Thursday, April 18, 2019

A Northwoods Almanac for 4/19/19

A Northwoods Almanac for 4/19 - 5/2/2019  

Spring Planting: Go Native
            It’s that time of the year to begin planting (or so we hope and dream), and it’s often a challenge to determine what to plant from the dizzying array of available options. To that end, I was recently privilegedto hear Doug Tallamy give the keynote talk at the Wisconsin Lakes Partnership Conference in Stevens Point. What I loved was that Tallamy, an entomologist from the University of Delaware and the author of Bringing Nature Home, masterfully summarized various scientific studies with an ecological vision for the future that empowers each of us to do our part.
            His key concept is simply that all places have ecological significance, even our yards, thus shrinking our individual efforts down into something manageable. He contends that we can, and must, restore the natural world where we live, work, and play, and that by doing so, we, along with our neighbors, can make a profound difference. 
Given that nearly 85% of the eastern U.S. is privately owned, Tallamy says that our private properties are the best opportunity for long-term conservation if, and only if, we design them to meet the needs of the natural world around us. While he values public lands, he firmly believes that the future of conservation is on private land, andhe’s adamant that public lands and refuges are not large enough to sustain the ecological needs of the natural world.
            Specifically, he notes that “little things run the world,” a quote from biologist E.O. Wilson regarding the importance of insects. Without insects, Tallamy says, most flowering plants would disappear, and the cascading impacts of their loss on all other species would ultimately and profoundly alter human life. He notes, for instance, how migrating birds must add 35-50% of their body weight at every stop along their way north, and the requisite food that provides the highest concentration of energy for them is insects. In North America, 386 species of birds migrate north from Central and South America every spring, a number estimated at around 5 billion individuals, requiring a vast army of insects to eat.
            For breeding birds, the number grows even larger. A study he co-authored with one of his students looked at the insects needed by just one pair of black-capped chickadees to raise a successful clutch of chicks. Depending on the pair, each pair along with their chicks consumed 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars! 
            Not all insects, however, are created equal in value to birds. 96% of our birds rear their young on insects, not seeds, and most of those insects are caterpillars. Think about caterpillars - they’re soft and easy to eat (Tallamy compares them to sausage), high in protein, high in carotenoids, easy to stuff down the throat of a chick, and easy for the chicks to digest. Thus, for most songbirds raising chicks, caterpillars are not optional – they require them.
            The problem for birds is worldwide invertebrate abundance is down 45% since 1974, in large part contributing to our breeding birds numbering 1.5 billion fewer than 40 years ago. Why are the numbers down? The ever increasing use of pesticides and the planting of non-native species.
            An important note because some readers are probably already thinking this: Tallamy isn’t a “sky is falling” guy, a doomsday prophet. While he backs up his contentions with an array of disturbing population studies that show we’re losing enormous ecological ground worldwide, he offers a redemptive path that is practical and easily embraced. The path is this: to plant or maintain native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers on our private properties that offer the greatest ecological function. That function is to provide habitat for insects, because insects provide the most energy to wildlife and the greatest value to plants as pollinators. 
Thus, he says, we need to see our landscape plants not as decorations, but as key players in supporting diverse pollinator populations and complex food webs. Tallamy calls for us to replace half of the area we now dedicate to lawn with diverse plantings of woody and herbaceous species. He doesn’t ask folks to replace their entire lawns (though that would be a great idea) – he knows that lawns offer great places to play Frisbee, catch a ball with your kids, etc. Mary and I still maintain some lawn for just those purposes, too. Instead, Tallamy’s vision involves planting the majority of one’s property to support a garden and a wide array of native plants that make it into a great place for wildlife.
He notes, however, that plants differ widely in how well they support insects, so it’s essential to plant native plants which our native insects have adapted to over time. Many insects have evolved to specialize in eating only one family of plants – think of monarch butterflies which are specialists only on milkweeds.
 Again, however, Tallamy isn’t the yard police, nor am I, so he’s fine with folks having some non-native ornamentals. Mary and I, for instance, love our lilacs, which her grandparents planted many decades ago, and they’re staying put. A balance is what he’s looking for.
Only 5% of our native plants make 75% of the food driving the various food webs, so choosing the best native plants for your area is the key to success.Gingko, for instance, supports zero caterpillars, but oaks and cherries support hundreds of species. 
So, what specifically to plant? To find the top-ranked “keystone” plants in your county, go to National Wildlife Federation’s “Native Plant Finder” at https://www.nwf.org/NativePlantFinder/. Then plug in your zip code, and the best native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants in your area will appear.
            I need to note that Tallamy is acutely aware that many people dislike and/or fear insects, so he’s also on a mission to dispel those fears. For instance, relative to bees, which are our best pollinators by far, he says nearly all native bees don’t sting. Yellowjackets, the main provocateur in stinging, are actually wasps (though the non-native honey bee may also sting when aggravated). Yellowjackets aren’t even pollinators – the don’t carry pollen because they don’t have the flattened, hairy hind legs necessary to carry it. Nearly all insects are beneficial, says Tallamy, and the vast majority don’t sting or bite – we simply need to appreciate how much they help us.
            At the conclusion of his talk, Tallamy was asked to comment on the use of pesticides to kill mosquitoes. His answer was that these chemicals don’t discriminate – they kill all insects, including the caterpillars needed by the birds. He said the key in knocking back mosquitoes is killing them in their larval state in water, not as flying adults. And to that end, he recommended the use of what he called “mosquito dump buckets” that attract mosquitoes to lay their eggs. The water can then be treated with “mosquito dunks” that contain bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis, which onlykills mosquito larvae), and then dumped out.
            Here are two last thoughts from Tallamy: One, nature is not someplace else. It’s where we live and work. 
Two, land ownership is more than privilege, it’s a responsibility to care for all the life the land can sustain.

