(00:00:00) It Is by 13 and a half minutes after eleven o'clock time to shift directions now and go to one of the perennial favorite guests here on the weekend program Kathy Heidel who is with Bob Potter in the studio right now Robert oh well, thank you Mark, good morning again everyone. Yes Kathy is here Kathy works with the Hennepin Parks specifically out at Lowry Nature Center which isn't very far from the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Kathy welcome thanks for coming in (00:00:28) again, thank you for inviting me I like to be (00:00:30) here and it is spring for sure isn't it you bet it is is it it seems like it's earlier this year than it (00:00:36) was. Well, I was sure I was doing some checking with Jim Gilbert who has kept records for about 20 years in the this metro area and comparing the early's in the lights of various years. There really is no normal year because you have some years earlier in some years late but compared with that average. We are about a week ahead of normal this year. And if you compare that with 1985 last year last year on this date, I was here a year ago exactly in this studio. Is that right? That's right for Christ and we talked about the same thing last year because last year everybody was saying, oh what an early spring last year at this date. We were 14 days ahead of a normal or average date this year. It's about seven or eight days. So yes, it is an early (00:01:26) spring. How do you measure normal? And and what what yardsticks do you use for gauging whether we are ahead or behind normal? (00:01:36) I asked Jim that very same question yesterday. I have my ideas on what things I watch for. But primarily we watch Plants and I think that the common purple lilac is one of our our best indicators of of the season and right now in the metropolitan area the common purple lilac is past Peak. Ready, it basically picked out about a week ago. We watch other things like when the wood starts getting a forest gets a nice green tinge to it some things when some of the birds return though, they are not as good an indicator as as the plant things are crabapples. Another thing that we watch if they bloom early where I was concerned about whether they might be frozen if we have a late or a normal spring Frost Wildflower a development things like the tartarian honeysuckle that grow in people's yards. And of course the morel mushrooms, we tie them rails in with the blooming of the lilacs. We've usually find that they come about the same time and those are basically some of the indicators that I use another thing that we do check is water temperature. And this year water temperature is higher than what you would expect this time of the year. Jim has been taking records or taking temperatures every day. Like will Konya and he gets information from people around the state Lake Waconia right now is 62 degrees Fahrenheit last year on this date. It was 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Now of last year was 14 days ahead of normal. This year is seven days ahead of normal wise the lake warmer. You might ask remember Easter this year. We had three days of above 80 degree temperatures. We had lots of sun in April and that water warmed right up and water releases its heat much more slowly even though we've had cloudy days in May so I water is a little bit warmer than normal which speaks well for fishermen. They should it be doing just fine and it also speaks well for the people who want to get out there and go boating and they want to go swimming. Maybe just maybe we'll be able to get into the water and swim a little bit sooner this year safe temperatures folks for swimming is about 70 degrees and higher don't anticipate spending too much time in the water if Below 70 degrees you can get hypothermia and if we know that can lead to death. (00:04:05) Hmm and you can even get less dangerous things like colds and flu and whatnot from doing that kind of thing. Kathy. Heidel is in the studios with us today. And if you have a question about what's going on with your favorite wild animals wild plants or Birds. You're more than welcome to give us a call in Minneapolis and Saint Paul to to 76 thousand is the telephone number two two seven six thousand and in other parts of Minnesota, the toll-free line is available at one eight hundred sixty five to nine 700. If you're calling from outside the state of Minnesota use the 2276 thousand number and our area code in front of that, which is six one two, Well, we did that as you recalled have mentioned that we had a lot of sun and warm temperatures around Easter but we've had an awful lot of rain since then. Yes, and we though seems to me I happened to go for a walk around one the Twin Cities Lakes this past week and I was amazed to see that some of the pathways were absolutely underwater. I mean not just covered with water but underwater how much rain we had. And what impact is that having (00:05:13) we have had about 12 inches of precipitation so far this year now that also includes snowmelt and we know we had a lot of snow this winter to but we are about six inches above normal this year so far and that's on average now (00:05:31) we were above normal last year (00:05:32) too. We were above normal last year too. Yes, but that six inches above normal collects and low spots. (00:05:40) Yes, it does doesn't it. (00:05:42) And so what we have is collecting in our area lakes and marshes. And that is of a lot of concern people can enjoy their Parks as much we are under water out and cover Park Reserve where I generally work and all of our Trails you can go part way around you come to the boardwalk or the bridge that goes across the low areas and because they're floating dock type Bridges you end up with either you get your feet wet or you don't go across we have no place to put the water. We're just going to have to wait till the sun shines a little bit more and evaporation takes place. Hope for some windy days to evaporate more of the water and we're just going to have to wait it has definitely affected wildlife and it has a deck affected plants besides the fact that it's affected your basements. Lots of people. I see pumping water out of basements. It has definitely had pluses and (00:06:34) minuses. Well, maybe we'll get some questions about that as we continue chatting with Cathy here, but let's take some listener questions for the moment. Go ahead your first hello. (00:06:43) Hello. Thank you for being with us. I have a couple quick questions. I'd like to become involved in bird-watching groups. Do you have any suggestions about that? And also I live in the Twin Cities area under the McAllister Groveland area and I'm wondering are there ever any hummingbirds in the Twin Cities area? And if so, how can I attract them to my backyard? Okay. Let (00:07:05) me answer. The last question first hummingbirds come through this area hummingbird's nest in this area. A hummingbird has an very very large territory, which it defends usually a square mile or more. You can attract hummingbirds to your yard by putting out a solution of colored red colored water usually about one part of sugar to about four parts of water. Put it in a kettle on the stove bring it to a boil cool it down store it in the refrigerator and put out only fresh solution. I have gone to the store and bought these commercial. Feeders, you can use those you can also use a simple baby food jar and just attach a wire around the neck of the