Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I’ll let you in on my secret to a good life. If I don’t drink enough coffee before leaving in the morning, I drive on the highway rumble strips to wake up. Remember when we were kids and baby chicks came into the post office in peeping cardboard boxes. We’d put them in the brooder house and count them. You’d try counting, but the chicks moved around too much. You’d say, ‘I give up. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch! It’s easier to do that than to count them after they hatch.’ We used to have those school assemblies where we’d go to the gym and watch a magician, a guy doing bird calls or an old guy who never missed a free throw. One day, a hypnotist called a bunch of students up on stage and he was supposed to hypnotize us. He hypnotized all the others, but he couldn’t hypnotize me. My mind was too strong.”

“What made you think of that?” I ask.

“Oh, I think of it every week when I go over to his place to mow his lawn, rake leaves, wash his car or shovel his walk for free.”   

The Kardashian of Canadian birds

I watched bald eagles feeding in November upon spawned-out chum salmon in an area outside Haines, Alaska where a reservoir of warm water kept the Chilkat River from freezing. Each bald eagle eats around a pound of salmon each day. There were over 2,000 eagles counted. That’s a lot of salmon lunches.

Canadian Geographic recommended the gray jay (also known as the Canada jay, whiskey jack or camp robber) as the National Bird of Canada. The jay was unavailable for comment. We’re fortunate to have this cool bird, tough with a muted plumage, reside in northern Minnesota. If we put aside our differences and work together, we could come up with an official, local township bird. Maybe the black-capped chickadee.

Q&A

“What is the smell after a rain called?” The pleasant scent of rain falling on dry, warm ground is called petrichor.

“Do mourning doves migrate?” Mourning doves are here all year, but the doves of winter might not be the same doves of summer. They have a differential migration, a complicated move related to a bird’s age and sex. They move south September to November. The young leave first, then the females and finally the males. Some birds, mostly males, don’t migrate. The doves in my yard in the winter are predominantly males. They risk frostbitten toes to get a jump on establishing prime breeding territory in early spring. Males are slightly larger, their breasts are rosier and their heads are brighter and more iridescent.

“Are there insects in the ocean?” About 80 percent of animal life is made up of insects, with around 5 percent living in lakes and rivers. They flourish in almost all types of habitat from the Antarctic to the Arctic. There are few marine insects. Why? There are nearly no flowering plants in the sea and the absence of flowers makes life in the sea close to impossible for insects. There are no trees in the sea. A tree contains a multitude of habitats for insects. Arachnids live in the ocean, with  400 different sea spiders and many mites living happily in the sea. There are the parasites of marine birds and mammals — biting and sucking lice. There is a larval midge that lives in Pacific tide pools. There are a few insects. Five species of water strider skate on the surface of the ocean and lay eggs on floating debris. A marine caddisfly is found only in tidal pools in New Zealand and Australia.

  “Do hairy woodpeckers and downy woodpeckers like the same habitat?” Hairy woodpeckers are more of a forest bird and are shyer than downies. Being a bigger bird, the hairy needs bigger trees than downies. The downy is more likely to be seen in city parks and at backyard bird feeders.

Valdez, Alaska

Valdez, with 326.3 inches of snow per year, is the snowiest incorporated city in the United States. Valdez is caught between two weather phenomena — cold air coming in from Alaska’s snowfields and glaciers, and moist air coming from the Gulf of Alaska. Not far east of Valdez is a gap in the Chugach Mountain Range known as Thompson Pass that gets 551.5 inches of snow per year. The winter of 1952-53, it received 974.1 inches of snow. On a single day, (Dec. 29, 1955) 62 inches of snow fell.

National Eagle Center in Wabasha

Bald eagle viewing field trips will take place on Dec. 10 and April 1. Golden eagle field trips are on Jan. 28, Feb. 4 and Feb. 18. It’s $30 for National Eagle Center members and $40 for non-members. Registration includes coach transportation and daily admission to the National Eagle Center. Trips begin with orientation at 1 p.m. There is little walking required and a 5 p.m. return. Cameras, binoculars and spotting scopes are recommended. For additional details and online registration, visit nationaleaglecenter.org/eagle-viewing. 

Thanks for stopping by

“To this day I make it a practice to avoid hating anyone. If someone’s been guilty of despicable actions, especially towards me, I try to forget him. I used to follow a practice — somewhat contrived, I admit — to write the man’s name on a piece of paper, drop it into the lowest drawer of my desk, and say to myself: ‘That finishes the incident, and so far as I’m concerned, that fellow.’” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

  “May you live all the days of your life.” — Jonathan Swift

Do good.

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