(00:00:05) The cold North winds are going to be blowing before too long fall will be over and everybody will be ready for winter. We're putting on storm windows cleaning out the garden changing oil and antifreeze and whatnot. But of course people aren't the only creatures getting ready for winter all manner of wildlife Birds deer gophers and not to mention trees are preparing for winter Kathy Heidel joins us today to help explain some of the changes that are going on will be giving up the telephone numbers in a minute. Kathy is a naturalist at the Hennepin County Park Reserve District working specifically at Lowry Nature Center. I guess the most obvious part of all to me at least Kathy is the Leaf color and the leaf fall. Is that going on at about the normal rate this year or is it a little bit slower? (00:00:55) I think it's a little bit slower this year. I was comparing my phonology notes from the past few years and usually for the metropolitan area. I determined that the peak of fall color is somewhere around the 10th to the 12th of October and the peak of fall color is just about now two days ago to the present is when we're having pink color and this is the 22nd of October. So we're a good week later than we've been in the past. (00:01:22) Now, we're having really quite warm temperatures in at least in the metropolitan area and we haven't had more than a couple of Frost's I don't think but the color change continues to intensify despite the Fairly warm temperatures apparently nature is not fooled by the warmer (00:01:40) temperatures know that change in the He was actually begins in July when we had all that hot hot weather is weather the summer we didn't realize that at that time the leaf factories were beginning to close down production and the word went out to the sugar producers that they were going to have slowed down. So actually by the time you get to the end of August the chlorophyll in the leaf is beginning to break down and the chlorophyll is like the Catalyst. It's the green stuff in the leaf and it helps the all the things that make it go the sunlight coming in and the carbon dioxide coming in and the moisture from the roots and and all the minerals and everything chlorophyll. It really makes everything work together in the process called photosynthesis and when chlorophyll begins to slow down and sort of just break up and disintegrate then what happens is that the colors of the other sugars and so forth that were the leaf to begin with are revealed and so the oranges and the Reds and the yellows that were there all along but were masked masked by chlorophyll. And show up and the process of disintegration of senescence. We call it that's death dying continues right onto the leaf falls off the tree. So what we're seeing now is what was there last spring before the green happily actually developed. If you ever watch a little leaf come out in the spring. It usually comes out sort of reddish or yellowish and then it gets accomplished right covers up by the green. So we're just reversing the (00:03:05) process now and those colors are there all the time. They're all the time amazing. Hmm. What about evergreen trees? They do not to my I change a great deal from Summer to winter but I suspect there must be some changes in the tree (00:03:19) itself. There are some changes of the very difficult to discern some of the Junipers get a little bit darker in color in the wintertime where they might appear somewhat greenish blackish in the summer. They seem to my eye to get a little bit more towards the the dark end of the color scheme a waxy layer also develops on each of the needles and that keeps the moisture. You're from getting out of the tree because the can't take moisture up through the roots. The ground is frozen. And then the other thing that happens is that there is always Leaf fall and evergreen trees too. I don't think most people realize that there is a normal Leaf fall of Evergreens. If you look at you evergreen tree, you will always see farther back on the branches some needles that are brown and falling down and so you can just about determine when those leaves are going to fall those needles and usually the third year ago will be falling off on most of those Evergreens (00:04:12) does the photosynthesis process continue with Evergreens (00:04:15) it as far as I know basically slows down like it does in deciduous trees because the water isn't available, but the chlorophyll isn't in that case breakdown in the same way. Hmm (00:04:26) five minutes after 12 Kathy Idol is with us if you have a question about what is going on in nature As You observe it during the season we invite your calls in the Minneapolis st. Paul area. The phone number is two two seven six thousand 2276 thousand. In other parts of Minnesota toll-free one 800 695 hundred and if you're listening in one of the surrounding states or in Ontario, you can call us directly in the Twin Cities at area code 612 2276 thousand. We hope that you'll confine your questions to Nature areas today. Kathy's expertise is in that and not in Old Lawns and vegetable gardens and domestic plants and so forth. I see that we already have some callers on the line. So maybe we can take our first listener now. Go ahead please you're on the air. (00:05:17) Yes. I have two questions. The first one concerns the muskrat or Beaver houses that you see on the lakes and the swamps and so forth. Is it true that the size of those indicates whether or not we're going to have a harder and easy winter. (00:05:32) No, it's not true. I don't think the Muskrat has that kind of foresight at all. It is an indication of how much available material there is for the Muskrat to use to Because large uses primarily Cattails and other kinds of sedges and water plants and if there are a lot of those available, he'll build a big Lodge in the larger the lodge the more likely the Muskrat is to survive really cold weather. (00:05:56) What are the musk rats and beavers doing right now? (00:06:00) They're working like mad to get their food supply put away for the winter. The muskrats will store it in the lodge itself as well as being able to keep Pathways underwater where they can get to the tubers and roots of The Cattails and the Beavers are cutting down trees and Hauling them underwater. They anchor them underwater near the lodge itself because they go they swim out of the lodge during the winter time when the ice is Frozen then they peel the bark or pull the bark from pull at the twigs and so forth into the lodge and peel the bark off. That's what they primarily eat. You had a second question. Are you still there? (00:06:34) I talked to you earlier years earlier this summer in the spring when you were on and I had a question at that time about raccoons and you indicated that we should get in touch with our local authorities and they'd have live traps and two things involved with that. First of all, we did get rid of one family. However, the DNR clamped down on the Edina police and told them that they couldn't move them from their natural habitat anymore. So we still have a grandpa. I think he's a big