A Northwoods Almanac for 9/15/17

A Northwoods Almanac for 9/15 – 28, 2017  by John Bates

Wild-Ricing

In speaking with several people who have been out this week collecting wild rice, the harvest is poor overall. The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission website lists off-reservation wild rice abundance and harvest regulations, and numerous well-known rice marshes are closed to harvest this year. I suspect our high waters this year inhibited growth and are the guilty party for the poor production. Go to https://data.glifwc.org/manoomin.harvest.info/ for a listing of ricing conditions throughout the Northwoods.

Migrations – Hummers, Hawks, and Monarchs

“Migration stitches continents together,” wrote Scott Weidensaul, and indeed birds and other migratory animals care little for borders. Wisconsin supports 235 breeding birds, of which nearly 60% are neotropical migrants, stitching our state to Central and South America. Of those, ruby-throated hummingbirds get a large share of the press, and deservedly so, given their tiny size and their seemingly impossible 500-mile crossing of the Gulf of Mexico.

Most ruby-throated hummingbirds migrate into Mexico and as far south as Panama. How long does that take? To go from Wisconsin down to the Gulf coast of the United States takes perhaps five days, assuming a hummer doesn’t spend more than one day resting at any one place avoiding hurricanes and the like. To cross the Gulf of Mexico takes a hummer about 18 hours if the weather is good, and then it may take another couple of days to reach its wintering grounds. So, flying straight, it takes a hummingbird about a week to reach Central America, but given the vagaries of weather and the need for rest, it’s more like two weeks,

Before leaving land, hummingbirds double their weight by gorging to add fat as an energy reserve, and then they migrate by day. The male leaves first, the female second, the juvenile(s) last.

At the opposite end of the size spectrum are the hawks. Hawk Ridge in Duluth is the premier Midwestern site for viewing the fall hawk migration, and the peak period is right now. The Hawk Weekend Festival begins today, 9/15, and runs through Sunday 9/17. The best count day so far was on 9/6 with a total of 2,332 raptors, 1,636 of which were broad-winged hawks.       On the other hand, September 3 wasn’t a good hawk day – only 247 total for the day – but it was an exceptional flight day for other birds. Eighty-four species totaling 8,592 birds flew over the ridge, with a high of 2,860 cedar waxwings.

Every year the count is different. The 2016 fall migration count totaled 415,604 migrants, slightly below 2015’s half-a-million. Of those, 66,369 were raptors, which was slightly below the long-term average. Totals for sharp-shinned hawks, bald eagles, merlins, and peregrine falcons were greater than any other season since counting began in 1972. Conversely, counts of northern goshawks, broad-winged hawks, rough-legged hawks, and American kestrels were all below average.

The reasons for the declines aren’t always clear. For broad-winged hawks, it may be nothing more than weather variables during their peak migration season. For northern goshawks, large fall invasions no longer happen, and as for kestrels, the lower numbers jive with a real decline in population.

To follow the count days, go to http://www.hawkridge.org and click on “Hawk Count.” Better yet, watch the weather for a day with west, northwest, or north winds, and go up to the ridge – you may get lucky and have the chance to see thousands of raptors migrating right overhead.

In the insect world, monarch butterflies are the most closely followed migrant, and they are also on the move. To follow their progress, go to https://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/. It probably takes a Wisconsin monarch up to two months to make the 2,500 mile journey to its Mexican mountain wintering grounds.

Fires

            As of last weekend, 137 western wildfires were burning across 7.8 million acres, exceeding the ten-year average by 2.25 million acres.

The fires appear cataclysmic, but sometimes fire is beneficial. Outside California's Yosemite National Park, a wind-fueled fire leapt into a grove of 2,700-year-old giant sequoia trees, burning brush and leaving scorch marks on some big trees, but not killing any. Mary and I have visited some of these sequoia groves and were astonished at the size of the fire scars on many of the trees. The thick bark can withstand ground fires.

Dendrochronology (the dating of tree rings to the exact year) has determined that low intensity surface fires have historically swept through the sequoias approximately every 5 to 15 years. Sequoias actually rely on fire to release seeds from their cones, to expose bare mineral soil to their seedlings, to open holes in the forest canopy for sunlight to reach young seedlings, and to reduce competition from species such as white fir and incense cedar.

