A Northwoods Almanac for April 27 – May 10, 2018
Loons and Late Ice-Out
Ice-out
on most lakes certainly appears like it won’t occur until early May, so how
will that impact loons which are stacked up in southern Wisconsin waiting for
the ice to go off? From long-time loon researcher Walter Piper: “When the ice
goes out early, loons dawdle and wait weeks before nesting. But when the ice
goes out late, as it will this year, pairs get down to business quickly,
nesting within a week or so of territory return. So, loon pairs are somehow
able to catch up in years of late ice-out so that their breeding schedule does
not differ greatly from other years.”
He
adds, “Some of our best years for loon breeding (2013, for example), have
occurred when the ice goes out late. So, those many of you shivering in
northern Wisconsin and other frigid regions can relax about one thing; the
loons are no worse off in years when spring comes late than when it arrives
early.”
See
Walter’s full post at https://loonproject.org/2018/04/16/no-progress-on-ice-out-but-no-need-to-panic/
Water
Boatmen
A friend in Springstead called me on 4/21 to say he had some
very odd creatures swimming in the snow-melt puddles of his driveway. He
thought initially they might be tadpoles, which sent me over their quickly to
check it out. They turned out to be “water boatmen” (family Corixidae), so named for their flat,
boat-shaped bodies and long, fringed, oar-like hindlegs. Water boatmen
trap a thin bubble of air against the underside of their body which allows them
to stay underwater for long periods. When they “row” their legs, they further
ventilate the bubble of air, making them less reliant on atmospheric oxygen
than other water bugs.
Over 100 species of water boatmen occur in North America, and
they’re very common in our lakes and rivers. They’re sometimes confused with
“backswimmers” (family Notonectidae),
but backswimmers swim on their backs while water boatmen swim right side up.
Why
literally hundreds were swimming in this gentleman’s small driveway puddles is
beyond me. After all, we’d just had a major blizzard a week earlier on 4/14,
and there was still lots of snow everywhere. Where did they come from?
By
the way, water boatmen are an important source of food for many fish and don’t
bite, so they’re not harmful in any way. Most feed on aquatic algae and plants.
Sightings
The most impressive sighting over
the last two-week period was the bona fide blizzard we had on 4/14 which left
most of us with 16 to 20 inches of snow, a legacy that is still slowly melting
in the woods. Temperatures in the last week (4/16-23) have been in the 50s and
60s, but what we need most to melt the snow is a long warm rain.
 |
| woodcock under one of our feeders on 4/14 |
On 4/10, we had our
first-of-the-year (FOY) merlin right in our driveway. As we stepped out of our
car, it flew from a pine next to the car carrying something almost the same size
as it was. It seemed to be struggling to carry it, but eventually crossed the
road and landed on a large branch of another pine. I got out my scope, zoomed
in on it, and watched as it ripped feathers from a mourning dove and then
proceeded to eat it. Wow!
I saw our FOY marsh hawk (northern
harrier) on 4/11 swooping along Hwy. 51 in hopes of finding a wayward rodent
where the snow had been cleared. A male cardinal was singing in our yard on
4/18. On 4/20, I took my first walk on Powell Marsh and had a grand total of
three species – wood ducks, trumpeter swans, and red-winged blackbirds.
Subsequent walks on Powell yielded numerous pairs of sandhill cranes, a
northern flicker on 4/22, and song and savannah sparrows on 4/23. That 65° day
on 4/23 also yield my FOY winter wren, tree sparrow, and a singing brown
creeper. Oh, and on 4/21, our FOY brown-headed cowbird appeared to no applause
whatsoever.
Other reports I received include:
4/12: John and Karin Randolph reported their FOY osprey
along Hwy. 47 near McNaughton.
4/13: Sarah Krembs reported her FOY turkey vulture
4/16: Judith Bloom sent me a photo of a pair of wood ducks
that flew in to a spot in her yard near a feeder that she had cleared for her
dog.
 |
| photo by Judith Bloom |
4/19: Mary Madsen in Presque Isle had her FOY great blue
heron, and on 4/20, her FOY brown-headed cowbird.
4/21: Sarah Krembs sent a photo of two adult bald eagles
fighting in mid-air, and noted her FOY belted kingfisher and fox sparrow.
 |
| photo by Sarah Krembs |
4/23: Dan Carney had a FOY white-throated sparrow in his
Hazelhurst yard. Dan has also been watching hairy woodpeckers, red-breasted and
white-breasted nuthatches, black-capped chickadees, and squirrels drink sap
from a wound in a maple tree in his yard. If they’d just let the sap drip on
the trunk and wait until the water evaporated, they could be eating maple
sugar!
