(00:00:00) Kathy Hiatal is with us today. She is the naturalist from Carver Park which is in the Hennepin Park system and we are going to talk about obviously the impact of the drought on wild things and on plants and so on and we'll invite your questions during the course of the hour as well. What sorts of things have you observed and what would you like to find out from Kathy Heidel give the opportunity to talk to her in just a moment Cathy. It's always great to have you on (00:00:25) thanks Bob and glad to be (00:00:26) back. I obviously am curious about the impact of the drought. It's the most pervasive thing that we have in terms of our whether it's just it just hangs out there you get these little rain spells from time to time and it's kind of refreshing but doesn't really seem to do much do much good. What have you seen in terms of the impact on animals in (00:00:46) particular? Well, I've seen a lot less insects this year and as a result of a lot less flying insects, like mosquitoes and midges and and some of the flying flies and so forth. The birds are having a hard time. I noticed particularly with songbirds that they didn't bring off very many young this year in many cases. We found little birds dead in the nest and I suspect probably from lack of food starvation, maybe the heat affected them some but we've had others hot years with plentiful food and they've gotten out my blue bird numbers are down in Carver Park Reserve as a result result of that. I think swallows are having a hard time purple martins have just come out of the nest now and and they're just and I'm living right on Lake Minnetonka where you think there would be mosquitoes and things but there just isn't very much food the rabbits in my neighborhood are growing very slowly because everybody's Lawns basically are brown I've got Weeds growing in my yard. I plant them for our encourage them for wildlife. And so I have a lot of animals. I've never seen in previous years. Like I've got rabbits and woodchucks and and raccoons and and mink and all sorts of things coming into my yard to my birdbath and it which I feel sometimes three four times a day good heavens. We also noticed this year that there was a very very poor duck production across the country the US fish and wildlife service says has estimated that the duck production is down 50% and there was some debate whether they'd have a duck hunting season, but I guess now that is go the bag limit is going to still be up for our debate a lot of animals that depend upon fish and and crayfish and frogs and toads like the raccoons are having a hard time. I noticed that some of the baby raccoons in my neighborhood are growing very slowly and it's just simply because they're out of food garbage cans are being attacked. (00:02:48) How are the deer doing at Carver (00:02:49) Park? Well, I don't think the deer are very adversely affected by by this because they are such over the board foragers. They eat green grass and they eat a lot of weeds and the weed seem to be doing fairly. Well this year, you know those horse the weeds always do. Well, you know, I dug down when I was in Wisconsin, I dug down to see how deep a milkweed route went and I dug down about two and a half feet and I quit digging. Hmm because I realized then why they were green and succulent same things true with dandelions. So I think that the deer are doing pretty well there. I noticed that they are doing more browsing though on the low trees and shrubs the buds that are there and that's not unusual but it's not common in the summertime because they depend on that more for their fall food. So they may be cutting cutting their winter time for it's a little bit (00:03:47) I want to ask you about the impact of the drought on plant life, but also get off the telephone number here. If you have a question for Cathy Heidel about what you are observing in nature and would like to have her comments on it two two seven six thousand in the Twin Cities 2276 thousand Minneapolis st. Paul area listeners elsewhere toll-free at 1-866-553-2368 outside the state of Minnesota. Call us directly area code 612 2276 thousand. Okay, what about the heart of all plant life the trees and so on that have been so dry. They look the leaves look rather poor and so on are these trees going to Survivor? They are (00:04:30) some of them that are really deeply rooted and I think most of the trees are probably survive if they've been well established. I noticed in my neighborhood. There's some of The Birches and some of the Willows that had been in the in the pond Edge next to my house have all turned brown. The leaves are Falling off. They've just plain turn brown. I suspect they may have died it. I don't know if Summers summer kill is is worse than winter kill, but it looks like winter kill in the summertime a lot of the new tree plantings in the city as well as in the countryside where people have put in new trees and shrubs if they did water them. I think they're gone. I think they're really gone. I noticed I have a wet yard and I've planted trees and shrubs that are native trees and shrubs to accommodate the wet and I have had to water them and some of those that I didn't water like dogwoods, you know, the red osier dogwood that likes to grow down in the swamps. Some of the young dogwoods have died and I knew that they had Fairly sustained substantial Roots, but they have died. So there's a mortality what we've noticed is some of the trees and shrubs have have put out a lot of seed and that's really a hedge against another stressful future but some things like the Oaks are especially the metro area. There's hardly any The crop at all and the fruit crop is just about gone because the birds have been eating it (00:05:51) early Kathy Heidel is with us naturalist with Hennepin Park. She works at Carver Park on in the western part of the Twin Cities area and we've got some folks on the line with questions. So let's go to you first. Hello there. (00:06:03) Hi. Hello. (00:06:05) I walk fairly often out at Highland Lake and there's a stretch of a couple of hundred yards of Fairly Young Woods where there are little bars of soap wired to the trees. Maybe about three feet off the ground. What are those for? (00:06:21) I don't think I know I it doesn't come out of my brain right (00:06:25) now. Look real intentional there. Yes fairly evenly, (00:06:30) I'm sure it's intentional and right now it just doesn't I just don't really remember