one. Anyway who is living under our old barn and we're planning on getting rid of that and probably finding him under there. What I'm curious about is what do raccoons do in the wintertime do they hibernate like bears and so (00:07:17) forth. You've got it. They hibernate almost the same as bears. Do they are not the deepest of sleepers not like the woodchuck or the Minnesota Gopher the 39 ground squirrel. That is the raccoons are now really fattening up and when we get the first temperatures that are Really lower than freezing all day long and all night long. The raccoons will go into high basically in hibernation and underneath your more in your old barn is a marvelous place for a raccoon to go. They basically will not eat any food all winter. They may come out on really warm days and wander around a little bit but they have got their fat Supply which is what they metabolize or live off during the wintertime. And if you're going to tear your barn down before we really get cold temperatures the raccoon will go find another location. But if you wait until after its freeze up and the raccoons have gone in then that raccoon. We very (00:08:09) vulnerable you suppose that the noise and activity would wake the raccoon up. (00:08:15) Oh, I think so. We used to have raccoons that lived in our cow barn and they would every now and again would come down and take a look at what was going on and then go back up again. It'll wake him up, but he may not have enough sense to go and find another location and it may find you may find that he'll find it not a very good location to sleep. Away the winner and he may just die (00:08:37) ten minutes after 12 will take another listen to the question. Go ahead, please. (00:08:40) Yeah, I got a question that has puzzled me for a long time. You get an 80 degree day and say July and it is hot in the Sun and it's hot in the shade but you get an 80-degree day and say Middle October. So it's hot in the sun perhaps but it's cool in the shade, even though both days or 80 degrees. I'll come (00:09:02) part of that. I think is that your ground has already cooled off the trees and the shrubs and everything else have all got cooler internal temperatures because they've taken the temperature of the weather that we've had around and so it just takes a longer time for those to warm up. So you're not having the ground and the plants around you radiating the same kind of heat that the air is and I think that there's your cooling (00:09:24) effect. Hmm. All right, we have another listener with a question for Cathy Heidel. You're on the air. (00:09:29) Thank you. I was wondering if temperature had anything whatever. To do with the change of color in the leaves or if it is all to do with the length of days and if so what can account for the variation slight as it may be in the in the coming of the colors. (00:09:50) I think that temperature has quite a bit to do with it. They length of course, but you get more intense colors in the fall, even though the senescence the the dying of the leaf is continuous you get more intense colors. If you have cold nights and then warm days the really cold nights. They always used to say Jack Frost painted the colors on the leaves. Actually. There's something to be said for that the cold nights concentrate the sugars in the leaf and it causes the leaf to form the the Trap layer that keeps the moisture in the tree and out of the leaf a little faster as far as I know it does anyway, so some of the sugars get trapped in the leaf and that makes the leaf a brighter color there also are other things like a minerals in the soil and various soil conditions that we think have something to do with individual tree variations. There's a lot to be learned in this area. And so, you know, we don't stop surmising and thinking and testing and measuring as to what really goes on with this. Leave (00:10:50) change well given the rather warm nights that we have had this fall. I would assume then that perhaps the colors were seeing this year are not as brilliant as we might have seen in some past Seasons. (00:11:01) Well, it depends upon where you look but generally the colors this year our brilliant gold and a lot of the maples aren't the bright oranges and reds that I've noticed in previous years, but you'll find that those shrubs and trees that are living in an area where there's cold air concentration at night, like little valleys or hillsides down into lower areas. The lower areas in many cases are where the most brilliantly covered colored shrubs and trees are in terms of oranges and reds because they're getting the cold air at (00:11:30) night. Hmm. Alright another listener with a question for Cathy Idol. Hi. (00:11:34) Hello. I'm calling more with a comment and I guess the timing is right. I'm a professor at the University and I work in plant physiology in the comment is that it's correct to say that the colors that we see our product of chlorophyll law. So they in the yellows become more apparent but the Reds actually a newly synthesized anthocyanins such that some mild injury would enhance that like the cold or we can actually chemically induce that today. That's how we can make some of our apples a brighter red color. So my point is then that the Reds that we see are not simply there all the time they become more apparent as the season progresses. (00:12:17) All right. Thank you very much. Thank you for that. Maybe I'll ask you Kathy one more question about leaves in our caller if he's still on the line might respond to this two Loops, I guess not. Well my question is there are some trees in my neighborhood that have not changed at all. They're still as green as they were I guess probably in August or so. Can you explain that at all? (00:12:38) Well, you always have averages and averages are made up of (00:12:41) extremes. Yeah, because then there are some trees that have lost all their leads completely. So I suppose that it (00:12:45) varies from I think there's a great deal of variation and I think that's an absolutely wonderful thing in nature. You have to have variation and extremes so that you have survival. (00:12:55) Yeah. Okay another listener with a question. Go ahead. You're on the air. (00:12:58) I guess this is related. Why does the Buckthorn Stay Green so far into the (00:13:03) winter? Well, I'm not absolutely sure about that. But Buckthorn is not a native species. The Buckthorn that we have here is a native of Europe northern Europe and part of England and those areas that don't have the same kind of temperature differences. So perhaps that tree just doesn't hasn't adapted to that. I know that the great leaves will stay green on and stay on the tree for a long time into the winter. I don't know the absolute answer but I think part of it is the fact that it's not a native species and just does hasn't adapted to those sorts of changes (00:13:38) 15 minutes after 12 is the time Kathy. Heidel is our guest she is a naturalist in the Hennepin County Park Reserve District and we're taking your questions about what's going on in nature this fall. Hi, you're on the air (00:13:53) and for the