Naturally Al Batt

Old Sven Peterson, Peterson, Peterson

Naturally

 Many robins fed on the berries of the hawthorn tree. I called it a flock, but I’ve heard other collective nouns such as dawn, melody, carol and spring.
 I welcomed Harris’s sparrows, a heartening eyeful with their handsome black bibs and pink bills, even though their presence meant time was speeding by. John J. Audubon named the bird after his friend Edward Harris, who collected a specimen in 1843.
Audubon didn’t know Thomas Nuttall had collected the bird in 1834 and had named it the mourning finch. The Harris's sparrow is the only North American songbird that breeds in Canada and nowhere else in the world. 
 Four young opossums (joeys) fed under the bird feeders. They were cute, and they had 50 teeth each, more than any other American mammal. Opossums are omnivores and eat just about anything, even mustard and sugar sandwiches. I don’t know for sure that they’ll eat those sandwiches, but I bet they would. The Virginia opossum is the only marsupial native to North America. The famous act of playing possum is an involuntary response to potential predators. An adult opossum weighs 4-14 pounds, and the opossums are found from Costa Rica to Ontario and British Columbia.
 White-throated sparrows whistled, “Old Sven Peterson, Peterson, Peterson” less eloquently than they had earlier in the year. In its scientific name, Zonotrichia albicollis, albicollis comes from the Latin, meaning “white neck.” White-crowned sparrows joined them in feeding on the ground with some other sparrows like juncos. White-throated and white-crowned sparrows can be told apart by the absence of a white throat on the latter. The white-crowned looks as if it’s wearing a football helmet.
 My socks appeared to need a shave. Bidens fondosa, a member of the aster family, a plant commonly called devil's beggarticks or devil's pitchforks, has orange-yellow flowers. It also has flat, brown, 1/4- to 1/3-inch-long seeds with two barbed awns at the tips that latch onto clothing or fur. They find my socks the perfect taxi.

Q&A

 “Why do birds migrate north to nest?” The northern spring offers an abundance of protein-rich insects and budding plants to feed chicks, and more nesting sites are available. The long summer days provide more time for birds to feed their young and to spend time with Minnesotans.
 “Why do hummingbirds hum and other birds don’t?” That’s because the other birds can remember the words to their songs. Most birds flap their wings up and down, and the downstroke creates a pressure wave, producing a whooshing sound. Hummingbirds don’t flap up and down. Instead, they flap their wings back and forth in a figure-8 pattern. This pushes against the air during both parts of the stroke, each of which produces a humming sound.
 Jennifer, Lilly and Duncan asked if it’s OK to put out pet fur for birds to use in building their nests. Birds frequently gather animal fur to use in their nests. It makes a soft, warm cushion for eggs and baby birds. Pet fur is often chemically treated with flea dips and other flea and tick treatments, as well as shampoos, conditioners and powders. Just as those toxins are lethal to unwanted pests, they’re also highly toxic and poisonous for birds. If your pet doesn’t undergo chemical treatments, its fur could be good for nesting birds, especially as the pets shed their thicker winter coats just in time for birds to use in their nests.
 Karl of Morristown asked if skunk spray has phosphorescence. I’ve been sprayed a few times. A skunk’s only crime is that it’s good at what it does. Cartoons depict a green puff coming out of an animal’s bottom, but skunk spray is actually a yellowish, oily liquid that comes from glands near the tail. When sprayed, it can appear as a fine mist or stream, depending on the skunk's aim and the distance to the target. The spray contains sulfur-based compounds called thiols, which cause a potent and long-lasting odor. I didn’t notice any phosphorescence, probably because my eyes watered. Skunk spray has a powerful odor often compared to burnt rubber, rotten eggs, garlic or onions because of its sulfur compounds. Tomato juice isn’t helpful in eliminating the odor. It changes the smell to rotten eggs floating in tomato juice.
 “What is a rain crow?” In the Midwest, it’s the yellow-billed cuckoo whose croaking cough of a call on hot days that often presages rain or thunderstorms. 

Thanks for stopping by

 “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”—Ernest Hemingway.
 “The mouse is a sober citizen who knows that the grass grows in order that mice may store it as underground haystacks, and that snow falls in order that mice may build subways from stack to stack.”―Aldo Leopold.
 Do good.

©Al Batt 2024

The white-crowned sparrow sings with a whistle and a buzz, “Who me—busy, busy, me?” or “See me, pretty, pretty me.” The black-and-white racing stripes on its head make this bird stand out from the flock. I hope to see one as often as possible. Emily Dickinson wrote, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers—That perches in the soul.” A thing with feathers and a crown with bold black and white stripes. Photo by Al Batt.