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Cold

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Aldo comes inside when the outdoor temperatures dip below 10°F, so he has been in the office a lot recently. When people ask why, they often nod and answer their own question: "oh, because he's so small!" But size can't be the only way to explain this bird's winter hardiness.  Both my daughter and my cat delighted in watching chickadees at our bird feeder last weekend. Weighing in at just a half-ounce, chickadees are 1/7th the size of Aldo the American Kestrel. Yet they survived even through our recent -30°F nights.  My whole family was enthralled with watching the bird feeder at breakfast! Chickadees have fascinating strategies to cope with Wisconsin's winters. They ensure a food supply by hiding seeds in the fall, and enlarging the memory portion of their brain (hippocampus) by 30% to remember where those seed caches are located. Small owls, about the same size as kestrels, also overwinter here. They can locate prey under a blanket of snow with their amazing...
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Digging

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  "Is there something on my nose?" Digger the hognose snake had evidence of her most recent romp in the aspen bedding!
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Cold Days

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Red-tailed Hawks are built for Wisconsin winters. Many migrate south to find food, but with a steady food source, large hawks can handle the cold. On really cold days, though, I like to bring Carson inside to unthaw for a few moments with her lunch. This week I set her in her crate and offered half of a rat. I intended to take a photo of her enjoying her meal, but she had swallowed it before I managed to get my camera up! She tucked a foot and I let her rest for a few more minutes until going back outside.
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Malar Stripes

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  Aldo the American Kestrel has particularly striking markings. I love the black speckles on his lower belly. But his boldest markings are the malar stripes, the black streaks below his eyes. This is characteristic of falcons (and cheetahs) to reduce glare when chasing prey on sunny days. 
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Conversions

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Is it strange that I was excited to break out a brand new spray bottle? I pulled it out of storage to replace the old, now broken, spray bottle that contained our daily disinfectant. This new bottle was larger, so I had to figure out how to mix the proper concentration of disinfectant that would be effective at killing dangerous pathogens like avian influenza.  I didn't learn much in my high school chemistry class that remained relevant in my adult life. But in situations like this, I am always thankful that Mrs. S taught us an easy way to calculate conversions.  I grabbed a piece of scratch paper and drew a long horizontal line. I added 16 oz of water, the capacity of the new spray bottle, at one end. The Rescue disinfectant label told me I needed to mix a concentration of 1 part Rescue with 64 parts water, so I added that to the line. The water units cancel each other out and I am left with how much Rescue I will need to add to the new spray bottle: 16 ÷ 64 = 0.25 oz Rescue....
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2025 Highlights

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Deep

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Digger the hognose snake certainly lives up to her name. Each morning I see holes in her bedding where she tunneled through. Due to the front-opening doors on her habitat, her bedding is only 2-3 inches thick. Would she like a deeper place to dig?  I filled a pan with about 5 inches of aspen chips and added it to Digger's habitat. She was immediately curious and looped around it. The next day, I spied a tunnel emerging from the deep pan. I haven't seen any sign of her using it since, but at least she gave it a try!
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