Nature's Q and A

Al Batt, Nature's World

Published Saturday, October 31, 2009

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I’m still turning oxygen into carbon dioxide. I’m glad your wife, The Queen B, fixed me breakfast. I brought my appetite. These are great pancakes. Eating pancakes makes me feel like I’m 10 years old. That’s why I’m wearing my pajamas.”

“You have already eaten a dozen pancakes, at least a dozen eggs, and countless strips of bacon. I’ll have to roll you to your truck,” I say.

“Thanks for the statistics. They remind me that I need something to wash all of this grub down with.”

“How about the Le Sueur River?” I wonder aloud.

“Ah, more mutterings of a dunderhead. Speaking of the Le Sueur River, I once went down in that river 47 times.”

“I thought that a drowning man only went down into the water three times,” I say.

“That’s true, but I was too young to know how to count. That’s the only thing that saved me. Remember when I built that submarine in junior high shop class?”

“I do. How did you decide to build a submarine?” I ask.

“I didn’t. I built a fishing boat, but when I put it on the water, it sank. That’s when I realized I had built a submarine.”

Turkey vultures enjoy having gas

A retired oil company engineer reported that he used turkey vultures to find gas leaks. Natural gas has no odor. A substance is added to the gas so that leaks can be detected. This substance, ethyl mercaptan, is one of the chemicals emitted from carrion and thus attracts turkey vultures. Oil engineers were sometimes able to find pipeline leaks by looking for turkey vultures circling above the gas lines.

Bruce Holland works at a landfill near Bixby. The landfill has a number of vents that allow landfill gases to escape. When a cap was removed from one of those vents, a turkey vulture quickly perched atop the structure.

Q and A

“My uncle called a bird the ‘lawyer.’ What kind of a bird was that?” I have heard cormorants called that for an unknown reason. The black-necked stilt is nicknamed the “lawyer bird.” Grinnell’s Game Birds of California said this about the stilt in 1918: “This bird is sometimes known as the ‘lawyer bird’ because of its long bill and its oft-repeated vociferations!”

“How can I tell a male blue jay from a female?” Blue Jays are sexually monomorphic. Monomorphic means that their sex cannot be determined by markings or feather color. The males and females look alike to us. Even when held in the hand, it is impossible to tell the sex of a blue jay — except during the breeding season when the female, like most songbirds, develops a naked expanse of belly skin called a “brood patch.” This area, filled with blood vessels and lacking feathers, provides a source of heat for the eggs and nestlings. Jays are interesting birds, as are all birds. A blue jay might migrate one year and not the next. It is unclear what factors determine a jay’s migration.

“Do fox and gray squirrels crossbreed?” No. The color variations might give the appearance of crossbreeding, but fox squirrels and gray squirrels are two different species.

“Where did all these multicolored Asian lady beetles come from?” A native of eastern Asia, they were released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in California in 1916 and in 1964-65 for biological control of pecan aphids. They were released for biological control programs from 1978 to 1982 in Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington. These releases didn’t appear to result in established populations. Multicolored Asian lady beetles were found in Louisiana in 1988 and spread throughout the southern and eastern United States. No one can be sure whether their presence was due to deliberate or accidental introduction. The multicolored Asian lady beetles, never deliberately released in Minnesota, were discovered in the state in November 1994 and the first major infestations around buildings occurred in 1998. Also called Halloween lady beetles and Japanese lady beetles, they cluster around buildings in large numbers in the fall as they search for protected sites to overwinter. The multicolored Asian lady beetle looks similar to other lady beetles but is generally larger. It has a variable appearance, ranging from orange to yellow to red to black (rarely). It typically has 19 black spots that vary in appearance from well defined to faint on the wing covers. There could be fewer spots or none at all. The most reliable identifying characteristic of the multicolored Asian lady beetle is the prominent black M-shaped marking behind its head. This M can look thick, thin, or broken. Some people see the M as outlining false eyes — two white football-shaped spots behind the head.

Wind farms and bats

Alberta researchers have found a way to reduce bat deaths at wind farms. Slowing the speed of the turbines at night during peak bat migratory periods reduced fatalities by 60 percent, according to a study by the University of Calgary and power company TransAlta published in the Journal of Wildlife Management. The low-pressure area created around a spinning blade causes damage to bat lungs and they die as a consequence. The condition, known as barotrauma, affects bats more than birds because bat lungs are balloon-like and can over expand, bursting surrounding capillaries. The slower speed reduced the intensity of the low-pressure, causing fewer lung collapses. TransAlta is making the change permanent. Preserving bat populations is crucial because of the number of harmful insects they consume.

Nature lessons

Eastern wood peewee populations have declined. Browsing by deer has created a lack of vegetation that has lead to a drop in insect numbers for peewees that hunt at the same level where deer feed.  

In May of 1952, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence counted the number of songs of a male red-eyed vireo in a day. The total was 22,197 songs. Such extended monologues have earned this vireo the nickname, “The Preacher Bird.”

Gordon Herbst has written a book titled the “150 Year History of Minneopa State Park.” It is a delightful account of that wonderful park and the surrounding area. The book is available at Minneopa or by writing Gordon at 20499 555th Lane, Mankato, MN 56001.  

Thanks for stopping by

“Generosity is giving more than you can and pride is taking less than you need.” — Kahlil Gibran

“Wrinkles only go where the smiles have been.” — Jimmy Buffet

DO GOOD.

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

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