jar and just hang it from a tree. It'll hang it a slight 45 degree angle. If there are Hummers in your area. Then there's a chance that you might attract them especially if you make the solution red and you hang it out where it's readily visible you have less of a chance of attracting them here in the metropolitan area. Then you do if you were farther north in Minnesota or for instance. If you were in the southwestern part of the United States where some of them winter in northern Minnesota lot of them get up there and they after they rear their young then they come to feeders, but I wouldn't I'd say, you know don't abandon the idea tried here as far as a bird-watching group. If you live in McAlester area, you are within the area that is served by the Saint Paul Audobon Society. They are not restricted to being birdwatchers, but the they have a lot of bird watching field trips. You could also become a member of the Minnesota ornithologists Union which has field trips throughout the year and I would suggest that if you wish to have specific information about how to contact these groups, you might consider calling the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota. I think they might be able to give you a phone number. (00:09:17) All right. Another caller is on the line with a question and Kathy is listing. Go ahead (00:09:21) please I it's not really a question. I just want to make a little comment. My father was the horticulturist for the Milwaukee County Park system and we were born and reared on the banks of Lake Michigan and we used to go in when I toes turned purple course, we couldn't stay in there very long. And also when the in the probably the end of October the 1st of November, we would beg my mother just to let us go in one more time. But it was refreshing (00:09:50) I know exactly what you mean because I also grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan and we never went swimming in the lake until usually about August or early September. That's when the lake warmed up enough and yes, you're right. My toes turned purple to (00:10:04) I think people people did a lot more things years ago than they're willing to try now. I mean, it's just a little to (00:10:10) be a maybe we don't talk about it as (00:10:11) much now, maybe that's maybe that's the answer. I don't know. Let's take another listener question. Here's Kathy Heidel and you're on with her. Go ahead, please. (00:10:20) Good morning. Good morning. I really enjoy this program. I always learn a lot. I have discovered a pheasant sitting on a clutch of eggs and I just wondered if you knew what the incubation period was on those. (00:10:34) I'm not absolutely certain what the incubation time is for pheasants, but I'm sure it's under 30 days. I would guess that it's probably somewhat like chickens and I believe that incubation time might be somewhere around 20 to 25 (00:10:48) days. What can you do to attract pheasants? If you enjoy watching them and listening to them? (00:10:55) Well the most important thing for attracting any kind of wildlife is to provide the habitat and the habitat provides them with shelter and cover water food. So I would say that if you don't have any Shrubbery any areas where pheasants can hide in your area get away from cats and dogs forget about pheasants pheasants like to nest in grassy areas the nest on the ground, so you're going to have to have some kind of habitat where there Going to be frequently disturbed by raccoons or cats if you want to attract residents to your area, you might try putting out food. If your habitats good putting out some food in there particularly partial to grains. So the sorts of things that might be fed to chickens would also appeal to (00:11:42) pheasants. I suppose the odds of attracting pheasants to typical urban place are pretty nil. (00:11:50) I don't know. I have a friend who lives in Edina who always has friend. I has a pheasants out in her area and I live in Greenwood where there are oodles of cats and dogs running around and I just the other morning heard a pheasant out of my bedroom window. It's got to be a wild pheasant how it managed to live through the winter. I don't know so you might be surprised because in our urban area here in the metropolitan Minneapolis st. Paul area, we have lots of of what I would call open a green space. We have a lot of shrubby areas. We have nice park areas we have Creeks and and rivers flowing through with shorelines that of have gone wild. I think that we do have better pheasant habitat than you might realize the areas that they're really suffering in is where we would expect to find them the farm lands because with modern agricultural practices, they don't even leave fence rows every inch of soil that can be cultivated in planted is used and so very very little space is left out in the farm Country Side for (00:12:55) fests. Now when you hear that the pheasant hunting has been poor for many years. Well, that's why reason we have a couple lines available in the Twin Cities area. If you have a question about natural things Kathy, hi doll is here to answer and the number is two two seven six thousand 2276 thousand elsewhere within the state of Minnesota. The toll-free line is 1-800-695-1418. And your next go ahead please. (00:13:24) I'm one of those lucky people that lives across from Pamela Park in Edina, and we have presents on both sides of the road now and we have enough natural food and shelter and cover and it's been interesting to watch how they protect their territory and two seasons past the cock fights when a younger cock will try to displace an older one, but the business we've got a little slow next door where we've got wood up and Mallards are nesting and then it's the business of the dogs and cats in the neighborhood, but the question is Last week or two heard the Orioles haven't seen them. And where would you put a half an orange if you wanted to attract them closer? (00:14:21) I've never had any luck with attracting the Orioles to the oranges that I've put out and I think perhaps my Orioles in the pot oils that come to Carver Park Reserve. They have not been in urban settings more and more of the birds that come to the urban areas are getting used to coming to oranges. I have a friend who has a bird feeder in her yard and she puts the oranges and the little jar of grape jelly right on the roof of her bird feeder where the birds are normally coming to the Orioles need to stand on a Surface. They don't hang on feeders like chickadees or some of these other little hanging birds as easily. They will try it but they would prefer and be more successful. It's sitting on a board or something and then being able to peck on the feet at the Orange from that. I Know a Man Out in Glen like who put spikes through a board and then he just impales the orange halves on the spikes and in between The spikes on the oranges. He puts little jars of grape jelly, which is half jelly and half water. So it's diluted and he has the most spectacular array of oriole visitors I've ever (00:15:31) seen what would Orioles eat if people didn't put out oranges and grape jelly (00:15:36) primarily this time of the year when the Orioles return from Central and South America, they are feeding on the nectar of flower blossoms apple blossoms and lilac blossoms. They probably get some from that but primarily they feed on insects caterpillars up in the Treetops spiders and that sort of (00:15:55) thing not at all like