A Northwoods Almanac for 1/16-29/ 2026

 A Northwoods Almanac for 1/16-29/ 2026  

 

Adult Painted Turtles Extreme Responses to Winter

            Cold-blooded animals (better referred to as “ectotherms”) like reptiles and amphibians have to go to great extremes to survive northern winters. Even mild freezing temperatures will cause the water inside their bodies to expand and freeze, the sharp ice crystals potentially shredding cell membranes and rupturing the cells, leading to a quick death.

            Thus, every species of ectotherm has had to evolve a strategy to make it to spring, and sometimes even within a given species, the strategy may differ. Take, for instance, painted turtles. Adult painted turtles can’t survive below-freezing temperatures, and adapt by typically ensconcing themselves onto lake or river sediments prior to ice-up and waiting out the winter.

            The minor problem with this strategy is that turtles breathe via their lungs, and lungs, if you haven’t noticed for yourself, don’t work underwater. To survive, painted turtles drop their internal body temperatures to the same as the water, usually a few degrees above 32°F, and their

metabolic rate drops by about 95%. This reduces their oxygen demand so much that they usually can get all the oxygen they need by respiring through their skin, especially the skin inside and around their mouth as well as their cloaca (less scientifically called “butt breathing”).

Turtles under ice

            But oxygen levels in shallow lakes often crash as the winter progresses (a process called “anoxia”), which can kill fish, reptiles, and amphibians. At this point, painted turtles are unable to get any oxygen via “butt breathing” and compensate by dropping their metabolism to just 1% that of summer levels. Now with no oxygen available whatsoever, they start burning glycogen from muscle tissue to produce enough ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate, the fundamental energy currency for all cellular activities) to power their cells. 

            Now, however, a new problem arises. Lactic acid is produced as a byproduct and steadily rises during periods of anoxia, eventually leading to a condition called anoxic acidosis, which leads to an eventual death. Of all the turtle species in North America, painted turtles have the greatest tolerance to anoxia and the resulting acid buildup. They balance out the lactic acid by precipitating calcium and potassium from their skeleton and shell into their blood stream, which buffers the acidity and staves off the symptoms of acidosis. 

            Remarkably, they can survive without food or oxygen for 100 days. One study found that painted turtles can reduce their heart rate to 8 beats per hour, or 1 beat every 7 ½ minutes.

            Even so, some adult painted turtles die after prolonged periods in anoxic conditions. The best solution for defeating anoxia is to have an early ice-off so atmospheric oxygen can mix with the water. So, while early ice-off is great for anglers, or for those of us starved to see open water, it can be crucial for adult painted turtle survival.

            

Hatchling Painted Turtles Do Something Different, But Equally Extreme

            Painted turtle hatchlings offer a different story. Painted turtle eggs typically hatch in the early fall and the tiny hatchlings head immediately for open water. But some hatchlings remain in their shallow underground nest all winter, and are regularly exposed to freezing temperatures that kill adults. 

            To survive, the hatchlings have evolved two methods of coping with the freezing temperatures. They can “supercool,” a process by which liquids in the turtle’s body drop

to well below their normal freezing points without actually freezing. It’s basically like using an antifreeze, but in this case using high concentrations of glucose and other cryoprotectants

(compounds that protect tissue from freezing conditions). High glucose concentrations can allow the hatchlings to remain unfrozen down to an average of 14°F. 

            There are variables, however. The moisture in the soils and the type of soils surrounding the nests impact the temperature to which the turtles can supercool. In wet sandy soils,

turtles can only supercool to about  28°F before freezing, but in clay soils they can chill to 9°F, the difference being with how ice crystals form in the different substrates. 

            The second strategy they use is extra-cellular freezing whereby water is drawn out of the cells and into the spaces between the cells where it can freeze and expand without rupturing the cells. All but the liver and other vital organs freeze solid and can remain so for several days without causing harm to the hatchlings. 

            Bottom line: For most of the winter, the hatchlings utilize supercooling because they can’t tolerate long periods of being frozen.

            Come spring, the hatchlings will emerge and head for the nearest water.

            Amazing!

 

Garter Snakes Can Freeze, Too!

