it might be, only monitors the population and doesn’t impact it unless the insect is buzzing around in my bedroom.

  Hummingbird moths (sphinx moths), which are often mistaken for hummingbirds, visit flowers to feed on the nectar. They don’t harm the plants.

Q&A

  “Does applying nail polish help chigger bites?” Neither nail polish nor petroleum jelly is an effective treatment for chigger bites. It’s a myth that those things can suffocate chiggers, as chiggers don't burrow into the skin and are gone by the time you notice the bite. Focus on relieving the itching and inflammation with calamine lotion, antihistamine creams, corticosteroid creams or cool compresses. After chiggers make tiny holes in our skin, they inject saliva that turns cells into mush for food. My first step is to take a bath or shower and scrub my skin with soap and water. This washes off any chiggers that are on me. Using an insect repellent that has DEET or wearing clothing treated with an insecticide like permethrin before you venture outside can help deter the chiggers. Apply the bug spray to areas where chiggers might travel from clothing to your skin, like the waist of your pants and the tops of your socks. Some studies have suggested that natural sprays may help keep chiggers away. Wear long sleeves and long pants, with your pant legs tucked into your socks. Chiggers avoid people sporting a dorky look.

  “How can I tell if a young rose-breasted grosbeak is a male or a female?” The fledged birds appear to me to be slow-moving, as if weary or lethargic, and often are begging for food. I watched an adult male crack open sunflower seeds and feed the kernels to a fledgling begging on a platform feeder. Males flash pink or reddish under the wings, whereas females show a yellowish color. If the immature bird has pink feathers on the breast, it’s male. Females and immatures are brown and streaked, with a bold whitish stripe over the eye.

  “What birds eat ants?” Many birds eat ants, but northern flickers have a particular fondness for them. Woodpeckers, like flickers and pileated woodpeckers, use their long, sticky tongues to lap up ants. Other birds that regularly eat ants include wren, grouse, starling, sparrow, crow, wild turkey, robin, blackbird and cardinal. Gulls, common nighthawks, flycatchers, swallows and swifts feast on flying ants.

  “How can I tell a Canada thistle from a bull thistle?” Bull thistles are generally larger and often described as meaner-looking than Canada thistles. The most obvious way to differentiate the two is by their stems and leaves. A Canada thistle has a smooth, mostly hairless stem without spiny wings, while a bull thistle has spiny wings along the stem and hairy leaves. Canada thistle also reproduces via rhizomes, making it a perennial, while bull thistle is a biennial, reproducing only by seed.

  “Is the monarch butterfly on the endangered species list?” Sort of, kind of. The monarch butterfly isn’t currently listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing it as a threatened species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature officially classified the monarch butterfly as endangered. In Canada, monarchs were listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act in 2023. My fingers are crossed for Minnesota’s state butterfly, which Wisconsin is considering elevating to the lofty position of being its state butterfly.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Flowers. Those free gifts laid out on Mother Nature’s perfume counter.”―Roger McGough.

  “The well of nature is full today. Time to go outside and take a drink.”—Diane Ackerman.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

The black "V" on the yellow breast of a meadowlark is a key identifier. Its white outer tail feathers are noticeable when it flies. I delight in seeing eastern and western meadowlarks. Sadly, there are no northern, southern, northeastern, southeastern, northwestern or southwestern meadowlarks, but there is a Chihuahuan meadowlark found in southwestern U.S. and Mexico. Photo by Al Batt.

At the Freeborn County Fair.

At the Freeborn County Fair.

From the History Center of Freeborn County (MN). All these things are now in a cellphone.

This bugle belonged to Joseph Peter McGann of Albert Lea. He entered the service during WWl on July 23, 1918 and went almost directly to the front ranks in France. From the History Center of Freeborn County (MN).

A thirteen-lined ground squirrel gets a hot foot

Naturally

  The dark was lifting. The curtain opened to a broad palette of birdsong and flowers. Jewelweeds (spotted touch-me-nots) bloom July through September. Moisture beads on its leaves and glistens like jewels in the sun. A favorite of hummingbirds, it has trumpet-shaped flowers and seed capsules that explode when touched. The watery sap of jewelweed is reputed to help soothe rashes from poison ivy and stinging nettle.

  It’s a good day when I spot a crab spider on a wildflower. They are white or yellow with two pink or red slashes along the sides of the abdomen. They can change their color, a process that can take several days, and are easiest to find on pink flowers. Crab spiders get their name from their crablike appearance and their ability to walk sideways. They are passive hunters that wait motionless and feed on insects that come within their grasp. The male is tiny compared to the female. I’ve heard that to mate without being eaten, he must first tie up the female with silk. After mating, the female easily breaks the restraints. I’ve often read that the male covers the female loosely with strands of silk, which is considered a part of courtship referred to as a bridal veil. I’m guessing the latter is likely the actual story.

  I enjoy the delicious fruit of the Juneberry, aka shadbush, serviceberry, shadblow and Saskatoon berry. Folklore suggests that serviceberries get their name from funeral services, because by the time the ground thaws enough for burials, serviceberry flowers are in bloom. That might be factual, but it has the ring of a myth.

  I watched a thirteen-lined ground squirrel (striped gopher or squinny) scurry across the sizzling pavement. There was no lollygagging. The midday sun might have been giving the little animal a hot foot. Ground squirrels run with their tails straight out. Chipmunks run with their tails upright.

  A friend is threatening to go all Carl Spackler on the raccoons that are putting a crimp in his bird feeding. Carl Spackler, a golf course groundskeeper played by Bill Murray in the movie, “Caddyshack,” said this while preparing to dynamite a gopher’s tunnel, “In the immortal words of Jean Paul Sartre, 'Au revoir, gopher.'”

Q&A

  “Could bats be drinking from my hummingbird feeders at night?” No, there are no nectar-feeding bats in Minnesota. There aren’t even any Kool-Aid drinking bats in Minnesota. The seven native bat species in Minnesota are all insectivores.

  “How many species of hummingbirds are there?” There are 368 hummingbird species according to BirdLife International. Hummingbirds are native to the Americas.

  “Does Minnesota have the largest population of its state bird?” According to the National Loon Center, Minnesota has the largest population of common loons in the Lower 48, with 4650 breeding pairs, Wisconsin has 1250 pairs and Maine has 1700. Alaska has 4800 breeding pairs. Loons return to northern forested lakes and rivers in April or early May. The USGS says the common loon’s breeding range includes Alaska, much of Canada and portions of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Manitoba has 11,000 breeding pairs, British Columbia 25,000, Quebec 50,000 and Ontario 97,000. Loons are excellent indicators of water quality as they require crystal-clear lakes (which makes it easier for them to see prey underwater) with abundant populations of small fish. They need lakes with enough surface area for their running takeoffs. All five species of loons breed in Alaska: red-throated, Arctic, Pacific, common and yellow-billed loons.

  “Why are some eggs speckled?” Here are three plausible reasons. It might be in defense against brood parasitism by helping parents differentiate their eggs from those laid by an intruder. It could be for camouflage. Eggs not readily exposed to the view of predators tend to be pale and unmarked (not all), with no camouflage needed. Killdeer eggs, which are exposed on the gravel of a driveway and in urgent need of a disguise, are heavily marked, which serves as an effective camouflage. The dark pigment on the eggs could make them less resistant to breakage.

  “What colors can birds see that we cannot?” Humans have only one nonspectral color—purple. Birds can see up to five: purple, ultraviolet+red, ultraviolet+green, ultraviolet+yellow and ultraviolet+purple. Technically, purple isn’t in the rainbow. It arises when our blue and red cones are stimulated, but not our green cones. Nonspectral colors are those not found in the visible spectrum of light.

  “What do northern house wrens eat?” They feed on a wide variety of insects, including beetles, earwigs, true bugs, grasshoppers, daddy longlegs, crickets, caterpillars, leafhoppers, moths, flies, springtails and many others, plus spiders, millipedes and snails. The collective noun for wrens is a herd or a chime.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.”—Gary Snyder.