Dan also noted that he still had at
least 100 common redpolls at his feeders. We have perhaps 30, and I know of
many other folks with a small army of redpolls still eating them out of house
and home. Despite their gluttony, these far northern nesting birds will soon be
leaving, so we should enjoy them while we can.
4/24: Every morning now, there are birds singing in our yard
- what a blessing.
First
Paddle on the Manitowish
Bob Kovar and I
paddled a section of the Manitowish River on 4/20. This was our first paddle of
the year, and while we had to wade through some deep snow to get to the boat
landing, the paddling was easy once we were launched. We were hoping to kick up
a lot of species of waterfowl given that ice was still covering all the marshes
and lakes in our area and migrating waterfowl have been relegated to the open
rivers and creeks. And we did – good numbers in particular of trumpeter swans
and hooded mergansers, as well as our FOY belted kingfisher.
 |
| photo by Bob Kovar |
Perhaps
most interesting, however, were the wings of ice cantilevered over the river. I
don’t know the physics of how this works, but some of the wings were many feet
across and provided ample shelter for anything that might want cover from
predators, rain, or sun.
 |
| photo by Bob Kovar |
The
Old-Growth Forest Network
Joan Maloof, professor emeritus of
botany from Salisbury University in Maryland, founded the Old-Growth Forest
Network in 2012 to preserve and promote the country’s few remaining stands of
old-growth forest (see www.oldgrowthforest.net). Joan’s goal is to have set aside one forest in every county
in the U.S. where visitors will be able to experience a native forest in its mature
diversity and complexity. Of the 3,140 counties in the U.S., the Old-Growth Forest Network is targeting the
2,370 counties where forests naturally grow. In many counties, these forests will be
already protected land, such as National Forest, Fish and Wildlife land, State
and County Forests, or Municipal Forests.
Joan recently visited Wisconsin to dedicate the first
site in our state to be placed in her network – the Cathedral Pines near
Lakewood in Oconto County. Cathedral Pines is within the Chequamegon Nicolet
National Forest, and is also designated as a state natural area by the WDNR.
Here the oldest white pines have been aged at 368 years old, and a few stand
155 feet tall with diameters of four feet, perhaps the largest white pines on
public land left in the state.
Joan has dedicated 72 sites now – only another 2,300
counties or so to go! Thus, the task in front of her is enormous, but this is
where other folks can help. If you have an interest, check out how you can help
on her website.
Corrections
Appreciated!
A long-time reader of
this column recently wrote that I had a mistake in an Almanac column for February,
2017. I had written that ice-out had occurred in mid-February that year on the
Manitowish River, which was very early, with the earliest date in my records
being in February, 1997. He noted that there was record-setting cold in February,
1997, and that the river couldn’t have gone out that early. And he was right! I
had meant to write 1998, but for whatever reason, I wrote 1997.
I
wanted to put his correction in this column for two reasons. One, to set the
record straight. And two, to encourage readers to email or call me if you think
I’ve got something wrong. I try very hard to be accurate and fair-minded in
what I write, because if I exaggerate or cherry-pick statistics, it’s very easy
to lose your trust as readers. And trust, once lost, is exceedingly difficult
to regain – there’s always that niggling doubt based on the past wrong.
So,
please, feel free to contact me – I’d appreciate it! I do make mistakes – just
ask my wife and daughters. So, point them out as they come up, and I’ll gladly
write a correction. And be civil – I’m not your enemy if you don’t think
climate change exists, and I do. It helps us reach agreement, or at least
understanding of the other’s position, if there’s no name-calling or a lot of
unfounded accusations.
Upcoming
Events
Nicolet
College is hosting Bob Simeone for an evening talk on Friday, May 4. Bob has
worked both locally and internationally on sustainable forest initiatives, and
will be speaking on “Fifty Years of Forest Management: Striving Toward
Sustainable Natural Forest Management Worldwide.” Bob will then lead us the
next morning, May 5, on a visit to Rainbo Lodge where he will discuss their
sustainable forest management plan. Sign up via phone at 715-365-4615 or see
their website - www.nicoletcollege.edu/continuing-education/community-education/outdoor-adventure-series
The North Lakeland Discovery
Center’s 14th annual Birding Festival takes place on May 11 and 12,
and is a fun event to attend whatever your level of birding skill may be.
Celestial
Events
The full
moon (the “Grass Appearing” or “Maple Sugar” moon) occurs on 4/29. On 4/30,
look for Jupiter four degrees south of the moon. On 5/4, look before dawn for
Saturn nearly two degrees south of the waning gibbous moon. And 5/5 marks the
mid-season between spring equinox and summer solstice – hard to believe we’re
already half-way to summer solstice!
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