            Well, turtles don’t have the market cornered on freeze tolerance. Common garter snakes typically swarm together in an underground site called a hibernacula where they can freeze, too (they are known to also spend the winter underwater). They, too, are capable of supercooling to about 23°F, though this apparently isn’t an adaptation to winter freezing, but rather to freezing in the spring when they have emerged from their hibernacula and there’s an overnight frost. They can only freeze for a short period, around 10 hours, but that’s enough to get them by, and explains why garter snakes range so much farther north than other snake species – as far north as the southernmost tip of the Northwest Territories in Canada. 

Common garter snake range map

 

Some Species of Northern Frogs Also Freeze!

            Four out of our nine native species of frogs in the Northwoods – spring peepers, wood frogs, Eastern gray tree frogs, and boreal chorus frogs – also freeze over the winter. They freeze via a very similar mechanism to that of hatchling turtles, drawing water out of their cells so that freezing occurs outside of cells rather than within. 

            These frogs appear from the outside to be entirely frozen, their skin and eyes rock hard and most of their bodies solid – about 60% frozen. Their liver and heart, however, remain in a super-cooled state, though the heart ceases to beat and no breath is drawn. Basically, they’re in a state of suspended animation, appearing totally dead to the world.

Frozen wood frog

            Then in mid-April, they begin to thaw, and something yet more remarkable happens. In the fall, they freeze from the outside to the inside, but if the frog’s tissues and organs thawed in that same order, the frog would die. The skin, limbs, and eyes would thaw out without being connected to a beating heart, and tissue on the frog’s exterior would become necrotic – dying due to no blood flow.

            Instead, the frogs thaw from the core outward, starting with the heart beginning to beat. As each subsequent layer of tissue thaws, blood flows to the tissue until the skin and eyes soften, a process that only takes a couple hours. And then they can begin calling. and the

frogs can resume normal body function immediately afterward.

            Winners of the award for the most frozen of all organisms, wood frogs in Alaska were found to survive freezing to temperatures as low as zero and remained frozen for upwards of 200 consecutive days. Those Alaskan frogs concentrated ten times the amount of glucose in their musculature compared to Wood Frogs studied farther south.

            It should be noted that these four species of frogs overwinter in upland forests under leaf litter, logs and tree roots while air temperatures regularly fall way below that  in which the frogs can survive. But the frogs survive because of the snow cover that insulates them those microhabitats, providing yet another reason why having good snow depth beyond skiing and snowmobiling is important in the North country.

            BTW, where do our other five species of frogs overwinter (mink frogs, leopard frogs, green frogs, bullfrogs, and American toads)? Except for toads, underwater. Toads dig down into loose soil to below the frost line and spend the winter underground.

             

Sightings – Leucistic Black-capped Chickadee and Northern Shrike

            Zach Wilson sent me a photo of a leucistic black-capped chickadee that is coming to a feeder on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. If you’re not familiar with leucism, it’s a partial loss of pigmentation in animals, causing patchy coloration.  

Leucistic black-capped chickadee, photo by Amanda Griggs

            We continue to have a northern shrike perching atop a large silver maple and overlooking our bird feeders. Our songbird numbers have been low so far this winter, and I suspect the shrike’s predilection for eating songbirds is partially responsible for that.

 

Great Lakes Ice Cover

            Great Lakes ice coverage stands at 14.43% as of January 05, 2026. What the future holds for ice formation depends entirely on the weather. Prolonged periods of below freezing temperatures and calm winds enhance ice formation. High winds, warmer temps, and wavy surfaces inhibit ice formation.

 

Celestial Events

            Our days are growing longer now by more than two minutes per day.

            The new moon occurs on 1/18.

            The year’s coldest days on average occur between 1/20 and 1/29, though the first week of February has a history of also being pretty brutal.

            On 1/23, look after dusk for Saturn about 4° below the waxing crescent moon. 

            Best planet watching for the rest of January? Jupiter rises in the east at dusk at -2.7 magnitude, so it’s the brightest star in the night sky these days. And Saturn (1.1 magnitude) is high in the south at dusk, then setting in the west.

 

Thought for the Week

            “ In winter the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.” –  John Burroughs, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866

 

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail me at johnbates2828@gmail.com, call 715-476-2828, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com

 

 A Northwoods Almanac for 1/2-15/2026  

 

Christmas Bird Counts

            I participated in two Audubon Christmas Bird Counts – the 126^th year of the counts – beginning on 12/18 with the Minocqua count. Here the group tallied 24 species, a typical number, despite the mist and rain that morning. Most counters, however, felt the woods were abnormally quiet – the abundance of birds was well down.          

