(00:00:00) These and then partly to mostly sunny and Breezy on Sunday in the Twin Cities with a high in the upper 70s to lower 80s. Mostly sunny. Now throughout the region Duluth has 73 degrees in Rochester. It's 76. St. Cloud has 76 degrees as well. And in the Twin Cities, it's 75 and marks a deck. Like that's the latest news. Thank you. Chris Roberts 6 minutes now past eleven o'clock and you're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Mark zdechlik in the Twin Cities and with me this morning is Hennepin Parks naturalist, Kathy Heidel. Thanks so much for coming in again Kathy. You've probably done this program ten times more than I have done it appreciate you being here. Thanks for inviting me. We'll be talking about what's going on in nature for the balance of the our end as usual on Saturday. Midday. We hope to hear from you with your questions. Now's your chance to find out from Kathy Heidel what that squirrel or woodpecker is doing in the backyard. If you're listening in the Twin Cities, you can join the nature conversation by calling two two seven six thousand. That's 22. Even 6,000 if you're listening in the Twin Cities metropolitan area anywhere else you're listening. And if you have a question about something going on in nature, you can call toll-free in talk to Kathy Heidel that toll free number is 1-800-218-4243 number is 1-800-222-8477. You we talk in the news business sometimes about not a great deal of things going on in the middle of the summer. We characterize it as the dog days of summer. It'll look for stuff to put on the air sometimes because nothing seems to be happening. What are the dog days of summer? What are we talking about? When we say (00:01:36) that? Well, you know, I've been hearing that for a long time and I never really knew for certain. So I thought I would do a little research and find out and I found out that you're in company with the ancient Romans. They had the dog days of summer to usually the dog days of summer occurred from about mid July to early July to about mid August and it was something that happened during the time when the dog Our was prominent in the sky and in those days, they didn't know much science. So if anything bad happened, it was blamed on something in the skies. That's where the gods lived. And so anyway, they blamed everything on the dog star the dog days of summer when things happen like dogs go mad snakes go blind ponds. Stink poisonous things are out there. That'll get you the mosquitoes bite. I'm not bring this up to Modern days not Minnesota mosquitoes bite the deerflies. I'll get you if you walk out the door and if something going to fall on your head it certainly will it's and so what the Ancients did was they blamed all the bad happenings during Midsummer which are often a occur with short tempers overheat uncomfortable all these things that kind of get us upset. They blamed everything on the dogs and then I supposed to keep their jobs. They urged the people to make sacrifices and that included sacrifices included food and money and stuff. Like that, so I've kept them in business and then the blame any of the troubles on the dogs (00:03:04) there. You have it the dog days of summer. Well researched by Hennepin Parks naturalist Kathy Heidel. I wanted to ask you before we get going on the phones here. What are some of the things we can look for in nature right now in the dog days of summer what's going on out there? (00:03:17) Well, you could actually look for blind snakes what happens in summertime is snakes eat a lot and they grow and so then their skins get too tight and and they molt them they actually shed them and during that time they can't see because they're growing a new skin over their eyes during the during this time of summer. Summer ponds are actually starting to stink because of an algae growth with the added warmth and and longer day length other neat things are happening besides the direful stuff of dog days is that we're having wonderful Wild Flower blooms in the countryside. So if you get a chance to get out and about go out and look at some of the beautiful Meadows and the roadsides they're just coming gorgeous with wildflowers. We're starting to see hummingbirds. Now that they're out of the nest they're coming to some of the people's Gardens and they're coming out to red and pink flowers. I noticed that in my neighborhood. I have woodchucks that have come out of their dens now and they're looking for fruit to eat. So I have been watching the young woodchucks and my yard and they sit up just like like a dog would sit up when it's begging they sit up on their hind quarters in front of a currant Bush or berry bush or something like that and they stuff their faces with fruit. It's really fun to watch. There are strange sounds right now in the middle of summer. If you go out and hear some really high loud buzzing sounds that kind of sound like telephone wires making a lot of noise up in the trees. You're going to be hearing the summer cicadas, which is a large about two inch long thick as your thumb insect that drums. It makes vibration with a part of its body so you might hear that. I noticed the last evening. I was out it was the full moon last night. It was a gorgeous evening and I took a group of people out for a walk to celebrate the full moon and I heard some of the late summer insect starting to sing. So there's lots of stuff going on. It's really interesting time of year (00:05:16) plenty of activity. Even though it is the dog days right? It's 11 minutes past eleven o'clock. You're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio marks that are click here with Kathy Heidel who is a Hennepin Parks naturalist and we are taking your phone calls with questions about what's going on in nature. Give the numbers out real quickly before we go to the phones. If you're listening in the Twin Cities Metropolitan, are you can join the conversation by calling to to 76 thousand that's 2276 thousand in the Twin Cities metropolitan area anywhere else. You can hear the broadcast. You can call Kathy Heidel toll-free with your question at one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight the toll-free number once again, and there is room on the line right now 1 800 to for 22828. Well, let's go to the phones Joe. You're in Minnesota Public Radio with title Hello, Joe. Maybe Joe's not on Minnesota public radio right now. Let's see if we can't get somebody on. Hello. Yes. I'm calling from Northfield. I've noticed down here in southern Minnesota there started to mold the ditches. Now. I also see a lot