Sightings
4/5: Judith Bloom on Lake Tomahawk sent photos of a pair of wood ducks digging for sunflower seeds under their bird feeders.
4/8: Judith also sent a great photo of an otter eating a fish.

photo by Judith Bloom

4/8: Jeanne Milewski reported seeing two loons fly over her car in the Mann Creek area. It’s certainly very early for loons, but as spring progresses, they do flyovers to scout out the ice conditions on their desired lake. And, as everyone knows who has a loon pair nesting on their lake, the pair has an uncanny ability to appear very shortly after the ice goes off.
4/8: Our first-of-the-year (FOY) song sparrow appeared under our feeders in Manitowish.
4/11: A crazy snowstorm hit, and birds were hungry. Ed Marshall near Lac du Flambeau had 20 common redpolls appear at his feeders.
4/11: Our FOY fox sparrows came in to our feeders in Manitowish.

photo by Bev Engstrom

4/12: Sue Remley reported six purple finches at her feeders in Hazelhurst. Purple finches have been AWOL this winter, so it’s good to hear they’re returning.
4/12: Bev Engstrom sent a great photo of a mourning dove and a fox sparrow sharing a snowy perch after our 4/11 snowstorm. She added this appropriate caption: “Said the fox sparrow to the mourning dove, ‘Can you believe this crap?’”

photo  by Bev Engstrom

4/12: A lone evening grosbeak shows up sporadically at our feeders. At the same time, robins are eating crabapples of “questionable quality” and appearing quite lethargic on the ground. I’m wondering if the crabapples have aged into hard cider! It’s not unusual for robins and cedar waxwings, in particular, to “fly under the influence of ethanol” when they eat fruits that have fermented. And like humans under the influence, the fruits can cause multiple deaths when the birds fly into cars or die from the toxicity of the fermentation. 
4/13: George Steil had a flock of redpolls stop by at his feeder in Presque Isle. Like purple finches, redpolls have largely been AWOL all winter. 

Helping Birds Survive April Storms 
April snowstorms are nothing new in the North Country, nor May for that matter (my apologies for reminding everyone). Nevertheless, many birds have returned, and we always wonder how we can best help these early migrants and our other wintering birds through the storms. Here are a few ideas:
*Clear the snow to expose some bare soil, and then scatter seed on the ground. Ground-feeding birds like juncos, robins, hermit thrushes, woodcock, flickers, and various species of sparrows will thank you.
*Feed a variety of foods, if your budget can tolerate the cost, including suet, niger seed, peanuts, mealworms, raisins and frozen fruits. The fatty foods attract sapsuckers, other woodpeckers, robins, yellow-rumped warblers, and even chickadees and nuthatches. Meanwhile, robins, bluebirds, blue jays and others will take advantage of the fruits.
*Keep your feeders and your seeds dry and clean. This is the time of year for salmonella to spread, so vigilance is key.
*Provide shelter in the storms. Place feeders/seed out of the wind, where the snow is least likely to pile up, and where tree and shrub cover are close by. Brush piles are really helpful for cover, too.
            Early migrants have been coming back for millennia despite our capricious springs, and most survive just fine. Still, a helping hand can make a big difference for many, so do what you can.

