A
Northwoods Almanac for May 11-24, 2018 by John Bates
Ice-off
For many weeks,
the subject of when the ice would finally go off our lakes had been a matter of
much debate, and not a few bets. Things were looking downright dismal toward
the end of April with stories of 20” of ice still on most lakes. But a string
of perfect 60 to 70 degree days at the end of the month and during the first
week of May did what appeared impossible – melted the ice on most of our
mid-size to smaller lakes. The largest lakes in the area may still be iced-up
as of the date of this printing (I send this in four days prior to
distribution), but most area lakes should now be glistening blue.
Woody
Hagge’s average date for ice-off on Foster Lake in Hazelhurst is 4/16, but this
spring the ice finally disappeared on 5/5, the second latest date in the 46
years of ice-out data he has kept. The only caveat: average ice-up on Foster
Lake is 11/27, but Foster didn’t ice-up until 12/9, 12 days late. So, on
balance, Foster had ice for 7 days longer than the long-term average.
Sightings
– It’s Spring!
4/23: On a walk in Powell Marsh Wildlife Area, I saw my FOY
(first-of-year) Savannah sparrow, as well as song and tree sparrows. I also saw
my FOY northern harrier along Hwy. 51 and heard my FOY winter wren.
4/24: Sarah Krembs reported her FOY fox sparrow. Our FOY fox
sparrows and white-throated sparrows also appeared at our home in Manitowish.
4/24: Sandhill crane pairs were unison-calling from many
places on the Powell Marsh, and their tracks in the sandy soils were evident
everywhere. I also heard and saw my FOY killdeer, eastern phoebe, and dark
phase rough-legged hawk.
4/24: Steve Sash photographed a
western tanager in his yard on the southeast side of Pine Lake in the town of
Oma. Western tanagers are
widespread in forests of western North America, ranging as far north as Alaska
and northern British Columbia, as far south as southern California, and as far
east as Wyoming and Nevada. The Wisconsin Society
for Ornithology keeps records of rare bird sightings, and there are only 85 records of western tanagers in Wisconsin since
1877.
Steve also noted, “On that day I also saw first-of-year yellow-rumped
warbler. Also later that evening I saw the first-of-year bats flying in
yard, the first bats I have seen in two years at Pine Lake.”
4/24: The McNamara family near Lake Tomahawk had a
smoke-phase wild turkey appear under one of their feeders.
4/26: Bob Kovar sent me a great but rather gruesome photo of
a bald eagle carrying a mangled merganser back to its nest in Manitowish
Waters.
4/26: I observed my FOY tree swallow on Powell Marsh, and I
was worried for it because there wasn’t an insect in sight for it to eat.
4/27: Bev Engstrom captured a beautifully detailed photo of
a common loon on the Wisconsin River waiting for ice-out on our northern lakes.
4/27: Woodcocks are now “peenting” as dusk falls every
evening. Sarah Kermbs noted that a male was peenting across the road from her
home in Manitowish Waters, and I heard one in our yard the same evening.
4/27: Jeanne Milewski in Boulder Junction observed a half-dozen
or more dark-eyed juncos flitting around in her yard and lamented that they
would be leaving soon. It’s true that most juncos will continue migrating
north, but for the record, some do remain. Our area is the southernmost edge of
their breeding range. If you want to look for a junco nest, they most often are
found in upland conifer forests, particularly pines.
4/28: Linda Johnson sent a great photo of what she described
as “the partial contents from a large grey pellet
that I happened upon this morning under a spruce in our yard. I'm guessing that
these jaws are from voles, as we are inundated with them. First time I've found
so many in one pellet!”
Linda also noted, “The Tomahawk River hasn't
disappointed either. Yesterday and today there have been a pair of ring-necked
ducks. They join the sightings we've had of lots of hooded mergansers, swans, mallards,
and an occasional otter. In addition, I saw the FOY wood ducks yesterday.”
4/28: Dan and Judy Lucas sent a
photo of a barred owl with this description: “A barred owl flew in Thursday
evening at 7:55 PM and spent 30 minutes on a limb 30 feet from our patio door.
He did catch and eat one mouse early on. Then hung around for 20 more minutes
before going on to his next hunting spot.”
4/29: Female red-winged blackbirds returned to our feeders, over a
month after the male red-wings had returned (3/23 was their first arrival). I
also saw my FOY broad-winged hawk on Powell Marsh.
4/30: John Randolph reported seeing a pair of FOY hermit thrushes
on the Bolger Lake trail in Hazelhurst.
5/1: The frogs finally started calling near our home! All three
early calling species – spring peepers, wood frogs, and chorus frogs – were in
full throat. Hooray!
5/2: Dan Carney in Hazelhurst reported the FOY eastern towhee.