past few weeks. Well, we haven't seen About 10 days now. We've had a bear roaming around and I'm sure he's probably gone into the dinner hibernation. What I'm wondering is when I go for a walk in the winter time around here close by would I have any thing to worry about if he's you know, if he's been around here all summer practically. Is he hibernating close by and what would I (00:14:14) look for? Well, that's really hard bears are so good at hiding in the wintertime. They have to be that you probably could walk right over it and not know that you were right on the bear. I don't think you have to worry about a thing because once that bear goes into hibernation, he's interested in sleeping and very difficult to get them really roused. In fact, Lynn Rogers has done a lot of research on black bears in Minnesota and he actually goes out and gets them out of the den in the winter time to apply radio transmitters on them and doesn't have very much problem at all with working with them. So no, I don't think you have to worry and I don't think you're going to be able to find it very easily Bears will go into caves and rocks. They will go underneath a very thick Shrubbery. They'll go into a place where there's a very thick evergreen tree and crawl underneath it any place where the snow can gather in sort of a cave and form this small mini Cavern for the bear to be in he doesn't want a big space just a space large enough to contain his body heat. Found him. (00:15:17) Our caller here is lives up on the North shore of Lake Superior about how far south do you suppose? We might find bears Kathy. (00:15:26) Well, I have heard of bears as far south as I think is around the Sandstone area, but they're rather intermittent. You'll find them in Wisconsin a little farther south and you will in parts of Minnesota simply because the North Woods is a little farther south in men and their Wisconsin. I imagine that there probably were bears as far south as the Minnesota River in earlier days, but with all the people here in the fact that there's not enough space for a bare Bears wild bears need a lot of space to roam to get all their needs. And unless you have a lot of open garbage dumps, which we are trying to get rid of nowadays. You won't have a lot of good space for a bear this far south. So I think the northern third of Minnesota fourth of Minnesota is basically a find the Bears (00:16:14) will take another listener now with the Go ahead, please you're on the air. (00:16:18) Hello. Is this a good weekend to go to the Minnesota Arboretum to see the fall color? Sure (00:16:23) is you better enjoy it while you can the colors out there really beautiful (00:16:28) and I think you mentioned earlier that we're just about at the peak in the Twin Cities area. Are (00:16:32) we yes, I would say so in the Hennepin County Park reserves that I work in and visit in the colors are just absolutely gorgeous right now. And and that's quite a combination of Maples and Oaks The Oaks are very bronzy and very beautiful as well. So yes get out and enjoy the color because the first big wind and rain we get this next week. I think a blow most of them (00:16:54) off I was going to say we were very lucky not to have a lot of wind this weekend to another listeners way to go ahead please you're next. (00:17:01) Thank you. I have a question regarding the red oak trees are Red Oaks don't seem to be dropping as many acorns this fall as they did last fall and I it's my understanding the red oak acorn the tourism two years. If you're a consecutive maturity of acorns, in other words does does do some acorns but or every year or do they do they all develop one year and then two years later (00:17:34) drop know there will always be some acorns every year. It isn't as though this acorn tree sets its acorns in 1981 and then says 1982 no acorns 1983. They all fall off the tree will have some acorns dropping every year but the set of acorns and 81 on the Red Oaks in this area was better the flowers more flowers were pollinated in 81. They were pollinated and in probably 82 or in 80 and so you're going to get some years that are big or Acorn years in some years not as big on the Red Oaks because of the weather when acorns were being or the flowers were being pollinated the White Oaks drop every year. Last year was a tremendous Acorn year for red or white Oaks, but this year wasn't nearly as good so it had something to do with whether in the time when the flowers were being pollinated in the spring. (00:18:28) What about pine (00:18:29) cones? Well pine cones are as far as I know produced every year and they usually drop off during the year, but they again are dependent upon good conditions just like like the Oaks are the oak flowers and the pine flowers. Both are wind pollinated. (00:18:48) Okay, 20 minutes past twelve years another listener with a (00:18:50) question. Yeah. I'm interested in knowing your opinion about feeding the birds. We fed the birds for many years now, and I'm wondering if it's a good idea or not a good idea. We seem to be attracting a lot of chipmunks and which we do trap in a live trap and then we drive them some distance from our home and I'm not sure we're solving the problem is they seem to be coming right back one time. We even had a rat in our live trap. How do you feel about this? Are we are we causing a problem here by feeding the birds and and what should (00:19:25) we do? The basic reason for feeding the birds is because you like to get them close enough to look at them. If you don't want to look at Birds anymore up close and I would say don't bother to Shell out the money to feed them. They don't need it. The birds will move elsewhere. They're opportunists. They were here a long time before we began feeding. In fact, we didn't begin feeding Birds really consistently until in the 1960s when you have lot of Chip looks like that and you're trapping them out. You're simply opening the area up for more Chipmunks to come in. So you're going to have a never-ending supply of chipmunks as long as you keep out putting out bird feed and as long as there's good place for them to sleep and to get shelter if you as I said, if you don't want to continue watching birds, and certainly I wouldn't say feed them. But if you really like to look at them, then I would say definitely feed them and I wouldn't put the feet out until around Thanksgiving time and then I would cease feeding some time about the second week of June unless you really want to feed them all summer and get Them up close they can feed on natural food supply in the summertime, but I wouldn't start until around Thanksgiving time in November because if you start now regularly feeding every day, you're going to keep those chipmunks out longer than they should be out. They should really go down to hibernate and you're also going to keep birds that should migrate like blackbirds and grackles. So if you start later, they've already winged on South and then you don't have quite such a bill. (00:20:54) I know that a popular Pastime for a lot of people who walk around Lake Harriet is feeding the Ducks Lee carry it