of young birds own like young pheasants and quail running around is that does that disrupt does the mowing disrupt any of the life cycle for these animals? (00:06:30) I think it depends upon when you do it. I think it's just a tad early to be doing it. I felt a little bit distressed last week when I saw some of the quail and things running around without any protection look look at it this way if the ditches your home and the mo the ditch, then you don't have a home anymore. So you have to find something else and probably a corn or soybean field aren't quite as good. I don't think it's a serious now the morning of the ditches as it would have been a month ago because then a lot of things would mind have been nesting however recent Studies have shown that there aren't a whole lot of That do nest in ditches at least in the area. They mo unless they're mowing on the back side of the ditch up against the the boundary fence or the field fence. They probably aren't disrupting that many birds. If you mow the first part of the ditch and down to the lowest part, there aren't as many things living in there because face it if we have any kind of rainfall get a lot of water roaming coming down that ditch anything that might have been nesting in that lowest part of the ditch had its nest destroyed. Anyway with all the water we had so most animals that use ditch habitats are going to do it on the back side of the ditch. And that's the part that generally they don't move all the way up to there. Okay more and more people to are just kind (00:07:44) of not mowing that stuff. Anyway, maybe throwing some wild flower seeds or something like that, correct? (00:07:49) And I think that the best thing you can do if you're concerned about that is to contact either your State Department of Transportation or your County Department of Transportation Department's of transportation and encourage them to find alternative means I think that they really wouldn't have to start wearing those ditches until probably the plants got too high. That's the reason they mow them I think is for a site visibility situation. But if the plants are not impeding people's vision and it's not a safety issue then why not delay it even later. Okay. Let's take another (00:08:24) call Eleanor. You're on the air with Kathy Heidel. I think I don't know. I guess I'm on now go from Richfield and what I have I have some birds that have showed up in my feeder. They look like purple finch has little bit smaller and they have Street they males have streaked breasts brown and white streaks and I wonder if those are house (00:08:54) finches. Do you see any reddish-purple on these birds? Okay, then my guess is that they are house (00:09:01) finches. Are they coming (00:09:03) here common, they're becoming quite common. They showed up in Minnesota. Maybe it's far long ago is 10 years ago. But in the last two years in the metropolitan area specifically we are seeing them becoming one of the most common birds at our bird (00:09:18) feeders. I have about eight of them (00:09:19) now. Well, enjoy them they make wonderful music. They don't seem to be too aggressive towards other species of birds. Yes their time and they're starting to Nest right in people's yards. (00:09:30) No. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I got a question for you how to keep squirrels out of bird (00:09:34) feeders. Oh my gosh personal question. I goodness. I think you're just going to have to change your mind and accept squirrels because the squirrels are incredibly smart. I think that they can just about out with any kind of bird feeder (00:09:48) Arrangement. Okay, so don't even waste your (00:09:50) timer probably not. (00:09:52) Okay Eleanor and st. Paul will go to you know, I'm sorry about that. You're on with Kathy Heidel. Yes. I have a question. I live near Como Lake and I was out walking around the lake one night and I saw male ducks jumping on a female duck and trying to kill her and someone else that I met had told me that she had rescued four or five female ducks out there and I'm wondering what is going (00:10:22) on. Well, you have a very aggressive male doctor doesn't know how to channel his about his his hormones. I would say it's very strange and sometimes when you get these domestic wild inbred Ducks, sometimes the behavior becomes bizarre to normally aggressive behavior is exhibited towards other males and there's a possibility that the the ducts that are being attacked may not be females but instead might be young males of the year. They go through a period of molt now in summer when young ducks look just like their mothers and they don't get their mail plumage until later on in summer. If that's not the case then I'm not sure what I would what I would say to that except your day explanation. I kind of doubt that it would be copulation going on mating going on, but I would guess it's probably an aberrant Behavior not a normal thing, but maybe shows up when Get overpopulation and inbreeding in a population of (00:11:27) ducks. Does it make sense for people to feed ducks in Lakes when they see him to go walking out there with pieces of bread or whatever it is. (00:11:33) Well, you know why we do it because we want them up close so we can see them and we want to get the feeling that they care about us. They don't actually care two Hoots about us, they are opportunists and we'll take the food. I think that we probably do them and the ecosystem a disservice because their populations build up and then we start getting abnormalities in behavior and appearance and we also get our legs full of crap. (00:11:58) What is the latest on the concern about lead shot being in the bottoms of lakes and contaminating waterfall. So that's still a big issue. (00:12:06) It's a big issue and I think that by and large we should just accept the philosophy that we need to get rid of lead shot because one little LED pellet can kill a bird as large as a Canada Goose or a trumpeter swan or a tundra Swan and they picked these pieces. Of shot out of the bottom. They cannot feel the difference between a piece of lead shot in a piece of gravel small pieces, very very small pieces like smaller than b b's that go into a BB gun. They pick these up and swallow them and then in the gizzard, that's the birds teeth and the stones are what break up the food that they eat. And so then I'll when they are some work acids can dissolve that out and then it kills them. Okay, 19 minutes past eleven (00:12:49) o'clock. You're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio and Hennepin