what it is. But I think you could probably find out by calling in app and parks and having them direct you to to either the natural resources staff or the forestry staff or to the naturalist set at the Nature Center at Highland Park Reserve and see if they know if the park system has done it then somebody there should know about it. If they haven't done it then we better find out who did (00:06:58) okay. Thank you for calling Kathy. You got stumped right off (00:07:01) the show that tell my reputations gone down the aisle. Maybe I just pack up and go (00:07:06) home. Well, let's give you another chance here. Let's try your questionable there. (00:07:10) Yeah. I live in Minnetonka and weave in a wooded spy heavily wooded spotted Minnetonka and we observe some things which might be interested you and your readers this We have had four young Hawks in the mother Hawk circling our house and using parts of the house flying from one part of the house to the other for kind of a flying lesson. It started about Don and it's still going on. The these Hawks have lived in our backyard for all 10 15 years and last winter a pileated woodpecker came in and took a house up in one of the hollow trees and the in the spring the hawk chase the pileated woodpecker around the house couple of times and eventually the pileated woodpecker moved out. The same thing happened is that the crow took up residence in the yard family of crows and the and the hawk chased of course round with crows are still there. We also do have our holes barred owls in the yard and they seem to be able to get along with the hawk. I'm not sure what does happen. I just thought it might be of interest to you. (00:08:20) Sounds like you've got a very interesting yard in which to make observations. The Hawks are always fun. You either probably have red-shouldered Hawks or broad-winged Hawks. They are little bit later and coming out with her young and just go on enjoying them. You've made some really good (00:08:34) observations wonder why the Hawks didn't drive the crows and the and the owls out. (00:08:41) They may not be competing for the same food. Supply grows attend to some degree to be preying upon great horned owls. It seemed to be mutual enemies and sometimes they harassed barred owls and other kinds of owls to and occasionally, they'll harass Hawks, but maybe they all belong in the same territory and they've learned tolerance. Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah something we had to take lessons from (00:09:05) sure. Let's move on to your question now for Kathy hi - hello there. Yes, please. (00:09:10) Yes, I'm calling from Rochester and I commute during the week to the city for work and I travel along 52 and I've noticed a lot of wild animals dead along the highway this year in particular and I was just wondering if this may be due in part to the drought especially a lot of raccoons and deer and woodchucks and I just wondering if they might be in danger in looking for food and water I'll hang up and (00:09:42) what you're seeing is a normal phenomenon there just happens to be a tremendous amount of traffic along Highway 52 and being a four-lane highway with a median animals seem to need to cross from one side to the other for various reasons. I don't some of them get hit and this time of the year a lot of the youngsters get hit. So the Carnage is often times of young inexperienced animals (00:10:07) Kathy. I know that you had occasion to take a trip. Down Highway 52 and so on over the past couple three days. What did you find out in Southeastern Minnesota? (00:10:15) I found Route down there just like I found here I found it's a very beautiful part of the state and I found one Green Spot really a green spot in the midst of a lot of other places that look stress that was Dodge Center. I think the rain clouds just sad over Dodge Center where nobody else got any and they look green. Those farmers will make out like Bandits down there. I was actually in search of caving country and down in film or County. I found some and I found that very interesting (00:10:50) what about the pollen and all that stuff? (00:10:53) Well, I could I was really having a problem with the cornice tasseling in that part of Minnesota. And that means the pollen is being shed. Let's hope that their silks coming out from the ear so that there will be fertilization and that kernels will form because You know corn can tassel all over the place and it won't do any good if the silks aren't there to receive the pollen. But anyway that the pollen was in the air I could smell it and it also affected my eyes. I got really a problem with seeing it was like having a fine-grain sand getting in your eyes. Well (00:11:28) at least will dissipate as time goes on. I'm sure yeah moving on now to your question for Cathy idle. Hi there. (00:11:36) Yes, we reseated our lawn because of such nut weed and it's now coming up through the new sod. (00:11:44) And you're wondering what to do about it. Yeah, I think what you need to do is probably contact somebody who is in a nursery trade or in the gardening trade your mind consider dialing the university and asking them. I am not a nursery person or a gardening expert and so I think you need to go to somebody who can give you a little better information. You may have to end up using some specialized kind of herbicide, which I am not knowledgeable about but certainly your university has got people who can give you background on that (00:12:22) sounds like a question for the people at the dial you Clinic whose phone number I don't remember but I'm sure you could find it in the directory somewhere or through directory assistance. And now your question, please for Cathy hi - hello. Yes, please. Go ahead. Yep you're on. (00:12:41) Hello. Yes. Go ahead. I have about 80 year old oak tree and the leaves are drying up in some parts is this due to the weather or sort of disease or (00:12:53) what? I'm not sure. My first suspicion would be that it's quite probably due to the weather Oaks are very deeply rooted in and I would I would rather doubt that it's really drought stress unless you're in a very dry site. It might also be insect damage. Have you been sprinkling your Oak at (00:13:18) all? Yes, how well this is such a huge tree. (00:13:21) Okay. Is it drying up all the way to the (00:13:24) top? Oh, it isn't it's a certain branches (00:13:26) these branches that might have been sprinkled on. (00:13:29) Well, they're