in Minneapolis. It was popular activity when I was a kid and if I ever get over that area now, I notice they're still doing it and they continue all throughout the winter. Would you comment on the advisability of that? (00:21:11) Well, if you like to feed ducks and you like to watch them up close and you can afford it, I guess the Ducks don't mind they'll stick around as long as there's Open Water. There are going to be Ducks around and as long as somebody put some feet out there going to concentrate. Those areas if you stop feeding them we've proved this in Carver Park Reserve when we stopped keeping the water open over the wintertime and we stop putting food out. The birds are usually gone by the second week of January. And so it depends if you if you really want to put in the money out for them. It's a matter of expenditure. You probably are creating an abnormally large population. And if you don't continue feeding during the wintertime, there's going to be some mortality on that population because there isn't enough natural food in the area to support them. (00:22:02) We have more listeners with questions for Kathy Heidel who's talking about nature today and go ahead. You're next. (00:22:07) Okay Kathy highly when you were on earlier this summer you refer to the Minnesota state flower is a moccasin flower. Now the botanical name of the state flower is super PDM Regina in the exact translation of that is slipper of the queen. And of course, the queen is always a lady so For the state flower should always be referred to as the lady slipper not the maximum flower. Will you please remember that then promise me in the future will always refer of the state flower is a lady slipper. (00:22:39) What do you say to that Cathy? (00:22:41) I've talked to the gentleman on the phone before he's already chided me (00:22:43) twice. Now I see and we'll take another listener. Then the go ahead you're on the (00:22:48) air. Thank you. We have a small Evergreen in the garden and I was wondering when's the best time to (00:22:54) transplant it? Oh, these are those gardening questions that are a little hard for me. I would suppose that the best time to transplant on Evergreen would win that would be when the tree is gone dormant as is the case for a lot of trees and shrubs to do it in the fall before the ground freezes up that would be as much as I can say about and if I'm wrong I would surely hope some horticulturalist would correct me. (00:23:18) We're talking specifically about changes in nature today. And if you have questions about gardening or plants or this kind of thing way, you might be advised that that is not Kathy's area of expertise. But if you're curious about birds woodchucks dear trees these kinds of things will I give us a call in the Twin Cities? We do have a couple of lines open once again at 2276 thousand and in other parts of Minnesota, the toll-free number is 1-866-560-4440. (00:23:49) Yes. Hello. We have a neighbor who dug a pond where they're going to build a house. Go and now two years later, they've got minnows in that pond. They'd like to ask Kathy how the fish got there. (00:24:05) I've often wondered about that myself how fish getting places where you would never expect fishes to get I've done some reading about this and and the best I can come up with is that there are birds have come to ponds and Birds go into other places where there are fish and we know that fish lay eggs and eggs get into mud and eggs get onto vegetable material and we do think that probably fish eggs might be carried from one body of water to another by perhaps Birds. I know that the minerals don't walk over land. So I'm not sure how else unless somebody had some minnows and they just happened to dump them in the pond that happens to a fisherman put a lot of minnows in a lot of places that you wouldn't expect to find them. (00:24:49) This is only tangentially related Kathy, but what about toads and turtles what do they what are they getting ready for? (00:24:56) Well, they're getting ready for the big freeze. They are cold-blooded animals and they can't tolerate really cold situations. They would freeze to death. So the toads are moving Upland are across land to the wooded areas to American toads in this area and spadefoot toads in Western Minnesota go down into the soil for the winter. They actually have little shovels on their hind feet. If you ever get a toad in hand turn its hind feet over and take a look at that warty protuberance. It's really is shape of a shovel and they can just kind of move themselves right on down by digging back and forth with that little shovel and the soil just caves in on top of them as they go down. So they continually move down as the frost moves down in the soil and that way they survived studies on the spadefoot toads in Minnesota have shown that in the Prairies. They just simply move up and down and they actually cause bulges in the earth which they call my Mounds in some (00:25:52) places. They must Burl very (00:25:54) deeply than they can do that very, Well, yes, they really do their remarkable creatures the turtles as far as we know go basically in two bodies of water for the winter. And I know that when I was growing up there was that Turtles go into the mud for the winter and we have we have been able to watch some of the turtles. They will stay fairly active in the waters long as there are air bubbles and they'll swim up and get air out of the air bubbles as will frogs. But then when when the Air Supply is a little bit more reduced and some other very shallow bodies of water. They lie basically on the bottom of the pond and they absorb oxygen from the water through the thin skin areas of their bodies which include the thin skin around the neck and in their armpits or leg pits, whatever you wish to call it and through the cloaca which is actually the rear end of the turtle and turtles and salamanders and frogs and so forth can all do this. They actually open that cloaca the water moves in and out and they have very thin skin through which they can absorb oxygen. Surgeon, (00:26:57) very interesting 28 minutes past 12:00 and we have another listener with a question. Go ahead please. (00:27:02) Yeah. Like, you know, I know a hunt at night and how do they see it Nate do they consider what brats to see method for disease a different one (00:27:21) owls do a lot of listening in the dark. That's true. They locate their prey basically by sound the barred owl which is the owl of the of the woods that doesn't have much Shrubbery underneath will sit up in a tree and move its head back and forth listening for the squeaking sounds of mice and one ear is a little bit higher on one side of its head than the other so that it can actually get your depth perception. It can in a kind of like in Stereo pick out where that sound is coming from and then the owl uses its eyes. They have a tremendous concentration of cones in our rods in the eyes. The rods are what see in the dark and so the owl can see and in the in darkness when there's not much of a moon it looks kind of like With the sun shining at noon for human beings so