Parks. Naturalist. Kathy. Heidel is here. We are obviously talking about nature Mary Beth and Roseville. You're on Minnesota Public Radio. Hello. What I'm wondering is what was that bright object that was falling in the vicinity of the moon or I thought out that way last night about ten o'clock and it had a tail on it. There's a specific question for you Kathy. You were out last (00:13:16) night. Yeah, but I didn't see it. I probably had my head down in the grass looking at things down below if it had a tail on it. I would guess probably it was I'm meteor a meteorite and during entering our meteor entering our atmosphere and it was burning up as it came down you if you're out at night and you look in the sky most nights, you can see debris from space getting into our atmosphere of Earth and then you know, the friction that sets up as it enters in the gravity field causes it basically to ignite get so hot it burns and that's the sort of thing. You see so meteors. (00:13:52) Okay, let's go up to the north land or to the Northland with a question from Bruce and Hibbing your on Minnesota Public Radio with Kathy Heidel. Good morning. I realize you're some 200 miles south of here and maybe don't appreciate the same problem. But this year there seems to be a drastic lack of hummingbirds in the area. Could it be Associated maybe with a cooler and very rain-filled summer as we've had the last couple of years do you think or is there something else going on? (00:14:16) I would like to ask you a question. Do you in the area where you're living have any brightly colored flowers blooming yet or is your flower? In season delay because of the coolness. (00:14:26) Well, you know as I was sitting waiting for you to answer I was just looking in the backyard as I was until the neighbors started his lawnmower. But anyway, I do note that we don't have as many flowers as we have had in the past but we do have hummingbird feeders out and we do have fissile bird feeders out for the gold finches and some other feeders a few flowers around but maybe not as many as in the past. That's the only thing that is (00:14:51) my feeling is probably that you don't have as many nectar sources and wildflowers yet. The season is delayed this year we have for the last number of years had warmer than normal Seasons this year in Minnesota is back to almost kind of like normal to even be a little bit behind normal and the hummingbirds follow the blooming of the flowers and as they present nectar they have to do that in order to survive. So I noticed this year even in the metropolitan area the Twin Cities. That hummingbird stayed around a little longer. They did come back about the same time that the normally do from Central America, but we didn't have as many flowers around either. So we saw hummingbirds feeding at feeders more than we normally would I think this is what's probably happening coupled with the other thing that I think we all have to accept is happening in our Bird world. And that is that numbers of migratory birds that go to Central and South America for the winter are definitely on the decline population numbers wise because of loss of habitat in the wintertime from deforestation and also loss of habitat habitat here in Minnesota. We continually are removing habitat that provides a variety of wild flowers and other food sources that serve those summer nesting Birds. (00:16:15) Kevi lot of people do spend a lot of time trying to attract birds to their backyard to watch what are some suggestions you have about kind of bird seed what kind of food and these are things. You feed birds to attract certain birds and start with hummingbirds. Can you make a you have a Kathy Heidel secret recipe for a hummingbird solution or not? (00:16:31) There's no secret about it. I do recommend that you get a good hummingbird feeder and it can be as small as a baby food jar with a piece of wire strung around it and you hang it up at about a 45 degree angle make a solution of four parts of water to one part of sugar. Don't use honey. Honey. Carry sometimes can carry a fungus. So use sugar and water and bring it to a boil cool it down and put it in your feeders and change this fluid whenever it's gone or once a week, whichever happens first and then flush your hummingbird feeder with hot water with no soap in it and you can hang that out. If you want to attract them to your feeder. Don't put a red. Dye in the in the solution just paint a little bit of red paint around the lip of your feeder or put some red tape on your feet of they are very I tuned in to seeing red but there's no need to give them any of these dies. The other thing to get other birds to your yard. I would say just a good brand of the smaller oil. This will see a sunflower seeds in a sunflower seed feeder maybe thistle seeds the finches like that and plant fruit bushes in your yard. That's what I'm getting right now. I've planted currant bushes and berry bushes and dogwoods and vibrant hymns and I have a whole host of fruit eating birds in the summertime that I really thoroughly enjoy even the fat Orioles are all bringing their young to feed on the (00:17:59) berries bird food recipes on Saturday. Midday for happy. Right? Right. Well, let's take another call. Jeff is in Fergus Falls. You're on Minnesota Public Radio with Kathy Heidel. Hi. I have a strange phenomenon that I saw and I was been always wondering about it about two or three years ago. I was driving in the fall back from Ortonville, Minnesota up the western side of the state and the salamanders were out. And as they were crossing the road, I began to notice probably over 99% of them were all going west and when you get to an East-West Road, there was none on it when you get to the north-south road. They're all going west again. Any reason for (00:18:37) that was salamanders spend spend the better part of their lifetime in wooded areas where there's thick mulch damp leafy areas, usually in the wooded areas, but they also have to lay in the spring they have to lay their eggs and mate in water. So in the spring they go from there over wintering areas and they have specific wintering areas and my guess is what you are seeing in the fall was the migration from wherever they were feeding and living during the summertime. They don't know what normally live in ponds, but they might not live terribly far from one if it's a moist place and I think They were probably migrating back to their wintering areas that are traditional. They were probably going across the heading west was because that was probably wear their traditional wintering