A Northwoods Almanac for Jan. 6 – 19, 2012, by John Bates
Sightings: Robin, Snowy Owl, Ermine, Swans, Bobcat, Summer Tanager
Elizabeth Mazur reported seeing a lone robin on the morning of December 22nd in Hazelhurst “munching on berries on our burning bush. Our dog saw him too, and the robin flew into a nearby tree awaiting dog removal. Since we left for the holiday I cannot say if he came back or not. This is the latest I have ever seen a robin . . . I did notice that there was no birdsong from him . . . He was just waiting to get back to eating.”
On 12/28 in the middle of the day, Jim Morgan observed a snowy owl sitting on his pier on Squirrel Lake. He watched as the owl flew low across the lake and through a number of ice shanties with most fishermen apparently too intent on fishing to notice the owl.
On 12/29, Jill Wilm on Van Vliet Lake sent me a series of fine photos of an ermine in her yard. Besides its normal natural fare, the ermine has been taking suet from Jill’s suet feeder. Three species of weasels live in northern Wisconsin – the short-tailed, the long-tailed, and the least. This one appears to be a long-tailed.
On 12/31, Vicki Shanahan on Fence Lake reported the following: “Bob, or maybe Bobette, is back. Not sure if it is the same one from last year . . . It seems more elusive than the bobcat last winter. He/she is systematically taking out the squirrels . . . the rabbits have already been dinner. Amazing how many squirrels there are... down to one now . . . I'm sure new ones will move in soon. Will the bobcat move on for a while until his supply is replenished?”
Bobcats, like just about every animal trying to survive a long Northwoods winter, are opportunistic feeders, meaning they generally go where the best menu opportunities present themselves. The bobcat will move along when it takes more energy to capture a squirrel than the meal of the squirrel provides.
On 12/31, Bill Weh reported seeing 33 trumpeter swans on the Manitowish River just downstream from Benson Lake, the most he has ever seen at one time.
Also as of 12/31, the juvenile male summer tanager that has been present since November continues to come to feeders in Arbor Vitae. One of the individuals who has been feeding him now for three weeks writes: “What continually amazes me is the capacity of this sub-tropical bird to adapt to our harsh winters. What worries us is the limitations of that capacity to adapt.
“At this point in time we are reconciled to the improbability of any attempt on his part to migrate south. We suspect that he will simply hunker down until spring (if he manages to survive our winter) and then fly south to join his kin somewhere in his normal summer range – at least that's our hope.”
Winter Finches
Winter finches, other than goldfinches, are in short supply so far this winter. Common redpolls, purple finches, pine siskins, evening grosbeaks, and pine grosbeaks all are pretty much no-shows at people’s feeders. The question that arises is, why?
Ron Pittaway, an Ontario field ornithologist, publishes a winter finch forecast every autumn based on the tree and shrub seed crops available in Canada. Each finch species has its desired menu, and if that menu is well served in Canada, that particular species won’t bother coming south, at least in any significant numbers.
So, here’s the shorthand version of what Pittaway forecast back in September. “This winter’s theme is that cone crops are excellent and extensive across much of the boreal forest and the Northeast. It will not be a flight year.”
As for specific species, he forecasted:
“Redpolls are unlikely to come south because the dwarf birch crop is bumper in the Hudson Bay Lowlands.
“A small movement of Pine Grosbeaks is probable because mountain-ash berry crops are variable and some are of poor quality in the boreal forest.
“White-winged and Red Crossbills and Pine Siskins should be widespread in low numbers.
“Evening Grosbeak numbers are increasing as spruce budworm outbreaks expand in the boreal forest so some may show up at feeders in southern Ontario and the Northeast.
“Purple Finches will be uncommon in Ontario. A few may frequent feeders in southern Ontario. The Purple Finch has declined significantly in recent decades.”
So far, I’d say he’s pretty much spot-on. We have not been seeing the pine siskins or the crossbills here, but they are being seen in southern Wisconsin. I suspect we’ll see a push of them in March prior to spring.