they hunt by both sound and sight (00:28:14) another listener is waiting with a question about nature. Go ahead you're on the air. (00:28:18) My question is not about animal or vegetable that I would like to ask something about Northern Lights. Is that in your field? (00:28:23) Well a little bit. It's more in physics. I can depending on what your question is. If I don't know the answer, I'll just say so (00:28:30) I'd like to know the nearest place to be somewhat certain of seeing them. I've been this is my third season here my third year. I haven't seen them yet. Ah, the more chance in the cold weather now in the winter than (00:28:43) otherwise, I always felt that I could see them better in the winter time because the air seems to be clearer. They're less. There's less dust in the air less things to to keep you from seeing that far up and they're also the sky usually has a different arrangement of stars. So I've always found it easier to see them in the wintertime. It is coupled to to storms on the sun and when they know They have a fairly High sunspot activity. Apparently apparently we'll be seeing more Northern Lights good place to look for Northern Lights is north of the metropolitan area. You want to be able to get to a place where you're not going to be looking into City Lights. We can generally see Northern Lights fairly. Well east of st. Paul as you go over towards Wisconsin. I know that I've been over near River Falls Wisconsin and I've been able to see the Northern Lights just magnificently and if you get north of Forest Lake area in the metropolitan area, you can see them anywhere on the north side of any kind of area where there are lots of city lights are out in the country and you should have good viewing. (00:29:47) Well, I have lived in the Twin Cities area my entire life and have never seen the northern lights and I suspect there's a lot of other people who are in the same boat. So this listener shouldn't be too discouraged. After three years have patience. Here's another listener with a question. Go ahead, please. (00:30:01) Oh, I'm calling from Windham where we don't have any loans, but I used to live up in northern Minnesota and I really miss them. And I've always wondered what in the world happens to the loons in the fall. Where do they go and spend the winter? (00:30:13) We have interesting interesting questions about loans and we're trying to find the answers in the question. You've just asked is one that a lot of scientists are working on right now loons Gather in the late summer early fall family groups will gather together all the Looms that were hatched on a particular Lake will gather together and then they began moving Southward in a Minnesota there appears to be a very large staging area for loons on Lake Mille Lacs thousands and thousands and thousands of loons gather there. And then when conditions are such that they get the right winds from the North or whatever they will take off and go farther south. There have been very very few banding returns bird banding on loons is difficult for one thing and it's very difficult to retrieve them. But we have had several Returns on loons from the Atlantic Seaboard Chesapeake Bay and area South along the Atlantic Ocean and also from the Gulf Mexico so they apparently go to the to the ocean to large bodies of water, which is very interesting here. You've got an animal that is has lived its life on fresh water and it goes to salt water and can survive. (00:31:21) Hmm. Where is this process now? Are they on Lake Mille Lacs now or haven't they gathered or there (00:31:26) probably are gathering on Lake Mille Lacs now. (00:31:30) Okay, another listener with the question for Cathy. Go ahead. You're on the (00:31:32) air. Hi. I'm calling from a lake in Wisconsin. And there a lot of people here that feed the hummingbirds with sort of sugar water during the summer and I've always wondered if we're doing the hummingbirds any harm by feeding them so much sugar water with no nutrition in it. (00:31:46) Well, the hummingbirds are particularly interested in getting something sweet to give them a quick fix of energy there. The hummingbirds are good at going out and finding the proteins that they need as well. So they're not feeding exclusively on your sugar water. They're going to flowers to get insects as well. If you put too much sugar in your water you can cause kidney damage in a hummingbird. So you should keep the proportion of sugar fairly low approximately one part of sugar to four parts of water. (00:32:14) And we have still another caller with a question. Go ahead, please. Hi, you're on the (00:32:19) air (00:32:27) big cats. If you talking about big cats like that like the mountain lion. No, we don't have basically don't have them but we do have the links and we do have Bobcats. They really aren't big cats, but they're bigger than house cats. (00:32:45) And my next question is how do you skunks make a (00:32:50) smart? Oh, that's a wonderful question. I love it how to skunks make their smell skunks have scent glands just like all members of the weasel family special little sacks very near the anus and it is controlled by a muscle and when the skunk is Disturbed the first thing the skunk do is give you fair warning or anything that it might be contemplating spraying usually drums his front feet. And then if you don't move out of the way, you stay right there, you're dumb then he's going to turn around and raise up his tail and give you the up and you'll have it and you will have it. Yes, and it's very hard to remove that smell. I know because I've been skunked in the face. You see I was a slow learner. It takes a lot of tomato juice (00:33:38) talk about the danger of rabies from skunks. (00:33:43) We feel that the native North American skunk population is a carrier of the disease called rabies, but very infrequently are skunks actually rabid they can carry it without ever getting sick skunks can pass the rabies on to other animals while being carriers but not being sick through their urine and through their saliva. So you don't want to go handling a baby skunk as a pet if it's a wild skunk and you don't know for sure if it is a carrier or not that is not to say we should get rid of all skunks because skunks are very important part of our natural world around us. They get rid of it off lot of lawn grubs folks. They really really good at getting rid of all those big old white Beatles at mess up your Lawns. So skunks are quite important and if you have a pet skunk and you have it ready given a vaccine for rabies. Can if it's a carrier just perpetuate that on into future Generations. If you actually have the skunked at breeds and has more skunks. So I think that you should just watch skunks from a distance (00:34:55) 24 minutes before one o'clock more questions for Kathy Heidel naturalist from the Hennepin County Park Reserve District. Hi, you're on the air. (00:35:02) Thank you. I live in a suburb and I heard Kathy's comment on bird feeding. Now. We have had quite a lot of rat and so we called the state. I was connected with the state at one time and in the summertime