            For me, the keynote of this count was the finding of nine brown creepers, a species we struggle to find even one of on most count years (see more on brown creepers below).

            The second count took place on 12/20 in the Manitowish Waters area, and we also tallied 24 species (the average over 33 years for us), though again the woods overall were quiet. The strong winds may have had a lot to do with that – high winds push birds into cover and away from searching eyes and ears.

            The keynote of this count was the sighting of three predators: a northern shrike, a northern goshawk, and a merlin. The shrike appeared at our feeders in Manitowish, and he/she (the genders are identical) is still around, now perched at the top of a silver maple outside my office window as I’m writing this (12/26). Shrikes are masterful predators of small songbirds, so the large birds at our feeders, like blue jays and mourning doves, pay the shrike no mind. But the chickadees and nuthatches and goldfinches, well, I sure wouldn’t like to know something is perched nearby that is very capable of eating me, and there’s very little I can do about it other than be eternally vigilant.

northern shrike capturing a pine siskin, photo by Bev Engstrom

            To date this winter has produced only small numbers of Canadian migrants. Evening and pine grosbeaks are visiting some feeders, but darn few. Bohemian waxwing flocks have frequented some crabapple trees, but again not many. Very small numbers of redpolls and pine siskins are scattered here and there, and there aren’t any purple finches or crossbills to be found. 

            This can change as the winter progresses and food sources deplete north of us. We’ll see what January brings us!

            

Brown Creepers

            This quote describes perfectly the physical character of the tiny brown creeper: “The brown creeper, as he hitches along the bole of a tree, looks like a fragment of detached bark that is defying the law of gravitation by moving upward over the trunk, and as he flies off to another tree he resembles a little dry leaf blown about by the wind.” – W.M. Tyler, 1948. 

            “Inconspicuous” and “cryptic” serve also as descriptors. The creeper has no interest, no ego whatsoever, in preening out in the open, wearing brilliant colors to attract attention, or singing anything other than a high-pitched song that is hard to detect. 

            Nor does its behavior draw attention. Creepers are in endless pursuit of bark-dwelling invertebrates, doing so by beginning at the base of a tree trunk, climbing slowly upwards, and often spiralling around the trunk until they near the top. Their slow progress up a tree draws almost no notice, and then they fly to the base of a nearby tree and start over again. The creeper's short legs, long stiff tail, and long curved claws and toes are perfect adaptations to climbing nearly always upward. 

            I wonder if brown creepers are really quite numerous in the Northwoods but simply don’t register on our perceptual radars. They’re pretty much everywhere throughout North America, widely distributed in coniferous, mixed, and deciduous forests, from Alaska and Canada south to northern Nicaragua. They just don’t demand much attention.

brown creeper range map

            It wasn’t until 1879 that naturalists discovered the creeper’s unique habit of building its hammock-like nest behind a loosened flap of bark on a dead or dying tree. In fact, creepers almost always build their nests between the trunk and a loose piece of bark on a large, typically dead or dying tree. Thus, they favor forest stands with an abundance of dead or dying trees for nesting. But large live trees for foraging also are desired because creepers may be able to increase their energy intake by foraging on one large tree instead of numerous small ones. For example, in one study on douglas-fir forests in Washington, a creeper was determined to need to fly to 13 young trees or 3.3 mature trees to obtain the same number of spiders as are available on 1 old-growth tree.

            They’re a year-round resident for us in the Northwoods, and we hadn’t seen one on our Manitowish Waters count until we were eating lunch in town and one of our participants spotted a creeper working its slow way up a red pine right out the restaurant’s window. In winter, they eat a variety of insects and larvae, spiders and their eggs, and ants, but rarely has one has been observed caching sunflower seeds. I’ve never seen one come to our sunflower feeders.

 

Bird Feeding

            Northern winters are the greatest limiting factor for our bird populations. Among all of Wisconsin’s resident and overwintering bird species, winter mortality typically ranges from 10% to 50%, depending on species, age, and weather severity. However, that last factor – winter severity – is key for up here. The clearest example of this is to compare average Christmas bird counts from the southern part of the state to here. Over the last 33 years, we’ve averaged 24 species in our Manitowish Water count, while counts in the south typically exceed 50 species with sometimes as many as 97 species, and they tally a far greater abundance of birds.

            Most Wisconsin birds are well adapted to the cold, but food availability creates a very thin margin of error for our northern birds. More than half of all birds born last spring won't survive to next spring. They’re inefficient foragers and take too long to open seeds or find shelter during storms.