area was I'm not real familiar with the area that you're talking about. I haven't been out there very much, but I do know that even in the areas where I work in Hennepin Parks, we have specific roads and specific Wetland areas that the salamanders go from Summer to Winter and from Spring to Summer and you can almost Bank on it when you have a thunderstorm or some kind of an evening rain when it's wet. That's when they tend to move. They don't dry out as much but they have the traditional moving times (00:20:06) and I've been Parks naturalist Kathy Heidel is on midday today and we're talking about nature. Obviously. If you have a question, we have some lines open. The number in the Twin Cities is 2276 thousand outside of the Twin Cities anywhere. You can hear the broadcast. You can call toll-free with your question about nature of Kathy. Idol at one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight. Let's go back to the phones to Mick in Minneapolis. Good morning. Good morning. This is Nick Minneapolis morning Kathy. Good morning, Nick. Yes, we observed a snapping turtle come up and lay her eggs, June 1st. That was on a South Exposure above the Minnesota River and then the next night of Raccoon came and dug it up. So I pull the eggs out and remove the eaten ones and place the other ones back in 16 eggs, and then we put a like a great over it so they couldn't get to it again. So I just wanted to know what the incubation time was. (00:21:02) The incubation time Nick for snapping turtles is about three months. And if she laid her eggs on the first of June, you can expect that the youngsters will be hatching somewhere around mid-september most likely snapping turtles. Don't always exit that nest if we have a cool fall we even had a nice sunny summer. So they have a better chance of getting out but they have this wonderful adaptation that if the summer has been cool if the weather in the fall is cool. They will stay in that underground nest for that first winter. They can freeze solid thoughout freestyle it again and survive and then in spring when the temperature of the ground gets to be about as warm as it would be normally perhaps in late summer, they will crawl out and go to the nearest pond so you might be willing to watch be watching that Nest this fall and see whether or not they come out sometime in September and if you don't see them don't despair they may actually come out next spring in April (00:22:04) Kathy. There are as you know, a great deal of armchair naturalist and one of the things that I've heard many of them lecture about are the dangers of the snapping turtle set the record straight are snapping turtles dangerous can they'd snap your bite your thumb off or something like that and if you're swimming in a lake and you run across one should you probably get out of the lake or what's the deal (00:22:23) with us? Laughing turtles underwater are not dangerous. You can swim with them. You can even touch them with your your feet just don't stick them in front of their mouths, but basically underwater they're not aggressive snapping turtles are aggressive when they get on land, especially when they come out in the spring time to lay their eggs or early summer. That's the only time that snapping turtles are generally seen on the landscape is when they're searching for a nesting site, then they're quite defensive. They have no they have no protection except their own behavior. So they usually hump their rear ends up raise up on their hind legs and drop down the front legs and then they'll stick that long neck out and snap at you that they don't have any teeth but they have extremely strong strong jaw muscles and the old stories about being able to break a broomstick into or snap your thumb off or grab your hand are probably stories. That should be more likely attributed to something like Crocodile, but certainly not a snapping turtle. I currently am raising snapping turtles as are a few of my my friends in Hennepin Parks. I have a three-year-old snapping turtle that is living right now with me and she or he I think it's a she is one of the most comfortable lovely animals. I carry around let her walk around in my house when I'm cleaning out her tank. She likes to be held and she has never snapped at me except when I was holding fish in my fingers and she was hungry or I had to clean her off because she was dirty she tends to sort of get a lot of them mosses stuff on her back. And so if I'm going to bring her out in public, I usually brush her back and she does not like that. I found that any of my turtles do not like to have their shells scraped or scrubbed. But otherwise, I think it's like a skunk you give it a respectful distance and then know they aren't dangerous. They're really wonderful animals. Do you realize that Turtles were on Planet Earth before the dinosaurs ever appeared they are that old they are older than the (00:24:29) dinosaurs and some of these get pretty big even in Minnesota. (00:24:33) Yeah, the snapping turtle gets to be it's probably one of our largest Turtles my turtle at three years when I fit it year-round now is about she's about 11 or 12 inches diameter across her shell but breeding female snapping turtles. Sometimes get a shell width from one side to the other of close to 20 (00:24:54) inches. Wow, healthy distance. And yeah say the least let's go back to the phone Steve is in st. Paul. You're on Minnesota Public Radio with Kathy Heidel. Good morning. Hello, good morning for years. We've raised chickadees in our backyard bird house with a great success lots and lots of families of them. And occasionally. I'll see a wren come through earlier maybe on and look in. Can I put up another bird house? I'm wearing my small backyard of wren House to try to attract Trends. Will that work or is that going to be too territorial something as I going to create a problem territorial (00:25:34) eyes? Well friends are very aggressive little birds and you can put up as many birdhouses as you feel comfortable in doing in one male Ren will probably claim every house that you have in your yard. That is he will fill it up with sticks that he breaks off of the ends of dried branches or sometimes even living with but usually dead ones and then he will sing like mad until a female comes by and shield check all the spots out and choose the one she wants and completely refurbish it. She'll throw out the sticks and rebuild it the ren. However, if you gette rings in your yard, and you still want to keep chickadees, you're going to have a problem because Ren's will also displace the