A Northwoods Almanac for April 15 – 28, 2022
The Necessity and Beauty of Death in Nature
March and April are the starvation months for many species of wildlife that have barely hung on through a long winter, and now face death if the winter doesn’t retreat. Tim Van Deelen, professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, and the Beers-Bascom professor in Conservation at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, recently wrote beautifully about the impact of seemingly endless winter on whitetail deer. But importantly, he reminds us that for every loss, there’s gain; for every closed door, there’s opportunity:
“Deer don’t so much as die during the depths of winter. They die during wan spring when nights are still cold and patchy scratchy corn snow lingers in the shadow parts. Some simply run out of energy before green-up. By April, spring has already tried for a bit, but winter is making a last heroic rally. Sufficient new growth has not yet arrived – and the late spring storms disproportionately, for many, sap a northern a deer’s depleted reserves beyond recovery.
“Starvation has a posture and a smell. They settle in on their own legs, covering with thick belly hair the thin limbs where their body heat leaks away. They crawl under a balsam thicket or the lee of a big tree or a patch of south-facing sunshine. They die with their heads reflected back on their elegant necks, rolled over to the uphill side. You can imagine the last-breath sacrifice gassing itself out like a ghost dissolving in the lonely dawn. At necropsy, their marrow looks like cranberry jelly, their livers are dark and thin, and their skin peels free from wasted bare muscle. It smells sweet and your hands are cold.
“. . . Don’t look away though. This is how it works. Bear cubs are emerging with their mothers from winter dens, born during their mother’s hibernation and nursed on her fatty milk while she fasted. The deer carrion restores the mother bear to wean and feed the cubs. Wolf pups are on the way. Bobcat kittens. Crows and ravens find the starvation carcasses first, and then the coyotes and bears. Eagles peel away the drying hide with surgical precision. Songbirds pick at the bones and glean the insects that are attracted. Insects and microbes dismantle the leavings. Mineral-stressed rodents gnaw on the bones that then get brittle and dry – returning elementally to the soil. In the end its remnant hair and the deer’s last supper – acid-soaked rumen contents, that weather away in the rain.
“The soil, that spot, then flushes with soft green plants in May and June. And a weanling fawn learns to graze…
“Deer are at the hub of an economy of sunlight energy. Plants capture it and make it available. Deer aggregate it for a time and then, in death, they disperse it to fuel thousands of others’ lives – creeping, crawling, fluttering, flying, singing, surging, birthing, and growing.”
To see Tim’s full essay, go to https://blog.reformedjournal.com/2022/03/31/cruelest-month/?fbclid=IwAR1KKsC8EBNkJGXsOTfSpmosTQBfS7Aw5Fj9TmfZaLNGvtz96njv1YPGD2U, or find it on Tim’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tim.vandeelen.7
Redpolls!
This winter, master bird bander Bruce Bacon banded 580 common redpolls at his home north of Mercer, and could have banded hundreds more, but he ended his banding in late March because he was running out of bands! Bruce told me that when he was banding earlier in the winter, around half of those he caught would be recaptures. But in the last few weeks of March, none were recaptures, indicating that redpolls were migrating north and only stopping briefly at feeders. Thus, it’s likely that the redpolls you see still congregating en masse at your feeders are new birds every day, just stopping in to refuel and then move on.
Bruce certainly could have banded hundreds more, but 580 is a stunning number given that his home isn’t on any specific migratory path – it’s no different than the backyards of any of our homes in this area. So, if his home was attracting that many, how many more were passing through our area this winter?
Common redpolls “irrupt” and come south for the winter in a marked pattern every two years, corresponding with low seed-availability in their breeding range or the more northern parts of their wintering range. Since 1960, with only one exception (1969), irruptions in most locations have been in even-numbered years. So, if this cycle continues, next year we should see few if any redpolls, but should again be inundated in 2024.
Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population of redpolls at 160 million, with 22% wintering in the U.S.
Salmonella
Given the enormous numbers of redpolls still present at our feeders, I’m concerned that salmonella infections could become a major issue. I’ve written about this before, but as a reminder, a bird infected by salmonella typically becomes very lethargic and puffs its feathers up like it’s very cold, eventually dying in a few days.
Birds contract salmonella through direct contact with infected birds or by consuming food or water contaminated by the feces of infected birds. So, all of us need to clean up the seed hulls under our feeders, change the water in our birdbaths frequently, and clean our bird feeders with a 10 percent bleach solution.