Barred Owl/Cooper’s Hawk
One of the joys of growing older is the need to get up in the middle of the night to empty one’s bladder. The joy comes in because it’s an opportunity to shine a light on your bird feeders and see if anything is going on. We’ve been seeing some flying squirrels in the wee hours of the morning, but our big sighting over the last week has been a barred owl perched either on our deck railing or on a black ash branch overhanging our deck. We’ve been checking the following mornings to see if there was any evidence of the owl making a kill, but we had no luck until our dog dragged out a headless cottontail rabbit from under a deck on the opposite side of the house.
Now, we don’t know for sure that the owl killed this rabbit, but owls are well known for eating the heads of their prey first, so it’s a distinct possibility. The cottontails have been doing some serious summer damage to our perennial flowers and garden vegetables, so we’re rooting for the barred owl to maintain its vigil. The only problem, of course, is that barred owls eat flying squirrels, too.
And just as I finished typing this sentence, I heard something hit a window, and Mary hollered, “Come quick!” A Cooper’s hawk was perched right above one of our feeders, but without a bird in talon, so it must have just missed its attack. Its eyes were red, so it was an adult (juveniles have yellow eyes). We have a large flock of mourning doves that roost under one of our decks, so I wonder if the Cooper’s has its eye on them, or if it will just dine lightly on our very numerous, but much smaller goldfinches.
Lake Skiing
Until we received nearly a foot of snow on Jan. 1 and 2, this winter had been quite stingy in its delivery of snow. We averaged perhaps three inches on the ground throughout most of December, which made for great skiing along lake edges. Over the Christmas holiday, we skate-skiied eight consecutive days on eight different lakes, only two of which had any development. What a pleasure! I was almost sorry to see the new snow arrive, but it’s always a matter of switching gears and adapting to what the new day offers. Now that we have enough snow to groom all the ski trails, we’ll be hitting those as well as snowshoeing for the first time this year. It’s good to see winter clothed in its true northern character.
Celestial Events
The full moon – the “Wolf Moon” or “Frost in the Teepee” moon – occurs on 1/9. If the cold isn’t too extreme, consider taking a hike on one of the evenings around this time. The moonlight on a landscape of snow achieves a surprising brightness.
The coldest days of the year, on average, occur between January 16 and 20, with an average high of 18° and an average low of -1°.
At dusk, look for Jupiter high in the south. Before dawn, look for Venus in the southwest, Mars high in the southwest, and Saturn in the south.
The Way of Natural History
Mary gave me a marvelous book for Christmas entitled “The Way of Natural History.” Why marvelous? Because of lines like this from the book’s first essay: “Natural history is a practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world . . . Simply put, it is paying attention to the bigger world outside our own head.”
And this: “Why does attentiveness to nature matter? In a very fundamental sense, we are what we pay attention to . . . A society that expends its energies tracking the latest doings of the current celebrity couple is fundamentally distinct from one that watches for the first arriving spring migrant birds, or takes a weekend to check out insects in a mountain stream, or looks inside flowers to admire the marvelous ingenuities involved in pollination . . . the latter can lift us up in a sense of unity with all life.”
Paying close attention – being deeply mindful – brings an intensity to life that is truly enlivening. I tend to think of it as a perpetual form of “round-the-bend-itis” where you’re on total alert because something remarkable could be happening right now, and something equally great could be happening around the next bend. It’s being fully present in every moment. It’s being awake. It’s being really alive.
That’s the gift of being fully engaged in the natural world. One gains a connectedness, a belonging, perhaps a greater sense of purpose. From these connections comes a deep gratitude, a sense of being blessed, a flowing of reverence.
There are somewhere up to 30 million species on this amazing planet (no one knows for sure), so with one’s local sense of belonging also comes a profound humility, a realization of how utterly impossible it is to know even a tiny fraction of what there is. And that’s good. While we have unearthed an astonishing amount of information about the natural world, it is hubris to think we really know very much. Better to be amazed, to be full of excitement for discovering the next remarkable thing. “Attention is the most basic form of love,” says psychologist John Tarrant.
Thus, my resolution for this year is to pay better attention – and what better way to live one’s life than to be in love with this world?
Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.
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