Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic, except that I didn’t sleep well. I have short eyelids and I’m a worrier. I worry about things like why don’t they do away with the .9 on gas prices? I talk to myself when I need expert advice, which is why I order desserts according to portion size. I should cut back on the sweets. I’d be at my ideal weight if I were at my ideal height. My sister Cruella could start an argument in an empty building. When life hands her lemons, she squirts them into someone’s eyes. I was supposed to water Cruella’s plants while she is wintering in the south. I thought she told me to slaughter her plants. That’s going to be difficult to explain. I ate at a fancy restaurant the other day. I do it once a year. Shouldn’t a rare steak be cheaper than a steak that’s well done? It requires less cooking. Eating in a classy joint troubles me.”

“Too expensive?” I wonder.

“Nope.”

“Food not to your liking?” I say.

“Nah, the food was great.”

“Then what was the problem?” I ask.

“I never know which fork to use to pick my teeth.”

 

Nature by the yard

It was a lovely January day. It was good to take a leisurely walk after having been fenced in by the cold, wind and snow.

There was no smell of skunk. That scent is a sign of a coming spring.

I stopped to look and listen so often that I moved with the speed of a building. I learned as a child to pick up my feet, but they didn’t want to go. There was too much to experience.

A dark form flew overhead.

When I want to see a bird, crows come in handy. The crow flew from a tree with a flurry of caws. Watching birds fly lifts me during troubled times. Birds are beautiful. George Orwell wrote, “The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.”

That is true, but a bird in flight appears to be perfect and I delight in its appearance.

Birding isn’t only about birds. It’s about place, too. Birding is about gathering memories. It’s a connection to something bigger. It’s a wonderment. It’s becoming lost in the excitement. It’s freeing the mind to travel where it wants to go. This provides a place to reclaim happy times.

I stood without movement, savoring the moment.

A squirrel, clinging to the trunk of a tree, looked about suspiciously.

I looked suspicious.

 

Q&A

“Where do frogs spend the winter?” During our winters, frogs and toads become dormant, hibernating either underwater or under leaf litter on the ground. The northern leopard frog spends the winter swimming slowly under the ice of lakes, ponds and streams. Wood frogs, chorus frogs, gray tree frogs and spring peepers lie frozen under leaf litter on the floor of woodlands.

“You once had a suet recipe in your column. I used it and it worked great, but I lost the recipe. Help.” I have printed many. This one is quite popular and I hope it’s the one. Melt 1 cup of lard and 1 cup of crunchy peanut butter in a microwave oven or over low heat on a stove. Stir and add: 2 cups of quick cook oats, 2 cups yellow cornmeal, 1 cup of flour and 1/3 cup of sugar. Pour into containers and freeze as ammunition for your suet feeders or logs.

“When is the breeding season for coyotes?” Mid-January is generally the onset of not only coyote, but also red fox breeding cycles. Cold, crisp winter nights afford opportunities to listen for the high-pitched yipping of coyotes or the raspy barks of red fox. The coyote has a 63-day gestation period and the red fox around a 53-day one. Litters of both species are born in March or April.

“How many eggs do bald eagles lay?” Bald eagles typically lay one to three eggs, which they incubate for about 35 days before hatching. The male and female take turns sitting on the eggs.

“Do our woodpeckers migrate?” Most remain in the same approximate areas where they were born. The red-headed woodpecker, northern flicker and yellow-bellied sapsucker do migrate.

 

Nature lessons

Red foxes grow a long winter coat that keeps them warm. An adult fox rarely retreats to a den during the winter, curling into a ball in the open and using its bushy tail to wrap around its nose and feet instead.

A raindrop that falls into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota will reach the Gulf of Mexico 90 days later.

Fox and gray squirrels prepare for winter by bulking up and caching food. The squirrels forage less often in frigid temperatures. Red squirrels cache cones, fungi and nuts in middens, storehouses for their food.

Snow buntings breed across the high Arctic. The only other land bird to nest that far north is the common raven.

Voles build nests and tunnels under the insulating blanket of snow where they are safe from predators and feed on cached seeds and nuts or eat bark and roots.

More than 10 percent of a chickadee’s winter body weight may be fat. As a result, they spend the vast majority of their daylight hours seeking fatty food sources.

 

Christmas Bird Count

Albert Lea Audubon Society needs a Christmas Bird Count compiler by the end of this year. It’s fun and rewarding, but offers terrible pay. For more information, email me at snoeowl@aol.com.

 

Thanks for stopping by

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH,’ the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.” — Terry Pratchett

“Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” — Wu Li

 

Do good.

 

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