oranges and grape jelly. (00:15:58) No, I don't understand how in the world they got onto that but they're on to a good (00:16:02) thing. All right. Another caller has a question. Hello Cathy is listening. Go ahead, please. All right. Let's try another line. Hello. (00:16:12) Yes. I'm a lover of morel mushrooms that I heard you talking about them earlier. Can you tell me where we could look for those or too late to look for those in the Twin Cities area in the Twin Cities area? (00:16:26) It's not too late. You're getting a little bit towards the end of the season but it's not too late at this point in time to find them morel mushrooms usually are found around and within the drip line of the canopy of trees that have recently died and I would suggest that you look under dead Elms Elms that have been dead two to three years the first year the you don't generally find them there that takes a little bit longer for the decay of the roots and then the morels work on that and then they fruit also under cottonwoods ashes Maples, but in any case it usually is associated with trees that have recently died. And if you look out Beyond where the canopy of the tree hungover, you probably won't find them and if you look right up against the trunk of the tree, you might or might not find them but within that area that was covered by the canopy of the tree is where you should look (00:17:21) now. How does this square with the advice that we always got his kids not to ever eat wild mushrooms. (00:17:27) Probably because your parents didn't trust you to be able to identify which were safe and which were not safe. And that's the same rule of thumb that anybody should use in terms of trying to find wild mushrooms to eat. There are some what we call the foolproof for the morel being the spring one of that group of for the other three are usually found in the fall or late summer the inky cap the puff ball and the sulfur shelf mushroom, but you need to know and learn them and to learn them a reading a book is not enough folks. You need to go out with people who can say to you. Okay? This one might look like this one, but here is how you tell the difference. You see this morel mushroom is hollow inside. It's look alike as a solid interior show you both of them so that you can see the difference then you get to know which one is right and that's true with all of them. So get somebody naturalist at your local nature center sometimes Find some that no mushrooms. Well, the Minnesota mycological Society mycological Society is mushroom mushroom people colleges right hand and that's a way that you can learn (00:18:41) them. All right, let's take another caller with a question. Hello. You're on the air. (00:18:45) Yes. I have a comment A lady called asking about attracting hummingbirds in the city would like to say that I've found that planting red. Salvia is a splendid way to attract them. (00:18:57) I agree with you. I hadn't thought about planting the plants. Uh, I just finished planting some Salvia in my yard to it. Hopefully I can attract Hummers trumpet Creeper vine though. It isn't always winter hardy is another good one hollyhocks are very attractive to hummingbirds as well. Nicosia Anna which is like tobacco type flower is another one as our wild for clocks though. They only can feed on those very early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Poop shaped flowers that are often times reddish in color are very attractive to hummingbirds. (00:19:33) Naturalist Kathy Heidel from Hennepin Parks has with us today and we're taking questions about wild animals and plants and birds and here's our next listener. Hello. (00:19:43) Hi. Good morning. And this year we have had a horrible problem with raccoons. They're really big this year and they've been getting into people's chimneys. And since I suppose it is illegal to go out and get the myself. Is there anything at all that we can do to convince them that they're not wanted in the neighborhood. (00:20:05) Well number one discourage feeding them. Keep your garbage cans. If you have them in the alley behind your house keep them covered securely so they can't get hung up on people's garbage. And then the other thing would be too if you can screen over your chimney, so you don't run the risk of they're coming down in the chimney. If you have a real problem with them getting in your chimney, sometimes chimney sweeps. Some of the chimney sweeps are very very good about getting them out and and removing them. You can get your swim the chimney sweep to cooperate with your local game conservation Warden and then have those Raccoons either dispatched or relocated raccoons are really getting to be a major problem in the metropolitan area because we don't have any kind of controls. We don't have any trapping in any hunting in the city with good reason, but we do have an overabundance of raccoons and I suspect what's going to happen with raccoons is that we will have what we call on some kind of an episodic it will be some kind of a disease which will run rampant through the raccoon population and kill a lot of them off and then they all start working back up slowly. It may be distemper. It's the most likely cause of cutting down animal populations, whether it be in cats dogs, or wild populations nature somehow are the does take care of itself. But if they become a problem for you, then try to figure out how you can Safeguard your property and your neighborhood so that they don't endanger your your home and property. (00:21:42) Do you have any theories on why they put the population is built up so much over the past few. (00:21:45) Is well look where we live. It's just full of water. We have perfect habitat for them. They have plenty to eat good places to hide and they just haven't had a some kind of a natural control lately. Also we have we have number of people who find them cuddly Cute Critters and and do allow them in their neighborhoods. They have also taken up residence in Wood Duck Boxes in the last 20 or 30 years. We've increased the amount of Wood Duck Boxes. We've put up we have lots of dead and dying trees in some areas. They haven't all been taken down. There are holes in their good places from by the way, the probably the most safe place for raccoons to live and where the greatest number of them are are in our sewer systems. Hmm in the tunnels under the streets. (00:22:34) All right, we have more listeners waiting. And also we have a couple of lines available again in the Twin Cities area 2276 thousand two to seven six thousand and in other parts, To Minnesota. The toll-free number is 1-800-695-1418. You have a question for naturalist Kathy Heidel today your next go ahead please (00:22:57) I was listening to your program and you're talking about ways of attracting birth. Now. I recently moved to a northern suburb and we have several Acres of lowland and we're Cattails are growing and there's no open water. Well, first of all, what kind of bird is attracted to this lowland where Cattails are going and would it be advisable to have a dredge to get Open Water to attract ducks? (00:23:25) Very interesting questions. If you want to pursue the dredging problem, you have to very very carefully look into your ordinances for your city for your area to see if that he would even be a possibility and then if you find that it is a possibility, I would suggest that you collaborate with the part Department of Natural Resources management people. Sometimes they