too high. (00:13:30) Okay, then then it's not sunburn from from raindrops are from sprinkling drops. So I guess what I would suggest is if you can reach any of the of the leaves to take a look and see if there's any possibility of insect damage if it's just whole branch is going going brown and drying up then I would suspect if it's a red oak that you might be having some Oak Wilt. Affecting your tree in any case what you need to do is get samples to a plant pathologist and see if they can give you a reading on it (00:14:04) Kathy. Hi Elizabeth as she is a naturalist at Carver Park, which is part of the Hennepin Park system. She works at the Lauren Nature Center out there Carver Park 2276 thousand is our phone number. We've got a couple of lines available again in the Twin Cities area 2276 thousand elsewhere within Minnesota toll-free one 800 695 hundred talk about what's going on right now at the peak of the summer. We had a very early spring this year Kathy a very early summer. I wonder if that means we're going to have an early fall as well. (00:14:38) Gosh, it's really hard to predict those sorts of things. I have been kind of laboring under the understanding that Summers been Advanced all along but I was talking with Jim Gilbert yesterday afternoon, and he tells me as of yesterday. We are caught up or we have backed up because we've had some cool weather and the rain since since a week ago, we have basically slowed down just a little bit in our in our race towards fall. So we are right on schedule in terms of plant development with the averages and with previous years, so that would make you think well maybe fall will not be early. I have a notion though that that coloring on the leaves is going to come a little early because of the drought stress. The development of plants is probably primarily a response to heat rather than necessarily water availability. Garden produce is basically right in Line with what it's been in previous years apples are a little early. Jim said that the he was eating the first apples of the year. He dropped out to the landscape to the fruit farm at the University of Wisconsin Landscape Arboretum area, and it's see he wrote down. He told me what it was. It's even read my notes here. Yeah, it was a beacon apple and the seeds were getting Brown inside. So that means that they were getting ripe and while the crop wasn't a bumper crop. It wasn't a bust either as far as whether Falls going to come early. I really don't know what to say. I haven't checked the woodchuck for her to see if it's any thicker haven't gone out and measured any muskrat houses because they aren't building him yet. And so (00:16:23) so so far you don't even see any signs of (00:16:26) fall. Well, yeah, there are subtle things to look for very very subtle things to look for for instance. Some of the trees have basically stopped. Doing any more production of New Growth points new leaves aren't coming out there the going with what they've got in July already the sugar production system begins to shut down the Plant already begins to go into dormancy to some aspects of it in July that's normal though. And so if you know what to look for you can see I'm going to look at some other trees and there no new leaves coming out the buds are starting to harden up a little bit. But outside of that. There's not much that's kind of encouraging. Well, there are some birds in migration though. Well, there are oh yeah and the butterflies have started early portal monarchs this year. I think I think they got the message really early and that was a response to Drought. I'm absolutely sure of it. I was visiting my family in Wisconsin the first week of July and saw monarch butterflies migrating South along the beach the shoreline of Lake Michigan right into a south wind and they were just continuously going And then they were massing in some of the trees and shrubs and roosting there overnight Jim Gilbert noticed the same thing here at the same time. That's the first generation of monarchs. Normally. It's the third generation that migrates so they came up from the south. They lay their eggs those eggs hatch those caterpillars 8, they pupate it and they hatch out in the butterflies and those started going south without even laying eggs here. So I don't know what that's going to mean in terms of butterfly population Monarch population for here during the rest of the summer. (00:18:13) We have a lot of people with questions here. Let's get back to the telephones and your neck still there. (00:18:17) Okay? Yes. Good morning. My name is John Rabe and I live in Bloomington and I have a real interest in the natural native prairies like Schaeffer's Prairie and I just wondered if Kathy Heidel is noted anything with a drought and how that's going to affect our native prairies. And what are they going to sustain themselves, especially for the beautiful flowers as fall? (00:18:36) Well, the Prairies are adapted and are able to survive droughts. They've been doing it for thousands and thousands of years what you may find in a dry year is that the stems of some of the plants will be a little bit shorter and the blue might be maybe not quite as numerous. Maybe it's some of the blazing stars won't all Bloom quite as surely as they might otherwise, but I saw some prairie coming through Wisconsin in the sand country where it is, really dry dryer than Schaefer Prairie or most of Minnesota's prairies and there were things blooming beautifully there the grasses were coming along and so I really don't think that the Prairie is going to be negatively impacted. If anything it's going to do just fine. (00:19:24) It's about 29 minutes past the hour as we continue with naturalist Kathy Heidel. Take your question next. Hello. (00:19:30) Yeah. I live in Bloomington in the middle of my back yard. I've got 200 Six eight years old to maple tree and the bark on the trunk has split wide open up to about 5 feet. It's on the south side where the Sun hits it we water extensively because we have our own. Well, the lawn is green, but I have no idea what this is. Can you help me? (00:19:55) I would suspect that that bark split is a result or response to frost cracking in the wintertime. Do you wrap that tree with with wrapping tape in the wintertime? No, we do not. Okay, then I think what you have there maple trees are very very thin bark and you have a situation where in the wintertime the sap that's in the bark is basically