Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. Something chewed the legs off my coffee table, off the side table in the hall and off the living room table. I found the legs piled high in my bathtub. I’m sorry I ever had that beaver system installed in my basement. It reminds me of my neighbor Weasel. He wanted to save money, so he put the vinyl siding on his house. Too bad he didn’t remember that his house had a door. He put siding right over it. He does have a time. Poor Weasel, he isn’t allowed in the supermarket since he sprayed that hair-in-the-can stuff on the watermelons. Remember when he was on the county board meeting and rode his horse into the meeting? He said it was the first time an entire horse had been to one of those meetings. Goofy things happen to Weasel all the time, but nothing as goofy as what happened to me the other day.”

“What happened?” I say.

“I was test driving a new car. I was headed into the sun. Bright sunlight makes me sneeze. I sneezed so hard that my air bag deployed. I’m glad the salesman was riding with me.”

 

A shadow and a swagger

I watched a squirrel run over the wind-hardened snow filling the road ditch as it fled from my place for the friendly confines of a neighbor’s. It was a dangerous scamper. It was running the gauntlet of possible red-tailed hawks. Raptors enjoy fast food.

I saw a groundhog later in the month that contains Groundhog’s Day. To the big rodent, it was Groundhog’s Month. It ventured forth cautiously and then scampered back quickly to the safety of its burrow. Maybe it had seen its shadow. According to folklore, if it’s cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on Groundhog’s Day and it doesn’t see its shadow, spring will come early. If it’s sunny and the groundhog sees its shadow and retreats back into its burrow, winter weather will persist for six more weeks. Maybe it is frightened of its shadow? A crow walked the same ground. The groundhog could never match the crow’s swagger. The crow probably saw its shadow and liked it.

 

There are no normal birds

Mary Ann Kramer of Granite Falls visited Egypt. Among the sights she saw there were many beautiful birds. She asked her tour guide what kind of birds they were.

The guide replied, “They are normal birds.”

 

Why the laughing gull laughs

The woman told me that she was enjoying a funnel cake during her visit to Disney World, when a gull flew by and stole the funnel cake right out of her hand. The bird was unable to laugh then because its mouth was full, but I’m sure it enjoyed a hearty chortle with its buddies later. That is why they are called laughing gulls. They are part of Florida’s diet program. Laughing gulls are clever scavengers who will eat almost anything, but are keen to steal food.

 

Q&A

“How can I tell a male starling from a female?” The bills of both sexes changes to yellow in the spring and black in the fall. In breeding plumage, the yellow-billed birds, the base of the lower mandible is bluish or blue-gray in males, and pinkish in females. The mission of USDA Wildlife Services is to provide Federal leadership and expertise to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist. It conducts program delivery, research, and other activities. One of the other activities is that Wildlife Services sometimes eliminates problem animals. An example would be the invasive feral swine that cause more than $1.5 billion annually in damage and management costs nationwide. This division of the  Agriculture Department kills more starlings than any other animal. The European starling was introduced to North America in the 19th century. It’s considered a “problem” bird because it competes fiercely for nesting cavities, ousting native birds such as bluebirds and woodpeckers. It’s aggressive at bird feeders, discouraging smaller birds and hogging the food. Large foraging flocks of starlings are agricultural pests. Huge winter roosts present hygiene challenges in areas inhabited by humans.

 

BBRP

JeNean Mortenson of Faribault wrote, “The BBRP (Bluebird Recovery Program) Expo is April 11 at the Northfield Middle School. The featured speakers will be Loren Murphy on achieving a bluebird experience, Katie Lyn on monarch butterflies, Becky Masterman on helping people help bees, Mike Jeresek on bluebirds, Kevin Smith on art and enjoyment of bird watching for all ages, Leif Knecht on planting for wildlife, and I don’t know if you ever heard of this guy by the name of Al Batt with his stories. Anyone interested can email me at jeanieandcarl@hotmail.com to obtain a form, and it’s on the website bbrp.org. We are having a catered Italian buffet lunch, lots of bird related items for sale and bluebird nest boxes.”

 

Nature lessons 

Above elevations of 21,300 feet, most climbers start using supplemental oxygen. On Nov. 29, 1973, a Rüppell’s griffon, a type of Old World vulture, collided with an airplane at an altitude of 37,000 feet.

I watched a young bald eagle attempt to land upon a dead branch of a tree along the Cajun Coast of Louisiana. The branch broke and fell into the water with a resounding splash. The bird flew away, none the worse for wear thanks to the ability to fly. I watched a mature bald eagle, white head and tail, fly into the nest. I called the eagle a she. I tend to do that with any lone eagle alighting upon a nest.

 

Thanks for stopping by

“Our job is to love others, not wonder whether or not they deserve it.” — Thomas Merton

“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.” — Thomas Merton

 

Do good.

 

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