can give you some advice on how this can be accomplished if you open the marsh and have some open water certainly you will increase the variety in the diversity by drawing in some of the waterfowl if you leave it as it is, you will still be serving a lot of different kinds of birds that you may not even be aware of until you know, how to listen for them red-winged blackbirds will certainly be there. You might also have some of the secrets of little birds that live in amongst The Cattails like Virginia rails and sarra rails There will be some of the flycatchers and some of the Warblers that will be associated with that. If you're new to this this lowland area. I think you have a marvelous marvelous future ahead of you. Just getting acquainted with Marsh residents. I live next to a marsh area and I find it six very extreme. Very exciting thing to be there. Not only do I get birds, but I also have fun watching minks and muskrats and a number of other things like that. So have fun with your lowland. (00:24:58) Well speaking of birds Kathy are the migrations all over with now or are still some species still coming (00:25:06) north. We still have some birds to come I would say the migration of some of the birds has passed for instance. The waterfowl migration is by and large finished. They've gone on to their territories already. We're right in the midst of the warbler migration warblers pass a lot of people by their kind of the Butterflies of the bird World. There are very very colorful small birds. They Dart around amongst the tree leaves when they're coming out usually found here during the month of May. Sometimes they appear in April this year. Our first warblers appeared about mid April. It was a little early even then but they are high lisping for the most part songs hard to remember I have to relearn them every year but warbler migration is what really gets challenges birdwatchers to get out some of the Sparrows are still in migration. But for the most part I would say that the bulk of the migration is is past I don't like to say past so much as they have arrived. (00:26:16) Let's move on to some more listeners with questions for Kathy Idol today. Hi, you're on (00:26:23) and about two months ago. I noticed along the highways a lot of roadkill. They were mammals but size of a woodchuck or a muskrat and they were Brown and they had Furry Tails. I was wondering if you knew what they were and why there were so many of them. (00:26:46) When you looked at the animal it was brown. Can you tell me was it was it longer than about 12 inches? (00:26:54) No not including tail maybe (00:26:57) but including tail. Okay. Do you recall was the face sort of pointy or was the pale-faced rather blunt and kind of rounded (00:27:07) I don't really know I never really stopped to look at (00:27:10) still zipping by okay. I know but you said it was about two weeks ago two months ago two months ago. Okay, two months ago. This is mid-may mid-april mid-march might have been some woodchucks out at that time. We had woodchucks this year appearing the end of February, even then spring was early woodchucks get out and start wandering around and it could have been woodchucks killed on the road. They have a fairly bushy tail. I kind of look like an old-fashioned shaving brush that has lost a few hairs. It also might have been Minx. Dominguez Brown, it's got a kind of a slick fur. It also has a bushy tail not quite as bushy as a squirrel's they have a little bit of white underneath the chin, but it has a fairly small head and the The Mink is only about 2 inches in diameter, which the woodchuck is more like about six or seven inches in diameter. But if it had a bushy tail that rules out the Muskrat because muskrats have a rat like tail even though they are brown there were lots of muskrats flattened on our highways about two months ago when they started getting out of the high water in the marshes. Those are your three choices as far as I can determine and I think that basically rule out the Muskrat and suggest probably minks and woodchucks. (00:28:30) Alright, I hope that helps you in your detective work there sir. Move on to another listener with a question for Cathy. Hi, Ron. (00:28:38) Yes, I'm calling from Duluth. We have a problem with Cliff swallows. They tried to build their mud Nest up under the eaves of our hosts every other house every year. Is there anything that we can do to discourage them from doing this? (00:28:53) Oh, that's a really hard problem. You could continue to knock them down. And then eventually they would not breed and the old birds probably would eventually die off and there would be no memory in the not in there would be no young birds having been produced in your yard there for you eventually over the years. You would lose your Colony you could you could probably make sure there wasn't any mud around for them to build the houses. But in Duluth, you've got quite a few areas where they can collect mud you could could do some carpentry work I suppose and kind of cover over that area or make it inaccessible to them. If you really really convinced you don't want them on the house for my house. I'd be delighted to have them because they just aren't that many places for Cliff swallows to Nest anymore. They used to Nest on all kinds of Barns and and houses and things and they are because of modern-day architecture aren't found. Nearly as many buildings as they used to be so their populations are dropping and looks look at it. Cliff swallows eat an awful lot of small flying insects that bother (00:30:02) us and do the nests and so forth do any structural harm to a (00:30:06) house. Not that I know of usually after a Time those their bottle shaped nests made out of mud. They usually fall down just from from age and from sheer weight. If you just find that you don't want them around at all. Then along stick will knock them down do it before the birds start laying eggs. Do it early in the breeding season. If you really feel you have to get rid of a mud Nest over an area where you don't want them don't wait until the birds of expended the energy on laying the eggs because if you discourage them early, they can find an alternative site. (00:30:40) All right. Here's another caller who has a question about nature and Kathy Idol is listening. Hello. (00:30:46) I feel strongly that for nutritional as well as aesthetic purposes that it's better to feed hummingbirds honey and water rather than sugar and water. My son was taken some courses in college says that it's better. It just is healthier and thus the honey and water looks like a flower nectar and the if you want to color it, you put some red tape maybe around the mouth of the feeder, you know, they could look like a flower. (00:31:19) I hear what you're saying. I have heard from so many people though that they discourage using honey because honey is oftentimes not pasteurized in such a manner to get rid of some of the fungus that can attack the respiratory system of hummingbirds. And for it's for that reason that we discourage the use of honey as opposed to Sugar because we we Had many cases documented cases of Honey being fed in a solution to Hummers causing them respiratory (00:31:54) problems. Hmm, very interesting. All right, let's move on to some more people who have questions. Hi, you're on (00:32:00) high. I had found a path of morals a couple of years ago, and we pick them and eat them and had a wonderful meal, but I was wondering