concentrated in when you get the sun shining on the south side of the tree. It's a warm enough to melt basically to thaw the sap and then when it when the Sun goes down and you maybe get a really Rapid drop in temperature that sap freezes and expands water expands as it freezes. And so it just explodes the tissues and causes that linear crack on the maple tree. It happens on Maples and bass woods and and some other kind. So those are the kinds of trees until they get the thicker bark that you should wrap in the wintertime (00:20:56) and fascinated by the crossover sometimes between what the naturalist can talk about and the landscape people. I mean the it's fascinating. (00:21:06) Yeah. Well when you're naturalist, you've really got to have a handle on just about all that stuff because it all is interrelated. There's nothing in nature that's separate one from the other and our economics in terms of landscaping and crop growing and everything are all related to to what happens in the natural world. (00:21:23) All right onto your question. I there Kathy Idols listening. (00:21:27) Yes. I don't live in the city of Minneapolis an apartment and I'd like to know if you have any suggestions. For how an urban person could help Wildlife during the (00:21:36) drought? Are you do you have any any yard at all? Are you an apartment dweller? Right? You're an apartment dweller? Okay. Well, I think the most important thing that you can do is to raise your own Consciousness by just watching to see what what happens. I think the best way you as an apartment dweller can help if you if you don't have if you have bird feeders or water you could put water out even birds at a at an elevated level would certainly appreciate a bath her a drink. Those are some things you can do personally on a one-on-one level with Wildlife you can you can watch and enjoy but I think even even greater than that and I'm so glad you asked that question. You can if you have a few pennies over an extra contribute to organizations that are trying to preserve wildlife habitat because habitat is what's important for wildlife, especially in a drought year Wetland habitat. So, you know go out even if you don't go duck hunting go out and buy a duck stamp because that helps Preserve Wetlands for ducks, you know contribute to a nature conservancy who buys habitat the national Audubon Society the Izaak Walton League, there are lots and lots of organizations that will take your pennies and your nickels and dimes and your dollars and will put it to very good use for wildlife (00:22:57) 28 minutes now before 12 o'clock Kathy Hiatal is with us as we talk about what is happening now in nature at the peak of the summer. You're next. You're next. What's your question for (00:23:06) her? I think you might be interested in this information. We have lived on the 40-year applied in the Cross Lake area for about 40 years and we have a family of deer that I think is the same family every year. It's not unusual for the mother dear to have twins and some years ago. She had triplets and about two weeks ago our saw three baby Farms. They couldn't have been more than a week old playing between my house and the garage so evidently she's had triplets again. And I think she brought them out of the woods because of the heat, but he was very very cautious. And then she heard a noise probably from the road touring the moment seeing the little ones just hopped off after off into the woods, but I think it's rather unusual for triplets. I thought you might like to know that your (00:23:48) exist what you telling me when you say that she has triplets is that that deer had very good food supply over last winter when a deer is very healthy and has excellent nutrition during the wintertime if she's an older dough not real old, but she's in her prime and she has adequate food. She will have triplets twins as the norm triplets is is response to good food supply. My guess is that she's more that there are the twins the triplets are more than a week old though, because for the first basic two weeks of Life, they don't move from the spot where the mothers drop them when they're birthed and for about a month. They don't really come out of the forest at all. I would even if that Doe had been very late to be impregnated. They don't usually in get impregnated. (00:24:38) After (00:24:38) January, I would guess that they were probably born sometime in (00:24:44) June. Now, she said that she's living across Lake area for 40 years in suspect may be the same basic dear (00:24:50) Sam got a very good suspicion. Yeah. Those are very very tied to their home range of about a square mile and if she has adequate food if she's not tithe is not a hunted area if she's a really smart old. Oh she can get to be 10 years old. I watched one in Carver Park Reserve that I know for sure was 14 years old before she died and she was an injured animal. She was very crippled. Now. This is a normal animal she can get food easily. I know from my personal experience that a deer can live to be that old and stay in the same area the box go find the dose but the dough is basically stay at all. (00:25:31) All right. We'll move on out of your question for Cathy Heidel. Hello there. (00:25:34) Hi there. I'd like to relay an incident. I saw Wilma. Children and I were biking around Lake Harriet recently and asked a question about it. We stopped at the fishing dock at Lake Harriet and we saw a horrifying sight a female duck with her brood was swimming in the lake in another female duck intercepted that brood and chased the ducklings and she was harassing them and she finally caught one of them in tried as it tried to get away. She was biting it and hurting it and she finally drownded and then she's blithely swam away to her own brood and I guess I'm wondering does this happen often in nature was she a mentally ill duck (00:26:16) it it doesn't happen very often in nature that you have indicated altercations like that where there's actually a death involved. But remember we're in a drought Year. We're very those animals are very stressed. They're not getting an adequate food supply and you know when you get down to when you're starving when you're hungry maybe animals react more Then they would in a normal situation. It is not unusual though for one female to defend her territory and her Offspring against another female or another animal with Offspring as well. It may be that the ducted did The Killing actually