Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I’m trying to get more exercise. I walked to town one day. I live five miles from town as the crow flies — that is, if it’s a young crow. I went off my diet. I went from Slim-Fast to Slim Jim. I love candy bars so much that I eat the wrappers. I stopped dieting because I’m a reader. I read something that said that I shouldn’t get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. It said that I should live the width of it as well. That’s hard to do properly while on a diet. I hate to complain, but I’m human. I know that someone else writes the music and I just play in the band, but it’s still important that I express my opinions and concerns. I have a complaint about our local politician.”

“Now what?” I say.

“The last time I saw him, he gave me a pen. It had a message on it saying that if I ever had a problem, I should write him.”

“That was nice of him,” I say. “What’s your beef?”

“The pen was out of ink.”

 

Nature by the yard

I looked at the tree and tried to eliminate everything that wasn’t a bird.

The sight of birds was the harvest I wanted to gather, but I was presented with a fine crop of mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes put many people closer to nature than they wanted to be. I accept them as a part of my life. They bite me, but it’s nothing personal.

Walker Evans wrote, “Stare. It is the way to educate your eye and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.”

I stare. I want to know things.

I watch birds involved in nesting. These could be the same birds that nested here last year. Many bird species demonstrate a nest-site fidelity. That is the tendency to return to a previously occupied location. I understand that. I live a mile from my boyhood home. I went away, but I came back.

 

When penguins fly

I enjoyed listening to the talented band Sorghum Hill from Memphis, Tenn., as they played in Carrington, N.D. One of the singers saw a flock of American white pelicans fly over.

“Look at the penguins,” she exclaimed.

I waited for something amazing to happen as it would when pigs or penguins fly.

 

Customer comments

Jack Brush of New Ulm said that when he gets out his worm bucket and walks outside to dig worms for fishing, robins follow him around.

Julie Zickefoose of Whipple, Ohio, thinks that the best tool a naturalist can have is an iPhone or another cellphone with a good camera.

 

Q&A

“I just bought some new binoculars. Are there any adjustments I should make to them before I use them?” Even the best of binoculars will give you a poor view of the world if you fail to set the diopter ring correctly. This adjustment, typically found on the right eyepiece or the center-focus knob, fine-tunes the binocular settings to match your vision. Set the diopter ring to the center of its adjustment scale. It’s marked with a zero, a hash mark or another symbol. Cover the right objective, the large one closest to the object, lens. Pick an object about 50 yards away. Keeping both eyes open, move the focus wheel until the image is at its sharpest. Focus only with the left eye, keeping both eyes open and relaxed. Do not squint. Move your cover to the left objective lens. Look at the same object and turn the diopter ring to bring the object into sharp focus. Make sure the focus knob doesn’t change. Keep both eyes open without squinting. Then look through both lens uncovered. The image should remain sharp. Make a note of the diopter-ring setting or place a small dot of fingernail polish or other marking at the correct adjustment. If your visual acuity changes, you may need to reset the diopter. Eyecups should also be set properly. For non-eyeglass wearers, eyecups should be set to the fully extended position. For eyeglass wearers, eyecups should be moved to the fully retracted position. This makes it possible to obtain the entire field of view without vignetting.

“Do great horned owls mate for life?” Great horned owls do take life-long mates. They don’t build a nest together, depending upon the nests of other birds such as hawks, herons, eagles, and crows for places to raise owlets. The young owls scream for attention both in and out of the nests. The junior owls apparently have never heard the old ditty that goes like this, “A wise old owl lived in an oak. The more he saw, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird?”

“How did the ferruginous hawk get its name?” The name refers to the rusty color of the wings and leg feathers. Their nests often contained bison bones.

 

Nature lessons

Mackerel sky, no more than 24 hours dry.

Cats aren’t native to the U.S. Traders, explorers and colonists brought domestic cats with them to this continent during the 1600s and 1700s.

If you want to find caterpillars, look for caterpillar poop.

The more colorful a male house finch is, the more likely he is to get a date for prom.

 

Thanks for stopping by

“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee. One clover and a bee. And revery. The revery alone will do, if bees are few.” — Emily Dickinson

“Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don’t have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty, and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace.” — E.B. White

 

Do good.

 

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