if there's any way that you can encourage morals to come back the following year. (00:32:14) If the tree is still in that process of Decay, they will probably be back the following year. They'll be back as long as they still have the decaying roots and portion of the tree on which to to live because basically the mushroom is a decomposer. It's kind of like your local garbage man. And as long as you put out garbage, you're going to have the garbage man coming but when the tree is completely decayed than the morels will no longer be there. I don't think you really have to worry about us running out of a supply of morels for a few years because we still have the roots of a lot of elm trees that are dying that can provide a substrate for those morels to live on (00:32:56) naturalist Kathy Heidel in the Studio's today and we're taking questions about what's going on in nature right now as we are in a somewhat early spring is bring about seven days early Greenwood Kathy said at the beginning of the program, we have a couple of lines available again 2276 thousand in the Twin Cities and In other parts of Minnesota one 865 29700 those of you in the surrounding states in the Dakotas or in Iowa or Wisconsin can call us directly at area code six. One two, two two seven six thousand as can those of you listening to us in upper Michigan today. Hello. You're on the air with Cathy. Go ahead, please (00:33:34) we're interested in planning ahead between our property and the road something like lilacs are hollyhocks. I was concerned. However, if I could find something that was more fast-growing that it's still be tall and very dense, but I'm also very interested in tracking birds. So I thought of something with the that would be natural and habitat for Birds (00:34:01) is your area dry and well-drained or is it does it remain somewhat damp (00:34:08) food? It doesn't rain very damp 02. (00:34:10) Okay, I would think then you might want to look into some of The by Burnham's Nanny Berry viburnum highbush cranberry American highbush cranberry are both very very attractive to Birds because they produce some wonderful fruits and they grow fairly well in damp areas. I live next to a marsh and I've just finished planting some of these plants along the edges of my Marsh where I know they can tolerate the high water. Also, you might consider the American Elderberry the common Elderberry which also likes to grow in damp locations and produces a really fine crop of purple berries around the first part of August it grows fairly fast and it's not easy to find in nurseries. But all you have to do is go out and collect some seeds and plant those or you could find it growing along a roadside ditch. Perhaps still go dig a small plant. I heard that brown yesterday on this same program talking about The berries and I know that I have them and they work well for growing as a hedge, sometimes there's a little bit of dye back if you have a really severe winter on those. I think though that the viburnum 's is also Arrowood viburnum is another one you might also consider some of the dogwoods. If you have kind of a wet area red osier dogwood likes to grow in an area where that's feet are wet. And it produces very very attractive food to Wildlife another plant that you might consider planting but it doesn't have as good a wildlife food is a mere Maple it grows fast. It makes a very very nice hedge screen gets quite tall but it has as all other Maples do just to kind of assume are on a hard seed and is attractive to grosbeaks but not necessarily to some of the fruit eating birds (00:36:06) kind of an interesting overlap here between yes the knowledge of the landscape expert in the naturalist. (00:36:12) We kind of all work together, (00:36:13) I (00:36:14) guess. (00:36:14) So, alright. Let's take another listener. Hi, you're on the (00:36:17) air. I'm calling from Duluth. It's just wondered about attracting it was for the first time. If going to try it, I just tied a string around half of an orange and hung it from a tree and those Orioles came quickly and they would glom onto the string and lean over and Peck and as they were doing that. They would go around and round. Everyone has to have been a really dizzying Pace there was such a blur but I noticed that while they were doing that they were still pecking away. So the fact that they didn't have anything to stand on didn't seem to deter them at (00:36:53) all. Did you have a good crop of mountain ash last year in (00:36:57) the morning on a mountain (00:37:00) when you hung the orange, did you have any mountain ash berries left on the tree anymore (00:37:05) Bailey was in June and there were berries. Yeah. Okay. (00:37:09) Well, that's great to hear. Thanks for giving us that information. You're (00:37:12) welcome. Well, what's the mountain ash berries have to do with (00:37:15) it? Well, I think that the mountain ash crop if they're still mountain ash berries on the trees. This would be some of the natural fruit that the Orioles would feed on when they came back during the the The Orioles come back sometime in April early in and met actually in May the first part of May. So I would guess that there are oils would be used to coming to something orangie color. And if you got a mountain ash tree, the memorials might be used to coming to mountain ash (00:37:42) trees. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Here's another caller with a question for Cathy Heidel. Hello. (00:37:47) We are in a dilemma at our house because a mallard has nested in the foundation planting of the house and on this side of the house. We're facing a very busy street. It's Douglas and Minneapolis. The mallard was on her way down to Lake of the Isles our problem is that she leaves the nest to look for food. Now what would be best for us to put food close to her nest which would also attract our colony of squirrels in our yard Etc or just leave her alone and let her leave the nest and look for the food. We're very afraid that she's going to be killed on the street many many cars. Stopped for (00:38:26) her. Hmm. You could I suspect what she's going off for is not so much food as for water. She needs to take a bath every day to get those feathers wet because in order to keep the eggs embryos developing she has to keep the eggs damp. Otherwise the dry out the embryo begins to stick to the wall of the egg and it won't be able to hatch properly. So waterfowl go out every day and they bathe they get the feathers saturated with water come back and sit on the eggs get them wet turn the eggs over what the other side and continuing incubation. I would suggest that you might consider putting out, you know, some sinking a a large container of water into the into the ground nearby. Maybe she would go into that. That's what we used to do and we raise ducks on our farm and they just would go out and bathe and then go back on the nest again. We also provided them food in a hopper type of fare, but we found they didn't eat all that much when they were Incubating eggs, they were mostly in considered in just in bathing. So that would be about the only thing I could suggest the other thing I would say is at this point in time. Let her take her chances on the road and hopefully that she'll make it back and bring off those little ducklings. You could possibly I suppose put all the eggs in a bushel basket with straw and grass in it and catch mama duck. You might have to do this when it's dark and then