was in her home area and that the other duck was was coming into it with the family. (00:26:59) Do you really think the Ducks at Lake Harriet? Don't get enough to eat. (00:27:02) Well, they may not be getting adequate variety. You see they may be getting a lot of human handouts, but the ducklings can't handle that ducklings have to eat duck weed, which is that green floating what lot of people call scum on the water. It's not scum. It's a green floating plant that is like a sandwich. It's got lots of green leaves which the Ducks need to eat, but it's also filled with a lot of little Crustaceans and insect larvae this year there there isn't duckweed and there isn't food and those ducks have to have that stuff to get protein to grow and they're not getting adequate. (00:27:38) Popcorn and hamburger buns don't do (00:27:40) it. No, not at all. (00:27:42) It fills them up, but doesn't give the right nutrition. Apparently. She's right. Okay now on to you. Hello there Kathy's listening. (00:27:48) I would like to ask you two questions before I do a proposed your last color. I have the opposite to report that our Lake we have a couple of mother ducks who bring their brood bruised out together. So they're about 17 or 18 young and to others my bird dog Sims in the midst of them. (00:28:04) Well For Heaven's Sake, that's great. What's your question? I'm am (00:28:08) questions. First question is about squirrels the country. We have all kinds of problems in about a geranium some hanging white. Someone ground level never met bothered by having two dogs before but even though it was at head level. I'm getting to go if we are pretty sure the squirrel is doing it. But me I do without hurting the squirrels said putting chicken wire around them some of them which we have what will repel the squirrel (00:28:36) I'm not sure what would repeal the squirrel but I guess what I would try as some of the order things that they recommend using for rabbits or to keep dogs away from something. I don't know if it works for squirrels and up but it would be worth a try, you know, just some stinky types of chemicals may be next to the to the pot or attach the pot might do that. I might you might have to move the pot. The chicken wire might have to be the thing you'd have to do squirrels are extremely efficient when they need to get that succulent food. You may have to consider if you don't have water out maybe putting some water at maybe the reading the geraniums because they're really succulent. (00:29:21) Okay. What's your second question ma'am? (00:29:24) Can't I don't understand their sermons question alone. So whether you've experienced it, we had a new Arbor Vitae hits everybody about four feet five thousand dollars worth. It's almost a total loss last year, even though it was watered well into the past freezing season and we think that it's the nurses and thinks it's they win and sunburn even though they were kept very wet. Have you had any experience of this (00:29:49) sort? I personally haven't had experience of that sort. But our providers are very susceptible to what would be like sunburn we had a mild winter. We had lots of sun and some section and sometimes during the winter and it's on the warm sunny days that you sometimes find the most damage being done to arborvitaes my suggestion for young arborvitaes. If you have them in a sunny location or on the south side of the house where they get reflected light off the house is to Simply wrap them cover them with burlap or set up a Green on both sides of burlap as high as your new eyebr Vitus to try to keep the Sun from getting that abrupt change in internal temperature. It's when the internal temperature and the external temperature are quite different that you end up having damage to the plants (00:30:43) 20 minutes now before 12 o'clock as we continue with naturalist Kathy Heidel from Hennepin Parks specifically at Carver Park out in the western part of the Minneapolis st. Paul area and by golly that first that second set of phone calls is pretty well cleared. So if you have one for Kathy to 276 thousand in the Twin Cities 2276 thousand elsewhere within the state of Minnesota toll-free at 1-800-695-1418. Thanks for waiting. You're on the air now handle. (00:31:13) Yes. Hello Cathy. I live near Lake van us about a hundred feet from the lake. In fact, it's there's an abundance of wildlife. They are each early spring the loons. Great through there and several pairs at least two or three pair nest in the lake and they raise their young are also I've noticed a large weight. It looks like a hair and I wondered what those were if there are there snowy egrets in this area. There were about 10 of them on a pond behind my house the other (00:31:44) day not likely to be snowy egrets. They're more likely to be great egrets or the common Egret the snowy egret. If you ever get a chance to look at their legs and feet the snowy egret has golden feet and black legs the great egret or common Egret has black legs and blackfeet. Otherwise, they look awful much like the snowy egrets More Southern in its distribution. (00:32:08) Okay moving on now to your question. Hello there Kathy's listening. (00:32:11) Yes. Hello. Hi. Hi. I've recently bought a stone house in the country in the countryside and Stearns County, which is 90 years old and two years ago when we Audit we sort of took all the roofing off and we thought by doing that we probably have chased away all the bats in the Attic. But even though we thought we've proved the sort of the edges around where the roof comes to the stone. We have a continual bat Nursery Every Spring between May and June and July and we can't seem to discourage them in any way from taking up residence. And of course, it's the bat dung that makes it very unpleasant have so many hanging in the rafters. Is there any ecological way to to get rid of these animals to to without destroying? I mean, we're clearly going to have to destroy their habitat, but why can't we can encourage them to live in the trees around the house? (00:33:17) Well, the reason that you can't encourage them to live in the trees is because the species of bat that's in your house is one that needs to have the wintertime moisture and the control temperature that you get up in that that area they probably overwinter in your house as well. If they don't the definitely have a tradition of coming back to that bat Nursery bats live a long time, maybe 20 to 25 or 30 years. The