A Northwoods Almanac for 9/13-26, 2024
Nighthawks!
8/26/23 was a nighthawk flight to remember. Between 6 AM and 4 PM at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN, counters tallied nearly 12,000 nighthawks flying along the shore, most of those coming earlier in the day. Some single flocks were over 1,000 birds.
Then, shortly after 5 PM, the floodgates opened again and didn’t stop until sunset. Hundreds of nighthawks were passing every second. There were easily thousands of birds in view at any given moment!
Between 5pm and dusk, over 23,000 nighthawk had flown by, bringing the cumulative daily total to over 35,000!
These were unprecedented numbers and exceptionally encouraging for a species that has seen an overall decline. Cornell’s “Birds of the World” notes that recent Breeding Bird Survey data suggest a substantial decline in numbers of this species, perhaps owing to increased predation, indiscriminate use of pesticides leading to lowered insect numbers, or habitat loss. Nighthawks are listed as Threatened in Canada – a decline of about 50% has been noted there over the past three generations. In the United States, nighthawks are considered critically imperiled or imperiled in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Delaware.
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| nighthawk, photo by Mark Westphal |
Blue Jay and Broad-winged Hawk Migration
Blue jays may remain over the winter at your home, or they may migrate. What triggers an individual to stay while another leaves is unclear, but blue jays have been on the move. On 9/1, counters at Hawk Ridge in Duluth tallied 1,122 blue jays flying over the ridge. The Hawk Ridge record count for blue jays was just last year on 9/10 when 14,054 cruised by, so there are more to come.
While most blue jays are permanent residents, it’s believed that about 20 percent of the population regularly migrates. Breeding jays may be migratory one year, sedentary the next, then again migratory in a subsequent year. Adult jays that presumably breed at one location may summer substantially farther south in subsequent years. And sometimes jays captured and marked as adults during winter have been recaptured substantially farther south in subsequent winters.
In other words, blue jays do whatever the heck they want any given year, and no one really knows why.
Broad-winged hawks are the usual stars of the show at Hawk Ridge. The record count was over 101,000 on 9/15/2003, with the next highest count at nearly 48,000 on 9/18/1993. Weather conditions have to come together perfectly for massive flights like these, the best scenario being three days of rain to ground the birds in mid-September, then a blast of cold with winds out of the north or west to release all those that have been waiting out the rain.
Hawk Ridge holds a weekend festival every September, which I highly recommend attending. Bird migration research and education programs have been shared with visitors throughout the world each fall at Hawk Ridge for over 50 years. This year’s event occurs from 9/20-22 – see www.hawkridge.org. If the winds are right, you can have the birding thrill of a lifetime. And if the winds are wrong, well, you’ll have a lovely time overlooking Lake Superior with hundreds of other like-minded, but disappointed folks.
Nodding Ladies’-Tresses
Mary, Callie, and I found a colony of nodding ladies’-tresses orchids in flower in late August, and as of 9/5, they’re still in bloom. The white flowers grow in a tight spiral on a tall stem, and each blossom “nods,” or tips down slightly, giving it its name. They are thriving in a recently mowed meadow, which apparently is a habitat they prefer along with roadside ditches. One doesn’t tend to think of orchids living in such disturbed habitats, but this species excels there, and over time disappears as the site matures.
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| nodding ladies'-tresses, photo by John Bates |
I wasn’t sure what a “ladies tress” was, so I looked it up and found that it refers to the inflorescence which resembled to some highly imaginative soul the braided locks of hair worn by women. To come to this likeness I think would require a full bottle of wine first.
Trees and Shrubs for the Birds
Over the years, Mary and I have planted an array of tree and shrub species to attract birds to our yard, and our efforts have paid off. Shrubs and vines currently in fruit include pagoda dogwood, red-osier dogwood, gray dogwood, nannyberry, downy arrowwood, American elderberry, grapes, Virginia creeper (aka woodbine), blueberries, and high-bush cranberry. Plus we have volunteer raspberries and blackberries for the taking.
The birds have already cleaned out our serviceberries (aka Juneberries), currants, chokecherries, and a lot of our crabapples, but we have a good crop of mountain ash berries and rose hips still awaiting the fall migration, and hopefully some of those will still be left for Canadian birds visiting our yard this winter.
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| our honey harvest on 9/2 from our 2 hives |
Early autumn is a good time to plant trees and shrubs for attracting birds. I recommend getting a 16 page booklet published by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology – “Creating a Bird-Friendly Yard with Native Wisconsin Plants” by Mariette Nowak. Download the pdf at https://wsobirds.org/images/pdfs/BeyondBirdFeederBookletFINAL.compressed.pdf.