transport her and her eggs and everything to a new location. They did that last year with a duck and her eggs was down near the Nicollet Mall and took her out to the Dodge Nature Center and she was successful in bringing those eggs off and bringing those ducklings (00:40:15) out. Well a couple of follow-up questions are what about a bird bath when I do the (00:40:19) job. She's not going to get up into the birdbath. She's going to walk out and just drop off into the to the nearest Pond or (00:40:26) And secondly, I'd always heard that if people touched birds eggs, that was if they would not pay any attention to them (00:40:32) again. Well, that's kind of an old old old folktale. No goats. Tell ya I don't want to say husband's Taylor wives tale for the most part. Once the eggs are laid. The bird will come back if they are touched and continuing compassion. However, if it's very early in the egg-laying stage if maybe the only have one or two eggs in the nest they perceive your coming and touching the eggs as being extreme danger. It may be enough to cause the bird to leave the nest area. It goes. She was another site and re-nest they equate your presence and touching of the eggs with with some some danger that they hadn't probably had previous experience with at that particular site. So the longer the barrel Bird is on the nest the more of a Fidelity. The bird has to the nest and the less likely it is to leave. I wait until the birds have been incubating the eggs approximately a week before I open or go and look in a nest. I usually use a mirror so I don't have to touch them at all. If I'm studying the clutch sizes of birds or whatever my research is and then when I go back after the eggs have hatched they also say if you touch a baby bird the mother won't come back and feed it. Well, that's a bunch of baloney. If the stranger touched your baby in your house. Would you mother not come back and feed it. I mean, it's the same sort of thing the parents come back and feed the young unless something happens to the parents like the the fear for the duck that's crossing the road, but you can touch those young and you can put them back in the nest and the parents will continue to take care of them. The one thing you don't realize that you are doing when you go to a nest. And you touch any part of it is that you are leaving extremely stinky sent tracks scent Trail your Footprints stink. They are very very easy to for a raccoon a mink weasel a cat a dog to follow and what you're doing is you're jeopardizing the success of that Nest by walking up to it. So mother's usually told their children Don't Go Near The Nest if you touch it the mother won't come back. It's a very simplistic way of saying look kid, you go up to that Nest the chances of the birds suck being successful are lessened because you leave a trail behind and most of us don't even know that that's the reason somewhere somebody realized that and that's the old cliche. (00:43:05) Hmm, very interesting three minutes now before noon and another caller has a question. Hi, you're on the air. (00:43:13) Mallard duck. I have the same problem. We have a mallard here about three feet from our entrance sidewalk down to the lake and she has ten large eggs as large as chicken egg, but she seems to be gone quite a bit. Will the cold weather affect those eggs and my second question is do ducklings get fed by the mother of the nest or soon as they hatch they want to off to the lake (00:43:33) as soon as the ducklings hatch mama takes them off to the nearest water or out into a grassy area. But usually to the nearest water they feed themselves. They will imitate the mother she will show them how to pick out the surface and they usually pick it insects and duckweed which is that little floating plant that most people call algae on the surface of ponds and lakes. They are great insect eaters at that age. The one thing you need to realize is that a duckling probably does not have to really eat for the first three days because they are basically living on the Yoke that is still inside the abdomen of the bird the fact that your duck is gone a great deal of the Time and that you're concerned about the eggs getting cold isn't is a valid concern usually once the clutch of eggs is complete. That is she's finished laying all the eggs. She usually begins incubation and rarely leaves the nest because her body is over a hundred degrees temperature as compared with the the air temperature around and those eggs the embryos in the eggs need to be raised above hundred degrees in order to develop. My guess is that this hand that you have in your area is probably a novice that's might be her first nesting year and frequently, they are not successful the lawyers first year or two that they nest they they have itchy feet or they just don't understand that. They haven't learned for some reason or other. They just don't have the Instinct there to stay on the nest. My guess is that this Nest might not I've (00:45:13) well that implies that they learn something from experience can that be it's nice just but I (00:45:19) suspect that it's not so much experience as it as the animal ages perhaps more and more homeowner hormones are secreted that would bring out the additional maternal instincts if it's a first-year bird, she's not terribly old. She might have been a late hatch from last summer. She might just not have all her smarts yet. Okay, and I don't know we sometimes tend to underestimate the learning ability versus instinctual ability of wildlife because they can't communicate with us very well. We tend to say everything is Instinct. I question that I think that there is in various species of animals. I think there is the ability to learn (00:46:05) we're going to continue chatting with Kathy Idol in the Twin Cities on ksjn 1330 AM. The telephone number is 2 Seven six thousand and if you're listening to one of the Minnesota Public Radio FM network stations. Call us at 1-800-695-1418 Pew on the line until your question is done weekend is made possible by economics laboratory products and services for household institutional and Industrial Cleaning worldwide. It's just a couple seconds now past noon. And here is our next listener. Go ahead please you're on (00:46:41) we have a great horned owl nesting in a Tall Pine Tree in the edge of our lat and there are two babies in the nasp and I have two questions. I have not seen a male all around just the mother in the nest and she once in a while when we close the door or something it flushes. They're off the nest but I haven't seen a meal I'll and I understand that they're supposed to be sitting in another tree nearby helping her feed the babies but so far. I haven't seen him. So could it be that she's handling this raising of the babies by herself. That's the first question and the second question is when do the babies leave the nest I'll hang up and listen. Thanks. (00:47:21) Okay, I think in terms of the fact that you're not seeing another owl is possible that the male might have have been lost. She might be raising a rearing feeding the younger self. Over they don't feed them much during the daytime and the male owl is acting as a decoy owl and he may be sitting in an area that you don't normally see him. They feeding would be very throwing that during the night. They would feed them until about a half hour to 45 minutes before sunrise in the morning and they would start at about that same degree of light or dark in the