only have one baby a year. So those bats will keep coming back because that's home area the about the only thing I can think of to do is to really examine very closely the stone and the martyring in the stone. They may be getting in through some very very small cracks in some of the stones where the mortar might be a little loose or where the stones and the roof meet. They can get through cracks that are 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick and really where you would never even Suspect them going in and because they've got a tradition of being there you're going to have to be very assiduous in trying to screen off. I would try screening any possibilities where there might be slight gap between roof and stone and then certainly construct some bat houses and see if you can maybe get them to go into those. That isn't going to do it for the nursery bit though. (00:34:42) Okay. I wish you luck with those (00:34:44) bats. That's a rough one. It's really is and we need the bats desperately to in this world nowadays. Oh, what for? Well, there are answer to reducing the numbers of pesticides which you know, if you look down the the we're polluting and poisoning our Earth with with pesticides and it's going to come back to haunt us very soon. We've got lots of people even farmers who are beginning to look at not using them because of the effects that it's having in the food chain, even in terms of human welfare, and so they're opting to do methods and bats eat a lot of pesky insects (00:35:23) Hmm. Okay. Didn't know that about (00:35:26) bats. They're they're worth their weight in gold. All right. Oh, yes. (00:35:30) Okay. Let's take your question. Next time you Kathy's (00:35:32) listening. Hi. I've been trying to tend my roses without applying any kind of pesticide or Fungicide and I've been having pretty good success. I've noticed through inspecting the plants on a every couple of day basis that I really don't have any aphids to speak of this year are the insects that would feed on people's vegetables and Roses. Are they having a tougher time of some of the larger animals? (00:35:59) Yes, the insects are having a rough time this year to I mentioned earlier in the broadcast that a lot of the insect numbers are down and that's because there's enough moisture for them to survive. There were a few days earlier in the season. I saw a larger number of ladybugs this year than I've ever seen before on my roses. I encourage every ladybug I can find when they're in the larval stage as well as in the adult stage. They eat aphids and those are our native ladybugs, which can overwinter. They can survive our Winters. Whereas the ones you might import from California. Don't really do very well here overwintering. So the reason we don't have a Fitz's because there were a number of predators that ate them and secondly plants leaves hardened off a lot sooner because of the drought and so if it's like to have succulent green stuff, so they just speed it up their whole life cycle and moved on to another food source because they can adapt by generations to harder and harder plant materials (00:37:03) moving onto another question for Cathy Heidel. Oh somebody's got a dial tone there. That won't work. Let's try you. Hello. You're on the air. (00:37:10) Hi. I'm calling from Minneapolis. I was digging in my garden yesterday and I heard a little squeak and uncovered a toad who lives in my garden and comes around quite a bit when I'm out there working. And I felt just terrible. I didn't quite know what to do after seeing that he or she was all right, and I simply continued my work and tried not to hurt the toad but I'd be interested in Kathy Huddle's information about what toads do I'm assuming they go underground to stay cool and so on and how one should treat a toad uncovered in the garden. Thanks. I'll hang up and (00:37:54) listen well covering back up again put him back in his hole and cover him up the totes and and some of the frogs went underground early this year in a response to the dryness of the soil. Once they got out of the water. They just simply have gone underground and the toad has an adaptation for digging itself down so they can stay in some of the moist soil in many cases. They've they've not even they're just gone underground and they're not even eating whether they'll make it. The winter with reduced fat Supply in there are bodies. I'm not sure but they need to stay in that moisture. They so they don't dry out. (00:38:33) Can you do anything to help them (00:38:35) survive? Well, you can water, you know some of the soil somewhere so that it moist little bit more moist in a garden, you know, if you sprinkle your garden, they may come out at night don't use insecticides allow them food to eat encourage earthworms. This is a bad year for earthworms. We think and if you use any kind of Lawn Care on your yards, then you could have a problem with that too because that will kill the earthworm's so there's a another reduced food supply but you toads are to be encouraged because they are wonderful wonderful insect collectors. They're really like the bats when they're on the ground. (00:39:16) Okay now moving on to you. Hello there. Thanks for (00:39:19) calling. Hello. Hello. Yes. The end we having so much difficulty here with the Caillou. Now. There's been a mentor an establishment of quail and so forth year and he at one time we had considerable amount of foxes, but he's even eliminate almost eliminated them, but we're they're getting so plentiful. Now, they're even taken our beef cats and such. Is there a bounty on them? And why can't we do something about to to bring about an established model of (00:39:52) illimitable? I'm not quite sure how to deal with that situation. I think that is a wildlife management problem in answer to the question of whether or not there's a bounty on coyote. I think you can get that answer from your local conservation Warden who will know what the state laws stay say / various Geographic areas in the state. And as far as some kind of action being taken that has to be done politically with some kind of communication from yourself and perhaps other people who are having similar problem with natural resources personnel or with your local politicians. There's I always rather ambivalent about killing one Predator over another because there obviously is food for the coyote is there and when that food is in shorter Supply the coyotes will become