chickadees, even though the chickadees Nest earlier. Most chickadees will start nesting probably in April and our rains don't come back until L met so if the rent if they chickadee start early enough, you might be able to serve both species of birds. Yes. I think you can put up more than one nest in in your yard. In fact, I would recommend a couple of boxes to take the pressure off of that one. (00:26:38) Okay. Let's go back to the phones to Faye in St. Louis Park your on Minnesota Public Radio. Yes. Thank you for taking my call. I am a senior citizen and I do go to a daycare center and we're always looking for someplace to go and this sounds so interesting. Do you have any reserves that can accommodate perhaps wheelchairs or Walker's or canes or just people who (00:27:02) walks? Yes, we do. We have a number of facilities in a number of areas in Hennepin parks, and my suggestion would be that you call our Hennepin Parks number at 5599 thousand and you might even ask them to give you the phone number where you can call. Contact any of our nature centers and will tell you then when you get on the phone with some other area centers where how and how and when we can serve you best in general is an access in (00:27:35) proving all over the state of Minnesota in the country indeed for people who are using wheelchairs or (00:27:40) Walkers and right we have to because the Ada the American Disability Act requires that any public agency make itself accessible. So we've been revamping a lot of our areas we have just reopened in Hennepin parks are nürnberg Memorial Gardens on Lake Minnetonka and that now is accessible for people with canes and Wheelchairs and even roller beds. If you had to come in that it's a beautiful formal Garden was given to us by a grateful very wonderful donor and it's right on the lake. It's beautiful and it's built it's kind of like a traditional Victorian type Garden so that would be one place you could go and there are National Wildlife refuges got areas, you can get into in the park that I spend a lot of time in Carver Park Reserve we have as a number of other Parks. We have paved trails that we can take you to we can take it to a Trailhead and we will actually go out with people from nursing homes and day care centers and go for a walk short distances on this paved trail so that you can get along and be right out in the middle of the wild nature (00:28:51) sounds like a good time 25 minutes now before 12 noon, you're listening to midday on Minnesota Public Radio marks a tech like here with Hennepin naturalist Hennepin Parks naturalist, rather Kathy Heidel, and we are talking about nature we go now to Solon Springs, Wisconsin and a question from Greg. Good morning. Good morning. I'm trying to attract Blue Jays and Cardinals into my yard. How can I go about that? And can I build any kind of bird houses or places for them to stay? (00:29:24) Neither Blue Jays nor Cardinals nest in cavities. They build their own nests. I would say that the best way to attract attract those two species of birds would be to have some evergreen trees. They do particularly like spruce trees, but as a place to get out of bad weather and and to nest in shrubbery both of them, like low thick shrubs. They also like sunflower seeds a lot. So I would put out a bird feeder you have to realize that in your soul and Springs area. You're getting into an area where there aren't a lot of cardinals. I can remember when I came to Minnesota from Wisconsin 25 years ago. It was just only within the last 10 years that Cardinals had even appeared as far north as your area. So they're not real plentiful Blue Jays are more plentiful, but you have to be in a wooded area for them to be around and there have to be nut trees around if you have No, oak trees and knows no not producing trees in your area. Then getting blue jays is going to be hard. (00:30:31) Okay on to another question for Cathy Heidel Rita in Winona. You're on Minnesota Public Radio. Yes. I have a suggestion for the person who called in about problems of squirrels and bird feeders. We were having the same perhaps me and we bought you can you know, you can buy these feeders with it like discs you can buy these discs right then. Hello. Yeah, go ahead and that helps but they'll you know get on that and they'll still get on the feeder. However, you can buy these squirrel feeders and we have a big yard. So we mounted a squirrel feeder given to us for Christmas from our kids because we complain about the squirrel and you put corn you buy corn and you put that on the squirrel feeder and the squirrels done it helped to keep them away from the bird feeders and they get plenty of food just from their own squirrel feeder. So they tend to ignore them actual bird feeder. Yeah. I just Your if cornered right your cornea mount on this they have different kinds you can get those, you know, oh, you know nurseries, I think or any place we were they have bird for you by you know, the houses are great for teens over them. I next my question is we've attracted a lot of birds. We have bird feeders out. We attract a lot of beautiful birds to our backyard and how and until the spring we had no problem. We also attracted blackbirds and grackles because when we put Cardinal feet up we had the Cardinals but then the Blackbirds and grackles game, how can you get rid of (00:32:06) them in a bad rap? Don't say the poor certainly. Do you know I always think that the poor the poor black words and grackles in particular they nest in evergreen trees and since the 1930s, we've been planting more and more and more evergreen trees around our houses. Then our cities and so we really attracted them by building the kind of habitat they need and not we scold them because they're doing what comes naturally. The only thing I can think of is to increase the number of feeding areas the number of levels and the kinds of feeders or basically just stop feeding for the better part of a day. I have the same problem in my neighborhood. And what I have done occasionally is to let my feeders go empty and just put a little bit of food out in the early morning that will be the time when the Cardinals come to feed and some of your other pretty birds that you really like to have the black birds tend to come a little bit later there just aren't as earlier Riser. So that's one way you can you can deal with that other thing is they like to feed on the ground so you could put food on the ground and then still have some Hopper feeders and some upper elevated feeders and see if you can get them. It's really hard. There is