Column: Nature’s World

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. My car’s steering wheel fell off. On the way to town, I had to lean in order to turn.”

“You shouldn’t do that! That’s against the law!” I declare.

“Nothing is illegal unless you get caught. I went to town to get a haircut from Conan the Barber. I have all the hair in my pocket. I save my clippings. My sister Cruella talked me into taking a mineral bath. I had no idea minerals got dirty. I’m taking Marlene Perkins, you remember when we were kids; Marlene was the fastest gopher trapper of the bunch. She’d always catch a finger before any of the rest of us had a trap set. I’m taking Marlene Perkins to Marshall Law’s Army Surplus Store. She bought a moose call there but she couldn’t find a moose that could play it. I’m trying to lose enough weight so that you will have to look at me twice to see me once. I‘m still on that crazy diet.”

“How’s that working for you?” I ask.

“I eat three meals in the morning and nothing the rest of the day. It’s called a 21-day diet plan. No one on it has lived longer than that.”

The end of a coot

I was looking at waterfowl floating on a lake. A bald eagle flew over the water. The eagle’s appearance caused a bit of panic among the birds on the water. I watched as the eagle flew near a raft of coots. Coots are often called mudhens and bald eagles love to eat coots. The eagle zeroed in on one particular coot. As the raptor closed in on its prey, I yelled involuntarily, “Duck!”

The eagle captured the coot.

I should have yelled, “Coot!”

Those thrilling days of yesteryear

Every chickadee I saw in the spring amazed me because I realized that each of them had survived winter.

The robins sang, “Cheer up, cheerily, cheerily.” I’d toss a lopsided baseball filled with sawdust into the air. I’d pretend to toss my catcher’s mask to the side and the ball nestled into my Rollie Hemsley model ancient catcher’s mitt with a satisfying plunk.

I watched a brown creeper looking like moving bark on a tree as we began to commit baseball. Kids ran onto the make-do field. The infield positions filled quickly with older boys. Everyone else moved to the outfield. Most of the outfielders were disappointed or angry to be where they were. Few batters could hit the ball to the outfield, so it could be a boring location.

I stood in center field. I pounded my catcher’s mitt while listening to the call of a vesper sparrow. It sang, “Here, here, there, there, everybody down the hill.”

It was a good day. I noticed a number of birds and I almost caught a ball. I hoped Rollie Hemsley was proud.

Q and A

“When do wild turkeys nest?” April and May. They incubate the eggs for 28 days and sometimes renest after a failure.

“Any suggestions for taking photos of birds from the window of my house?” Use bird feeders or a birdbath to attract the birds. Sunlight coming from behind you and on the bird is good. Shooting through a dirty window or a screen isn’t good.

“What can I do to make the suction cups on my window feeder stick to the glass?” Placing the suction cups in boiling water for two or three minutes could restore elasticity. Wash the window. Grit on a suction cup or window interferes with the seal. Suction cups adhere best to warm windows, so wait until the sun hits the window or use a hair drier to warm the glass before attaching the feeder. Don’t use water on the suction cups in an effort to affix the feeder to the window. Rub a little vegetable oil on the suction cups. Push the suction cups firmly against the window and force out any air bubbles in the cups.

“What is the recipe for hummingbird nectar?” One cup granulated sugar to four cups water.

“I saw a robin with a light colored breast and white spots on its back. What happened to it?” It is leucistic. Leucism is an abnormal plumage condition caused by a genetic mutation that prevents pigment, particularly melanin, from being properly deposited in a

bird’s feathers. This results in a bird without the normal plumage shown in field guides.

Leucism could result in white patches where the bird typically wouldn’t have any, paler overall plumage or a largely white plumage with little or no color. The degree of leucism varies with the bird’s genetics. Birds that show white patches are sometimes called “piebald.”

Nature lessons

A Laysan albatross on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is the oldest known wild bird in the U.S. The female, called Wisdom, was banded in 1956. She was assumed to be at least five years old in 1956, which makes her over 60 years old today.

Researchers from York University in Toronto tracked purple martins from their breeding grounds in Pennsylvania to their wintering grounds in Brazil. One purple martin took 43 days to reach Brazil in the fall, but returned to its breeding colony in the spring in just 13 days.

The ancient Greeks believed there were four gods of wind — one for each cardinal direction. Boreas (north wind), Notus (south wind), Zephyrus (west wind), and Eurus (east) were known collectively as the Anemoi.

According to a survey of drivers in Anchorage, Alaska, 10 percent of them had hit a moose with a vehicle and more than 50 percent had braked or swerved to keep from hitting a moose.

A ruddy duck is nicknamed the “stiff tail.”

Thanks for stopping by

“When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.” — Patrick Overton

“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.” — Hal Borland

DO GOOD.

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