and shorter Supply to and if you if you kill off the coyotes they've shown in Western Minnesota that they have a terrible problem with other predators that are really causing. More problems, especially with raccoons. So you may want to look so, you know look twice at what's happening in terms of taking your beef calves. You may have to look at greater security for your animals. But in answer to your first question go to your conservation award and start from there. (00:41:12) We've got about 10 minutes left with naturalist. Kathy hide will put as many of you on the earth. We have time for starting with you. Hello (00:41:18) and good morning. I'm Beverly quite a living up on Big Sandy lake and McGregor Minnesota. I just like to make the suggestion for the woman who's troubled with bats in her house that she contact a group called Bat conservation International Incorporated. I can give the PO box if you like 162603 in Austin Texas through them you can purchase that houses. We have one on our garage up here, which will Provide some options another option for the bats that are troubling you in your house. (00:42:02) All right. Thank you. Thank you tip you think that would work on these kinds of bats. I mean like you said those bats want to be in where there's temperature and moisture control. So (00:42:13) the bat houses are basically constructed. You can build your own bat houses. You can even get plans for them from the Des Minnesota Department of Natural Resources non-game Division. You can't those bat houses are primarily set out for roosting areas for them. I don't know if any of the bad houses have been used as nurseries. If if anybody knows positively that bad houses have been used as nurseries. I would like to hear about that. (00:42:43) All right. Let's move on then to your question for Cathy Heidel. Thanks for calling. (00:42:48) Yeah, enjoy your program. Just question. You mentioned earlier that it's been a difficult year for the song birds. Will what kind of foods can we put out for say the Robbins? (00:42:58) It's really hard when people want to do something birds that feed on seeds probably will be doing pretty well. You're talking about robins their fruit eaters. And I guess the only thing you can really do. You really can't put much out unless you want to go to the store and buy expensive things like currents and raspberries and stuff like that, which I really don't recommend. I tried feeding raisins to them. They don't take raisins in the summertime. They and you hope that they'll migrate for the winter. I think the best thing you can do for Robins right now is to put our water. I have a bird bath on the ground underneath the birch tree and I think every baby Robin in the neighborhood comes over there and bathes frequently so that I getting moisture and then they're just going to have to do what they can otherwise you can try watering. I hate to say that though because you know, if you take it out of your well, that means that it's going to be lowering the water table which may end up with a dry well for lots of people and that can cause a lot of problems there are oodles Robbins and I guess maybe there's going to be some mortality on them. But for a lot of songbirds you can do nothing because they feed on insects and they feed our or feed on fruit and you are going to have to accept the fact that there is going to be in a drought year a die-off of populations of animals and plants in response to that kind of stress (00:44:20) and fish to as we've seen (00:44:21) in other parts of the city the fish are really having a hard time of it. You (00:44:24) bet. All right onto your question now for Kathy hide a little there. (00:44:29) Hello. Hello. My question is about pigeons the large rock the house kind. I don't know if you answer this question before I just turned to this station. My concern is the numbers are increasing and as you know, the droppings are overwhelming II don't know how to get rid of them. They're accumulating over the years on all four sides of my house. They sit on the Triangular supports nearly roof. And you give me any idea how to get rid of them because (00:45:03) yeah, well, they're an annoyance. I'm sure they're an annoyance and I think in this case the architecture is going to have to be some her other changed either to to cover that perch area over so that they can no longer sit there you may end up having to request removal of them from the your conservation Warden. You have a better chance of getting removal of pigeons. Then you do a native song birds because they're not a native species. They don't you don't have to have a permit or anything to get rid of them. You can trap them you can shoot them with, you know, depending upon the laws in your particular area where you live if there are no hunting no shooting laws and you're in trouble, but you can you can get rid of them. That way if you get somebody happy to get rid of them. They do pose a problem because they are carriers of a respiratory problem that can affect people and their droppings can be dangerous. I would say through your conservation officer and perhaps even with some backing from Health officials and maybe some advice on an architectural change from the house might be some Avenues you might explore. (00:46:16) All right, we'll move on as we continue with Kathy hide. We got three or four minutes left and you're on the air with her now. (00:46:21) Hello. Hi. Yeah, we have a pond in our backyard. We just moved into a house and we've got about six or seven families of Canadian geese and I wonder if I should be I feed them and I don't know if I should or not the neighbor said you can disrupt their migratory pattern if you do that and if it's alright to feed them what what's good to feed them? (00:46:43) Well, you probably better take a look at how much what kind of relationship you're going to have with the neighbors before you do much goose feeding because when you feed them you encourage them up onto the grass that leave it off a lot of droppings and some people Not real happy with those droppings on lawns and docks and everything else. They can get along quite well without feeding. What feeding does is brings them up close enough for you to watch them. You have to decide how how much you enjoy watching those geese and how close you want them to come as far as disrupting their migration pattern I would if you do feed them, I would say definitely stop feeding at the time