A Northwoods Almanac for 7/25 – 8/ /2014
Fall Migration Already!
It seems like summer just got here, but on July 20,
Callie and I were hiking on Powell Marsh when we were surprised to see and hear
three greater yellowlegs, a shorebird that nests in central Canada and southern
Alaska.
We
shouldn’t have been surprised. Male shorebirds fail mightily any checklist for
family values, as do the adult females for that matter, leaving their young to
fend for themselves soon after they fledge.
Greater
yellowlegs are easily identifiable by their bright yellow legs, upright stance,
and their distinctive three-noted call. The call is so loud that its common
names include telltale, tattler, and yelper. Arthur Cleveland Bent, in his 1927
book Life
Histories of Familiar North American Birds, said that many a
yellowlegs was shot “by an angry gunner as a reward for its exasperating
loquacity.”
Greater
yellowlegs are one of the first shorebirds to arrive on their northern breeding
grounds in the very late spring. Those that failed to breed successfully leave
their breeding grounds as early as late June, followed by the breeding females
and then the males. The juveniles depart last and have to find their own way.
Migratory shorebirds include nearly 40 species of plovers,
sandpipers, phalaropes and their relatives, and require specialized wetland
habitats such as mudflats, shallow water, and exposed sandbars. Few shorebirds
nest in Wisconsin. The majority only make brief pit stops here as they migrate
thousands of miles south for the winter.
Roadside “Weeds”
Late
July is blooming time for a host of upland flowers that require full sun. Many
roadside “weeds” are flowering now, including species like evening primrose,
common milkweed, fireweed, daisy, daisy fleabane, cow vetch, common St.
Johnswort, white and yellow sweet bush clover, hoary alyssum, heal-all, yarrow,
Queen Anne’s lace, goatsbeard, forget-me-nots, common mullein, and spreading
dogbane.
As for
the term “weed,” UW aquatic botanist Susan Knight taught me years ago that “a
weed was a plant without a press agent.” Weeds often are also victims of
circumstance, growing in the wrong place at the wrong time – a tomato plant in
the rose garden gets pulled as does the rose in the vegetable garden.
Many
“weed” species are specialists at growing on disturbed land, in effect being
the pioneers of those places and healing them from the abuse they suffered. And
most do good work, quickly rooting, holding soil together, and making the way
possible for other species to come.
However,
over the past 150 years, many of these plants that have taken up residence in
Wisconsin are non-natives. Some were brought intentionally, but most were
unintended guests that now are here to stay. Of these, most grow in limited
numbers and cause little ecological harm. But a growing number of weeds have
proven to be especially troublesome, and invasive, by rapidly colonizing
natural habitats – woods, prairies, wetlands, and waters – and crowding out
native plants.
One
plant that has the misnomer of “weed” in its name – fireweed – is a native
species that does important work as a healer of poor soils and fire-blackened
areas. I point it out in particular because it grows along roadsides and in
ditches, and is often mistaken for purple loosestrife, a truly invasive wetland
species that needs to be removed wherever and whenever it appears. Count the
flower petals to easily note the difference – fireweed has four petals, purple
loosestrife has six. Praise the fireweed and pull the loosestrife.
Dragons and Damsels
The mosquito legions seem to be declining, perhaps due in
part to the many hatches of dragonflies that have ensued this summer. We are
blessed with dozens of a yellow-gold dragonflies in our yard that I have
photographed but am having trouble identifying. I believe it is one of these
three: the juvenile white-faced meadowhawk, ruby meadowhawk, or cherry-faced
meadowhawk, all of which as adults are bright red, but which as juveniles are
yellow. Whatever their ID, they are a very welcome presence in our yard. The
river below our house has been in flood since snowmelt, so our floodplains
remain inundated, and the mosquitoes have rejoiced. We, in turn, have rejoiced
as the dragonflies appeared and began eating those mosquitoes.
We also have our usual cadre of ebony jewelwing
damselflies and river jewelwing damselflies, both of which also eat mosquitoes.
These lovely and delicate insects are closely related to dragonflies, but
differ in their resting posture – they hold their wings up over their backs
while dragonflies hold their wings straight out like fighter planes. They also
have separate eyes (most dragonfly have eyes that contact one another), and fly
rather weakly, quite unlike the zooming dragonflies that fly with the speed and
maneuverability of hummingbirds.
Tadpoles
Many tadpoles are now teeming in many lakes and rivers.
One tadpole that is easy to identify is the American toad – they’re the only
frog species whose tadpoles school in large, inky masses. Toad tadpoles
typically metamorphose in mid-to-late July and leave the water to forage in
uplands for a variety of invertebrates like beetles, slugs, caterpillars, and
the like, so catch them while you can.
