NWA 5/16-29/2014

A Northwoods Almanac for 5/16 – 29, 2014 

Fence Them Out - Small Deer Exclosures

It’s getting close to planting time, and as we all know, the best laid plans of every landscaper and gardener can be laid to ruin by the prodigious appetite of white-tailed deer. Many folks have resorted to 8-foot high fences to discourage these masters of jumping, the Michael Jordans of the animal world, but there may be an easier way. Dr. Karl Martin, a forest research scientist, conducted a study in 2006 in northern Wisconsin to see if building shorter fences around smaller plots would work as well as enclosing entire properties in expensive 8-foot high barriers.

Martin assessed the effectiveness of 5-foot high wire fences around plots 5, 6, and 7 meters on a side. He tested the fences in the winter when stressed deer would be most desirous of jumping a fence to get to into a baited plot of corn and sunflower seeds. Three exclosures of three different sizes at four study plots were erected, all at least three miles apart. Martin prebaited the sites to initially draw the deer in, then built the exclosures. Each site was monitored by digital, infrared cameras to observe deer movements.

Each study site had more than 10 deer visiting nightly, and one site had 22 deer! On the first night, one deer jumped one of the four 7 x 7 meter exclosures, while its compatriots on the outside of the fence watched passively even though there was no bait remaining on the outside of the exclosure area.

And guess what? No other deer entered any of the study exclosures over the 10-day monitoring period.

Martin’s results thus supported the use of 5-foot high exclosures in areas up to 7 meters by 7 meters (or about 22 feet by 22 feet). Dr. Jim Meeker at Northland College has conducted similar research that has reached the same conclusion – deer don’t like jumping into relatively small spaces.

So, rather than fencing our entire properties to exclude deer, we can utilize far less expensive fencing materials, fence in far smaller areas, and still get the desired result of ungrazed flora.

The caveat, of course, is that not all deer read scientific studies, nor my column, so one might still jump a fence just to prove the exception to the rule. Nevertheless, this bodes well for anyone trying to grow anything in a world heavily populated by deer.

100^th Anniversary of the Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon

The last passenger pigeon, nicknamed Martha, died in her cage at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. In far less than a century, her species fell off a cliff, declining from numbers described in the billions as a “biological storm,” to its last successful large nesting in 1882, to the last known wild passenger pigeon shot at Babcock in 1899, and finally to the last known captive bird in Wisconsin which died in 1909 in Milwaukee.

The largest known nesting colony of the passenger pigeon occurred in 1871 in south-central Wisconsin, reaching over a minimum length of 75 miles and a width of 10 to 15 miles – or an estimated 850 square miles. Numerous newspaper articles attest to the size of the nesting. Famed wildlife biologist A.W. Schorger researched and wrote the definitive book on passenger pigeons in 1955, and conservatively estimated that 136 million birds were nesting in this one area alone.

In 1860, a flight of passenger pigeons filled the skies for two days near Toronto, likely exceeding one billion birds and maybe three billion.

The passenger pigeon was the most numerous bird known ever in the world, leading one writer to say, “The prodigious flights of these ‘millions of millions of birds’ have exhausted the numerical superlatives of the English tongue.”

            A rededication ceremony at the Passenger Pigeon Monument in Wyalusing State park will be held on May 17. The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau will host a special exhibit of passenger pigeon artwork during the fall. See www.passengerpigeon.org for other commemorative activities.

            How much have we learned? Today 12% of the world’s birds, over 1,200 species, are threatened with extinction.

Peeper Pandemonium

The spring frog choir is in full voice at last, and standing next to a large ephemeral pond on a warm night, one can experience decibel levels usually associated with a rock concert. The male’s song consists of a single clear note or peep, occurring once a second. But the faster and louder a male sings, the more likely he is to attract a mate. So, put a few hundred males together in a pond, have them compete at a frenzied pace, and it can get pretty wild.

These first spring frogs (wood frogs, spring peepers, and chorus frogs) emerge most often when a spring rain coincides with frost-out and the beginning of ice-out. The frogs (and salamanders!) rapidly thaw out, then emerge from their hibernation sites in the forest and migrate at night to their breeding ponds, all often in a single night. I’ve never seen it, but some folks have witnessed this mass migration and say it can be amazing.

Their breeding is often described as “explosive,” meaning it’s an orgy out there! And that makes sense because the faster they can lay eggs and get them hatched, the less likely the ephemeral ponds will dry up before the young can metamorphose into adults and walk away into the woods.

The literature says these early breeders need water temperatures of at least 50 degrees, but I often wonder how the ponds could be that warm when the ice has just gone off the day before! I suspect the incredible urge to breed makes the water seem a little warmer than it really is.