  “I hold one share in the corporate earth and am uneasy about the management.”—E. B. White.

  Do good.

©️Al Batt 2025

Each day brings beauty in many forms. The ebony jewelwing, a magnificent damselfly with large black wings, is often seen in tree-shaded streamsides but can move far from water. It feeds on insects snatched from the air. Photo by Al Batt.

Butterflies fly routes as if they had been given bad directions

Naturally

  Butterflies fly routes as if they were given bad directions.

  The minimum temperature for honeybee flight is 54º. The optimum temperature for flight activity is 72-77º, but activity continues up to about 100º before declining. The University of Maine Cooperative Extension found that bumblebees fly in adverse weather conditions: temperatures lower than 55°, light rain, cloudy or foggy conditions, wind speeds higher than 15 mph, and poor light conditions.

  Wild parsnip is an invasive plant that could cause painful skin burns when its sap comes into contact with skin exposed to sunlight. It’s a member of the carrot family with yellow, flat-topped flower clusters. It thrives in open, disturbed areas like roadsides and pastures.

Q&A

  “Is the daddy longlegs a spider?” It isn’t a spider. It’s an arachnid more closely related to scorpions than spiders. Unlike true spiders, daddy longlegs have only two eyes instead of eight, and don’t produce silk or webs. Daddy longlegs aren’t venomous, don’t bite humans, and are commonly preyed upon by spiders. Daddy longlegs (harvestmen) hunt small insects and eat decaying plant matter and fungi.

  “How fast can a rock pigeon fly?” The average speed a rock pigeon achieves when flying is 50 to 60 mph. However, a racing pigeon reached a top speed of 92.5 mph.

  “Do mallards become flightless in a molt?” Mallards shed all their flight feathers at the end of the breeding season and are flightless for 3–6 weeks. Molting makes them vulnerable, and they hide in secluded areas while their body feathers molt into a concealing eclipse plumage, a comparatively dull covering.

  Dean Muesing saw many insect wings on the lawn and wondered why they were there. Dean found a young bluebird out of a nest box and wanted to know what to do. I associate insect wings on the ground with flying ants during swarming. Flying ants leave their wings behind as they establish new colonies. American kestrels catch dragonflies on the wing, then, while still in flight, rip off the wings and consume the body. Moths are common bat prey items. Once the bat has eaten the body, the wings are typically discarded. Some flycatchers remove the wings from their prey before consuming it. They do this by beating the prey against a branch to break off the wings. Dragonflies discard the wings of larger prey before eating it. If you find a young bluebird outside its nest, there are two schools of thought: One, it’s best to leave it alone. Two, if it's a fledgling, place it back in the box. Fledglings often hop back out on their own. If the bird is a nestling (younger, with sparse feathers), try putting it back in the box.

 Casey Madson of Hartland watched swallows hunt a farm field and wondered what kind of eyesight they have to be successful in catching flying insects. Barn swallows have exceptional eyesight, which is crucial for their aerial hunting style. They are two eyes with wings and have a bifoveate retina, meaning they have two areas of sharp focus (foveae) in each eye, one for distance and one for close-up vision. They share this trait with other predators like raptors, but most other songbirds have only one. The foveae are areas with a high concentration of cone photoreceptors, which are responsible for sharp vision and color perception. This allows them to track insect prey with precision while flying at high speeds. The elongated eye shape of barn swallows further enhances their spatial resolution, allowing them to perceive minute details and accurately judge distances while flying. Like many bird species, barn swallows can perceive ultraviolet light, which helps them find insects. The killing of egrets is often cited for inspiring the U.S. conservation movement, but it was the millinery trade’s impact on barn swallows that prompted naturalist George Bird Grinnell’s 1886 Forest & Stream editorial decrying the waste of bird lives. His essay led to the founding of the first Audubon Society.

  Becky Schuhmacher of Glenville asked why some sandhill cranes she has seen have had so many brown feathers. Sandhill cranes are typically gray, but their plumage sometimes appears reddish-brown due to the preening cranes do with iron-rich mud. That may act as camouflage. The adults have a distinctive red patch on their heads, while immatures (colts) lack this feature and have a more uniformly rusty-brown appearance.

  “Do opossums hang by their tails?” Opossums don’t spend lengthy periods hanging by their tails or sleep while hanging by their tails. It's a common misconception perpetuated in cartoons. Their tails aren't strong enough to support their weight for more than a moment. Young opossums could hang in there, but not for long, because they don’t have the muscle structure necessary to hold the position. Opossums can use their prehensile tails like a fifth limb to aid in climbing trees and other structures, or for carrying bedding materials.

  “Do bats eat fireflies?” Bats generally don’t eat fireflies. Fireflies contain toxins that make them taste bad to bats, and bats have learned to avoid them. I was a young Batt once. I owned nothing but an appetite. I tried to eat everything. Studies have shown that bats try to eat fireflies but quickly learn to avoid them after experiencing a lightning bug’s unpleasant taste. The fireflies' bioluminescence serves as a warning signal to bats, indicating that they’re not good to eat. Instead of a neon sign saying, “Eat here,” the insect’s flashing light proclaims, “Don’t eat here.”

  “Is the killdeer the only bird that feigns a wing injury to draw a predator away from a nest?” I watched a killdeer recently. It stopped to look at me, before bobbing up and down as if it had the hiccups. Killdeer distract predators by calling loudly, bobbing, and running toward and away from the threat. They are well-known practitioners of the broken-wing display, which is an attempt to lure predators away from a nest by feigning injury, which gets the Academy Award for the best performance by a bird. Researchers at California Polytechnic State University scanned databases of scientific studies and surveyed ornithologists and birders to track down additional species performing the display. This effort yielded 285 species from 52 families across the world. Shorebirds, ducks, songbirds and owls use the broken-wing display. A collective noun for killdeers is a season.

Thanks for stopping by

  “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 in nature have a message you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.”—Eleanora Duse.

  “Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.”—Wallace Stevens.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

Song sparrows have 25 distinct subspecies, with individuals being larger in colder climates. A subspecies is a subdivision within a species that has unique identifying traits but can interbreed with other members of the species. “King Phillip Came Over For Good Soup” is a mnemonic for Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, in order of increasing specificity. Song sparrows exhibit regional dialects in song, much like humans have accents. Females prefer males with the best playlists. Photo by Al Batt.

Quoth the Chickadee, Chickadee-dee

Naturally

  If all the world is a stage, birds are the applause sign.

  If he’d been listening to the mournful call of a dove, Edgar Allan Poe would have written, “Quoth the Mourning Dove, Hula-hoop-hoop-hoop.”

  But he wrote, “Quoth the Raven, Nevermore.”

  In the first few days of a mourning dove’s life, the nestling is a milk drinker. Both parents feed chicks “pigeon milk,” which is a nutrient-rich substance with a texture like cottage cheese.

  The bobolink sports a backwards tuxedo with light colors on the back and dark colors on the front. He sounds as if he’s trying to sing too many bubbly songs at once. The bobolink’s song is often described as mechanical, like R2-D2 from “Star Wars.”

  I was in the LRGV region of Texas, where great-tailed grackles were ubiquitous, doing what the Cornell Lab of Ornithology described as “make an impressive array of sounds, ranging from sweet, tinkling notes to what one biologist described as calls so loud they were best heard at a distance.” I’ve heard other descriptions such as a “rusty gate hinge” and “machinery badly in need of lubrication.”

  A Texan, Lyle Lovett, sang (edited for length), “I don't go for fancy cars, for diamond rings or movie stars. I go for penguins. Throw your money out the door. We'll just sit around and watch it snow. Penguins are so sensitive to my needs.”

  I go for chickadees. They are sensitive to my needs.

  Poe could have written, “Quoth the Chickadee, Chickadee-dee.”

  On a warm, humid evening, fireflies (lightning bugs) come out to light my world. Those insects are memory makers. On dewy mornings, sparkling silver dots the lawn. They’re dew beads on the funnel webs of spiders, which glisten in the sunlight.

