Monday, March 12, 2012

NWA 2/17 - 3/1, 2012

A Northwoods Almanac for 2/17 – 3/1/12

Great Backyard Bird Count
The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is an annual 4-day event sponsored by Audubon and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that engages birdwatchers of all ages across North America. Anyone can participate, from beginners to experts. You can count for as little as 15 minutes on a single day, or as long as you like each day of the event. It's free and really quite easy. To participate, go to http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html 
   This year's count runs from Friday, February 17, through Monday, February 20. It's as simple as counting birds in your backyard, tallying the highest number of birds of each species seen together at once, and filling out an online checklist on the GBBC website. As the weekend progresses, visit the website http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ to check out results. 

Snowy Owl near Bergland, MI
Mercer-based professional photographer Jeff Richter called me a week ago to join him in a photographic chase of a snowy owl that had been seen in the Bergland, MI, area. Snowies like open lands that mimic their home tundra, and this area has a good number of large open fields. Jeff had been photographing the bird for several days and knew its general whereabouts, but like all wildlife, it wasn’t tethered to a spot. So, we slowly drove a number of local roads until Jeff finally spotted the owl well out in a field on a fence post. It then kindly took off and flew to the top of a conifer next to a road where we could get close enough to photograph it.
My little camera could do little justice to the beauty of the owl, but Jeff’s professional cameras will certainly have captured some great images. Jeff is one of the few photographers left who still shoots film, so I can’t share any of his images, but here’s one of mine.
Few snowies have been reported in the northwoods in the past few weeks, but are still being seen in southern Wisconsin. See http://www.tinyurl.com/snowyowlWIthruJan for a map of all the sightings in Wisconsin this winter.

Eagles in the Snow
Robert Eady at the Conserve School in Land O’Lakes sent me a photo of two eagles splayed side-by-side in the snow (see photo by Jeff Rennicke) and wanted to know what I thought might be going on. 
I e-mailed Ron Eckstein for his more authoritative thoughts. Ron is a retired DNR wildlife biologist who has banded several thousand eagles. Here’s what he wrote: “It is a territorial battle between two adult eagles. In Vilas County we usually see these fights in February through early April. I can't tell sex from the photo (females are larger). It appears the eagle on the left is a full adult (at least 5 years old) and the eagle on the right is likely a 4 year old (because of the dark feathers still present above and to the rear of the eye . . . the last of their immature feathers occur around the eye . . . and because the bill is not yet uniformly yellow). It is possible that an adult from a pair died and these eagles are fighting to see who is the new mate. Likewise, it is possible that the subadult and another adult are trying to set up a new territory close to one of the existing territories.”  

Western Great Lakes Region Owl 2011 Survey
The Western Great Lakes Region Owl Survey was initiated in 2005 to understand the distribution and abundance of owl species in the region, to determine trends in their abundance, and to determine if the owls are associated with specific habitats. 
Last spring 63 volunteers surveyed 80 routes throughout Wisconsin and detected 177 owls of five species. The overall mean number of owls per route was the highest in survey history. Barred owl detections were near record high, while great horned owls rebounded after a poor showing the previous year. Northern saw-whet owls, however, fell after a spike in detections in 2010. The top three owl species combined for Minnesota and Wisconsin were barred owl, great Horned Owl, and northern saw-whet owl, respectively.
The owl survey period went from April 1 to April 15, each survey starting at least one half-hour after sunset.
Analysis of surveys such as this has its riddles. It’s certainly possible the owl population truly increased or decreased in number, which could be related to a decrease in available habitat, more abundant prey populations, or other variables. However, another possibility is not a change in numbers but a change in detectability. Hearing owls may be affected by the observer’s skill, wind, or other external noise sources, such as frogs, traffic, etc. An owl’s calling activity is also affected by the time of year, the time of night, various weather conditions, and a host of other factors. Unfortunately, many of these factors are poorly understood, so one needs to really look at long-term data to get a picture of what’s really going on, and this survey at only seven years old is too young to do that.  Over time though, the data should suggest trends, and thus help biologists to know what’s taking place in the world of owls.

Sightings
  Roger Belongia on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage reports that he has around 35 common redpolls, seven female and one male pine grosbeaks, and for the first year in the last 28 years he has four starlings spending the winter in his yard. 
On 2/9, Sharon Lintereur in Lake Tomahawk saw a bobcat at 5 a.m. just outside of Lake Tom chewing on a dead deer. She stopped and tried to get a picture, but it ran off. Sharon also notes that they have an abundance of redpolls and woodpeckers including downy, hairy, pileated, and red-bellied this year.  
Northern shrike sightings continue to be on the rise. On 02/07/12 Sue DeFrancisco in Minocqua identified a northern shrike hawking their feeders almost all day, but with apparently no luck. On 2/6, Phil and Nancy Williams in Winchester also had a shrike watching their bird feeders, while Mike and Carol Beno in Presque Isle had the best shrike story: “The first week in January, a northern shrike came to our bird feeders in late morning. It sat in the snow beneath the feeders, likely watching for one of the voles that tunnel in the snow amid the fallen seed. It spent a lot of time there before flying off, empty handed. Later that week the shrike returned. It flew in from the woods, grabbed a chickadee feeding on the ground, and carried it back into the woods.”
But their most interesting sighting was this: “In mid-January about 8 p.m. a saw-whet owl spent a few minutes on top of a shepherd's crook, also working that vole colony in the snow.”  Saw-whet owls seldom come to feeders, and it’s unclear how many migrate south from our area and how many stay the winter. These owls are really small. Males, for example, weigh about as much as an American robin, while females weigh only about 25% more.

Pileated Woodpecker Photos
Wil Conway visited a friend near Big Arbor Vitae Lake and shot fine photos through a patio door of two pileated woodpeckers. Note the differences between the male and female – the red crest on the male extends almost to its beak, and he has a red “moustache” on the side of his face.
Judy Ruch also sent me some good photos of a pileated at her feeders in Presque Isle. She noted, “When he hammers on the owl house, you can hear him from far away, the house acting as the perfect sounding board.”
Barred Owl Photos
Terry Mann in the town of Cassian sent me a photograph of a barred owl that came during the afternoon for three consecutive days to their feeders before moving along. There’s no discernible difference between genders, so it could have been a male or female. The good fortune they had in seeing it unfortunately has to be tempered by the fact that when nocturnal owls show up at people’s feeders during the day, it’s usually a sign of starvation. Let’s hope the owl caught what it needed and is back in the woods looking for prey at night like it was created to do.
Celestial Events
The new moon occurs on 2/18. On 2/25, after sunset look for Venus about three degrees below the moon. On 2/27, look at dusk for Jupiter about four degrees below the moon. We also reach 11 hours of daylight on 2/27. 
Leap-day occurs on 2/29 because it takes the Earth about 365.25 days to orbit the sun. So every four years, we have to adjust our calendars accordingly.

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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