Peeper eggs hatch within two to four days, or may take up to two weeks during cooler periods. In eight weeks, the young tadpoles will metamorphose into young frogs and leave the pond.

Sightings – Migration Is On!

4/29: Mary Rodman sent me a photo of a drake wood duck and this note about it: “Saw this beauty on Hwy B towards Land-O-Lakes yesterday, they are so beautiful they don't even look real!”

4/30: Sue DeFrancisco in Minocqua reported her FOY (first-of-year) red-headed woodpecker as well as her first ever red-bellied woodpecker. Linda Thomas in Woodruff had two warblers coming to her suet feeders – a yellow warbler and a yellow-rumped warbler. Pat Schmidt reported two loons had landed on a narrow strip of water on otherwise iced-up Silver Lake in Hazelhurst.

5/1: Jan and Alan Pierce reported their FOY common loon on Squaw Lake as well as a pair of ring-necked ducks. We saw our FOY greater yellowlegs, rough-legged hawk, shovelers, and green-winged teals on Powell Marsh.

5/2: Dan Carney in Hazelhurst had his FOY pine and palm warblers. On Powell Marsh again, we saw our FOY horned grebes and Bonaparte’s gulls.

5/5: Cherie Smith in Lake Tomahawk had a FOY brown thrasher in her yard. Mark Pflieger reported his FOY rose-breasted grosbeak in Harshaw.

5/6: Don and Greta Janssen observed their first male hummingbird in Woodruff. Judith Bloom saw her FOY male rose-breasted grosbeak in Lake Tomahawk

5/7: Audrae Kulas reported her FOY hummingbird.

5/8: Sharon Lintereur in Lake Tomahawk reported her FOY rose-breasted grosbeaks and said they were “right on time. I am always amazed at how punctual they are.” Don and Greta Janssen had a pair of evening grosbeaks at their feeders, and watched as the male fed the female. White-crowned sparrows appeared at our feeders in Manitowish.

5/9: Judith Bloom saw her FOY hummingbird in Lake Tomahawk. She also noted that the ice went out on Tomahawk Lake on 5/8, one day earlier than last year! Sue DeFrancisco in Minocqua reported her FOY hummingbird and noted that it was late compared to the last two years when hummers arrived on 5/5 at her place. Dan Carney reported FOY magnolia, northern parula, and black-and-white warblers. In Manitowish, we had our FOY hummingbirds, Baltimore orioles, and rose-breasted grosbeaks, as well as palm and northern parula warblers and spotted sandpipers on a hike in Presque Isle.

5/10: Pat Drought on Spider Lake in Mercer reported seeing her first hummingbird and rose-breasted grosbeak. She also noted that the ice went off Spider Lake on 5/8. Jean Hall in Arbor Vitae reported her FOY hummingbirds and orioles. In Presque Isle, Mary and I saw our FOY common yellowthroat, ovenbird, brown thrasher, and lesser scaup.

5/11: Judith Bloom on Lake Tomahawk reported the FOY indigo bunting in our area, while Sue Remley and Gary Sobek observed snapping turtles mating on West Twin Lake in Hazelhurst. Dan Carney in Hazelhurst reported FOY black-throated green, chestnut-sided, yellow, American redstart, Nashville, and bay-breasted warblers. On a hike near Round Lake between Minocqua and Park Falls, we saw our FOY blue-headed vireo, wood thrush, and least flycatcher. Our daughter Callie brushed some shedding fur out of our Aussie, and then watched a black-capped chickadee grab beakfulls of it and fly away, presumably to its nest.

5/12: Mary Madsen on Twin Island Lake in Presque Isle sent me a note saying, “So nice to be enjoying the return of orioles, hummingbirds and catbirds. All enjoying the feeders, grape jelly and oranges. Also have a pair of gray jays busy hauling off bread apparently to feed a hungry family. Have had evening grosbeaks for a long time, but now the rose-breasted are at the feeder, too.”

Unprecedented Drops in Migratory Monarch Populations!

Given the current population trend for migrating monarchs, it is likely that the USFWS will soon be petitioned to list monarchs under the Endangered Species Act!

Monarch butterfly winter population counts have just been released. For the fourth year in a row, overwintering numbers in Mexico are declining precipitously, and for the second year in a row, they are at an all-time low. Population counts for this winter are down 44% from 2012-2013, and down 77% from the winter of 2011-2012. The overwintering population in Mexico has decreased 97% in the past 17 years.

Monarchs have been so common in the past – it makes me think of the passenger pigeons and how no one dreamed they could go extinct.