when they should be leaving in October and also do not supply water to them and then they'll get the message on they'll (00:47:30) go now they've been transporting some of them out of the Twin Cities area. They have talked about a special hunting season for the is are these going to these measures going to be adequate to solve the overpopulation of geese in the Twin Cities? (00:47:46) Not right away. The transporting thing is going to dry up pretty soon because nobody's going to want our geese anymore anywhere and the hunting problem of the hunting situation didn't really accomplish what they had hoped to accomplish the didn't take that many geese psychologically. It makes people think something is happening that maybe the numbers are going down. But I think we're just going to have to to learn to live with it. And I think that the population will probably even off when the pressure gets more greater on the geese, but that people are going to have to stop feeding them in response to the to the collars stop feeding them and stop encouraging them up on two golf courses and Lawns and encouraging them to move on. (00:48:32) Okay, we'll take another caller or maybe to with the time left your next. (00:48:36) Hi. Okay. I'll try to ask real quickly you mention water for the birds. If you don't have a birdbath. Can you leave a container of water on a picnic table? And how Would it have to be but that's only part of it. They say I've heard that you cut an orange in half for Baltimore Orioles. You'll encourage them. We've seen a couple, you know in the area but I've never comes to the oranges and then the third part of the question is what have you got any special solutions for malls? (00:49:07) All right, that's that's more than enough for the amount of time. We (00:49:10) have left the real quick. The depth of the container doesn't seem to be make much difference when it comes to drinking. I've got a 5 quart cattle out on the ground. I put them on the ground rather than on a picnic table birds do better by what getting water from the ground its bathing. It should be about an inch and a half deep orange is for the Orioles. If you have not had them from the spring on don't bother with them. It's just too expensive. They have to get used to it. They have to have to actually be trained into doing that. Most people don't offer oranges this time of the year. They've converted them to a solution of half grape. Have water in the shallow jars as far as what to do about moles again. I know I've got an answer somewhere my head but it doesn't shift out. So I would try dialing the you. Okay. (00:50:00) Well Kathy as always it has been interesting and fun to have you on the radio and we look forward to well. I can't say we look forward to fall but we do look forward to your coming back and telling us about Fallen fall arrives. Thank you. Yeah Cathy Heidel is a naturalist with Hennepin Parks. She works at Carver Park, which is out in the western part of the Twin Cities area. When are you on duty if people want to come and visit you (00:50:23) well, our nature center is open from 9:00 until 5:00 every weekday and the hours are slightly different on weekends. I'm a full-time employee out there. I'm not there every day of the week. Sometimes it almost seems like it but (00:50:38) but you can be found if people (00:50:39) are that's right. And if they really want to make a point of visiting with me, they might call in advance of Going out there and finding out what I'm available. I'll try to be available for them. (00:50:49) Thanks a lot. Kathy. See you (00:50:50) soon. (00:50:52) Today's midday broadcast made possible by Ecolab Incorporated and it's Chemlawn subsidiary 12 o'clock is the time. This is Bob Potter speaking. You're tuned to ksjn 1330 Minneapolis st. Paul Jake. Yes. I got a suggestion for the mole problem. Oh, yeah a cat a cat. That's a wonderful idea. It worked in my era that it really overrun with them. Yeah, and it took about one summer worth of hunting did you were able to feed the cat anything else? She'll eat anything? Oh and everything. Okay Mark anyway, see if that works. It is 12:00 noon, J.G. Preston in this portfolio program coming up just a few moments. But first as Mark, I stood with some headlines from the Minnesota Public Radio Newsroom President Reagan responded today to democratic attacks on his administration policies in his weekly radio address. The president said the US economy is the strongest it's been in decades, but he says the Democrats that their Atlanta convention this week made it sound like midnight in America. The men running for Reagan's job are on the campaign Trail today Democratic nominee. Michael Dukakis is touring the West with his running mate. Lloyd bentsen Republican. George Bush is Hitting the South United Nations team headed for Iran and Iraq to work out a ceasefire as a tough assignment fighting is Raging along the iran-iraq border today. Ron claims Iraq is invading and using chemical weapons firefighters in Wyoming are losing ground in their battle against a Twenty Thousand Acre blaze in the National Forest. The Blaze is threatening to move into the Yellowstone National Park. Minnesota Zoo board has voted to keep the zoo a state agency yesterday's decision colonnaded a two-day retreat in Plymouth board had discussed ways of modifying or possibly ending the zoo status as a state agency is new forecast from the National Weather Service, very warm and Breezy this afternoon and in the Twin Cities, mostly sunny with high between 88 and 92 those winds South increasing to 15 to 25 miles an hour then for tonight 20% chance of thunderstorms in the Twin Cities alone near 68, two more a little cooler partly cloudy a 20% chance of a thunderstorm and a high tomorrow right around 88 degrees last report in the Twin Cities the southeast wind Nine, sunny skies and 83 degrees. (00:53:04) Hi. I'm Lynn Neary the Nation of Islam and its leader Louis Farrakhan are just one part of the black Muslim religion today on NPR's all things considered a special report on black Muslims in America their politics their beliefs and their history that and the News later today on all things considered. (00:53:23) That's the Saturday edition of all things considered coming up at 4 o'clock this afternoon here on ksjn 1330 couple of other items want to make sure you know about it three o'clock. It's the new American Gazette and a one o'clock one hour from now. It's the week in review.