no way. Once you create a habitat that is good cover good protection and everything else for them. There's it's really hard to all of a sudden get them to go away because you've provided more than just food for them. (00:33:37) Okay from blackbirds two doves and Betty and st. Paul. Yes. Good morning Kathy. I think you're pretty well answer my question with the last lady. But anyway, I had a nest of mourning doves in our front pine tree, and she she had some eggs and they hatched and we enjoyed them very much their song is so pretty and I really did enjoy them. But anyway the crackles one day were swarming around the tree and the crackle of got him and I don't know what to do what to do if she chooses to come back next year, you (00:34:14) know, well you hope she'll Nest again doves Des Deux Nest more than once in the season and grackles when they're feeding their young feed their young. Well, I don't know how else to say it except meat protein insects bird eggs and baby birds. And and so they act just like Jays and crows do and that's just part of the whole scene when we have all the different kinds of things that they need. So all I can think of is to provide more food for some of these birds and I have even been known believe it or not to actually buy suet in the summertime and Bones meat scraps and put them out for the grackles and the crows because they do eat meat to try to see if I could decoy them away from some of the seed-eating birds. It's an Ever continuous battle to how to outwit them and how to learn to live with them because that's really what we have to do. (00:35:12) We're on birds. I have to ask a question about the bald eagle now it is I think it's not endangered anymore. It's I think upgraded to threatened. I don't know the official status you may or may not but Are people seeing more bald eagles around now in this (00:35:27) area? Yes, that's one of the success stories. Once we started using the DDT poisons after the after the war after we there was late 60s when we started stopped using DDT, we stopped getting that buildup of poisons in the fish populations bald eagles eat fish. They are fishing eagle. And so they started having more young more successful nests. They were actually nesting in bringing off young survives to survive. We here in Minnesota and in part of Wisconsin and upper Michigan and certainly in Canada have got wonderful Eagle habitat with all of our lakes and our tall mature trees in which they can build their big bulky nests and then the winter along the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers and even along the Wisconsin River below the power dams where the fish are that go through the turbines are cast up and and so they fish on during the wintertime and so the population of Eagles has been really building up in the Upper Midwest. And the other thing that's helping is the efforts of the Raptor Center and st. Paul where they are rehabilitating injured Eagles and then they are releasing them in areas where there haven't been nesting Eagles. That's what's happening in the Minneapolis st. Paul area. We now have more nesting Eagles here than I can ever recall having seen and I think it's because these rehabilitate birds are staying local and recruiting mates and actually nesting (00:36:56) in a pan Parks natural is Kathy Heidel on midday today. If you have a question about nature and you're listening in the Twin Cities, you can join our conversation by calling two two seven six thousand outside of the Twin Cities anywhere. You can hear the broadcast call toll free with your question at one eight hundred two, four two two eight two eight sixteen minutes before 12 noon back to the phones with a question from Alan, Robbinsdale. Good morning, Kathy morning. I'm just wondering about the hummingbird moth the last four or five years where I live. I've noticed these models appear in my backyard the first week or ten days in September and the only appear after the sun has set and the act and flags actually like a hummingbird and they feed on the flowers just like a hummingbird with wood, but they're only around for a few minutes after the sun has set and then they're gone and I wondered where they spend their Summers and are they migrating through our area and going south some place or what (00:37:55) hummingbird moths are also called Sphinx moths and they overwinter in a pupil case in the ground or on the ground under the leaves. They are very long time in that Pupa and they don't generally hatch out on till mid to late summer and then they feed maybe it's Midsummer. But anyway, they feed on. NATO's and potatoes tobacco and garden flowers like nicotiana. And so if you can plant this sorts of things then you have a chance of getting these insects to actually have a food source for the caterpillars and then they'll hatch out once the caterpillars mature. They'll hatch out in late summer and feed at these night blooming flowers. So if you plant petunias and the cauchy Anna and some of these other Nicosia is actually flower flowering tobacco, but some of these night blooming flowers that have a lot of nectar than you will not get these insects to come by the adults are not on the landscape very long. They only live basically long enough to find a mate and lay eggs. And then basically the life cycle is finished, but with the increased use of herbicides and pesticides, we are having fewer and fewer food plants for the young and fewer and fewer caterpillars are Having the use of the herbicide so your nest just not seeing as many of these beautiful Sphinx moths (00:39:25) as we talked about enjoying the outdoors and nature. I'm compelled to ask you Kathy Heidel what's going on with the mosquito population this summer it seems unprecedented at least in my corner of the world. And what are you recommending in 1994 to keep mosquitoes away. (00:39:41) Well one thing I am recommending your right. There are a lot of mosquitoes. We've had a very wet year and mosquitoes, of course evolve in water. They they really important, you know, they feel a lot of fish feed lot of birds to feed a lot of bats and they pollinate flowers move our native orchids only are pollinated by mosquitoes. So I'm always pleading the case of the mosquito unlike an awful lot of our citizens who basically damn them with loud voices. Here's what we did. I was out last night with a group of people. We had 60 some people and cover Park Reserve at Lowry Nature Center coming out for an evening walk. I invited them to wear long clothes. Long pants and long sleeves shirts to spray the shirts and the