evening. So the chances of your of you're seeing both Birds coming in might be reduced. The other thing is he might be bringing food, but he might be bringing it to another area that she might be going and getting it from he emit another transfer site, but there is a distinct possibility. She's feeding the young herself if she is and she has these two young this far along it's remarkable that she has been able to bring the tool along because not only would she be feeding them and the voracious in their hunger, but she'd also have to feed herself. Of so that ends the chances that that she's a lone parent a single parent are slim as far as when the young fledge they should be fledging anytime. Now we have also had other observations of fledged great horned owls. They usually going to be sitting in adjacent branches of the same tree flapping around once they leave the nest. They may actually fall to the ground. They can climb back up into trees. They have long clenching toenails and they can get up once they learn how to fly well and that doesn't usually occur until sometime in I would say almost August then the she won't feed them near as much anymore. They'll have to start feeding fending for themselves. They'll continue begging for food right on into the fall. (00:49:26) Hang on to some more listeners with questions for Caffee. Hi, you're on the air with her (00:49:30) her. I just moved into a house in front of a Martian like some way to attract different birds besides Robin and we're doing Blackbirds (00:49:39) well to try to attract birds next to a marsh if you want to increase the diversity you might end up having to take a long-range plan doing some planting of trees and shrubs. If you are putting out a bird feeder you're going to get the Red Wings at the bird feeder. You won't get the robins at the bird feeder so much Robin's be attracted to the worms and other insects that are in your lawn area. I think maybe just spends more time watching put out bird feed in different areas and maybe look at your yard and see if there's a planting plan. You can put into place. I would suggest a variety of shrubs and trees that produce some small cherry like fruit. (00:50:21) All right, there's a couple of ideas for you. Let's move on to our next caller. Hi you're on. (00:50:27) Going from Bemidji and the comments made earlier about the hummingbirds prompted this phone call. My wife and I have a hummingbird feeder and we would like to place it out this year. We have a relatively new home with not much as far as trees on our property. We do have some smaller trees. But what we're wondering about is the best place for the hummingbird feeder the wood it should it be on the North side or the South side and should it be close to one of the small trees that we do have? Where should we place (00:51:03) it? I place the hummingbird feeder where I could see the hummingbirds. Best of all close to the house. Most people. I know attach the hummingbird feeders right above the window so that the birds come up close to the windows or to a tree that's close to a window. You could even put a post out in your yard with some kind of an arm coming off of it. That would that you could hang your Either from the birds don't have to sit. They all I have to do is come in and be able to hover and be able to feed out of that feeder. So you can put that wherever you want it and the closer the better because then you get a chance to watch them and enjoy them (00:51:41) sure. You're putting it up for your purposes really not for there (00:51:44) is that's right thing do quite well without us. Mmm. (00:51:46) Here's another listener who has a question Kathy. Heidel is listening. Go ahead. (00:51:49) Please great. Thanks. Had any food coloring there's some kidney damage that they have been noticing. I never use food coloring. If you put a red flower or a red ribbon or something red to attract the bird initially initially, then you never have to use food coloring. I haven't for years and years. (00:52:47) So thank you for that. I'll take that as (00:52:49) advice. All right. Thanks for your call. Appreciate hearing from you in northern Minnesota. And here's another listener. Go ahead. You're on with Kathy (00:52:56) Idol. Yes. We live on a creek and we're having trouble with what I think is a muskrat. Although there's no muskrat house here. There was somebody called it a bank, right? It lives under the bank cross the creek it gets in our garden very much of the time. (00:53:12) Well, I think that's what you have. I have the same problem living next to the to the marsh. I have muskrats coming up into my yard and I find them when I mow the lawn and I break through and doggone near break my leg falling into the Muskrat house. They will right now try to be finding green stuff. They might get into your garden area and actually be above ground collecting green materials and then taking them back down into the water and Hauling them into their little homes snug in the bank underneath your your Lon. There isn't a whole lot to do that that you really can do about them. Just stay away from the from the tunneled areas in the lawn so that you don't break an ankle. You could try putting some sort of a screen or something down in the water at the entrance to the tunnel, but they'll just Tunnel right next to it. I really don't know short of trapping the muskrats out what you can really do to remove them from the area and if Want to do that you're going to have to get a permission from your conservation Warden and perhaps get his (00:54:17) assistants now supposed to do any good to try to put a fence around the garden either. (00:54:22) Well, they don't tunnel up like woodchucks do up above the ground up on the lawn because they enter and leave their tunnel systems by an underground Canal that they have constructed but they do go get up onto land if it's close to the water and and collect some of the greenery so that I don't think that a muskrat ever is a terrible problem in a garden if they're above ground at your garden. Then I think Bob's suggestion is offense is just fine. (00:54:50) Okay, let's try another caller with a question. Hello Cathy. Hi Liz listening. (00:54:55) Hi, my aunt. You are go ahead question. We have a small chipmunk in her house. It's been here for about a week and a half. I only see it all once every three or four days pops its little head out looks around and scampers off and I can't find where it's living. How do I get rid of (00:55:13) it? Is it in your house? Yes inside the (00:55:17) house. I don't think it wants to be there. (00:55:20) Oh my goodness. Do you have a basement that perhaps you could leave open or something so it could go (00:55:26) out. Unfortunately. (00:55:28) No, you do not boy. That's a hard one. It's found a small place to get in and now it can't find the way out you might consider getting a small have a heart trap. You can sometimes borrow them. Sometimes you can buy them baiting it with some birdseed and chip chipmunks really like sunflower seeds a lot and putting it near where the animal shows up in hopes that perhaps it will be attracted into the available food inside the house. And then if you if it Springs the Trap you'll have it and you can take it outside. I can't think of any other way. That would be safe to the Chipmunk to to get rid of You could always try a giant rat trap if you want it to kill it and snap trap and you could kill it. That way. I think that there are better