Nature’s World by Al Batt

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I was hungry enough to swallow my tongue, so I ordered a pizza to go. It left without me. When it comes to pizza and doughnuts, I’m trying to eat outside the box. My old house, it’s a rescue, has so many cracks, I keep my wind chimes indoors. It was either that or use up all my duct tape covering the cracks. My New Year’s resolutions have followed the normal path. I began by resolving to get my weight down below 200 pounds to I will follow my new diet religiously until I get below 230 pounds to developing a realistic attitude about my weight. I meant to work out three days a week, now I’m trying to drive past a gym at least once a week. You can’t always get what you want. It’s like when I went off to college.”

“For nearly two months,” I interject.

“It’s not the quantity of time that matters. It’s the quality. Bob Westland, my guidance counselor, told me to determine what I loved in high school and study that in college. That’s why I put on my buffet pants and majored in meals.”

 

Naturally

I heard the faint sounds of birds coming from the depths of an arborvitae, a favorite hideout of house sparrows.

I watched a squirrel run across a busy street. In an attempt to help the squirrel avoid a collision, I moved like a bowler using body language to influence the last standing pin to fall. The squirrel made it. Not many people gave me odd looks. It’s winter in Minnesota. We’re used to people behaving strangely.

I find an appreciation in the familiar. I stare at things. Not in a creepy way, but with an appreciative eye. One of my favorite poems was written by William Henry Davies. “What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty’s glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance. No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this is if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare.”

I stood and stared as the squirrel, safe for a moment, climbed a few feet up the trunk of a tree. There it paused, either unaware of its near demise or thankful for still being alive. My thoughts were occupied with thankfulness.

 

Q&A

“When I was a child, the adults in my family talked about a mouse owl. What was it?” That is a nickname of the eastern screech owl.

“Why don’t birds cast shadows?” They do. Shadows are more likely to be seen of large birds flying low. A bird flying high in the sky doesn’t cast a shadow because the source of light (sun) is too large compared to the object (bird) and the umbra of the shadow formed on the ground is negligible. So it’s difficult to see its shadow on the ground.

“There were flies in the upstairs window of my house on a sunny, warm, winter day. What are they and what are they doing there?” Cluster flies migrate to sheltered sites in the fall. Our homes can be those sites. Sometimes called “winter flies,” they overwinter as adults, which resemble houseflies. Warm, sunny days can lead to cluster fly activity in the windows. They don’t reproduce indoors as they lay their eggs in earthworms and the maggots need to feed on those hosts.

“Where are flying squirrels found in Minnesota?” Living in tree hollows or leafy nests, flying squirrels are the only nocturnal squirrels in Minnesota. Southern flying squirrels are found mainly in southern Minnesota hardwood forests, while the northern subspecies occurs in northern Minnesota forests. Though seldom seen, a flying squirrel is an interesting animal with a loose fold of skin (patagium) stretched between its four legs that enables the squirrel to glide considerable distances.

“How many acorns does a squirrel need to store and eat in a winter?” A gray squirrel, that weighs 1 to 1 1/2 pounds, eats about 40 pounds of acorns each winter. This squirrel grows a longer coat during the winter and sometimes grows white ear tufts. It’s believed that these ear patches resemble small bits of snow, while the remaining gray coloration matches tree bark. When motionless, the squirrel is difficult for predators to detect. Squirrels living in places without accumulated snow don’t grow the white ear tufts.

 

Nature lessons

February is the snowiest month in the U.S. on average.

Ecuador was the first country to declare constitutional rights to nature, thus codifying a new system of environmental protection. The constitution declares that nature has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.

I keep records of what I see, marking down the appearance of birds, blooming flowers, etc. I do phenology, often grudgingly. Why do I do it? Aldo Leopold said, “Keeping records enhances the pleasure of the search and the chance of finding order and meaning in these events.”

The short-eared owl is an odd bird in that it seems to benefit from strip-mining. It nests in the open areas left behind after the mining is completed.

Pure white snowy owls tend to be adult males. Females and immatures are darker. Females are larger.

 

Thanks for stopping by

“No man is a failure who is enjoying life.” — William Faulkner

“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same fields, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Do good.

 

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