pants not their skin butshe's spray their clothing with some insect repellent so that the mosquitoes were confused and wouldn't come in to bite them to wear hats to use a citronella oil if you want to not use anything that's got DEET in it. I used a product Oh, there's several different products. One of the things that I've used in the past has been Cutters and other one has been Deep Woods Off and I currently used Moscow last evening. And while the mosquitoes are still flying around they're not biting you. So I think it is a matter of dressing properly and then using some kind of a repellent. I would hate to see our world without mosquitoes because without mosquitoes we wouldn't have the fish and that's a big big industry in Minnesota sport fishing. We wouldn't have the birds. We wouldn't have our bats and I would hate to see the loss of some of those orchids that I think are so (00:41:17) beautiful very likely the Mosquitoes only Ally Kathy Heidel, (00:41:21) so I hope they're a few more out there pleading the case of the mosquito than me. I hope a few fishermen start doing that. (00:41:27) Let's go back to the phones with a question for Cathy Heidel Greg. And st. Paul. You're on Minnesota Public Radio Cathy. I've got a bird question for you. Okay, go ahead. I've got I've got a really weird bird that comes out in my evening and my morning what he does is he goes does his floppy flight it makes it sound like someone's pulling too hard on a whistle kind of prayer and then he gets up so high and he says, whoa, dude, I'm too high and decides to change his Direction comes screaming down right over top of our apartment. Anything goes zipping by he makes us noise. (00:41:57) Now, you've got it. That's the Nighthawk. It's not a hawk. It's a member of the whippoorwill family and it's out there hunting for the insects that are attracted to the city lights and it hunts throughout the night time period and what it's doing is probably nesting on the roof of your apartment building because that down power drive. That's die that comes down and That sound is usually done over its nesting territory. So yeah, that's the Nighthawk. It's the bird with holes in it swings. If you look at it, it looks it has a floppy flight and it has two big white spots one on either wing. And so if you're looking at it at it from down below up against the dark sky, it looks like it has holes in its (00:42:38) wings. We're going out to what apparently is the exact geographic center of Minnesota for triply in a question from Margie. Hello. Hello. Yes last Monday my dog got into a porcupine and I want to know how I can discourage the porcupine and what is its range and is a number of porcupines increasing with lived here for 25 years. And this is the first summer I've seen one and what happens to them in the winter and any information you can give me, I'd appreciate thank (00:43:09) you you porcupines don't move very fast and they don't seem to be terribly bright they feed on tree bark and so a porcupine will just Out in a tree for a long time oftentimes like to be in pine trees don't I don't generally think that they're unusual in your area the for triply area but they tend to stay up in the trees and they move so slowly that you rarely ever see them especially in summertime wintertime is the time to really look for porcupines when the when some of the trees have lost their leaves and you just kind of look for a lump up there. They're active all year round. They feed on tree bark all year round and occasionally come down to the ground to I supposed to move from one country to another and or to find a mate that would happen in the spring and possibly to maybe get water or something like that. I'm not sure but mostly they're arboreal that is up in the trees even sleep in trees. I hope you took your dog to a vet because porcupine quills are not not not fun and they work their way in instead of working their way (00:44:17) out. Okay, let's go from Fort Ripley to Virginia up in the Northland and a question from Shelly for Kathy Heidel. Hello Cathy, hi. We have a cabin and there are Shutters on the windows in bats are living behind the shutters. We're going to have to remove them to paint both the house and shutters and I'm wondering if there's a way that we can attract the bats to another area to provide habitat elsewhere in the (00:44:45) yard. When are you seeing these bats at the shutters? (00:44:51) I'm hearing them and hearing them about it at Twilight. But we hear them all day long behind. (00:44:57) Those bats are probably my great. Once we start getting cold weather in October September and October. If you can wait that long to do your painting or whatever. I would, you know, give the bats as much habitat as possible because their habitat is being destroyed to otherwise. The other thing is too if you can temporarily dislodge them and do your work in air it out. They may come back. The other thing is you might take some tar paper or I'm some old shingles and put them over in adjacent area where maybe they could be encouraged to go under while you're working on your shutters and then temporarily when everything is cleaned up, maybe then they'll come back and use their preferred spot, but I think that the some kind of a thing that can Crawl under they like to get in behind those shutters. So bark up against something like or like like the side of a house or the side of a garage or some other kind of semi loose material that they could go under for the day time. Okay back to the (00:46:05) phones to Plymouth with a question from Steve. Good morning. Good morning. I had a question. I've been learning some interesting stuff on waiting, but my question is about a house in Michigan. It's wood covered and woodpeckers in the last year or two have been pecking order right through this wood siding and winter if there's it's a it's a rough cut Pine and wondering if there's anything natural we could spray on it or any kind of thing. We could put out in the area that they'd rather peck on (00:46:27) it's really hard those woodpeckers have learned that they can find food in that rough cut Pine or that rough cut cedar. What happens is that wood-boring insects bore Through the Wood and they lay their eggs in there and the woodpeckers are have learned to look for these small holes, so I would cock up any holes and I find whether they be woodpecker holes or insect holes in that siding and try to make it look like an unhealthy landscape for a woodpecker short of that if they keep putting holes in it. I guess I would go to some other type of siding like vinyl or (00:47:05) aluminum. Okay, let's take another question. Gene is listening and Cottage Grove. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I'm glad you talked a little bit about mosquitoes, but I had heard a tip from both my son and then apparently repeated on television from a man from a garden center with regard to the hordes of mosquitoes were trying to discourage at the lake. So it's possible. I mean we do use, you know spray and so forth as far as our own selves are concerned, but they're just They just literally drive you indoors and we had heard that if you spray after the do has dried off the grass if you spray your lawn and your Shrubbery up to and trees up to a level of 5 feet above the ground with melas eye on you will discourage the mosquitoes now, since we're right next to the lake, I didn't know whether or not doing that was appropriate. (00:48:00) Well, you're speaking to the wrong person if you want approval for that kind of action. What is happening is that anything that goes into the air is ultimately going to go into the water. Malathion does not break down rapidly. So you're going to get some kind of effect in your water. And the second thing is that whatever that malathion touches. It's not only going to be mosquito specific. It's going to kill all the caterpillars and all the other insects that ladybird larvae and everything else that you have in the trees. It's just simply going to kill everything off and that will definitely be a silent summer in addition to A Silent Spring. (00:48:38) Okay. Let's go back to the phones with a question in Wayzata from Melissa. You're on Minnesota Public Radio with Kathy Heidel. Well, we were wondering we have a pair of hawks in our yard and they've already nested and had babies and stuff and we were wondering will they migrate and keep the same nest or it will they migrate and or will they keep the same neck? And come back next year, (00:49:02) they'll probably migrate when the food supply gets short Hawks tend to probably the kind you're talking about are probably broad-winged Hawks and they they feed on mice and insects and when the snow gets deep in the wintertime, they won't be able to get any food. So most likely they migrate they chances are of they're coming back to your yard. Next year are very good. They might not use the same nest. They might build a new one, but they call home the area where they learn to fly. So the the mother and father bird will probably come back to the same general area. At least one of them will if they survive the winter and any of the youngsters that make it through the winter time migrating is of is a very dangerous thing for young birds to do hawks or any other kind because they're going into country. They don't know and so finding food is tough and a lot of them don't make it they don't survive the winter, but if they make it through the winter and they can come through the migration. Asian route from wherever they go and Southern United States, then they'll probably come back to your area and try to nest in the same area. That means that whatever you can do to protect the woodlands around your area to keep trees from being cut down will help those talk to survive into the (00:50:16) future. Okay. Let's now go up to Brainerd with a short question. I'm told from Jim you're on Minnesota Public Radio. Hi Kathy. Hi. I would like to know of a good bird book for this area that has color pictures of both the male and the female. I can usually find them at the color pictures of the mail and then it's just drawings or something like that. (00:50:35) If you can get a copy of the National Geographic society's birds of North America that is a really fine book intends to show both males and females. There's also a three-volume book The Master guide to birding and it has photographs of birds and shows you both male and female and Shows you what Young Ducks during especially in Ducks during the transition period will show you what Young look like to so I think any local bookstore ask him about these books, and if you can't get the National Geographic book, I know that you can buy the book separately from The Blue Heron bookstore at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. You can also I think you did at the Science Museum of Minnesota. So look for those books. I think it'll be good (00:51:31) truly a lot of interest in birds today. Yes, the our Kathy Heidel Hennepin Parks naturalist. Thanks so much for coming in again to our Studios and answering all these questions. The lines were jammed as usual throughout much of the our appreciate (00:51:44) it. Thank you. I enjoyed it. (00:51:45) Thanks to all of you who listen today to midday on Minnesota Public Radio and a special. Thanks to those of you who called in with your questions the technical directors for the program have been Steve Griffith and Michael Osborne Kitty Isley produced Saturday. Midday. Thanks for listening. I marks Act like midday on Saturday is supported by the oriental rug company specializing in sales and service of handmade oriental rugs and located in Minneapolis at 50th and Bryant. Well Chris Roberts are you did you build a bird feeder or anything like that in the time you've had here to listen to mid-day know I didn't but I'm amazed just by the fact that you don't have to go very far in the Twin Cities. Do you to observe nature peregrine falcons right outside of the Minnesota Public Radio building? I think why don't you go NAB one of those mark. Thank you very much. That's Mark zdechlik and you're listening to Minnesota Public Radio at a minute before noon. We'll check the forecast for you partly to mostly sunny skies becoming Breezy and Thief River Falls this afternoon a chance of showers and thunderstorms in Rochester and Duluth highs from the low 70s in Hibbing to the mid 80s around Worthington for the Twin Cities this afternoon and isolated shower or thunderstorm is possible mainly over the extreme South Metro and tell about noon. Otherwise partly sunny. High around 80 degrees tonight mainly clear low in the mid to Upper 50s partly to mostly sunny and breezy tomorrow in the Twin Cities a high in the upper 70s to the lower 80s right now in the Twin Cities, mostly sunny skies and 75 degrees. I'm Perry fanelli Monday at noon on midday a recent speech by Michael Ferris founder and president of the home school legal defense Association. Midday from 11:00 to 1:00 o'clock on Minnesota Public Radio, including knw FM 91.1 It's 75 degrees at knnow 13:30 and KN o w FM 91.1 Minneapolis st. Paul and the time is high noon.