  Daisy fleabane is a native plant with white flowers about 1/2 inch across and a daisy-like appearance. Each flower has 40-100 ray florets. The plant is part of the aster family and blooms from June to September. Our eyes quickly spot the vibrant orange flowers of the butterfly milkweed blooming in the road ditches. The color pops.

A chipmunk demolition derby and mosquitoes

  Our cat, Pinky Sue, is a feline that never sets a paw outdoors and enjoys watching the nefarious chipmunk activity outside her favorite windows. Rodents on parade. She fancies seeing four or five chipmunks gleaning fallen seeds under a feeder. Pinky Sue knows that eventually, one chipmunk will object to the company of another, and a chase will ensue. Innocent bystanders will be trampled by rampaging animals in a spirited chipmunk demolition derby. Now that’s entertainment.

 Casino Context crunched the numbers, looking at factors such as average summer rainfall, temperature, mosquito species, West Nile virus cases and Google searches for mosquito prevention. It found that Florida is the nation's mosquito hotspot in 2025. Southern states dominate the top 10, with Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi and Georgia all experiencing high mosquito activity. North Dakota was 12th in rankings, Iowa 20, South Dakota 22, Wisconsin 31, Minnesota 36 and Alaska 50.

Q&A

  “Are there fire ants in Minnesota?” Fire ants don’t occur in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota or North Dakota, but field ants that are similar in size and coloration, and build mounds, do. According to the USDA, imported fire ants currently inhabit all or parts of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Fire ants are 1/8- to 1/4-inch long, reddish-brown or black, and respond rapidly and aggressively when disturbed. The stings from fire ants are painful and cause a burning sensation and itching blisters. They bite with their mandibles, then arch their backs and sting with a potent alkaloid venom.

  “How many fawns does a deer have?” Starting as early as a 1-year-old, a white-tailed deer doe will have one, two or three fawns in the spring. A doe giving birth for the first time usually has one fawn. From then on, twins will be most common. Triplets are fairly common. In most parts of the state, half of the fawns born are males and half are females. Most fawns are born in late May and early June in Minnesota.

  “What are the milkweeds I see growing in the road ditches?” I see three species of monarch caterpillar chow regularly, and they identify themselves by the colors of their flowers. Common milkweed flowers are a pale pink, butterfly milkweeds are orange, and swamp milkweeds are purple.

Thanks for stopping by

  “It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.”–David Attenborough.

  “Plant seeds of happiness, hope, success, and love; it will all come back to you in abundance. This is the law of nature.”–Steve Maraboli.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

One might mistake a breeding male dickcissel for a meadowlark. Its song is a dick-dick-ciss-ciss-ciss. The first two notes are clear, followed by a buzzy, hissed cissel. Dickcissels are among the last neotropical migrants to return to Minnesota each spring, frequently not arriving until the last week of May. Dickcissels nest near the ground in dense grasses and sedges and winter in South America. Photo of a dickcissel by Al Batt.

The catbird produced a mile of music

Naturally

  The early morning catbird outside my bedroom window was long-winded, producing a mile of music or a kilometer of cacophonous sounds.

  The morning chorus was robust. Love was in the air. There was a parade of birds to the feeder. A red–winged blackbird, doing what the bird does to fill its day, ate sunflower seeds.

  They met in an open-billed showdown on the platform feeder. One was a female red-bellied woodpecker and the other a male cardinal. The woodpecker won without a single bill being aggressively jabbed.

  Flowers scented the woods. A ginormous American robin splashed water out of the birdbath. A ginormous robin might weigh 3 ounces—less than a deck of cards.

  Lemon-yellow goldfinches made me look. A blue-gray gnatcatcher, looking like a miniature mockingbird, produced buzzy, insect-like calls.

  I listened to a scarlet tanager near the city of Mabel. Or perhaps Mabel was near the scarlet tanager.

  Foxtail barley is a common grass of the roadsides, often in saline soil. Even though it is considered by some to be a weedy species, the flowering spikes are attractive, silky and waving in the slightest breeze. It’s known for its distinctive feathery seed heads that resemble a fox's tail.

  I wobbled around Rochester’s Mayo Clinic. The two female peregrine falcon chicks that hatched there this year were named Riya (meaning beautiful or graceful) and Aria (meaning lioness or noble). Newly fledged peregrines make short returns to their natal site for the first week or two. The first egg was laid on March 24 in the Mayo nest box. Typically, there are 2 to 4 eggs laid. Three eggs were laid this year, and two hatched. The adults take turns tending to the eggs, although the female peregrine (Hattie) does the majority of incubation while the male falcon (Orton) does most of the hunting.  Eggs hatch about 33-35 days after they’re laid. The nestling stage lasts for 38-42 days. Falcon chicks fledge in mid to late June.

Q&A

  “You mentioned a bird that uses snakeskins in its nest. Details?” Great crested flycatchers are known to include a shed snakeskin in their nests. If snakeskins are scarce, they use materials with similar characteristics, such as cellophane, plastic wrappers or onion skins. Why do they do this? Some research suggests the purpose might be to deter predators. A study found that nest boxes with snakeskins were less likely to be disturbed by predators.

 “Why do foxes have fur on the bottoms of their feet (their paw pads)?” There are a number of reasons. In cold climates, the fur provides a layer of insulation against the ice and snow. For foxes living in deserts, the fur on their paws protects their tootsies from the scorching hot sand. The fur on the paw pads provides better traction on slippery surfaces of ice and snow. The fur helps muffle the sound of their footsteps, allowing them to hunt more effectively. Spider-Man had his spidey sense, a tingling sensation that alerted him to impending danger. A fox may have a foxy sense that alerts the fox to food. The fur on the paw pads may help foxes sense prey burrowing under the snow.

  “Where do I find western meadowlarks in Minnesota?” A friend and field trip leader extraordinaire, Kim Eckert of Duluth, suggested a general rule of thumb is that any bird seen west of a north-south line from the city of Warroad in Roseau County south to the city of Fairmount in Martin County was a western meadowlark. East of this line, however, both the western meadowlark and the eastern meadowlark species could be seen. The Minnesota Breeding Bird Atlas data showed that the western meadowlark is encountered in moderate breeding densities along the western tier of counties from Rock and Nobles in the far southwest to Kittson and Roseau in the far northwest. Scattered pockets of higher breeding densities can be found throughout this region. Breeding populations rapidly decline in east-central and south-central areas of the state, and the western meadowlark is predicted to be rare to absent throughout much of eastern Minnesota.

  “Do barn swallows eat a lot of insects?” Barn swallows eat all kinds of flying insects, including ants, beetles, bees, butterflies, flies, gnats, mosquitoes, moths and wasps. A single barn swallow can eat 60 insects per hour or up to 850 in a day. A married barn swallow devours the same. That's approximately 25,000 insects in a month.

Thanks for stopping by

  “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.”—James R. Sherman.

  “We must not only protect the countryside and save it from destruction, we must restore what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities. Once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be recaptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder at nature, his spirit will wither and his sustenance be wasted.”–Lyndon B. Johnson.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

The cliff swallow is the species that used to return each March to Mission San Juan Capistrano in California. A popular song was written,  “When the swallows come back to Capistrano. That's the day you promised to come back to me. When you whispered, ‘Farewell,’ in Capistrano. T'was the day the swallows flew out to the sea.” Photo of cliff swallows and their mud nests by Al Batt.

Why Van Gogh lost an ear



Naturally

  I find awe in a gray catbird’s company. It joins me before breakfast each morning, jazz singing outside my bedroom window. Copycat catbirds actively sing before sunrise and after sunset. They mimic other birds but add their own interpretation to the sounds. Their songs are long but would be even longer if they played guitars. Catbirds are friendly birds that visit feeders to eat grape jelly, suet, sunflower hearts and raisins. I don’t need a field guide to identify a catbird. I have a feel guide to help me enjoy my sidekick.

