NWA 4/1/16

A Northwoods Almanac for April 1 – 14, 2016 

Sightings – FOY (First of Year)

3/19: FOY chipmunk in Manitowish. FOY hooded merganser on Powell Marsh.

3/21: FOY merlin near our home and FOY sandhill cranes on Powell Marsh.

3/21: FOY saw-whet owl heard and seen by Bruce Bacon in Mercer.

3/24: FOY woodcock caught and banded by Bruce Bacon in Mercer.

3/26: FOY wood ducks observed by Nancy Burns in Manitowish Waters.

         Snowshoe hares are molting into their summer coats. Photo taken on 3/27 in Manitowish by John Bates.

More on Maple Syrup – Alzheimer’s Preventative?

University of Toronto professor Don Weaver announced at a recent American Chemical Society meeting in San Diego that maple syrup extract may prevent proteins in brain cells from folding the wrong way – as they do in Alzheimer’s disease. And professor Navindra Seeram of the University of Rhode Island says the maple syrup compounds he isolated fit into the category of anti-inflammatories that keep cells healthy. In particular, Seeram says some of these protect the brain cells of rodents in the lab against the type of damage that occurs in Alzheimer’s disease.

The effect hasn’t been tested in live animals or humans, so it’s still very preliminary. But for those of us looking for any excuse to imbibe more maple syrup, this is all the evidence we need. Drink up!

Saw-whet Owl

Bruce Bacon, master bird bander and retired DNR wildlife manager in Mercer, heard his first northern saw-whet owl on 3/21. He then set a mist net for it on the evening of 3/25, and caught it and banded it. I’m envious – holding one of these tiny owls in your hand would be a peak experience for anyone who loves birds.

So, it’s time to go out after dark and listen for the monotonous tooting of a saw-whet. While saw-whets produce a series of different calls, the most common is the “advertising call,” which is an endless-loop of whistled notes on a constant pitch. Even though saw-whets are one of the smallest owls in North America – standing just 6 inches high and weighing 2 1/2 to 4 ounces (about as much as a quarter to a half cup of water) – their robust calls can be heard up to 300 yards away through a forest and over a half-mile away across water. The call comes at a rate of about two per second and sounds like the dinging of a commercial truck backing up, or for the science fiction crowd, like your average Martian landing craft. The advertising call is given almost entirely by males and is thought to be territorial. And when I say it’s monotonous, I mean really monotonous – the song can literally go on for hours.

Saw-whets also give a “ksew” call which is described as a loud, staccato, high-pitched bark. I’ve never heard this call, but researchers describe it as resembling “the sounds produced by filing [whetting] a large mill saw,” hence the name “saw-whet.” If you’re like me, you’ve never heard anyone whetting a large mill saw, so I advise doing an internet search to hear this particular call. Saw-whets also give whines, guttural sounds, high tssst calls, and squeaks, so they’re creative communicators.

The males’ calling peaks at two hours after sunset, so listen around 10 p.m. The call tends to decrease until just before sunrise.

Most northern saw-whets migrate southward in winter, concentrating their migration routes along the Great Lakes, but range maps show that they can winter in the Northwoods. Tom Erdman, curator of the Richter Museum of Natural History in Green Bay and a long-time bird bander/researcher, wrote to me that saw-whet owls do winter over in our area, as evidenced by dead saw-whets that have been turned in to him during a winter from Minocqua and Lakewood. Male saw-whets migrate first, beginning at the end of February, while females follow beginning in mid-March.

saw-whet owl breeding and wintering range

Breeding Waterfowl

Waterfowl are slowly returning to northern Wisconsin as creeks, rivers, and marshes open. But when they arrive, have they already mated, or are they still dating around? Well, all waterfowl are essentially monogamous. Geese, loons, and swans are classic examples of species that form lifelong pair bonds (called perennial monogamy), though male geese are known to have a few affairs on the side. Most species of ducks, however, form pair bonds that last only four to eight months, usually with a new mate each year (called seasonal monogamy). As a result, most ducks undergo courtship and pair formation annually, while geese, loons, and swans usually seek a new mate only once or when a mate dies.

Courtship activity in ducks starts gradually in the fall and peaks during the winter and early spring. Thus, most ducks arrive in the Northwoods already paired. This pattern of early pairing is unique in the bird world – in contrast, most songbirds delay courtship and pairing until they arrive on their breeding territories in spring.