Bullfrog tadpoles, on the other hand, don’t metamorphose
until July and August of their second year, overwintering as tadpoles. The
young frogs then take 2 to 3 years to mature, at which point they can then
begin breeding.
Green
frogs lay their eggs in June and require 70 to 85 days to metamorphose. If the
eggs are laid after July 10, however, the tadpoles will overwinter and then
transform the following June.
Leopard
frogs lay their eggs in mid-to-late May (the female may deposit up to 6,000
eggs!), and they metamorphose in 70 to 100 days. So, they should be leaving the
water soon. Richard Vogt, author of Natural
History of Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin, writes, “If in late July
the grass seems to pop like popcorn as you walk along a marshy pond, the
hundreds of small frogs you stir up are usually young leopard frogs.”
Bike Trails!
The dedication of the Heart of Vilas County Bike Trail
System is on Saturday, 7/26, celebrating the completion of the segment from
Manitowish Waters to Boulder Junction. Combined with the trails leading from
Boulder to Sayner and St. Germain, the total paved trail is now 45 miles in
length, and quite scenic. Mary, Callie, and I have been riding the new
Manitowish Waters segment and thoroughly enjoying it as it weaves through the
woods paralleling Cty. K.
What I
really love about these trails are the number of people using them. From very
young to very old, and from very fit to perhaps not so fit, folks are out there
biking. They’re also walking, pushing baby carriages, roller blading, even
pushing wheelchairs. These trails allow folks to safely and comfortably be in
the woods without some of the concerns for traffic, ticks, and as many
mosquitoes.
We also recently rode a portion of the new WinMan
mountain bike trails near Winchester, ranging from easy to quite challenging.
The trails go up and down along the Winegar Moraine, so they offer some
topography that we often don’t see.
And in June, we rode a portion of the Wilderness Lake
Trails system from Land O’ Lakes. We were particularly impressed with a newly
opened 3.2-mile beautifully forested segment from Thousand Island Lake Rd. to
E. Forest Lake Rd. Wow, was it pretty!
Kudos
to everyone who has worked so hard to make these trails happen – they are great
assets to our communities. Get out and enjoy!
Sightings – Scarlet Tanagers, Bobwhites, White
Fawns, Herons
Audrae
Kulas sent me this note: “For the last couple years, we’ve had a male Scarlet
Tanager visit, but only for a day. This year on July 13th one came again. Later
in the day, we saw two. We’ve had one each day since. Most unusual for us off
Cty. B on High Lake Rd. I saw it fly down and pick a daisy petal, fly to a
piece of driftwood and eat it. Today he appeared to pick an insect from the
driftwood and eat that. It’s the highlight of our day!”
Peter
Esche sent me a gorgeous photograph of a northern bobwhite on 7/12. He noted,
“We have had a visitor to our lake community here in Presque Isle this year - a
Northern Bobwhite. I have no idea how he got here but I imagine he might
have escaped from someone who uses them to train hunting dogs. It’s amazing how
one single quail can make so much noise. Our neighbors often see him in
their yard (they are a quarter mile away), and he likes to call from logs and
benches and large rocks in our garden.
Scott Ewers on Island Lake in Manitowish Waters forwarded
me a photo of a brown doe with a white fawn. Given that the gene for albinism
is recessive, it’s not uncommon for a brown deer to have a white fawn, as long
as the doe mated with a buck which also had the recessive albinism gene.
Jim
Swartout sent me photos of a great blue heron eating a red squirrel. He wrote,
“My office in our house is on the ground level under a wrap-around deck with
five bird feeders on it. Due to the dropped seeds, there is an abundance
of chipmunks and squirrels. I now have a great blue heron, which is actively
hunting these guys. Yesterday I saw him with a chipmunk, and this morning I saw
him chase down and stab a red squirrel. I got the attached pics as he struggled
to flip it up and to swallow it head-first, which he accomplished.”
The La
Crosse area experienced a massive mayfly hatch on 7/21 which can be seen on
radar on this link: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/arx/mayfly/July202014.gif
Celestial Events
The Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower occurs
on 7/29-30. This is a minor shower with an ill-defined peak. The
shower can be seen several days before and after this date. At best, a peak
rate of 20 meteors per hour can be seen. The absence
of moonlight interference
will be a plus – best observing is always in the hours after midnight. The downside is that a new moon coinciding with the peak
of the Delta Aquarids means it’s pretty much a full moon that accompanies the
peak nights of the 2014 Perseid shower on 8/10-13.
Spirit and Nature
“Like all treasures of the mind, perception can be split
into infinitely small fractions without losing its quality. The weeds in a city
lot convey the same lesson as the redwoods.” Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac
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