  Birdsfoot trefoil blooms on roadsides. It’s a legume identified by its low-growing, yellow pea-shaped flowers and seed pods resembling a bird’s foot.

  A squirrel started running across the street. There was no traffic behind me, so I slowed my car. The squirrel froze in place in the middle of the road. Then it made a U-turn and headed back to whence it had come. Then, it made another U-turn and started running across the street again. It stopped briefly, just short of where it had been earlier, faked a continuance of the run before reversing its course and running back to where it had started its journey that had ended abruptly, and sniffed the ground under a tree. This is probably where politicians learned their flip-flopping antics.

  That’s a bird in the tree I saw. It was a red-eyed vireo singing, “Look at me…Way up high…Over here…In a tree…Here I am…In a tree…Where are you? Can’t see me.” It sounds as if the bird is counting the leaves on the tree. In 1948, Music Digest estimated that Bing Crosby's recordings filled more than half of the weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music in America. The red-eyed vireo is trying to match that. Its marathon singing has earned it the nickname of the “preacher bird.”

  Skippers look like something between butterflies and moths. They are small butterflies that visit flowers during the day. When perched, a skipper evokes the shape of a fighter jet.

  The neighbors’ rooster crowed. In many traditions, the crowing of a rooster at dawn signifies victory over darkness and the triumph of light. In some cultures, it's believed evil spirits flee at its sound.

  Vincent van Gogh traveled to the Netherlands, England, Belgium and France. I can’t prove it, but I think he traveled because he wanted to hear a meadowlark. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology didn’t yet exist, so Van Gogh didn’t know he needed to venture to the Americas to hear one. Being unable to listen to a meadowlark hit him hard. His ear had to go.

Father's Day

  On a day long ago, in a land not far away, the sky was as black as blue and as blue as black. Then, a beautiful day shouldered its way in. I stood beside my father’s grave on what some might call a windswept prairie, regretting those things I had left unsaid, and my questions that went unasked. I thought there’d be more time. Then, I heard a western meadowlark call from a pastureland near the cemetery. It brought precious memories of my wonderful father, the farmer, and of our many talks. I know the bird was proclaiming territory, but sometimes, a bird sings when I need to hear it.

Q&A

  “What is a group of dragonflies called? A flight, swarm, cluster or wing.

  “What do skunks have that no other animal has?” Baby skunks.

  A woman who joined me on a boat tour I led asked why there were more cliff swallow nests on the west side of the highway bridge over a lake than on the east side. When highway construction replaced old wooden trestle bridges with new concrete bridges and overpasses, cliff swallows abandoned nesting on loose, crumbly cliffs of sandstone or limestone in favor of firm concrete structures that offered overhangs sheltering the birds from the elements. Their densely packed nests extend over lengthy sections of buildings, dams, culverts and bridges. Ectoparasites (swallow bugs and ticks) in their nests sometimes cause colonies to abandon their nests and move elsewhere. Cliff swallows require a nearby source of freshwater to construct their gourd-shaped nests, each made of 900–1,200 individual mud pellets collected in their bills. I suspect cliff swallows might build more nests on the west side of a bridge than on the east side due to the direction of the sun's path and the resulting temperature differences. The west side of a bridge receives more direct sunlight later in the day, which can lead to warmer temperatures overnight. The warmer temperature could benefit the nestlings by regulating their body temperature and potentially provide a more comfortable environment. Baby birds are more vulnerable to cold than heat, especially when they lack feathers.

  “How many lakes are there in Alaska?” According to the State of Alaska, it has over 3 million lakes (3,197 are named). The largest, Lake Iliamna, encompasses over 1,000 square miles. Alaska has over 3,000 rivers, about 100,000 glaciers, lots of earthquakes and numerous active volcanoes.

Thanks for stopping by

  “He who praises another enriches himself far more than he does the one praised. To praise is an investment in happiness. The poorest human being has something to give that the richest could not buy.”—George M. Adams.

  “Nature tops the list of potent tranquilizers and stress reducers. The mere sound of moving water has been shown to lower blood pressure.”—Patch Adams.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

The Canada anemone is my favorite flower. It makes me happy when I see one. Don’t other flowers do that, too? They do. I have many flowers that are my favorite flower. A Canada anemone is confident, hardy and lovely. It caters to small, native bees. Deer don’t relish this native perennial. Photo by Al Batt.

Who sings "Fire, fire; where, where? here, here; see it?"



Naturally

  The bluebird nestlings were becoming bluer, a fawn followed its mother through the tall grass, indigo buntings sang "Fire, fire; where, where? here, here; see it?" incessantly, and spiderwort brightened the day. The deep-blue spiderwort flowers open in the morning and typically wilt by noon on hot days.

  A catbird must have wanted me to see those things as it had begun singing outside my bedroom window before civil twilight began. How do catbirds produce their remarkable song? They have a voice box that's different from ours. It has two separate branches that are controlled independently, allowing the bird to make two distinct sounds at the same time. The catbird was singing a duet with itself. Town criers were responsible for making public announcements and acted as human loudspeakers when shouting things like, "12 o'clock and all is well," to reassure the public. The catbird is a town crier.

  Multicolored Asian lady beetles had become rare in the house, but some stubbornly overstayed their welcome. I watched cedar waxwings feed feverishly on midges in May. Midges are small flies that resemble mosquitoes. Midges don’t bite or transmit disease, but they do create obnoxious swarms. Often referred to as lake flies, they’re frequently mistaken for mayflies, which are much larger.

Q&A

  “How smart are blue jays, and do they migrate?” Blue jays belong to the Corvidae family, which are considered among the most intelligent birds in the world. That family includes ravens, crows, jays and magpies. Blue jays would do better in school if they’d just apply themselves, but other birds do copy from their papers. Their migration remains a mystery. They don’t all migrate, and it hasn’t been determined why those that migrate do so when they do. Another reader asked why blue jays were chipping away at the light-colored paint on her porch. It’s believed they use the paint chips as a source of calcium in the spring, when the mineral is essential for egg-laying. Some paint includes limestone, a good source of calcium.

  Miriam of St. Paul saw a wild turkey hen with 12 poults and wondered about the clutch size of that species. Wild turkeys have one brood a year with a nest of 4 to 17 eggs. A hen sometimes renests if her first nest was unsuccessful. The hen lays one egg each day, but they all hatch at the same time, which is called synchronous hatching. The poults are precocial, meaning they hatch with their eyes open and are ready to run. Before hatching, the eggs are in danger from foxes, skunks, bobcats, raccoons, opossums, coyotes, crows, hogs, dogs and some snakes. After hatching, cats and avian predators, such as hawks and owls, become threats to poults. Studies indicate 10 to 40% of nests successfully hatch. About 25% of the poults live beyond four weeks. The diet of newly hatched turkeys is dependent upon a successful, timely hatch of insects. In the summer, it‘s common for turkeys to merge into larger brood flocks.

  “Do we have bullfrogs in Minnesota and Iowa?” Bullfrogs are present in both Minnesota and Iowa, though they aren’t native to the entire state of either. In Minnesota, bullfrogs are considered native to the southeastern corner—Houston and Winona counties. Elsewhere in Minnesota, they’re considered introduced and invasive. People have tried to establish bullfrog populations in other parts of Minnesota because bullfrogs provide the majority of the frog legs for restaurants. In Iowa, they’re common and are the largest frog species in the state, growing up to 8 inches long. The natural, historical range of the bullfrog in Iowa was along the Mississippi River in the eastern and southern parts. They’re now found statewide due to introduced populations. Bullfrogs eat small mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and other frogs. They’re known for their deep calls, which have been described as “jug-o- rum,” the moo of a cow or the sound made by drawing a bow across a bass fiddle.

  “What preys upon Canada goose goslings and eggs?”  Messing with a goose can be a daunting task. They don’t take any guff and have aggressive behaviors. Raccoon, mink, bald eagle, bear, bobcat, dog, fox, coyote, raven, crow, gull and skunk are possible predators.