If you observe dead or sick birds at your feeders, take the feeders down, clean them, and then wait a week before starting to feed again. If you see dead or sick redpolls, keep your cats and dogs indoors, since with certain strains of salmonella, your animals could become infected through eating the affected birds.
And if you see a dead bird, remove it immediately from your feeder areas. You can pick the bird up by using a plastic bag to avoid direct contact with the bird.
Pine Branches!
Oh man, did an enormous number of pine branches break off during the last ice storm! Branches are still strewn all over the area awaiting a decent thaw so we can remove them from the deep snow.
An ice storm like this amply demonstrates the differences between trees that have evolved with supple branches and those that haven’t. Spruces and balsam fir trees have adapted to bend but seldom break with the immense weight of ice, but red and white pines are more brittle and easily snap off, which is part of the reason that red and white pines are limited in their northern range to barely reach above the Canadian border.
Hardwood trees didn’t lose near as many branches during the storm for the simple reason that most hardwoods drop all their leaves in the fall, and thus have less surface area upon which the ice can adhere. The exceptions within the hardwood family are the oaks and ironwoods which hang on to many of their leaves throughout the winter, a process called marcescence.” The term comes from the Latin, marcescere, and means “to fade,” the consequence of which is that the oaks and ironwoods were more prone to losing their branches during the ice storm.
Conservation Congress County Meetings
At the 2022 DNR Spring Hearings and Wisconsin Conservation Congress (WCC) County Meetings that occurred on April 1, the public was presented with 63 questions ranging from walleye limits to wolf management. For the third consecutive year, the input was collected only online.
Questions that were/are of particular interest to me include whether people supported additional testing for PFAS levels in drinking water across Wisconsin? Whether we supported a wolf population goal of 350 or less wolves? Whether we favored the DNR and the NRB working with the Legislature to create a registration system and fee for canoes and kayaks? Whether we supported banning dogs from hunting wolves in Wisconsin, and for that matter, whether we supported the Conservation Congress working with the WDNR to develop and support a ban on all wildlife killing contests?
All answers to these questions are advisory only and help inform the DNR, Natural Resources Board and elected officials of public sentiment on topics. Unfortunately, this year's questionnaire was only open from April 11 through April 14, so I’m a day late in informing you of the meetings. However, you can submit your opinions anytime on these matters to the DNR Board – see https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/NRB/public.html. I’d encourage you to do so, because the number of responses is often used to justify a particular policy.
Snow Fleas
Billions, and I mean billions, of snow fleas have been covering the snow over the last few weeks. There can be 250 million in a square acre, so these number aren’t exaggerations. I’ve written about them before, but just for your recall, they’re not fleas, but rather “springtails,” so named because of the spring-like tail appendage called a furcula that can launch them many feet through the air.
They’re “good guys (and gals),” feeding on decaying matter in the soil, and thus playing an important part in natural decomposition.
Snow fleas can withstand winter temperatures thanks to a glycine-rich antifreeze protein, which binds to ice crystals as they start to form, preventing the crystals from growing larger.
They’re tiny black flecks on the snow, looking like bits of dirt or sprinkled pepper. Why they rise through the decaying snowpack in late March and April is likely due to the need to reproduce and diversify the gene pool, and they certainly have plenty of mates to choose from.
Sightings
4/1: The Manitowish River finally opened, several weeks later than average.
4/3: We saw our first woodcock of the year. Rosie Richter in Mercer reported seeing the first-of-the year merlin in our area, and she heard a sandhill crane.
4/8: Mitch Meyer in Mercer reported an exceptionally early yellow-rumped warbler eating tiny peanut pieces at his feeders.
And waterfowl are returning as rivers and creeks have opened. In the first week of April, we saw hooded mergansers, pied-billed grebes, common goldeneyes, and buffleheads, along with many Canada geese and trumpeter swans.
Celestial Events
The full moon occurs on 4/16. This day also marks the average ice-out date for Foster Lake in Hazelhurst, according to Woody Hagge’s 49 years of ice data. Most smaller lakes in our area would fall within this same average date.
The peak Lyrid meteor shower occurs during the predawn hours of 4/22.
Our days are growing longer now by three minutes every day – we hit 14 hours of daylight as of 4/24.
On 4/25, look before dawn for Mars 4° above the waning crescent moon. And on 4/26, look for Venus to have changed places with Mars at 4° above the moon.
Thought for the Week
“What we are hearing beyond the promise of April, is the exuberance of life itself.” –
Hal Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year
Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail me at manitowish@centurytel.net, call 715-476-2828, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com.
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