a lot of people use bird feeders and we were told that the outdoor compost that people use for you know, growing and bird feeders are probably the biggest rat for you know for spit places for rats to feet. She was mentioning the fact that in November, of course in the cold weather. He's had some comment to that. Came from the state to people who live in the suburbs, you know, we have a lot of rat problems here in the city. But what about in the suburbs? Is there any thing to kind of comment to me to that? (00:35:54) Well, the rats are not going to be there unless rats have got a good place to hide and to sleep and to raise their young if you don't have any old buildings or you don't have garbage that doesn't get regularly picked up. You don't have the tunnel systems that rats build into and into ill sewer systems and so forth. That's right. If you don't keep the area really sanitary and clean then there's a chance that you can get a rat population. But if you keep things put away and things neat and you don't have old buildings that they can get into then you're not going to have that kind of a problem problem. I work in a thirty Five Hundred Acre Park and we feed the birds year-round and we don't have rats out there and we live in a natural area the rats that Talking about our Norway rats which Associated primarily with human populations and they usually are found in numbers in areas that are not kept really clean (00:36:50) and neat. So pick up the garbage is a lesson if you want to win dress. Oh, yeah 22 before one o'clock. Here's your next listener. Go ahead, please. (00:36:58) Yes, I'm calling from st. Paul and I recently read a very interesting article in the science 83 magazine about the flu and it mentioned that influenza is essentially an avian disease and one of the major carriers are ducks. And I wonder if you might have any comment on the wisdom of are encouraging the duck populations in the cities. Are we asking for more outbreaks of the flu by doing so (00:37:27) I really can't comment on that. I'm not aware of that information. I think that the best way to get that question answered might be to call somebody who works in physiology of birds and Disease Control and that sort of thing at the University. I just feel that you might be able to get it more satisfactory answer there. (00:37:47) We have another listener with a question about nature for Kathy Heidel. Hi, you're on the (00:37:51) air. Yes. I know that this subject has been touched on a little bit but it's a kind of a concern of mine. I live in Minneapolis around the Lakes area over by like the aisles actually and neighbor has retired gentleman. He takes an awful lot of time feeding the squirrels obviously in the birds is his intention to feed the birds and I don't have any real problem with the squirrels, but there are some kind of other animal that's there and I ran over one last spring in my driveway and it looks to be about three to four pounds short gray hair with a long Syntel looking kind of wrapped like but it had hair on the tail. I'll short snout little beady eyes and long and Sizer teeth rather like a like a rat's butt. I was told it wasn't the domestic normal type rat and it wasn't of any danger to me. Can you reassure me or tell me a little bit about what's going on? He attracts an awful lot of Critters because he shovels his backyard in spread sell kinds of grain seeds. And what have you all over the place? (00:38:58) It's was the animal about the size of a house (00:39:00) cat maybe a good-sized (00:39:03) house and did it have bare (00:39:04) feet. Gee if I recall it. Did it had kind of claw-like feet. (00:39:10) Okay, I think what you saw was what an animal that's very rare in this area and the old possum. It's an animal that is beginning to extend its range northward. And occasionally. We will see them north of the Minnesota River and west of the Be here in Minnesota. So I think that's probably what you had opossums are not total sleepers in the wintertime. They do get up and we roam around and they would have a hard time surviving in Minnesota winters. This is one of the reasons that the population is very large. We think a lot of them don't make it because of the bare feet and the bear tail they and the thin almost bear ears. There's a lot of freezing goes on in really cold temperatures with an opossum. And so they would come to an area where they would be available food just out of the necessity to survive. (00:40:02) Who are they related (00:40:03) to the opossum is one of our very few mirrors to people animals in North America (00:40:09) and the rule be a (00:40:10) relative of a kangaroo. (00:40:11) Yes. All right. We have more listeners with questions. Go ahead, please you're (00:40:16) next. Hi, however kind of a bad connection. I just wanted to say that I appreciate the program. It's very interesting and one little comment on the worth senescence. I was led to some Essence means getting older than dying. (00:40:30) Okay getting old. I guess the leaves are getting old perhaps I stand corrected. It's a term that I've read in connection with Leif Leif dying and falling and dying and I guess everything that gets old dies sometime (00:40:45) 18 minutes before one o'clock Kathy. Heidel is with us answering questions about nature. We do have a couple of lines open down the Twin Cities. So if you got the Busy Signal earlier, you might want to try again to 276 thousand is the number in Minneapolis and st. Paul in other parts of Minnesota toll-free one 800 695 hundred. Hi, you're on the air. (00:41:08) Good afternoon. I had a question concerning the colors for the trees further south. You know Kathy had said earlier that for Hennepin County. This would probably the peak weekend. But how about the Goodhue County around Cannon Falls and that area (00:41:24) I was looking at my phonology know. It's from previous years and the peak of fall color for the Rochester area was approximately a week to a week and I would say about a week later sometimes give five to seven days difference from the metropolitan area. As you go south word, you would find that sort of thing happening. We say that spring and moves North and average of 15 miles a day in that time of the year. So I think that probably we're finding that color and fall moves South in a comparable type of situation and fall (00:42:02) another listener with a question. Hi, you're on the (00:42:04) air. Yes. We installed a birdbath about two or three weeks ago in the birds have been studiously ignoring it. It's located about 10 feet behind the house and about three feet from a pine tree. I'm wondering are they ignoring it? Because of its location the season or because the neighbors have a cat. (00:42:22) Well, I think it's a little of all three plus another factor and the other Would be that they probably haven't discovered it yet. Bird baths are most probably appreciated during the summertime and you can call attention to a bird baths Presence by having some kind of dripping water because it's the sound of moving water that attracts a lot of birds, but I think you ought to consider having a