  “How do I clean a hummingbird feeder?” Mix a solution of a 1:2 ratio of white vinegar to water. Let the feeder soak for a couple of hours. Scrub well. Use something like your brother-in-law’s toothbrush to clean off any residue. Rinse thoroughly. Air dry and feed those tiny birds.

Thanks for stopping by

  “The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things.”—Thomas Hardy.

  “Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?”―Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

This eastern tiger swallowtail’s yellow has faded. It has a 3.5 to 4.5-inch wingspan and flies from May through September. Larval hosts include American basswood, ash, birch, black cherry, chokecherry, cottonwood, mountain ash, poplar and willow. I love to see the butterflies nectaring on blazing stars later in the year. The Canadian tiger swallowtail is found in the northern half of Minnesota. Photo by Al Batt.

An oriole tree

Naturally

  It was a one-bird feeding frenzy. A gray catbird with a stubby tail fed, then did a jazz riff. Then it meowed like a cat before eating more. Why did it have a stubby tail? The bird didn’t want to talk about it, but I’m guessing it was a stress molt, during which it shed tail feathers to escape a predator. Feathers only re-grow rapidly when they’ve been pulled out. Tails are important but not critical. Tail-less birds can still fly, avoid danger and feed themselves, but might have trouble getting a table in an upscale restaurant. It’s better than losing a tail in the winter. Catbirds aren’t here then, but nobody wants a cold rear end. Cars driven by birds don’t have heated seats.

  A reader described an oriole tree, one where it seemed as if every branch held a Baltimore oriole. The weather had likely postponed flights. Sometimes, we’re given splendid gifts wrapped in feathers.

  I walked in the yard while using the Merlin app on my phone. It does a remarkable job of detecting bird sounds.

  Flowers for hours. Salsify or goat's beard has a flower head similar to a dandelion but much larger. The seed head resembles a dandelion but, again, is much larger. The inflorescence opens early in the morning and often closes up by late afternoon.

Q&A

  "Is the sex of a turtle determined by the temperature?” Scientists know that temperature determines sex in certain reptiles—alligators, lizards and turtles. In many turtles, warm temperatures during incubation create females and cold temperatures males.

  “What preys on mallard nests, and what are the chances of an egg hatching?” Common nest predators include skunk, raccoon, coyote, fox, weasel, mink and some snake and large bird species. A nest success rate of 15% is a rule of thumb for maintaining a mallard population. Delta Waterfowl found that 90% of egg destruction is due to predation; the rest is because of weather events. Approximately 7.5% of eggs leave the nesting site as live ducks. The survival rate of those drakes is around 70% and about 60% in hen mallards. That leaves 70 drakes out of 100 and 60 hens after one year.

  “What kills the most songbirds?“ Habitat loss is the most significant cause of declining bird populations. A U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service report found that cats are the top human-related cause of bird deaths, with collisions with buildings/glass a distant second.

  “Can I move a robin’s nest if it’s in an inconvenient place?” The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) protects most bird nests. This law says: “No person may take (kill), possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such bird except as may be permitted under the terms of a valid permit.” It’s illegal to destroy a nest that has eggs or chicks in it or if young birds depend on the nest for survival. It’s unlawful for anyone to keep a nest unless they have a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If you move a robin's nest, the parents will probably abandon the nest because nest-site fidelity is based on the setting. If the nest is an inactive nest with no eggs or young, it can be moved, removed or destroyed. You may legally harass birds building nests, provided the birds aren't harmed. Once an egg is in the nest, it’s against the law to move or destroy it. Because of their invasive status, house sparrow, European starling and rock pigeon nests, eggs, chicks and adults aren’t protected by law.

  “What should I do if a bird hits the window of my house?” If the window collision left a bleeding bird or a broken wing hanging limply, contact the Wildlife Rehabilitation of Minnesota (WRC) at 651-486-9453. If cats or harsh weather threaten, place the bird in a shoebox and put the box in your garage or unused room. Close the door and keep the room quiet to reduce stress on the bird. After an hour, take the shoebox outside and lift the lid. The bird will either fly away, have died from internal injuries, or have injuries that prevent it from flying.

  “How long do baby wood ducks stay in the nest box?” They are precocial, meaning they can walk, run and swim a few hours after hatching and can leave the nest quickly. Ducklings generally leave the nest box early in the morning within 24 hours of hatching,

Thanks for stopping by

  “Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit ... Living for others is a rule of nature. We are born to help each other.”—Pope Francis.

  “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks."—John Muir.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

Tree swallows return to their nests earlier than other swallows due to their versatile diet, which allows them to winter farther north. They are agile aerialists who catch insects on the wing. Their bubbly chatter is cheering. This photo shows a tree swallow describing the size of the flying insect that got away to another swallow. Photo by Al Batt.

There’s no need to duck, duck, buckle up when a gulp of swallows attacks

   "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy night."

  That famous line, often misquoted as “Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride,” was spoken by a past-her-prime actress with a flair for drama named Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, in the movie “All About Eve,” released in 1950. The film was based on the 1946 short story “The Wisdom of Eve” by Mary Orr.

  A red sports car blew by me on the highway. It was as if I were backing up. Seat belts save lives, but they don’t keep egos in check.

  I see road signs reading “Click-it or ticket” or “Buckle up. It’s the law.” Those signs remind us to buckle our seat belts for our own good while we’re disobeying various traffic laws or hurrying along while discovering the gastrointestinal consequences of eating a dozen hot dogs while losing an eating contest.

  My favorite signs are a couple of Minnesota ones: “You know it’s love when it clicks. Buckle up,” and “Duck, Duck, Buckle Up.” The latter hits home. Evidently, Minnesota is the only state where kids play "Duck, Duck, Gray Duck" instead of “Duck, Duck, Goose.”

  Incredibly, 49 other states are unaware that their faulty thinking has led to a grievous misconception. I hope they come to their senses.

  When I was a kid, buckle up meant to buckle your five-buckle rubber overshoes before going outside.

  I grew up without seat belts. We didn’t even have seat suspenders. I was a free-range kid. The closest I came to having a seat belt was my mother’s arm. She stretched her upper limb across the passenger seat when coming to a stop sign to keep me from ramming my face against a dashboard padded in concrete.

  Kids rode in the boxes of rusty pickup trucks and on the opened tailgates of rickety station wagons. Those places lacked seat belts.

  Using seat belts is such a good thing that the birds remind us to use them. There are no seat belts on my push lawn mower, but the barn swallows follow me, calling out the advisement, “Click-it, click-it!”

  They do that because they care.

  Barn swallows are cheerful aerialists with an appetite for flying insects, and they eat them without gravy. When given a choice between a fly and a bar of Toblerone chocolate, they choose the fly every time. Swallows eat cake only on their birthdays.

  The birds appreciate the food service my humble push mower provides. I call it the Lone Mower, and it’s powered by a hamster in a wheel. I named it, but the mower refuses to come when I call it. What it does is encourage insects to become airborne. The world becomes a swallow’s inflight meal. I grew up with a push lawn mower without a motor. It was a reel mower—a real reel mower. The blades were on a cylindrical reel that cut like scissors instead of having the rotary blades that are on my current cutter of grass. The swallows enjoy the sound of a lawn mower’s engine because it acts as a dinner bell.

  That said, the swallows like my wife better. Why wouldn’t they? Because of a disjointed command structure, my wife is the only one who operates the riding mower, the Blade Runner. The swallows worship the Toro she rides upon.

  Swallows do what they do. In the Boothill Graveyard in Tombstone, Arizona, there is an epitaph that reads: "Be what you is, cuz if you be what you ain't, then you ain't what you is."

  When swallows and lawnmowers join forces, everybody wins except the flying insects. The grass is used to the process and survives without needing hospitalization. The swallows are good company. Playing follow-the-leader with a gulp of swallows is a uniquely joyful experience. A pack of raccoons, skunks or protestors supporting the right of lawn grass to grow tall could be the ones chasing me.