ways to deal with it. But if push comes to shove they can do a lot of damage inside of your house. They're as bad as having squirrels in your attic and yes, you would want to get it out. Well, good luck. (00:56:32) We have two or three more listeners left and we'll get them on the air with Kathy Idol. Hello, you're on (00:56:37) high. I live in st. Paul and after listening to you. I have discovered that I probably have a muskrat living in my yard. Is this anything to worry about? Should I be afraid of them? (00:56:47) Muskrats chairman to be very shy and retiring animals and I don't think you have to worry about the Muskrat attacking you what you do have to kind of be concerned with is the fact that he might actually be tunneling underneath your ground. And then when you as I said when you're walking over it, you might fall through the tunnels. If you see this animal above ground a lot take a look at its tail if it has a slightly bushy tail that is long hairs on the tail that you can see. It's not a muskrat. It's a woodchuck if it does have a bare red light tail, then you definitely have a muskrat neither animal. Do you really have to be worried about because they're both rather scared of people. Sometimes they act a little bit lethargic some people say that's stupid but it's just simply they don't perceive a great deal of danger. They don't see real well, and and so if they don't see a lot of movement, they might not even realize you're there but no you don't have To worry about them attacking the chances of either of those animals being carriers of any kind of disease that you might have to worry about are very very slim. I don't know of instances of rabies, which is what you might be concerned with in either one of them. (00:58:04) Okay, we have a couple more and then we'll be sending Kathy back to wherever she's going to do some work today and we'll put you on go ahead. I was right that now yeah, go (00:58:14) ahead. Oh, hello. Hi. All right Kathy. (00:58:19) I'm here you go ahead. I just admire your (00:58:23) program. Thank (00:58:25) you. Yes, (00:58:26) by the way. I have a one reason to miss special to me to call you. Do you had that you have a relative that used to work for (00:58:36) IBM? Not that I know of (00:58:40) the reason why I say that I've been around quite a bit and there's only preview only one person my life I met by that (00:58:46) name. (00:58:47) IBM (00:58:48) it was here in the metropolitan area. Yes. I have no relatives here at all. I have people there people here by the same name but no (00:58:55) relatives. Okay, and we have one more listener with a question. We'll put you on go ahead (00:58:59) please. Hello. Go ahead. All right. I wanted you to know both of you that there's an interesting thing happened this morning while you are on the air. We have a robin's nest outside of our house in a pine tree and one of the young birds has fallen out in all we're just my husband are quite distressed about this and what to do about it. And so I was keeping watch with a mailman because it was right in the mailman's path. He goes between the houses and I thought I'm not going to step on that little bird so he came and I said, oh look, I'd be careful. Now. We have this little burden in the in the grass here and he was looking at it. I said, you know what we should do with it. Do you put them back in the nest and he said well, I don't know. He's a hey wait a minute. They're answering that. I'm not just your phone in his ear and he was listening to your program and you Coming then what to do with baby robins if they fall I witnessed. How about that? That's great. (00:59:53) I'm very very fortunate coincidence and a good reason to keep your dial on ksjn almost all the time. Well Kathy, I've just got to ask you one more thing before we let you go. Here it is. The today is the fishing opener. And I wonder if there is something that the naturalist might be able to tell us about how fish behaved that might improve our chances of catching something today (01:00:15) fish are Wily fish are smart, and I'm not a fisherman. I wish I were but I have found some interesting things about fish. For instance. If you're a Musky fisherman, you might just as well figure that you're going to have to really really exercise your arm. It takes about 10,000 casts to land a legal size Muskie or about a hundred hours of angling to get a legal sized fish. So I wouldn't go with the Muskies. (01:00:47) I'm too impatient to be (01:00:48) a few I think than what you ought to do think you ought to consider Sunfish and it takes an hour 15 minutes on the average to get one of those (01:00:57) about 20 seconds to eat it. I don't know if that works out to be a very good cost-benefit ratio or (01:01:01) not. Most of the people out right now are out probably looking for walleye fish and the walleyes and they're about well, I suppose about three and a half hours you'd spend on a walleye and you'd have to go to the right place. Jim Gilbert tells me that if you go to malok's it seems to be one of our most popular walleye fishing spots in the state. You might be able to be sharing the lake with about 5,000 other boats. I think I'd rather go to the nearby (01:01:30) Creek. All right Kathy. Thank you very much for coming in and visiting with Kathy Hiatal is a naturalist with Hennepin Park. She works at the Lowry Nature Center and a week from today vegetable gardeners take note bill and jounin will be in to answer questions about what to plant in the vegetable garden. How to get it to come up and how to have things grow just the way you want them Mark I said that's about it for this part of our broadcast today. What else you got coming up? Well coming up in just a few moments. So we're going to be looking at some of the improvements soon in the Lock and Dam system on the Mississippi River then move on from there. I have to admit though. I'm a little distressed. I'm reeling from these statistics about how long it takes to get a fish. It's probably why I've never caught one because I'm not going to I've never sat for a hundred hours to catch anything while I'm going fishing on Wednesday. You'll probably get luckier. You'll be lucky this year. Same Lake we've been going to for 30 Years. Everybody else is pulling out 16 Pounders and 18 Pounders. I'm gonna get me one of those this year one way or another I've decided with cheating or not. Well, we'll see we'll decide on the last day what how it all filled, but 1662 the half. Now after 12 noon, you're listening to weekend on ksjn. I'm mark heisted. Thank you. Bob Potter and Kathy idle for a most interesting our talking about what's going on in nature this time of year. And as Bob mentioned gardeners be forewarned your chances next week, when bill and Joel none will be here over the 11 o'clock hour to take your questions. Well, where do we start at this point? Let's first update you on the weather. Mostly cloudy skies covering much of the Northwest and extreme Southeast portions of Minnesota this day while the remainder of the state enjoying mostly Sunshine. The clouds in the Northwest are being generated by a passing upper-level disturbance passing near Winnipeg Manitoba, the clouds over the southeast are associated with the backwash from a low pressure disturbance located over Central Missouri a stiff contrast in pressure to the west of Missouri of that low in Missouri has helped kick up wins over much of the Southeastern portion of Minnesota Albert Lea.