            Lots of factors conspire against adult survival, too. Ice storms coat seeds, extended severe cold snaps require greater calorie intake to stay warm, deep snow covers seeds and buds, short winter days and long winter nights constrict feeding times, and predators know where the action is – household feeders.

            What to do? Supplemental feeding helps. Research shows that during severe weather, survival rates for birds with access to feeders are nearly double the rates of those without.

            To maximize the help you can offer birds, feed sunflower seeds because they’re high in fat and protein (don’t bother with bags of mixed seed that have fillers like red milo that most birds ignore). Put out suet – just about every bird visits suet cakes, even chickadees. If you can provide a water source via a heated bird bath, well, you’ll be consider the best B and B in town (bird and bath). And if you grow low conifers near your feeders that provide cover from storms and predators, altogether you’ll have the best chance of attracting birds and helping them make it to spring.

 

Marge Gibson Wins Lifetime Achievement Award 

            If you’re not familiar with the work of Marge Gibson, you really should be because she’s one of a kind. Her work with raptors, particularly bald eagles, gained national recognition during

the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. As the leader of the Eagle Capture and Assessment Team there, Marge conducted groundbreaking work in assessing and treating affected eagles, helping set the foundation for future oil spill wildlife response efforts. 

            Her training as a medical technologist, her understanding of each species’ biological history, plus her prioritization of low-stress handling – honestly, she’s a bird whisperer – has resulted in remarkable success in the rehabilitation of injured birds and their successful release back into the wild.

            She has served as the President of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC), and her dedication to education has taken her across the world, bringing the IWRC Basic Skills course to Turkey and Greece, where she trained both veterinarians and rehabilitators.            

            Marge’s legacy also extends well beyond the animals she has saved – she has shaped the

careers of countless rehabilitators worldwide.

            She and her husband Don founded the Raptor Education Group, Inc. (REGI) in Antigo in 1990, which specializes in the rehabilitation of injured and orphaned native bird species, particularly raptors. REGI takes in anywhere from 800 to over 1,000 patients each year and provides educational programs to hundreds of people.

            In 2025, Marge was awarded the highest honor in her profession, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association. In 2020, she received the National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation for her extraordinary contributions to conservation and wildlife.

            I’ve been remiss in mentioning her awards in my column. Marge deserves all her accolades and more, and all of us in the Northwoods should applaud and support her work.

 

The Economic Value of Outdoor Recreation

            From a recent analysis by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR): “The single largest, most beneficial economic engine on federal land is not oil, not gas, not mining, and not timber. It’s outdoor recreation.” 

            ORR pulled together federal data from every major land management agency and found that Americans recreating on their federal public lands generate more wealth, more jobs, more wages, and more tax revenue than all extractive industries on federal lands combined. 

·      Outdoor recreation on federal public lands generates $128.5 billion every single year. 

·      It supports over 900,000 jobs and provides over $43.5 billion in wages.

·      It pours nearly $6 billion in tax revenue straight into the Treasury annually. 

            Comparatively in a typical year, the entire market value of onshore federal oil and gas production hovers around $20 to 25 billion dollars. Recreation dwarfs it five to one.

            The entire federal timber program yields far less – just $200 to 300 million in stumpage value each year. Million, not billion. On those same specific Forest Service lands, recreation generates $23 billion a year. 

            This is not to say extractive industries are unimportant. However, outdoor recreation produces more value, more jobs, more wages, more revenue, more long-term growth than extractive projects, is sustainable without leaving behind a clean-up, and promotes human health. It’s an economic powerhouse, anchors local small businesses, and is booming. We just have to recognize it both personally and politically, and act accordingly.

 

Thought for the Week

            “Many people think that the best stage of life is childhood or youth. But I’ll tell you something: the best stage is when you start to think clearly. When you stop complaining, stop dramatizing, and start to truly appreciate everything you have: your body, your freedom, your loved ones, the simple fact of being alive. That’s when true happiness begins. And the best part is that it doesn't depend on age.” – Rafael Santandreu

 

 

 

 

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/19/25 – 1/1/ 26

 A Northwoods Almanac for 12/19/25 – 1/1/ 26

 

Ice-Up!

            Woody Hagge has been keeping ice-up and ice-off dates for 50 years on 39-acre Foster Lake in Hazelhurst. This year, Foster Lake iced-up on November 29, two days later than the 50 year average of November 27. 