Celestial Events
            Full moon tonight, 4/19 – the moon rises south of east for the first time since September.
Good news on the temperature front: on 4/20, the average low temperature in the Minocqua area now reaches 32° for the first time since October 25. Minocqua averages 182 days – almost exactly half the year – with low temperatures above freezing (thank you to Woody Hagge for these stats).
The peak Lyrid meteor shower occurs in the early morning of 4/22. This modest shower averages 10 to 20 meteors per hour.
On 4/23, look for Jupiter 1.6° below the waning gibbous moon. On 4/25, look before dawn for Saturn just above the waning gibbous moon.
We hit 14 hours of daylight on 4/25.

Thought for the Week
If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.– Eleonora Duse


Wednesday, April 3, 2019

A Northwoods Almanac for 4/5/19


A Northwoods Almanac for 4/5 – 18, 2019  by John Bates

First-of-the-Years!
            Every March into May, we celebrate our first-of-the-year (FOY) sightings of various birds, flowers, and other life forms. Over the winter, these had migrated, died-back, hibernated, or were just plain impossible to find. Their return or revival carries the same emotional pleasure as seeing an old friend after a long absence. We watch for them impatiently, and when they arrive, celebrate their resilience in surviving another winter and their kindness in stopping by our homes once again.
            Mary and I were in Arizona from 3/13-3/26, so we missed some arrivals, but daughter Callie noted that American robins, red-winged blackbirds, and common grackles all appeared on 3/24.
            Waterfowl have also been streaming in as the ice goes off our rivers and marshes. Trumpeter swans and Canada geese are always among the first to arrive, along with diving ducks like common goldeneyes, scaups, hooded mergansers, and buffleheads. 
Tundra swans have also been migrating through, heading for their far northern breeding grounds. Physically differentiating tundras from trumpeter swans is nuanced, so pay attention to their voices. The trumpeters “trumpet” while the tundras sound a bit like geese or baying dogs. Given that trumpeters nest here, they are usually the default swan for our area, but at this time of the year, confusion with tundras is common. 
Ann and Eric Benn have had common redpolls visiting their feeders in Presque Isle since mid-February. The number has steadily grown, and now they have 40 to 50 coming each day, which is rather remarkable given the dearth of redpolls the rest of us experienced this winter.
3/19: Helen Schoebel reported her first robin in Hazelhurst.
3/21: Red-winged blackbirds and and grackles appeared at Mary Madsen’s home in Presque Isle.
3/24: Margo Perkins on Rosalind Lake sent a photo of a long-tailed weasel that was racing around her yard.


3/28: FOY turkey vulture above Hwy. 47.
4/1: FOY northern harrier in Powell Marsh.
            4/1: Rod Sharka sent me a great photo of a tom turkey displaying in his yard near Land O’Lakes.


            4/2: FOY sandhill cranes calling from the marsh below our house.    

Ice-off
            The ice went off the Manitowish River below our house on 3/28. The river fully iced-over on 1/10, making for a rather short ice season of 73 days.
            Lake ice remains pretty solid, so we’ll need some warm weather and strong winds before the lakes open. Average ice-off for modest lakes in our area is around April 16, at least according to Woody Hagge’s 46 years of ice-out data on Foster lake in Hazelhurst. Shallow, small lakes will open up earlier, while larger, deeper lakes will open up later.

Arizona Birds
            Mary and I organized a birding trip to southeastern Arizona through the North Lakeland Discovery Center from 3/21 to 3/25, and we returned last week a little tanned and bird-happy. Eleven participants and our guide joined us in Tucson, and then we headed southeast toward the Mexican border, staying in Bisbee, then in Madera Canyon, and finally back in Tucson. 
This was the second trip we’ve organized to this internationally-known birding area. To give you an idea of the number of birders who visit this place, one of our stops was at the Paton Center, a privately-owned home recently purchased by the Tucson Audubon Society. The home is a simple ranch style set in a neighborhood in the tiny town of Patagonia. But for four decades the family has put out seed feeders and hummingbird feeders, and in 2018 alone, over 15,000 people visited those feeders. The overall annual economic impact of people who come to Arizona to watch birds is $1.4 billion. Yes, billion.
There were people at Paton’s from all over the U.S. when we visited, and part of the pleasure of being there, besides the birds, is meeting all these folks. 213 species of birds have been recorded on Paton’s small lot, many of which are specialties of the region, breeding mostly in Mexico and Central America and barely reaching across the U.S. border. 
Southeastern Arizona is so remarkable because it lies at the crossroads of five major biogeographic regions. The combination of mild climate, proximity to the Mexican border, 9000-foot mountains and the last free-flowing river in the Southwest, make southeastern Arizona a premier hotspot for rare and unusual birds, animals, and plants. The area may be best known for having the greatest diversity of hummingbird species in the U.S. At least thirteen species can be found in the southeastern corner of Arizona each year, and almost half of the hummingbird species found there are rare to unheard of elsewhere in the U.S.
Our group tallied 124 bird species, while Mary and I upped our individual total to 134 by going out a week early to scout the area with our oldest daughter Eowyn.
Our personal highlights before the group arrived were Montezuma quail, elegant trogon, and blue-throated hummingbird – all “lifer” birds for us.