  The helpful nagging of the swallows has caused me to consider buckling up while I push the lawn mower. I’m going to start wearing five-buckle overshoes while cutting the grass.

  As I buckle that footwear, I’ll make a sound that mimics clicking.

  The swallows need to hear it.

©Al Batt 2025

Contrary to popular belief, barn swallows do not eat barns. Other than that one outside of Scarville, Iowa.

Will Canada geese nest in trees?

Naturally

 Why do birds sing so loudly in the morning?

 It’s because they don’t have thumbs and can’t text.

 The fur coat of a deer changes colors depending on the time of year—reddish in the spring and brown in the fall. A deer’s coat provides thermoregulation and camouflage. Summer coats are reddish and thin, helping deer to cope with heat stress. The coat color of deer tends to be darker in forested areas and lighter in agricultural areas, where deer are exposed to more direct sunlight.

 A rusty-colored brown thrasher gobbled down black oil sunflower seeds from a platform feeder before flying to another feeder and eating suet. I needed to get ready for a clinic appointment, but the thrasher assured me that a short walk in my yard would do me good. Beginning at 8:03 a.m. on May 22, I counted the following species: Baltimore oriole, brown-headed cowbird, common grackle, blackpoll warbler, American goldfinch, song sparrow, magnolia warbler, great crested flycatcher, Nashville Warbler, gray catbird, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, American redstart, mourning dove, wood thrush, Tennessee warbler, yellow warbler, red-eyed vireo, bay-breasted warbler, white-breasted nuthatch, house wren, blue jay, chestnut-sided warbler, chipping sparrow, European starling, American robin, rose-breasted grosbeak (produces a rich, robin-like whistle, without breaks—its breathless singing takes my breath away.), brown thrasher and black-capped chickadee. It was no record, but it was gladsome. I couldn’t have experienced the 29 species if the woodpeckers hadn’t been knock, knock, knocking on wood for my good luck. It was a good day.

 Jim Grotte of Fairmont said he was listening to me on KMSU Radio, and the moment I mentioned a Cooper’s hawk, one flew in and grabbed a sparrow near Jim’s worksite. A coworker said, “I think that’s one of those hawks right there.”

The Peregrine Falcon Program

 The Peregrine Falcon Program has a nesting box atop the Mayo Building in Rochester. The program began in 1987 with the cooperation of the Midwest Peregrine Society. The adult peregrine falcons return to the nest in early February, the female lays one to five eggs from mid-March to mid-April, and the eggs hatch after about 35 days, from late April to late May. The chicks (eyasses) are named and banded during an event for patients, staff and volunteers. The nestlings fledge from early June to early July and depart in the fall to pursue further education. The Latin name for peregrines means wanderers. It’s crow-sized and can live nearly 20 years. It’s the fastest animal on earth, able to reach speeds over 240 mph in a stoop. Peregrine falcons inhabit every continent except Antarctica. The falcon has long been associated with royalty in the sport of falconry. There are two youngsters in the nest this year.  

https://history.mayoclinic.org/falcon-program/

Q&A

 “Will Canada geese nest in trees?” Canada geese don’t spend all their time playing vuvuzelas to let us know they aren’t quacks. Canada geese typically build their nests on the ground, but they do nest in trees or on buildings. Canada geese have nested in bald eagle nests. In 1804,  Captain Meriwether Lewis (Lewis andClark Expedition) reported Canada geese nesting in trees along the Missouri River in North Dakota. In 1820, Titian Ramsay Peale recorded a goose in peaceable possession of an eagle’s nest near what is now Council Bluffs. In the mid-1950s, in the Flathead Valley of Montana, biologists monitored 77 tree and cliff nests where Canada geese were nesting. Some sites were up to 200 feet off the ground. How do the nestlings get out of the nest? Air Force One doesn’t stop and pick them up. They escape the nest the uncomplicated way. After the goslings hatch, the parents call persistently from the ground to the goslings. Like Rob Schneider, they yell, “You can do it!” The goslings jump from the nest and beat their puny wings on their descent to the ground. Goslings are tough, just like baby wood ducks.

 “Why is a group of crows called a ‘murder?’” There are several explanations for the origin of this term based on folklore and superstitions. There is a folktale in which crows gather and decide the capital fate of another crow. Ancients regarded the appearance of crows as an omen of death because crows are scavengers and were associated with dead bodies, battlefields and cemeteries. It’s likely the term “murder of crows” reflects a time when groupings of many animals had colorful and poetic names.

 Other bird species could answer to that collective noun. If you’re an insect, two chickadees are a murder of chickadees. Is one crow an attempted murder? Are the crows in my yard a murder? They had probable caws.

Thanks for stopping by

 “A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”—Alexander Pope.

 “Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.”–Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

The red-headed woodpecker is the only North American woodpecker to store food and cover it with wood or bark. Skillful at flycatching, 1/3 of its diet is animal materials (insects) and 2/3 plant materials (fruit, nuts and seeds). This bird is nicknamed the flying checkerboard. Its cavity nests are often found in snags that have lost most of their bark. Photo by Al Batt.

It was time to feed the mosquitoes



Naturally

  It was time to feed the mosquitoes and take a walk in a state park.

  A forager showed me some morel mushrooms—sponges on sticks. Another talked about collecting fiddleheads from ostrich ferns. This fern has a pronounced U-shaped groove running down the center of its stalk (similar to a celery stalk), paper-like brown scales on emerging fronds, and a smooth stem lacking wooly hairs. Know what you are eating.

  I heard a spirited discussion in a tree and saw the coppertop battery of birds. The male brown-headed cowbird has a glossy black body with a dark brown head.

  I watched ring-billed gulls fly invisible roads in the sky. The European Seagull Screeching Championship takes place at the Verloren Gernoare cafe near the Belgian coastal city of De Panne. I’ve heard ring-billed gulls called McGulls, dumpster gulls, landfill gulls, fast-food gulls and french-fry gulls. I think Gully or Gulliver would be fine nicknames. I associate the cries of these iconic birds with tranquil weather.

  I gazed at a rose-breasted grosbeak eat sunflower seeds, cracking the hulls and spitting them out before swallowing the heart. It did so in an effortless way that would put any baseball player to shame.

Q&A

  “Why are the maple tree helicopters red this year?” Those are maple helicopters, not Mayo helicopters. Those winged seeds of a maple tree are called helicopters, keys, whirlybirds, spinners, whirligigs, spinning jennies, whirlers, twisters, whirlwinds, wing nuts or samaras. Red maple samaras are red, in contrast to those of the sugar maple, which are green in spring when the samaras of both the red and sugar maples disperse. Norway, sugar and Japanese maples drop their seeds in the fall. The weather may have some impact on the color because the weather affects everything.

  “Why did Noah send out a dove?” In the biblical story of Noah's Ark, Noah sent out a dove to determine if the floodwaters had receded. The dove found no place to rest and returned to the ark. Seven days later, Noah sent the dove out again, and it returned with an olive leaf, indicating the waters were receding. After another seven days had passed, Noah sent the dove out a third time, and it did not return. I’ve been to Israel and was told that yonah is the Hebrew name for a dove. A pigeon is a dove. For thousands of years, people have domesticated pigeons as pets and for food, feathers, racing and their ability to carry messages home from any distance or direction, despite adverse conditions. Carrier pigeons delivered messages in ancient Persia starting in about 1000 BC. Phoenician sailors used pigeons to send messages home, and the Greeks used them to announce the results of the Olympic Games. A homing pigeon, which gathers twigs to build its nest, would be the perfect recruit for Noah’s use. It could fly for hours and return reliably. Remember, yonah could be either a dove or pigeon because a pigeon is a dove, but the translation in the Bible was “dove.” It could have been the European turtle dove, but the rock pigeon would be better suited for the job. In Greek mythology, turtle doves pulled the gold chariot of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, which made the species synonymous with devotional love. In the King James Bible, the Song of Solomon includes: “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of the birds is come and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land,” heralding the onset of spring in what is now the modern-day Middle East. Turtle derived from “turtur,” imitating the cooing call of a dove. The New International Version of that text is “Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.” The New Living Translation of the Bible reads, “The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air.”