            There has been, of course, wild variation in these dates over the 50 years. Woody’s earliest ice-up on Foster Lake occurred on November 7, 1991, 20 days earlier than the average, while the latest ice-up date occurred on December 28, 2015, 31 days later than 50-year average.

            Foster Lake over the 50 years has averaged 140.5 days of ice cover – 20 weeks – or about 38% of the year.

            In case you’re already hankering for spring, just know that the average ice-out day on Foster is April 16. 

            But rather than anyone lament it, let’s hope that the ice stays that long, because that will mean we had an average winter, and winter is what makes the North Country what it is. 

            If you’re not familiar with the narrow band of forest that we call “The Northwoods” (also more scientifically called the Laurentian Mixed Forest Province), it only stretches north to the Canadian border and south to just below Hwy. 29 (see the map). If we moderate our winter, we quickly lose what defines us. 

The "Northwoods" or Laurentian Mixed Forest Province

            So, we need to buck up! The winter is already hard upon us, and it’s just as it should be.

With that, I’ll put on my snowshoes, share breaking trail with Mary, and try to keep up with her and our dog Pippa, smiling the whole way.

 

The Impact of Heavy Snows

            Good friend and superb photographer/writer Bob Kovar in Manitowish Waters summed up the state of many trails after the Thanksgiving snows:

            “There’s not a trail recognizable right now in the North, the tangled mess of branches, trees and heavy snow conspiring to confound our senses, turning lifelong routes that before the storm we knew so well we could proudly walk through with eyes closed into this immense, impassable, MC Escher jigsaw puzzle, into an alien drifter we have never met before, into a prison of sorts that we had to plot our escape from once the power came back on, from the inside out, one branch, one dangerously hanging tree at a time.” – 12/3/25

            A few days later, Bob further reflected on the thousands of trees and shrubs stooped with their tips bent over so far that they’re now frozen in a coiled spring in the snowpack:

            “I noticed something different this morning as I stepped onto the deck, that for the first time ever I could easily see to the river, as if the area had been clear cut, cleared out, the underbrush and smaller trees having disappeared, yielding to the onslaught of Thanksgivings’ heavy snow and ICE, their bodies crushed under the weight of something bigger, more powerful, almost sinister if you ask me, their tips imprisoned in the snowpack, the only visible trees being the elders that were old enough to know their rights and stood their ground, a spectacle of suffering, not unlike what is happening in too many tight-knit communities on a daily basis in our country these days, and I reached to gently tug at the scoliosed spine of one little white pine, pulling it free, and was surprised when it sprang right up, shaking the snow off as it stood, and then I watched it stand there dazed for a few moments, and it kept straightening almost imperceptibly, as if it was slowly stretching, and each time it blinked, a little more snow fell off, as if reclaiming its mojo, and so I did the same to another, and another, and pretty soon I was in the middle of a silent, but very powerful freedom march, and as the sunrise burned in universal indignation, I realized there is no keeping any one of us down if another is willing to help, and how even when you can’t see the forest for the trees, the forest is there, resilient, strong, bending, waiting.” – 12/6/25

            The efforts by many, many hundreds of volunteers to clear all the chaos on ski trails, bike trails, and snowmobile trails speaks to the strength and big hearts of our small northern communities. We do come together, we do help one another, when we’re called to respond to a bigger story than our politics.

 

Sightings – Gray Catbird, Evening and Pine Grosbeaks,

            12/4 - Pat Schmidt in Hazelhurst has a gray catbird in her yard that has failed to migrate, and she’s rightfully concerned about it. Catbirds typically winter in the far south of the U.S. and Central America, so, this guy or gal (they’re too similar to tell apart) shouldn’t be here. However, they are known to winter along the southeast coast of the U.S., so I suspect they can tolerate some degree of cold. 

gray catbird range map

            The issue for wintering catbirds is they rarely eat seeds – they’re a fruit and insect consumer – and we’re just a little shy on insects here in the winter. So, the question is whether there are enough fruits available for this bird to make it to spring. In one study, the percent of fruit in their diet, by volume, varied throughout year: winter 76%, spring 20%, summer 60%, fall 81%.

            If Pat wants to try and keep this catbird alive, the literature says to offer high-fat, protein-rich foods like suet, mealworms, soft fruits (raisins, chopped apples/grapes/oranges), and unsalted peanuts. But that’s a lot to ask. And one always wonders in these circumstances, it nature should instead be allowed to take its course.

