Naturally

Naturally

By Allen Batt

Naturally

A long line of birds perched on a utility wire. One of them sat uncomfortably in the middle seat. Cicadas complained in a high-pitched whine. Gulls frequented the landfill. They love junk food. I saw a bird in a lumberyard. No surprise. It would have been a surprise if the bird had been flying away with a board. That bird would be the best nest builder in town.

The northern house wren is a singer. Notice the change in the tiny bird’s name. When you next hear the cheerful twittering of birds, stop and listen. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf have shown that birdsong reduces anxiety and irrational thoughts. The scientists published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.

Folklore says a narrow orange band on a woolly bear caterpillar means a hard winter, and a wide orange band means a mild winter. The truth is that the wider the orange band, the older the woolly bear (woolly worm or hedgehog caterpillar).

I visited Marysville, Kansas, which established itself as the “Black Squirrel City” in 1972 and celebrates a Black Squirrel Night celebration in late October each year. The melanistic eastern fox squirrels are protected by a local ordinance stating that black squirrels are granted “the freedom to trespass on all city property, immunity from traffic regulations, and the right of first choice to all black walnuts growing within the city.” Businesses sponsored 34 5-foot tall “Black Squirrels on Parade” sculptures around town. I see the gray squirrel version of black squirrels in my neck of the woods.

They're like mini-bisons grazing the land. According to Texas A&M University, "The main factor affecting grasshopper populations is the weather. Outbreaks, or exceptionally large populations, are usually preceded by several years of hot, dry summers and warm autumns. Dry weather increases the survival of nymphs and adults. Warm autumns allow grasshoppers more time to feed and lay eggs." Moisture encourages fungal pathogens that limit populations. Differential grasshoppers are 1 ½ – 1 ¾ inches long and olive green to grey. The femur of the jumping leg bears distinct black chevrons. Carolina grasshoppers are cryptically colored at rest and reveal black wings outlined in yellow in flight. The males have a hovering flight over bare patches of ground. They crepitate, making a clicking or snapping noise with their wings when in flight, during courtship, in territorial encounters or when disturbed.

They were my constant companions in Texas. A Mexican legend says the great-tailed grackle had no voice, so he stole seven songs from the sea turtle, leaving the turtles silent and himself bursting with chatter. This grackle has a rare skill—each eye can independently view its surroundings for food and predators, seeing two different images simultaneously—a talent thought to be the chameleon’s alone.

I watched a northern jacana in Costa Rica. It’s a bird with the longest toes, relative to its body size, of any bird. Jacanas can’t walk on water, but their elongated toes allow them to walk on emergent and floating vegetation, giving them the nicknames of Jesus bird, lotus bird and lily trotter.

Q&A

“What kind of duck is a bootlips?” Northern shovelers are also known as bootlips, spoonies, spoonbills or smiling mallards because of their conspicuous spatula-like bill.

 “What bird has the most feathers?” Generally, the bigger the bird, the more feathers. An emperor penguin has around 80,000 feathers. That’s nearly 60 per square inch. A ruby-throated hummingbird has approximately 1,000.

 “Where can I go to learn the calls of the cicadas?” Check out the dog-day (annual) and scissors-grinder cicada voices on “Songs of Insects” by Lang Elliott and Wil Hershberger. It’s a helpful site found at http://songsofinsects.com/thumbnail-guide-to-species

Jan and Larry Hoffman of Janesville wrote, “Sitting in our back yard looking over our bee-friendly garden, we’re seeing what looks like giant dragonflies. At first we thought they might be hummingbirds. They seem to be that big. They’re flying high in the air. What could they be?” A common green darner dragonfly is three inches long and has a bright green thorax. The male's abdomen is an intense blue, and the female's is reddish brown. It’s a skilled aerial predator that eats flying insects, including flies, mosquitoes, gnats, moths, butterflies, mayflies, damselflies, swarming ants and smaller dragonflies. They leave Minnesota in July through October to go south, where they lay eggs and die. A new generation makes its way north in the spring. Some of the green darners overwinter as naiads in frozen ponds and emerge as adults in the spring.

Thanks for stopping by

“Birds are the most vivid expression of life.”—the epitaph Roger Tory Peterson chose for his tombstone.

“Read to children. Vote. And never buy anything from a man who's selling fear.”—Mary Doria Russell.

Do good.

Allen Edward Batt, American writer, speaker, storyteller, tour leader. He and his wife have one adult son.