  “Where are ravens breeding in Minnesota?” While most common in the northeast and north-central regions, they’re expanding south to Isanti, Chisago and Washington Counties and westward to Becker and Otter Tail Counties. I’ll bet the crows know right where the ravens are.

Thanks for stopping by

  "A sober look at our world shows that the degree of human intervention, often in the service of business interests and consumerism, is actually making our earth less rich and beautiful, ever more limited and grey, even as technological advances and consumer goods continue to abound limitlessly. We seem to think that we can substitute an irreplaceable and irretrievable beauty with something which we have created ourselves."—Pope Francis.

  “You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.”—Hal Borland.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

Commonly referred to as the Confederate violet, with its name coming from the color resemblance to the gray-white/navy blue color combinations of the Civil War Confederate States soldiers’ uniforms. This is a naturally occurring bi-colored variation of the common blue violet. This perennial flower always seems happy to see me. The feeling is mutual. Photo by Al Batt. 

No self-respecting cardinal fears a fake owl

Naturally

  I listened to a brown thrasher and its gleeful, repeated musical phrases. I want to sing along, but I don’t know the words. I recited the human words from the mnemonic I’d learned in my youth. "Plant a seed, plant a seed; bury it, bury it; cover it up, cover it up; let it grow, let it grow; pull it up, pull it up; eat it, eat it."

  I love watching the exploits of birds. Starlings insert their bills into the ground, then pry their mandibles open, creating a space to grab prey. I don’t mind seeing those birds. I’ve developed starling callouses.

Q&A

  Mark Monlux from Tacoma asked what the skinny was on feeding hummingbirds. The best solution for your hummingbird feeder is a 1:4 solution of refined white (table) sugar to tap water. That’s ¼ cup of sugar in 1 cup of water. Bring the solution to a boil, then let it cool before filling the feeder. You can make a larger batch and refrigerate the extra solution. Remember to bring it to room temperature before refilling the feeder. During cold, rainy or foggy conditions, when fresh water is plentiful but birds need more energy, it’s OK to make the mixture ⅓ cup of sugar per cup of water. Concentrations of sugars in nature vary within that range. If you mix up small quantities of sugar water every day or two, there’s no need to boil the water. There’s no need to add red food coloring to sugar water or use red-colored commercial mixes. Nectar in flowers is clear. It’s the flowers themselves that are brightly colored, not the nectar. Don’t use brown sugar, honey, molasses, fruit juice, artificial sweeteners or syrup instead of white sugar. If you see any cloudiness or mold in the water, then it needs to be replaced. A rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t feed it to hummingbirds.

  “What scientist proved that bumblebees shouldn’t be able to fly?” None. The popular myth began in 1934, when the French entomologist August Magnan noted that a bee's flight should be impossible. Bees flap their wings back and forth, not up and down. Bees should be able to fly according to the laws of physics because they do fly. Their wings twist and rotate, creating enough lift to make it possible for bees to become and remain airborne.

  “When do chickadees and mourning doves nest?” Black-capped chickadees nest from mid-April through late July and have a single brood. In Minnesota, dove nesting extends from early April until early October, with a peak in early June. Minnesota doves average about three nesting attempts per year.

  Linda Ebeling of Trimont asked why goldfinches aren’t eating the Nyjer seeds and how to stop a cardinal from fighting with a house window. Goldfinches are picky eaters and want fresh seeds. Nyjer has a high oil content and thin shells, and provides protein and energy. When Nyjer (thistle seed) gets wet, it clumps like cat litter and can spoil or become moldy. Shake the seed in the feeder. The seed should move around freely. If it clumps, water has gotten into the feeder. If this happens, the finches lose interest. If Nyjer gets moldy, remove it from the feeder and clean the feeder with a 10% bleach-water solution. Oily seeds can go rancid, emitting a foul odor. Sniff them, and you’ll know if the seed has turned rancid. Nyjer seed can also dry out. Crush the seeds onto a white paper towel and look for oil blotches. If oil stains are present, the seed is fresh. If the seeds look dull and aren’t shiny, replace them with a fresh batch. Nyjer seed isn’t derived from thistles, but from an African yellow daisy. Sources claim Nyjer seeds last up to six months, but it’s a good practice to replace the seeds every three to four weeks.

  After choosing a nest site, a pair claims a territory and defends it from other cardinals. When one male spots another, a chasing fight ensues. The dominant male gets a mate, the desired territory and the area’s food. The window acts as a mirror. A cardinal is territorial and makes an enemy of its image. The reflection refuses to flee. Being persistent and stubborn, the cardinal refuses to enter into peace talks with itself. Soap the outside of the window or cover the glass with cardboard, black nylon screen, painter’s cloth, or plastic cling to block the assailant’s image. Covering the inside of the window enhances reflections. Plastic owls and fake snakes don’t help.

Thanks for stopping by

  “Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”―William Shakespeare, “As You Like It.”

  “To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.”—John Burroughs.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

This male orchard oriole is smaller than a Baltimore oriole. He has a rich chestnut color, and the Baltimore oriole male has a flame orange color. The orchard oriole eats insects, nectar and fruit. Like the Baltimore oriole, it has a sweet beak and will visit orange and jelly feeders. Photo by Al Batt

St. Francis of Assisi was a great birder who used a bird dog. This artwork is found at the Saint Marys Campus at Mayo in Rocheste

The feather report was for a 99% chance of grackles



Naturally

 The feather report was for a 99% chance of grackles. They nailed it. 
 It’s nearly impossible to describe a Baltimore oriole male without using the word “orange.”
 French fry gulls flew toward a fast-food restaurant. 
 I watched a robin picking worms, paring its world to its essence. Northern house wrens brought hustle and bustle to the yard. These joyful enhancements to the local avian diversity might be smaller than their names. I’m amazed by what the world holds.
 I walked at Myre-Big Island State Park with a friend from Grand Junction, Colorado, and looked at spring ephemerals, tiny flowers that emerge in early spring and disappear when the tree canopies fill with leaves. Hope in bloom.
 It’s sprinter—part spring and part winter. Ramps and goslings were commonplace. Canada geese engaged in several debates simultaneously.
 The night before, weather advisements had warned of a tornado. A wind that searches for weaknesses it can push around. The annual number of tornadoes in each state based on the years from 2003 to 2022 showed that the two states with the most tornadoes are Texas with 124, and Kansas with 87. Oklahoma averaged 66, Mississippi 64, Alabama 63, Illinois 57, Iowa 53, Missouri 53, Florida 46 and Minnesota 46.
 I watched trumpeter swans in a black farm field, sticking out like a freshly painted white line on a dark highway. Many bird species have a brood patch—a vascularized patch on their breast where they’d plucked the feathers to provide warm skin to apply to the eggs. Swans don’t have a brood patch. Trumpeters incubate eggs with their webbed feet. 