            12/4 - Jean Hall in Arbor Vitae reported having many evening grosbeaks, a pine grosbeak, and a pair of cardinals at their feeders. 

            12/8 – We had our first bohemian waxwings appear in Manitowish, feeding on crabapples.

 

Wolf-Moose Interactions on Isle Royale

            Isle Royale National Park lies 53 miles north of Copper Harbor and 20 miles east of

Grand Portage, Minnesota in Lake Superior. The island offers something rare: a living wilderness with a remarkably simple food chain – one top predator, the gray wolf, and one main prey, the moose. 

            There’s no hunting, no forest management, very little human interference.

            Moose first arrived on the island in the early 1900s, their numbers rising and falling with weather and food supply. Then, in the late 1940s, a few wolves crossed an ice bridge from Canada, and everything changed.

            Durward Allen launched the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose Project in 1958, and the work has now unfolded over more than six decades – the longest continuous predator-prey study in the world.

            In January 2024, the best estimate of the wolf population was 30 wolves, which included four packs and one wolf living alone, similar to the estimate in 2023 of 31. 

            The estimated abundance of moose was 840, which is a 14 percent decline from the 2023 estimate (2025 estimates are not available due to their usual aviation resources being unexpectedly unavailable).

            Over the 66 years, moose populations have gyrated from as high as 2,455 to as low as 500, while wolves have been as high as 50 and as low as 2 (see the graph). 

            A recent article in BioScience (Vucetich JA, SR Hoy, RO Peterson, 2024) entitled “More reason for humility in our relationships with ecological communities” notes that “every five-year period in the Isle Royale history has been different from every other five-year period – even after sixty-five years of close observation. The first 25 years of the chronology were fundamentally different from the second 25 years. And the next six decades will almost certainly be different from the first six decades.”

            The article summarizes some of the ups and downs and unexpected occurrences that couldn’t be anticipated. For instance, in 1980, a mutant canine virus (canine parvovirus) swept Isle Royale, wiping out three-quarters of the wolves. 

            In 1996, the most severe winter ever recorded in the region struck. That winter coincided with the highest density of moose observed on Isle Royale, and the moose population crashed.

            A year later, 1997, a wolf emigrated to Isle Royale by crossing an ice bridge – the only way a wolf can cross the channel between Isle Royale and the mainland. This new wolf revealed that the resident wolves had been suffering from severe inbreeding. 

            With the new genetics, the wolf population bounced higher for nearly a decade, but between 2007 and 2010, the beneficial effects of the genetic rescue dissolved, inbreeding resumed, and canine parvovirus reappeared after a 17-year (four generation) absence. The wolf population crashed to two.

            As the wolf population headed towards extinction, moose abundance more than tripled to over 2,000, leading to moose severely over-browsing the island’s vegetation, particularly balsam fir. The worry now, among many, was that the moose would end up in mass starvation. 

            Those circumstances led the National  Park Service (NPS) to restore wolf predation by translocating 19 wolves to Isle Royale in 2018 and 2019. Following the translocations, wolf abundance steadily increased and thankfully, moose abundance declined.

            What about now? Well, today, male and female moose are growing smaller. The new question to try and answer is why?

            So . . . this chronology means what? Well, it shows how complicated nature can be! For the researchers, the notion of understanding nature as some sort of machine that is easily predictable and easily fixable had to be scrapped.

            Here’s the bottom line according to the researchers: “Rich, dynamic variation, not ‘balance of nature’ seems to be the force that guides nature . . . The only way we will know how [this works into the future], is to continue observing. The most important events in the history of Isle Royale wolves and moose have been essentially unpredictable events – disease, tick outbreaks, severe winters, and immigrant wolves. Natural history might be much like human history – explainable, but not predictable . . . This is the humility from which a rich relationship with Nature may be rooted.”

            For more info, see https://www.isleroyalewolf.org

 

Celestial Events

            New moon occurs tonight, 12/19.

            Winter solstice takes place on 12/21, providing us with 8 hours and 40 minutes of sunlight, our shortest day of the year. 

            On 12/22, look predawn for the Ursid Meteor Shower averaging 10 meteors per hour.

            Our latest sunrise of the year occur every morning at 7:40 from 12/27 to 1/7, when finally on 1/8, the sunrise will occur at 7:39.

