Naturally Al Batt

The air was flavored with the odor of skunk

Naturally

 A squirrel was giving a rousing stump speech as I stumbled through the treacherous phalanxes of mosquitoes. The air was flavored with the odor of skunk. Depending upon the environment, conditions and the sniffer's nose, one can detect the smell of skunk from 1.5 miles to 20 miles. As Pepe Le Pew said, “If you have not tried it, do not knock it.”
 Crows flapped shadows in the welkin. They made flight announcements. Henry David Thoreau wrote, “What a delicious sound! It is not merely crow calling to crow, for it speaks to me too.” I love seeing crows walking in the yard in their bandy-legged gait.
 He wanted to follow me on my walk to the mailbox. He was a fawn. I called the little buck “Fawnzie.” It was a happy day when I saw him.
 I sat on a deck with friends and watched birds, each a stunning beauty, visit the busy feeders. It’s impossible to be unhappy around friends with bird feeders.
 At home, a talkative eastern screech owl, all beak and eyes, perched on our deck rail at midnight. It wasn’t the first night it’s done that. I see it flying out of a shed, but I never see it flying in. 
 A neighbor brought over an American kestrel—a female with an injured wing. It had likely flown into a window or a wire. I called the good people at The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota and made plans to get the raptor to them. The kestrel was feisty, and I thought it had a good chance of survival, but it died before we’d completed the rescue trip. I’ve hauled many animals to The Raptor Center and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. I should be used to their deaths, but I’m not.
 Juvenile cardinals resemble adult females but have gray-to-black bills. A chickadee feeds on a sunflower seed feeder each morning while I drink a cup of tea. No matter how many chickadees there are in this world, there’s always room for one more.
 It’s the time for tiny toads in our yards and gardens as they hop from water into a terrestrial life. 
 Yellow flowers proliferate: black-eyed Susan, evening primrose, common mullein, sow thistle, goldenrods, sunflowers and birdsfoot trefoil (eggs and bacon). Birdsfoot trefoil was introduced to the US for livestock forage and erosion control. It’s a low-growing, clover-like plant with a sprawling growth that blooms on our roadsides from May through August.

Q&A

 “What are the purple flowers I see in ditches?” Depending upon where and when in Minnesota you see them, here is a list that isn’t exhaustive: bee balm, Canada thistle, common burdock, purple coneflower, dame’s rocket, purple loosestrife, rough blazing star, fireweed, hoary vervain, bittersweet, New England aster, milkweeds, spotted knapweed and vetch. Cow vetch (also known as bird vetch) and hairy vetch are legumes planted for forage and became established in roadsides and disturbed sunny areas. The flowers bloom from May to August, clustered on one-sided spikes.
 “Is that morning glory growing in the fence lines?” The perennial vining plant called bindweed or creeping jenny resembles morning glory. It has arrow-shaped leaves and creeps along the ground or climbs on objects like fences. It has white or pinkish funnel-shaped flowers that are like those of the morning glory.
 “How do I kill a tick?” Flushing a tick down the toilet isn’t always an effective way to kill it. It may drown the tick or it might be a theme park ride for it, and it’s possible for the tick to climb out of the toilet. Drop the tick into a container of alcohol to kill it. Besides rubbing alcohol, it’s said that eucalyptus oil and bleach will do the job.
 “What is the old saying about a cow’s tail indicating the weather?” The weather folklore is a cow with its tail to the west, makes weather the best. A cow with its tail to the east, makes weather the least. I’m not sure cows are crack meteorologists.
 “How can I tell the two Solomon’s seal plants apart?” False Solomon’s seal has flowers at the end of its stem. Solomon’s seal has flowers and berries along the underside of the stem.

Thanks for stopping by

 “March 13: Bought a telescope today for eight dollars. April 23: Saw my white-headed eagle…We who live this plodding life here below never know how many eagles fly over us. They are concealed in the empyrean. I think I have got the worth of my glass now that it has revealed to me the white-headed eagle.”– Thoreau, The Journal, 1854.
 “I have my way of praying, as you no doubt have yours…I can sit on the top of a dune as motionless as an uprise of weeds…I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.”—Mary Oliver.

©️Al Batt 2024

If you lived five years in your parents’ basement after finishing school, you heard them say, “It’s time for you to spread your wings.” It’s a polite way of saying, “Scram!”

  But why does this house wren spread its wings while sunbathing? To dry wing feathers, thermoregulation, realign feathers, force parasites into motion to ease their removal or to spread preen oil across the feathers. Photo by Al Batt