warmed bird bath during the winter time if you want to spend the money for heating that bird bath because water isn't very available for birds and you may find that it's used more in the winter than it would be in the summertime. You're always going to have to have your birdbath fairly near to some place where birds can sit and preen and shelter so it would near a pine tree might work, but you also got to consider having it near some other types of deciduous shrubs (00:43:10) talking about birds Kathy. What about the ones who are migrating Canada geese for example (00:43:17) What Canada geese are in migration right now? They're in the process of moving Southward we have in the central part of Minnesota here from Rochester to the metropolitan area a subspecies of the Canada goose called the giant Canada Goose and they migrate the least distance of all the Canada geese the ones that were farther north in Canada. I've already come through and are coming through and we'll go on farther south southern half of the United States is basically where they winter at Wildlife refuges on the river systems and dammed up Rivers where there are lakes and those sorts of things but the geese right here are still Gathering. They really haven't migrated yet in the metropolitan area. They're still just kind of flying around from one cornfield or 11 harvested area to another and they probably won't really move out until the water freezes and the food is no longer available our Canada geese in Cairo Park Reserve. That have been studied for years and we have neck bands and leg bands on them when they finally leave the park if we have the water freeze over we find that most of our Canada geese do not stop at Rochester. Once they get up and they say go south they go to Arkansas and Missouri mostly to Missouri occasionally a few to Nebraska. That's as far south as they go. (00:44:39) How long does it take them? (00:44:41) Well, they can reach it in one night. You're kidding. Oh, that isn't very far. That's only a few hundred miles. (00:44:46) Well, that's that's a rather that's moving right along (00:44:49) though. Sure. Once they get up there. They just keep going I did it. They just Cruise in that in the spring. They they may come up and if they find conditions here not conducive to getting out of the business of nesting. They'll go back south again. They'll go right back home to (00:45:04) Missouri what height do they fly in you have any idea? (00:45:07) Oh gosh, you really ought to have probably asked airplane pilots that they probably know that better than I do. It depends upon the air conditions. Geese are not real High Flyers when Moving locally, but once they get up in the air frequently, you can hardly see them you will hear them, but you can barely see them and I'm not a good gauge of altitude. I just don't see how I got I can't measure Heights for a while. So maybe some Pilots can tell us why they (00:45:31) go. All right. We'll take some more listener questions. Go ahead, please you're (00:45:34) next. Yeah God for New Brighton and I've heard recently that there's been an unusually large incidents of Bubonic plague in I think the southeast part of the United States among squirrels was wondering if in this area anyone is trying to determine if there is a been a currents of Bubonic plague in squirrels are other wild rodents. And secondly, I'd like to know if tularemia which is a disease that afflicts wild rabbits is identical with Bubonic plague or if it's a different disease altogether (00:46:07) tularemia and Bubonic plague or not the same tularemia is a disease that's carried within rabbits and Bubonic plague is a disease. That's primarily carried. Fleas from one animal to another I do not know about any work being done in Minnesota regarding the Bubonic plague. I haven't heard anything about it here (00:46:27) more listeners are waiting with questions. We'll take our next caller. Go ahead, please. (00:46:31) Yes. I live in Duluth and something. I've noticed over the past several years is that within the city limits? There are several different Creek that ran into Lake Superior and I have noticed in more than one of the crick's Blue Heron a scene two males and a female at different times and I thought I was wondering if you thought that was unusual that they would Nest within the city. So close to people (00:46:57) the incidence of the great blue herons feeding in The Creeks is not necessarily an indication that they're nesting within the city great blue herons fly great distances in the summertime and in the fall to feed from wherever they nested they nest from April on through into The end of June or early July and then leave the colony and during the time when they have young in the nest they may fly 60 to 80 miles one way to a feeding area and then back and they make that trip several times a day to get to whatever food is best available for them in the fall. They are simply moving around from one location to another to find good food and they are great fisherman. So wherever you have an incidence of fish or crayfish or other things that's where the herons are going to congregate and they aren't going to move until that gets too cold in their food supply is no longer available. (00:47:52) Another listener is waiting and now you're on the air. Go ahead, please (00:47:56) I'd like to know where the rabbits in the squirrels in my rather Barren backyard spend the winter at did they dig little holes or where would I find them and what do they eat? (00:48:06) American cotton tails and North American Cotton Tail is not a burrowing rabbit. Like the European rabbits are so a lot of people think rabbits go into rabbit holes. They really don't they just sit underneath bushes. Just like the Bears and many cases do they'll find a location where there's very thick Shrubbery and just get in underneath that they're active all winter squirrels primarily go into cavities cavities and trees addicts and buildings things like that. But squirrels will go up. They do not nest in the ground and the rabbits do not sleep. Neither do the squirrels basically unless there's really cold weather. They won't be they'll be active all the time. So if you're if you have a Barren backyard, then they're coming from somebody else's yard. (00:48:48) I think I have seen squirrels burying whatever it is. They have with them in the backyard. I'll what on Earth good does that do them when they ought to know that it's going to be covered with three feet of snow in a few months. (00:49:01) Well squirrel doesn't mind the snow, you know, (00:49:03) he'll just below right under it. (00:49:04) Uh, we all he did. Into it again that squirrels live up in the trees and they have a tremendous sense of smell a squirrel can smell his Acorn through feet three feet of snow with no difficulties there, right? They are not bearing the acorns in the ground there bear. They're putting them underneath the leaf litter in the grass right down at the soil level, but the if they were buried in the ground, he wouldn't be able to get them out once it's frozen. So it's just finding good locations where he hopes