Naturally Al Batt

My cereal wasn’t supposed to have a prize in the box, but there was a free multicolored Asian lady beetle swimming in the milk in my bowl.

Naturally

 My cereal wasn’t supposed to have a prize in the box, but there was a free multicolored Asian lady beetle swimming in the milk in my bowl. 
 It caused me to issue a long, lingering sigh.
 Paul Simon, in “The Sound of Silence,” wrote “Hello, darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.” 
 Instead of the darkness, I talked to the cat, to the lady beetle and to myself in the dark house until the light found Minnesota, and I headed outside.
 The chickadees added extra “dees” to their calls to let me know there was something worth keeping an eye on. They watch for everything because it’s a matter of life and death.
 I’d found a dandelion blooming on a short stalk before the cold and snow came for it. No software is that impressive.
 You don’t need a doctorate in avian nutrition to feed the birds. Francis of Assisi called the animals, both wild and tame, his brothers and sisters. The 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that hunting and fishing contributed $145 billion to the U.S. economy while wildlife watching contributed $250 billion, with 39 million people (15% of the U.S. population 16 years and older) participating in recreational fishing, 14 million people (5.5% of the U.S. population 16 years and older) hunting, and over 148 million people taking part in wildlife watching (roughly 57% of Americans 16 years of age or older). I’m one of a select group of 96 million people who observed, fed, photographed or otherwise enjoyed the company of birds in 2022. That’s over 35% of the nation’s population aged 16 and over.
 The brown creeper could have been mistaken for bark, albeit a piece of moving bark as it climbed a tree trunk. The well-camouflaged songbird climbs a tree from bottom to top like a lineman for the county as it hunts for insects, probing into crevices with its slender, downcurved bill.

Q&A

 “Why is an oak tree keeping its leaves in the winter?” It’s called marcescence and is a juvenile trait. Theories abound as to what benefit a tree derives from persistent leaves. The dead, dry leaves might make the tree unpalatable to deer. The living snow fence of leaves might trap moisture for the tree to use. Marcescence might preserve leaves for mulch in the spring. Or it might be just to give us something to wonder about.
 “Are there any nocturnal hawks or eagles?” The ones we see here are diurnal hunters, with some hunting at dawn and dusk. The letter-winged kite of Australia hunts at night.
 “Are bees able to see the color red?” Bees see reddish wavelengths of yellow and orange, but not red, which means they aren’t naturally attracted to red. The most likely colors to attract bees are purple, violet, blue and yellow. On the other hand, hummingbirds find the color red to be enticing. Baltimore orioles enjoy orange, goldfinches prefer yellow, and bluebirds and blue jays are drawn to the color blue.
 “Did Ben Franklin really want the turkey to be our national bird?” The story about Benjamin Franklin wanting the National Bird to be a turkey is a popular myth. Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter criticizing the original eagle design for the Great Seal, saying that it looked like a turkey. In that letter, Franklin wrote that the “Bald Eagle...is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly…[he] is too lazy to fish for himself.” Franklin noted that compared to a bald eagle, a turkey is “a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America...He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage.” Ben defended the honor of the turkey versus the bald eagle, but he didn’t propose it become one of America’s most important symbols. Neither bird is officially our national bird.
 “When does a cardinal begin to incubate the eggs she has laid?” Actual incubation begins on the day the last egg is laid, with clutches having 1–5 eggs, although the female occasionally sleeps on her nest after the second of three eggs is laid.
 “My grandmother said her grandmother called a bird ‘the hangnest.’ What kind of bird would that be?” It’s a nickname for the Baltimore oriole, which builds her nest suspended from the branch of a tree. There is a hangnest tody-tyrant, a bird  that is endemic to Brazil.

Thanks for stopping by

 “Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.”―George Orwell.
 “All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice.”―Elliott Erwitt on photography.
 Do good.

©️Al Batt 2024

The average weight of a female bald eagle is 10-14 pounds, with males weighing 8-10 pounds, about 25% less than females from the same region. Bald eagles in the southern part of the species’ range tend to be smaller than those in the north. They have a 6-8 wingspan and are around 3 feet long. Bald eagles and golden eagles are similar in size. Photo by Al Batt.