 

Thought for the Week

            “Science has no capacity to save us unless we’re willing to heed what it has to say. Environmental science describes the breakdown, the species loss, the poison of the atmosphere. It’s love, both committed and fierce, which must then say, ‘Got it. We will change now.’ Science illumines our understanding; it’s love that saves our lives.” – Marianne Williamson

 

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail me at johnbates2828@gmail.com, call 715-476-2828, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com

 

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/5-18/2025

 A Northwoods Almanac for 12/5-18/2025  

 

Snowy Owls!

            According to the DNR, “The first snowy owls of 2025 reached Wisconsin on Nov. 6. While early November is a typical arrival date, the total of 17 owls reported as of Nov. 17 is above average for this early in the season. The last year with a higher total at this time was 2017, when 58 were already tallied and a large irruption unfolded. Could this be another irruption year? It’s possible, and we should know better by early-mid December.”

            As is typical, the bulk of this year’s owls have been spotted near the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior. Snowies nest in open tundra, so wide open spaces are where they know to hunt, and that’s where we most often see them in Wisconsin. Harbors from Ashland and Oconto to Kewaunee, Sheboygan, and Milwaukee provide ample prey like ducks and gulls, while grasslands, farm fields, airports, and other open habitats offer rodents, squirrels, and rabbits.

            In the Lakeland area, you can try the shorelines of open large bodies of water or airports to see a snowy, but the truth of the matter is our forested landscape is poor habitat for these owls. The best place in the North County to see a snowy is usually Chequamegon Bay in Ashland.

            Get the full update at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/SnowyOwls

 

Natural History Books for Christmas

            Recommended recent books to give nature lovers for Christmas? Try the following:

Is a River Alive? –  Robert Macfarlane

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 – Susan Orlean

The Serviceberry – Robing Wall Kimmerer

How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard – Douglas Tallamy

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of    Life on Earth – Zoe Schlanger

How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World – Ethan Tapper

And favorites from local environmental authors:

            Ripple Effect: How We’re Loving Our Lakes to Death; Lakeside Companion; On the Pond – Ted Rulseh

            Beneath the Eagle Tree – Bob Kovar 

            Seasons of the North; White Deer: Ghosts of the Forest; Pure Superior – Jeff Richter

            Wrong Tree: Adventures in Wildlife Biology – Jeff Wilson 

            From Barbells to Spruce Grouse – Joe Hovel 

I’ve written a few, too: See www.manitowishriverpress.com   

 

Hawk Ridge Totals

            Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth is regarded as one of the finest sites for counting migrating raptors in the U.S., but the counters also tally songbirds as they fly over the ridge. The count runs from 8/1 through 11/30, but here are a few of the totals through 11/27:

Total number of birds counted – 309,347

Highest monthly total was September – 194,480

Number one most abundant bird – Blue jay – 72,277

Number two – American robin – 32,387

Number three – Common nighthawk – 18,352

Number four – Sharp-shinned hawk – 15,683

Number five – Yellow-rumped warbler – 11,510

            Broad-winged hawks were surprisingly few this autumn – just 8,799. The record high was in 2003 when 160,703 were counted. Does this mean broad-wingeds are way down in number, or was this just a poor year to view them over the ridge? Well, that’s why we do long-term data collecting. We’ll see if future years also show a downturn.

            Of note was the record count for eagles. Golden eagles tallied 252, eclipsing the previous record of 223. And bald eagles totaled 6,108, barely surpassing the previous record of 6,099.

            Finally, the biggest surprise for most people – 59,331 common green darner dragonflies migrated over the ridge! And an estimated 57,000 of those occurred on one day alone – September 1.

            Most folks don’t even know some species of dragonflies migrate, but common green darners do, and they migrate in a manner that echoes monarch butterflies. Researchers in 2019 discovered that at least three generations make up the annual migration of common green darner dragonflies. The first generation emerges in the southern United States, Mexico and the Caribbean starting around February and then flies north. Once in the North, those darners lay eggs and die, giving rise to a second generation that migrates south until late October. A third generation, hatched in the south in the fall, overwinters there before laying eggs that will hatch in February and start the entire process over again in the spring.

common green darner

            Your trivia fact for the week: Researchers in Vermont have found that the common green darner spring migration closely follows the average daily temperature of 48°F northward.

 

Looking for Good News? Bats Are Rebounding!