Wildlife Damage – Ticks Lead the Way
I’m currently being tested for chronic Lyme disease, and it’s a pricey process. Going through this reminds me of a column I read back in February from Pat Durkin comparing the costs of Lyme disease in Wisconsin to wildlife damage claims.
He wrote, “During 2022, the state recorded 91 babesiosis cases, as well as 17 cases of ehrlichiosis, 53 cases of Powassan virus, 511 cases of anaplasmosis, and 5,327 cases of Lyme disease. A 2016 study by the National Library of Medicine estimated each Lyme disease case costs society about $2,000 and each patient $1,200. That’s 6,044 diagnosed tick-borne diseases at $2K each for Wisconsin, totaling an estimated $12.1 million in medical costs for 2022.
“According to the DNR’s 2022 report on wildlife damage claims and abatements . . . agricultural damage in [the] 26 northern counties in 2022 was:
“$40,372 from turkeys, 98% of the statewide $40,990 total.
“$65,131 from elk, 100% of the statewide total.
“$137,535 from black bears, 92% of the statewide $148,744 total.
“$270,951 from white-tailed deer, 25% of the statewide $1.06 million total.
“For comparison, wolves caused $171,386 in damage in 2023 . . . and $177,000 on average from 2019 through 2023 across their range in Wisconsin's northern and central forests.”
To put this into further perspective, it’s hard these days to buy a decent two-bedroom home in the Northwoods for under $300,000. Thus, wolf damage isn’t even equal to the cost of a single house. And keep in mind, deer cause far more damage than all other wildlife species combined.
But none of them cause as much damage as ticks.
Thinking of Moving to Phoenix?
On 9/3, temperatures in Phoenix, AZ, hit 100 degrees for the 100th day in a row. The longest previous 100-degree streak was 76 days in 1993. This year has seen an uninterrupted stretch of 100-degrees days at least 3½ weeks longer than in any other year since records began in 1896. The streak, which began on May 27 with a high of 102, shows no sign of ending. Long-range forecast models suggest that highs could reach the century mark or more for two more weeks.
For comparison, last weekend on 9/6 and 9/7, the highs here were predicted to be in the upper 50’s, to which I say, “Hooray!”
Autumn Equinox
The official autumnal equinox varies from year to year, occurring between September 20 and September 23. This year it’s on the 22nd, and on this day, the sun’s direct rays will move across the equator and continue to migrate south, slowly bringing spring to the southern hemisphere and winter to the north. The sun rises on the equinox at around 6:51 a.m. and sets at 6:49 p.m. Now our days will be getting shorter by more than 3 minutes every day.
The ancient Celts called the passing of the autumn equinox Mabon. Mabon marked the end of the grain harvest, and was considered a time of thanksgiving when most of the crops were reaped and life’s abundance was so appreciated.
As an “advanced” society, we note the passing of solstice and equinox as little more than quaint, old-timey notions. Most of us are so far removed from spring planting and fall gathering, harvesting, and storing that these events have faded in significance.
Mary and I are still trying to honor the fall gathering. We have already canned strawberry-rhubarb sauce and peaches, frozen many quarts of blueberries, and harvested 13 quarts of honey from our two hives on 9/2. We’ve also been eating kale, carrots, zucchini, peas, tomatoes, beans, and various herbs from the garden, with applesauce from our apples yet to come.
As of 9/6, we’ve yet to have a frost. In these days of climate change, the first frost date keeps moving into later September, so the garden continues to keep on giving. For the first 20 years that we lived here, 1984 to 2004 or so, we always had a frost around August 20.
Celestial Events
The full moon – aka the Harvest Moon or Acorns or Leaves Changing Color Moon – occurs on 9/17. A partial lunar eclipse will be visible that evening. The moon will just graze the Earth’s umbral shadow, and become noticeably darker for about 30 minutes on either side of the the maximum eclipse at 9:44 p.m. Only 8% of the moon’s diameter will be covered.
The steady golden light just below the eclipsed moon will be the planet Saturn.
Thought for the Week
It dims slowly, the greening does, a slight paleness at first, from Emerald Forest Green to Pear and Moccasin brown, Chantilly and Guacamole, a yellowing of stems scattered here and there blanched by shorter days and cooler nights, curling at the edges like old photographs, fading into sepia-toned memories, and there is something comforting about this time of year, a rainy day reprieve, a rest day in between the uproar of Spring and before the brilliant crescendo of Autumn, the meticulous preparation for the long dark quiet of Winter. – Bob Kovar, Manitowish Waters
Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail me at johnbates2828@gmail.com, call 715-476-2828, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com