Second and Third Clutches

We still have juvenile purple finches and rose-breasted grosbeaks coming to our feeders, some of whom look like they just recently hatched. Purple finches occasionally winter as far north as our area, so they are a late migrant, and perhaps pulling off a late hatch is inconsequential.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks, on the other hand, are neotropical migrants, and migrate in late September. So, if these are indeed recent fledglings, they don’t have a lot of time to enter adulthood before their ticket is punched to leave town.

juvenile purple finch looking a bit scruffy

Presque Isle’s Wilderness Trail

Mary, Callie, and I recently hiked the 2.8-mile-long Wilderness Trail in Presque Isle, and what a lovely trail it is! The trail was completed last fall through a grant given to the Town of Presque Isle, and the construction was helped along by a bevy of volunteers. The trail is located on both state and town lands, and bridges numerous wetlands. Several loops offer a variety of walks through varying habitats .

We were on the look-out for mushrooms, and we found far more mushrooms than we could identify. I think it will also be an excellent site for birds, and I’m looking forward to birding the trail in the spring. Kudos to the Town of Presque Isle for the good work!

Sightings

Joan Galloway sent this: “On July 17th, I had just come down to check the plants on our dock on Clear Lake on the Manitowish chain when I heard a commotion out from the dock. I heard a mother mallard duck quacking loudly and her young ducklings peeping distressfully. When I looked out I saw a common loon grab a young duckling and dive with it. I never saw the duckling again!! The mother duck, still quacking loudly, left with her other duckling swimming to shore. When the loon surfaced, it followed the mother and duckling as they swam. It only stopped when the ducks reached the safety of cover on the shoreline.”

Territorial loons seldom tolerate intrusions of other waterfowl and frequently have been observed killing ducklings who have blundered into their territory. By this time of year, territorial boundaries no longer exist, and waterfowl mix freely. But during the breeding season, it’s another story.

Celestial Events

Gary Bailey in Hazelhurst noted that the harvest moon occurs this year on October 5, the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox on 9/22. I wrote in my last column that the full moon on 9/6 was the harvest moon – not so! It’s still on its way.

Look before dawn on 9/17 and 9/18 for Venus near the waning crescent moon. The new moon occurs on 9/19.

The peak Orionid meteor shower occurs on 9/21. Viewing is best in pre-dawn hours – expect an average of 20 meteors per hour.

Look after dusk on 9/23 and 9/24 for Saturn near the waxing crescent moon.

   

NHAL State Forest Recreation Plan Amendment Proposal 

Comments on amendments to the Northern Highlands American Legion State Forest plan will be accepted until 9/17. It looks like ATVs will now race through the NHAL along with a lot of other proposed recreation development. Click on DNR Master Planning to view the plan and detailed maps, and then fill out the comment form.

Mushroom for the Week: Dyer’s Polypore

            Mary hit the jackpot this week when she found numerous dyer’s polypores (Phaeolus schweinitzii) on a hemlock log. These conks when young give a rich gold color to fabric, while older ones give a darker golden brown. She also found a Hapilopilus nidulans, a non-descript conk that gives a powerful purple dye. She’ll soon have her pots boiling, her witch’s hat on, and the magic will begin.

dyer's polypore photo by Mary Burns

            We also took a picture of some fine eyelash cup mushrooms on a log, and when we looked at the pictures back home, we noticed below the eyelash cups a new species for us – blackberry slime mold! Now, I know slime molds don’t get too many folks excited, but they’re just so unusual – they’re amoeba-like life forms that ooze themselves around – that we just can’t help ourselves. They bring out our repressed junior high personalities, and we can’t stop ourselves from poking them and going “oooohhhh.”

eyelash cup mushroom with blackberry slime beneath - photo by John Bates

Quote for the Week

A piece is largely missing from the public discourse about climate change, namely an affirmation of our moral responsibilities in the world that the scientists describe. No amount of factual information will tell us what we ought to do. For that, we need moral convictions – ideas about what it is to act rightly in the world, what it is to be good or just, and the determination to do what is right. Facts and moral convictions together can help us understand what we ought to do – something neither alone can do. – Kathleen Dean Moore