Last Updated: Friday, August 18, 2006 2:59 PM CDT
Think Pink
Northwoods sunsets are tough to beat
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.”
- Chinese Proverb
Pinking-up time
A Northwoods sunset - you can't beat one! Many of us look forward to it. Many of our days are sunny ones. If we live on a lake, both the sunrise and the sunset are beautiful during all four seasons.
In the South Pacific Islands all the people turn out to watch the sunsets - their “pinking-up” time. In the Yellowstone Park, there's a spot that's jam-packed with tourists who have come to get a grand view of the sunset.
I enjoyed a bit of verse from Postscripts in the Saturday Evening Post written by Wayne Edwards:
Last night I saw a sunset:
It was such a pretty sight
God has certainly the knack
Of how to say, “Good Night.”
Those amazing monarchs
There are many interesting things about the orange and black Monarch butterflies. The ones that we see in early summer have a life span of three to five weeks, but the last generation that is produced in late summer, the ones that will fly to Mexico for the winter, have a life span of nine months.
This length of time permits them to migrate to the wintering site, over-winter there, mate and then start migrating northward after the spring equinox.
On the return trip it may take two or three generations of butterflies to get the species back to the Northwoods to start their annual cycle again.
More about Cattails
Throughout history cattails have been used by man, although not always as food. An Indian name meant “fruit for papoose's bed” because the fluffy masses of seed are very soft and do not mat.
Several million pounds of them were used during World War II to stuff life jackets, mattresses, pillows and baseballs. Insulation, oils and wax are made from the seeds - meal for livestock and weaving materials from the leaves.
There are two species of cattails in the Northwoods - the narrow-leaved and the broad-leaved.
Snakes give birth to young
The most common snake in the Northwoods is the eastern garter snake - a greenish reptile with yellow stripes. Toward the end of August the female will give live birth to as many as 50 six-inch snakelets. Once they leave her body, they do not enter her body again to seek protections. That's a popular myth
Some of the popular snake myths are: They do not hypnotize their prey. They're not slimy. They don't sting with their tongues. If the mate of a snake is killed, it does not return to avenge the death.
Chipmunk problem
Several of our readers have called to say that they are having problems with an abundance of chipmunks this summer. “Can't get rid of them.” In reviewing the available literature, I've learned one thing - there is no known repellent for chipmunks. Live trapping and moving them elsewhere seems to be the only humane way of eliminating them. It wouldn't be surprising if they returned home.
Eaglets have fledged
The eaglets have left their crude stick nests and are moving about the countryside. Since they lack the white head and white tail of an adult, it is difficult to identify them. These dark-brown juveniles are as large as their parents, and they have scatterings of white under their wings. The young eagles do not get their white head and tail until they are four years of age. Young eagles have brown eyes - adults are yellow.
Bits and pieces
Bee wings beat at the rate of 300 times a second.
A frog can jump ten times its body length.
Honey bees will travel as far as three miles for a type of flower nectar that they're looking for.
Mosquitoes may need your blood to produce eggs, but they don't need it for nutritional needs; they get nectar for the flowers they visit - that's their gasoline!
The largest black bear caught in the wild weighed 902 pounds. July is the deadliest month for lightning - April for tornadoes.
When a honeybee stings you, it may leave the stinger in your skin and die. It is said that “a bee's stinger is ~1/10 inch long. The other ~9/10 is imagination.”
Hummer notes
Hummingbirds were killed by the hundreds of thousands in the 1800s and early 1900s to serve as feathered jewels on women's clothing. During the 1850s, 32,000 dried hummingbird skins were purchased in a single London sale. Between 1904 and 1911, London feather auctions included eight sales totaling 152,000 hummingbirds.
Although the hummers will be leaving soon, the chickadees are beginning to arrive at the feeders from their summer nesting grounds and will take the place of the hummers in our back yards. Hummers and chickadees are our favorite birds!
Blackberry crop is good
Berry pickers tell us that there's plenty of blackberries this year. Whenever this happens we receive many requests asking, “How do you make cordial?”
Here's the recipe:
2 cups fresh blackberries
1 cup sugar
2 cups vodka
Place clean, mashed blackberries in a 1 1/2 quart glass jar. Add the sugar and vodka and stir gently until the sugar is dissolved. Cover and store in a cool, dark place for eight weeks. Stir once a week. Strain the mixture through cheese cloth or a paper coffee filter and pour into a bottle. Cap or cork and store in a cool, dark place. Makes 1 1/2 pints.
P.S.
Happy sunsets to you!
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