            The fungal disease white-nose syndrome hit Wisconsin cave-dwelling bats hard beginning in 2014, causing nearly 100% losses in many populations across the U.S. and Canada as well as in Wisconsin. Our four species of cave-dwelling bats (Wisconsin boasts eight species of bats) - big brown bat, little brown bat, northern long-eared bat and tricolored bat – were profoundly impacted, raising alarm that they could be extirpated entirely from the state. However, recent Wisconsin Bat Program survey counts show rebounding numbers of little brown bats in particular at some significant roost and hibernation sites across the state.

            This summer, DNR scientists and volunteers with the Great Wisconsin Bat Count tallied nearly 25,000 bats as they emerged from their daytime roosts, up from 22,600 in 2024, the third consecutive annual increase for the species in Wisconsin.        

            This doesn’t mean all our bats are out of the woods. Hibernating bats are still stressed by white-nose syndrome each winter, and tricolored bats and northern long-eared bats in Wisconsin have not shown signs of recovery similar to the little brown bats.

            Since bats are major consumers of agricultural and forest pests, and predators of biting insects, we want as many as possible around. Three years of increasing numbers offers a strong reason for hope. See https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/Bats for more info.

 

Snow and More Snow!

            The last two winters offered marginal snowfall in the Lakeland area, but the blizzard that hit us on 11/26 appears to have rectified that omission. We measured 20 inches on our property on Thanksgiving day, 11/27, and it was still snowing!

            For wildlife, of course, there are winners and losers after a big snow event. Deer are both winners and losers. Winners because trees are bent down low enough for them to browse buds they would never otherwise reach. Losers because deep snow limits their ease of movement, while snow over 18” may force deer into “yards” to conserve energy that would otherwise be lost plowing through such heavy snow.

            Rodents are very happy this week. They now have deep insulating snow that also acts as a cover from predators. Called the “subnivean” zone, this area at the junction of the ground and the snow is relatively warm and safe, at least compared to living on the surface.

            For birds, deep snow makes for more losing than winning. Birds need to find seeds, fruits, and/or insect eggs/larvae/pupae during the winter – lots of them – and snow covers them all up. The only advantage I’m aware of is for grouse and redpolls who are both known to plunge into deep snow to conserve heat during periods of prolonged severe cold. 

            Think about every species that overwinters here. Each will have a different story of how they interact with blizzard conditions and the resulting deep snow, and all will be challenging stories.

 

The Limberness of Conifers

            After 21+ inches of snow had fallen over Thanksgiving, the branches of the conifers on our property – the balsam firs, white spruces, white pines, and white cedars –  all hung like collapsed umbrellas, all sheathed in white and bearing immense weight. This capacity of conifer branches to bend and bend without snapping, and then to spring back up as the snow slides off like nothing happened, illustrates why the far northern forests, the boreal forests of North America, are dominated by conifers. 

            The suppleness of the branches are one reason conifers can live in heavy snowscapes. The other is the shape of most conifers, in particular the pyramidal or conical shape of balsam fir and white spruce, the dominant trees in the boreal forest. The branches below support the branches above, all cooperating, or bowing if you will, to bear the enormous snow loads until the snow sheds off. 

            In one study in Finland after a particularly snowy winter, researchers calculated the total weight of snow accumulation on Norway spruces. A 60’ tall tree at an elevation 1,150’ was burdened by an astonishing 7,253 pounds of snow, but like Atlas, bore it gracefully.

            Underneath those branches that droop all the way to the ground may hide snowshoe hares or any other animal or bird looking for a spot out of the wind and out of a predator’s eye.

 

Celestial Events

            The full moon was officially last night, 12/4, but it’s still 98% illuminated tonight, 12/5. It’s the highest full moon of the year – 56° higher than June’s full moon.

            This year’s earliest sunsets begin tonight and last through 12/14. The sun will set at 4:14, 3 hours and 39 minutes earlier than the week around summer solstice. 

            Look during the evening of 12/13 into the predawn of 12/14 for the peak Geminid Meteor Shower. The Geminids are usually the strongest meteor shower of the year and are often bright and intensely colored. This is the one major shower that provides good activity prior to midnight. 

 

Thought for the Week

            “’Shifting baseline syndrome’ is the name given to the process whereby ongoing damage to the natural world becomes normalized over time, as each new generation measures loss against an already degraded benchmark . . . The same effect is also sometimes known as ‘generational amnesia’, and it is a powerful force in terms of disguising and enabling further ecological harm.” – Robert Macfarlane