5/2: Pat Schmidt observed her first loon of the year on Silver
Lake in Hazelhurst even though 90% of the lake was still frozen.
5/2: Linda Thomas saw her first loon on the west bay of Plum Lake
though the rest of the lake was still iced-up.
5/4: Dan Carney reported the FOY black-and-white warbler near
Hazelhurst.
5/6: Mary, Callie and I heard our FOY sedge wrens and American
bittern in Manitowish.
5/6: Dan Carney had his FOY rose-breasted grosbeak and ruby-throated
hummingbird at his feeder, plus a FOY palm warbler.
5/6: Ron Winter in Boulder Junction also reported his FOY hummer
and rose-breasted grosbeak.
5/7: Rose-breasted grosbeaks returned to our home in
Manitowish as they did at Mary and Mark Pflieger’s home in Harshaw.
5/7: Mary Kaminski on Cochran Lake reported her FOY
ruby-throated hummingbirds.
5/7: Rod Sharka sent me a beautiful photo of bloodroots in
flower in the U.P.
Loons
Arriving
Linda
Grenzer sent me an email on 4/23 saying that there at least 50 common loons had
congregated on the Jersey City Flowage in Tomahawk, a shallow flowage on the
Wisconsin River. She also noted, “Some loons have
mistaken roadways and small ponds as areas they could land. This past
Saturday, Kevin and I rescued a loon in Richland Center, WI, that landed in a retention
pond. The loon was there for over a week as the 100' x 150' pond was too small
to allow it enough space to take off. And even in a small pond, that loon
gave us a challenge to capture him. He is at REGI (Raptor Education Group,
Inc. in Antigo) right now.”
Their
efforts paid off - the loon was released healthy on May 3!
Linda
and Kevin volunteer to capture and transport injured, trapped, or
young-of-the-year birds to rehabilitation facilities in our area. In addition, Walter
Piper noted in his 4/30 “The Loon Project” blog that Linda had identified the
bands on 12 loons that were on Lake Nokomis, and that “10 are known males, one is a female, and one is of
unknown sex.” Linda had reported numerous territorial yodels, sometimes by
multiple males at once, so it wasn’t a surprise that the group was mostly male.
Linda’s band reporting supports the notion that females arrive a few days
behind the males.
Walter noted that Linda’s efforts also support
the belief that “loons present on the breeding grounds at the cusp of the
seasons are mostly breeders that have come to reoccupy territories, rather than
young floaters bent on evicting them. Only one ID'd loon from Linda's list is a
possible floater; all others are known breeders.”
In fact, the loons all turned out to be known
breeders from a wide area of lakes. The list included breeding males from:
1) the adjacent Nokomis-East Central territory
2) Indian Lake, which is 6 miles to the NE
3) Soo Lake, 11 miles to the NE
4) Silver Lake (Lincoln County), 8 miles S
5) South Blue Lake, 16 miles to the N
6) Miller Lake, 18 miles N
7) Blue Lake-West Territory, 20 miles N
8) Forest Lake (Vilas County), 40 miles NE
9) Rock Lake (Vilas County), 50 miles N
10) Crab Lake (Vilas County), 50 miles N
and a lone female from Burrows Lake, 10 miles NW.
Walter then considered why it appears to be
crucial for males to return as close to ice-out as possible even though young,
non-territorial birds follow well behind the breeders, and thus are not challenging
the older males for territories. He writes, “Perhaps males, because they select
the nesting site, return as early as possible to take note of any changes in
the lake or shoreline over the winter that might require them to move the nest
from the prior year's site.
Eagle
Clashes in Mid-Air: Fighting or Mating?
In my last column, I
posted a photo of two eagles locking talons in mid-air in mid-April and
described the clash as a fight. Several readers questioned whether the eagles
could have been mating, given that this behavior is seen during breeding as
well.
I contacted Ron
Eckstein, retired DNR wildlife manager who has banded over 2,000 eagles, and
here is his reply: “You have to look at the whole sequence of activity . . .
for 5+ minutes. Fighting will usually involve chasing and lots of
aggressive-appearing swooping and turning upside down, while mating is much
more casual and relaxed and includes lots of flying side by side. I think
it is too late for any mating rituals . . . that usually occurs in mid-to-late
March.”
Celestial
Events
New moon
occurs on 5/15. As of 5/17, we will be receiving over 15 hours of daylight.
Also on 5/17, look for Venus about 5 degrees above the crescent moon.
Planets
visible in the evening twilight include Venus low in the northwest and Jupiter
rising in the southeast. Planets visible before dawn include Mars and Saturn in
the south.
Thought
for the Week
“Not everything that counts can be
counted, and not everything that’s counted truly counts.” Albert Einstein
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