Dabbling ducks tend to pair earlier than diving ducks. Mallards, American black ducks, and gadwalls are among the earliest dabbling ducks to establish pair bonds, with approximately 75 to 80 percent of females paired by late November.

Divers are the last of the ducks to establish pair bonds. Ring-necked ducks, for instance, pair during their spring migration in March and April and remain as pairs until it’s time to incubate eggs, whereupon the wayward male departs.

Buffleheads, our smallest diving duck, are a bit different from other ducks. They often keep the same mate for several years. The females are faithful to their natal and breeding areas, often reusing the same nest site year after year.

Common mergansers form pair bonds eventually after an extended period of courtship display beginning in December. When they arrive at their breeding sites, the appear to be paired up.

So, it would seem that everything is more or less settled when the birds arrive in our area. But anyone who has watched waterfowl in spring knows that courtship displays and territorial disputes are still going on. The reason? There are far more males than females returning every spring – male diving ducks outnumber females often three to one. The unpaired males initiate a lot of posturing and displaying in hopes of driving off the paired males, with the females then mating with the usurper male should he win.

Why so many males in the duck world? Egg clutches are mostly half male and half female, but females experience far more mortality in sitting on nests and being the sole incubator of the eggs. They’re an easy target on a nest, and they pay a price, thus their population is lower.

Science on Tap

Join Janet Silbernagel, UW-Madison professor of landscape architecture, as she discusses Lands for the Public, Wednesday, April 6, at 6:30 PM at the Minocqua Brewing Company. Janet will review how the National Parks and National Forests systems have evolved over the past 160 years.

           

Wisconsin Conservation Congress Annual Spring County Hearings

The annual Conservation Congress hearings take place on 4/11 at 7 PM in every county in Wisconsin. These meetings typically focus on fine-tuning various hunting and trapping regulations, and thus are primarily attended by hunters and trappers.    Occasionally, however, they ask for votes on questions that pertain to nearly everyone in the state. This spring, I see four questions in particular that I’d encourage the general public to weigh in on.

Question #20 asks: “Are you in favor of repealing Act 1, the iron mining law from 2013?” The question is prefaced by this: “In 2013 Wisconsin Act 1 created a new regulatory framework applicable to ferrous (iron) mining activities . . . Major changes included imposing a specific review timeline on DNR, removing the mandatory contested case hearing held before issuance of permits, and changing review processes and decision-making criteria related to wetlands, navigable waters, mining waste facilities, groundwater quality and water withdrawals. Iron mining projects are typically large in scale and could affect several thousand acres of land and the water resources in the vicinity of the project . . .”

Question 21 asks: “Are you in favor of the legislature imposing a moratorium on new state permits for frac sand mining and processing until any recommendations that may be developed following the completion of the Strategic Analysis of Industrial Sand Mining can be implemented?”

Questions 22 asks: “Do you support the DNR requiring non-toxic shot on all department managed lands?” noting that “Lead has been removed by law from consumer products such as gasoline and paint to reduce the amount of lead being discharged to the environment and to protect human and animal health. Non-lead shot is required for waterfowl hunting. Lead in sporting ammunition and fishing tackle is a source of lead poisoning for wildlife. Venison from deer harvested by hunters using lead ammunition has been identified as containing lead fragments. Many other states have adopted lead restrictions on a wide variety of lands and waters.”  

Question 30 asks: “Do you favor legislation that would require at least two of the three senior DNR managers (Secretary, Deputy Secretary, and Assistant Deputy Secretary) to have either an educational degree in natural resource management and five years of applied natural resource management or ten years of applied natural resource management before they are appointed?” The question is prefaced by this: “In 1928, sportsmen and women successfully fought to establish a citizen board to oversee natural resource management in Wisconsin and to authorize that board to appoint professional natural resource managers to oversee the natural resource agency. In 1995, the legislature, while retaining the Natural Resources Board as the decision-making body for the agency, made the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and the top managers for the DNR political appointees. In the past twenty years, under administrations of both parties, many senior managers have been appointed that do not have any significant education or applied experience in natural resource management.”

For more information: http://dnr.wi.gov/about/wcc/springhearing.html