Q&A

 “What is castoreum?” Beavers secrete a thick, brownish goo that has been described as smelling like musky vanilla. It’s called castoreum. It’s a chemical compound found in the beaver’s castor sacs located under their tails. Romans burned it to light lamps. It was used to add a sweet scent to perfume.
 Vicki Lauruhn asked about the anting behavior of birds. A number of species exhibit this behavior. I see it in blue jays and grackles. A common belief is that anting controls parasites, such as biting lice and feather mites, which live in a bird’s plumage. Another theory is that, during anting, the ants rid themselves of the formic acid, allowing the birds to eat them without harm. The parasite removal makes sense to me because I’ve seen birds performing the same actions with cigarette filters and mothballs.
 “I went on a field trip to see and hear the American woodcocks dance near Byron with you one year. What were the nicknames you said those odd little birds had?” The males of this shorebird species utter a distinctive one-note nasally peent before fluttering high into the air and circling repeatedly, the rushing air passing over their wings producing winnowing whistles. Then they descend back to the ground like a falling leaf, hoping to attract a female. They toss in a comical rocking motion in a funky walk. Their nicknames include timberdoodle, bog snipe, brush snipe, Labrador twister, night partridge, big-eye, bogsucker, swamp bat, hokumpoke, mudsnipe, sky dancer, timber ghost and fiddle squeak. I’ve heard it called a little russet feller and a pop-eyed shot dodger.
 “How much can an eagle carry?” While there is a notable size difference between male and female eagles, most bald and golden eagles weigh between 8-15 pounds and can carry about 1/3 of their weight and still fly.
 “Why do phoebes wag their tails?” California research tested possible reasons: balance, territorial aggression, foraging and predators. It concluded that tail pumping is a signal meant to send a message to the predator that the phoebe has spotted it and isn’t worth pursuing.
 “Do ring-necked ducks nest in Minnesota?” Yes, Minnesota’s Breeding Bird Atlas found them to be the fifth most common nesting duck, behind the mallard, wood duck, blue-winged teal and hooded merganser. The vast majority of nests were in the northern forested counties, stretching from Cook County in the northeast, west to Itasca, Beltrami, Clearwater and Becker Counties. Its chestnut collar, which is difficult to discern gives the duck its name. It’s also called a ringbill because of the white ring at the end of its bill.
 “Do mergansers lay eggs in a wood duck’s nest?” Yes, both hooded mergansers and wood ducks are known to lay eggs in each other's nests. They don’t put all their eggs in one basket. This behavior is typically called brood parasitism. A study revealed that hooded merganser eggs experience higher success when laid in wood duck nests, whereas wood duck eggs experience lower success when laid in hooded merganser nests. Egg dumping is likely to occur when nests are in close proximity to one another.

Thanks for stopping by

 “To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”—Mary Oliver.
 The forest is for rest. 
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

Seeing a cardinal is a glorious thing in itself, but people interpret its presence as a sign of hope, joy, good luck, positivity, or a message of comfort from a late loved one. Others believe it signifies divine intervention or a blessing. Yet others see it as a symbol of strength, vitality, resilience, or new beginnings during challenging times. I’ve heard it said, “Cardinals appear when angels are near.” Photo by Al Batt.

Mayapple photo by Al Batt

Mayapple photo by Al Batt

Jumpseed photo by Al Batt.

Jumpseed photo by Al Batt

False rue anemone photo by Al Batt.

Jack-in-the-pulpit photo by Al Batt.

The name “Jack-in-the-pulpit” comes from its resemblance to a preacher in a pulpit. The hooded spathe is the pulpit and the spadix (a fleshy, spike-like growth) is Jack. Photo by Al Batt.

Wild phlox has five petals, while the bright and fragrant purple, pink, lavender or white flowers of the invasive dame’s rocket have four petals. Photo by Al Batt.

We all have the duty to do good

Naturally

The rain had filled the birdbath. I’m pleased to have a house with a view of the water.

  I was up at the whipcrack of dawn. Birdsong spilled into the morning. It’s spring training for male birds. As the morning grew older, I broke out the binoculars, unfurling the flag of my birding kingdom. The bouncy flights of shiny goldfinches delighted me, and my emotional support dandelions bloomed. To see that much of anything is thrilling.

  I’d joined a gathering of endotherms at an Easter dinner. Endotherms and ectotherms are animals that regulate their body temperatures via different mechanisms. Warm-blooded endotherms generate heat internally to maintain a constant body temperature. Cold-blooded animals, or ectotherms, get heat from their surroundings, so their body temperatures change with the weather.

Q&A

  Kathy Enter asked if the pair of cardinals in her yard might be the same couple as last year. On average, cardinals in the wild might live as long as 3 to 5 years. One lived 15 years, 9 months. If one of a pair is lost, the surviving bird might remain on the territory and find a new mate.

  “Why is a red admiral butterfly called an admiral?” Some believe the name is a corruption of the phrase “red admirable,” with “admirable” meaning commendable or deserving of esteem. Early naturalists gave the butterfly its name because of its striking coloration. Others believe the name came from its red-orange wing markings, which resemble the chevrons of British naval uniforms. 

  Micah asked what bird has the longest lifespan, and the shortest. Laysan albatrosses can live more than 70 years in the wild, kakapo (New Zealand parrots) over 90 years in captivity, a bald eagle lived 38 years, a Canada goose 33 years and a sandhill crane 37 years. Cookie, a male pink cockatoo, reached 83 at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. Small birds generally live the shortest lives. Data from the bird-banding station at Pennsylvania's Powdermill Nature Reserve found that 31% of adult male ruby-throated hummingbirds and 42% of females survive any given year. Nine years is the record longevity for that species. I don’t know which species has the shortest life.

  “How can I tell a golden eagle from a bald eagle?” Their bodies are similar in weight and wingspan, with the females being larger. Golden eagles have feathers on their legs to their feet, whereas bald eagles have yellow skin on their ankles. Bald eagles have large beaks, about one-third the size of their heads, while goldens have smaller beaks. Adult golden eagles have tri-colored beaks, while the white-headed adult bald eagle beaks have a solid yellow color. Immature birds of both species have similar coloration, but a golden eagle has white wrist patches, a white tail with a distinct dark terminal band, and dark armpits. Immature balds have white-mottled plumages and white armpits.

  Kent Spellman of Albert Lea wrote, “What birds am I hearing singing at dusk versus dawn?” When there is music outside my window, I’m not on Bourbon Street. I’m listening to the morning chorus. Not all our avian amigos are morning birds. Crows can be vocal before alarm-clock time, opening their day with conversation. Robins call at first light. I stayed in a hotel with a parking lot so well-lit that a robin serenaded guests most of the night. The dawn chorus is a natural phenomenon that visits the doorstep. Some might grumble about that cheery singing before the caffeine has kicked in, but the dawn chorus delights me. The reasons for the songs are the need for continual reminders of territorial ownership, an endless advertisement for mates, and to proclaim survival. Birds don't swipe right or left—they sing to find a mate. Why sing so early? Sound travels better at dawn than later in the day, and there is less noise to compete with. Who wants to sing in competition with a lawn mower? Early morning is a poor time to feed, as the light makes hunting difficult, and insect prey can become inactive during the morning chill. I listened to a brown thrasher, and I could almost hear Perry Como crooning, “Oh! It’s a good day for singing a song, And it’s a good day for moving along. Yes, it’s a good day, how could anything go wrong? A good day from morning till night!” It was going to be a good day. Dusk brings out more territorial singing than mate enticing. Catbirds, cardinals, robins, brown thrashers, owls and great crested flycatchers add their spirited voices to an evening's soundtrack.

Thanks for stopping by

  “We are called to live lives of gratitude, joy, and caring, profoundly moved by the bare fact that we live in the time of the singing of birds.”― Kathleen Dean Moore.

  “We all have the duty to do good.”—Pope Francis.

  Do good.

©Al Batt 2025

A reader asked, “What was the first bird you ever looked at through binoculars?” They weren’t really binoculars, but I think it was a turkey vulture I saw through my Grandma Cook’s opera glasses. She had used them to watch the Metropolitan Opera on the radio. They gave me class. I’m sure the vulture was impressed. Photo by Al Batt.

I love seeing the big leaves of the pieplant. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about being newly married and making dinner for a threshing crew, where she referred to pieplant, and that she needed to bake a pie from it. She didn’t add any sugar to it, so the rhubarb pie wasn’t a resounding success. Marco Polo brought rhubarb from China to Europe. Benjamin Franklin is credited with introducing rhubarb seed to North America in 1770, but John Bartram had been growing the edible rhubarb in Philadelphia 40 years before that. In the 17th century, the English became the first to eat rhubarb, but ingested the leaves because they resembled chard. The leaves contain an oxalic acid that causes cramps, nausea and worse. By the 18th century, Europeans had discovered that the tart stalks were the part to eat and were perfect for tarts. A neighbor boy, who enjoyed the sauce and crisp, called rhubarb the “good celery.” Al Batt