elegant trogon

blue-throated hummingbird

Members of our group all got numerous life-birds as well. We all saw six species of hummingbirds as well as had superb views of zone-tailed hawks, gray hawks, six species of woodpeckers, Scott’s and hooded orioles, hepatic tanagers, lazuli buntings – the list goes on and on.

broad-billed hummingbird photo by Inge Fraser




We had so many views of vermillion flycatchers and broad-billed hummingbirds that after a while we didn’t bother to look at them through our binoculars, amply demonstrating how quickly we humans can become accustomed to, and find routine, just about anything.
And demonstrating the continent-wide range of some birds, four of the most common birds we saw were ruby-crowned kinglets, white-crowned sparrows, pine siskins, and yellow-rumped warblers, all species we regularly see in the Northwoods either in migration or nesting.

Arizona Mammals
            Mary, Eowyn, and I also had some unique experiences with Arizona mammals. We stayed one night in Paradise, AZ, a tiny cluster of houses up a mountain road near the New Mexico border. At about 4:30 in the morning, we awoke to raucous squealing and screeching beneath our bedroom floor, and shortly thereafter the smell of skunk permeated the floorboards. Turns out that female skunks often spray an overly amorous male who just won’t take no for an answer. Unfortunately, the preferred mating site was apparently a hole under our bedroom. Males travel miles to mate with as many females as possible, cads that they are. Hopefully, smelly fellow moved on to find a more accepting mate.
             BTW, if you or your pet get sprayed, the best formula for removing the smell is a mixture of 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, half a cup of baking soda, and one tablespoon of dish soap. 
Earlier that evening, we had been told to watch our hummingbird feeder for the appearance of a ringtail cat, which is not a cat at all but a relative of raccoons. It appeared as advertised shortly after dark and proceeded to empty the sugar water from the feeder by tipping it into its mouth. The cabin had a red light we could shine on the feeder, and we got many pictures of the otherwise reclusive ringtail with its long, bushy, banded tail which it uses for balance on rock ledges and cliffs. Apparently, ringtails have a sweet tooth and eat saguaro and prickly pear fruit, as well as visiting hummingbird feeders after dark.


Then there were the eight javelinas, also known as collared peccary, that wandered into some feeders that we were watching at a bed and breakfast. From a distance, they resembled wild boars, and up close, well, they still resembled wild boars, but small, “cuter” ones, if a wild pig-like animal can be considered cute. They nosed around under the feeders, vacuuming up the spilled seeds, grunting and snorting, and eventually wandered away.


            And perhaps most interestingly of all, we had a band of perhaps 40 white-nosed coati roost in a tree next to our cabin in Madera Canyon, AZ. In the middle of the night, individuals made various piercing sounds that startled us awake every time. I have no idea what they were communicating, but we were very thankful we knew they were up there or we might have thought many things were being killed.
            The next morning, they came down one-by-one out of the tree, crossed a horizontal branch that bridged the nearby creek, and off they went. Related to ringtails and raccoons, these omnivores are masterful, agile climbers in trees.


So, if you haven’t visited southeastern Arizona in late March when cabin fever is reaching peak levels in northern Wisconsin, you might consider it. There are professional guides galore for hire in the area if you want to identify birds and plants. The scenery is exceptional, and did I mention the temperature? 60 to 75 degrees, and dry every day. As I write this today in Manitowish, the snow is flurrying outside my window, which, of course, is our version of spring on April Fools Day.

Celestial Events
            New moon tonight, 4/5. We’re also up to 13 hours of daylight as of today. 
            Planet watching in April is all about getting up early. Before dawn, look in the east for Venus and in the east-southeast for both Jupiter and Saturn. Mars is visible in the west after dusk, but sets before midnight.
            April 12thmarks the 58thanniversary of Russia’s Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space in 1961, the first human to enter space.

Thought for the Week
“There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; there is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.” – William Cullen Bryant 

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call 715-476-2828, e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com