another squirrel won't find him (00:49:32) nine minutes before one. Here's another listener with a question. (00:49:34) Yes, we like to feed our birds in the winter, but we are often gone from Pure periods of maybe one week up to as long as a month. I'm wondering if we're doing more harm than good. If the feeder should become empty while we're gone. Do these births die or can they quickly find other (00:49:50) food burgers are magnificent opportunists. If there are other people feeding birds in your neighborhood then don't worry. Go ahead on go on your vacation. The birds will just go to those other bird feeders and then when you come home, they'll discover your feeding areas again Within Be a week to two weeks of return. If you are the only feeding area in your neighborhood, then you're building up a population. That's a little bit larger than the natural habitat can support in which case there might be some mortality and in which case you might want to either not begin feeding. If you know, you're going to be gone for a long period of time like a month or you may want to hire a birdie a babysitter for your bird feeder. (00:50:31) Here's another listener with a question for Cathy. I don't go ahead (00:50:33) please. Yes. I'm calling from Duluth wondering about color of maple trees, especially sugar and red Maples and I'm wondering if you transplanted a sapling maple one year and it was a beautiful red and part of the tree and I thought well if I get a transplant, I wonder if the same color will come back. Well, apparently it didn't and I'm wondering if any research has been done in this as Two Princes will the same tree. Out almost the same color. Every year does depend on the amount of sugar carotene various other things or whatever the makes the red color after the after the green has disappeared the chlorophyll. Okay. Do you know if there any research has been done on Leaf colors? (00:51:25) I'm sure there's research been done on a we wouldn't know as much as we know about it. If there hasn't been as far as transplanting you we've mentioned earlier that Leaf color. It depends on a variety of things and when you transplant a tree from one location to another you're changing some of those variables so it would probably have some difference in the way the tree colors. I haven't done the research and I don't know all the answers to your question, but yes, there's been research done and I think that the best way you could find out what has been done is to contact the University of Minnesota. And if you heard from Duluth call your college and find out where you can get that information. (00:52:03) Here's our next listener with a question. Go ahead, please. (00:52:06) Yeah a couple of years ago. I saw a very small warbler about 3 inches long all gray and it had a just a white eyring and I'm wondering what you might think that would be. (00:52:19) Well that's really hard to to identify a small bird. I guess. I'd have to ask you some more questions if it had a small eye ring and it was all gray. Did it have any bars on its (00:52:33) wings? So that's the thing that it didn't have (00:52:35) any weird. But my guess is that maybe you might have seen a ruby-crowned kinglet though. Basically, there are some Wing bars there or with an eye ring one of the other maybe like a Nashville Warbler or something like that, but it's really hard. I can't do a positive identification on the air for you. Sorry. (00:52:54) Okay, five minutes before one o'clock time for a few more calls your next. Go ahead, please. (00:52:59) Yes. I'm calling from north of Grand Rapids and I Like to know if it's unusual to have anywhere from 1015 up to 30 hummingbirds at a time around the feeder in the evening. (00:53:13) No, it's not unusual in your Grand Rapids area. They will come in from all around and and feed on that. They generally will will consider that a neutral area and this year in a prime breeding area for hummingbirds. So getting them is just really wonderful and rejoice. (00:53:29) All right, another listener with a question. Go ahead, please. (00:53:32) Yeah, I have a question about quite squirrel which I saw yesterday and I didn't have any drinks or (00:53:39) anything a white squirrel is what we call an albino and there are populations of album Mystic squirrels in several metropolitan areas It's Not Unusual. There are not a lot of them but you definitely can see white squirrels. You can also see black squirrels and they're just a color variation of it usually of a gray (00:54:00) squirrel. All right. Here's another caller. Go ahead, please. (00:54:03) Yes, I'm going to be heading up North next weekend. And I was wondering if you would have any idea where the best bird-watching might be. (00:54:13) What part of the north are you heading and (00:54:15) that's just a big broad question probably up towards Brainerd the not you know, not and certainly any further north and Duluth, but probably around the Brainerd area lacked length. (00:54:29) Uh-huh. I don't really know anybody to contact very much in the Brainerd area. There are some Minnesota ornithologist union members up in that area. There are other people in the Duluth area and I can't give you their names of their phone numbers over there. I guess it would be the best chance will be called a local Audubon club and see if you can find somebody who will show you (00:54:53) around. I think we have time for maybe one more. Go ahead, please you're next. (00:54:57) Yes. I have little worms Hardshell rooms crawling inside of the house and there are no bigger than around then. Tooth of a comb and I was wondering if they're going to do any damage or what kind of things they are there hard-shelled (00:55:17) the think that what you have there are millipedes and millipedes live in damp areas decaying vegetation might even be in your carpet though. I can't imagine why I don't know how much damage they would do. I know that in nature, they feed on decaying and vegetable (00:55:35) matter can see we have just about 1 minute left and we have not had any question Jen about dear. So I will ask one what what are the deer going to be doing this winter? Are we going to be able to see any where's the best place to go looking for (00:55:49) them? Well, I imagine you'll be able to see a fair number of deer in northern Minnesota along the North Shore again because they definitely concentrate in that area where there's available food in the metropolitan area. I think one of the best places to watch dear would be out at Carver Park Reserve where I work we're going to have regular dear watch. Programs beginning I think about the 21st of January every Saturday evening about five o'clock. The deer are already starting to show up. They've changed into their winter coats there in the mating season right now. And if you go out about dusk when it's almost getting too dark to see them in some of our Park reserves you'll be able to see them. (00:56:26) All right Kathy Heidel. Thank you so much for coming in and visiting with us today. Kathy. Heidel is a naturalist with the Hennepin County Park Reserve District. She works at the Lowry.