A Northwoods Almanac for 5/23 – 6/5/25

 A Northwoods Almanac for 5/23 – 6/5/25 

 

FOYs (First-of-Year Sightings)

I swear there is no more exciting time of year than the first two weeks of May. Spring ephemeral wildflowers are wildly blooming and bird migration is in full swing. The Earth is coming back alive, fervently alive, and all we have to do is go out and enjoy it. 

So, with around 150 nesting birds returning to the Northern Highlands, plus the migrants passing through, and dozens of wildflower species peaking, it’s a homecoming of sorts, and the FOYs can make your head spin

5/4: On a hike at the Plum Lake Hemlocks State Natural Area, we saw and/or heard our FOY black-throated green warblers and ovenbirds, and leatherwood (Dirca palustris) had come into flower.

5/5: We had our FOY rose-breasted grosbeak come to one of our feeders in the morning. Then on an afternoon hike in Sylvania, we had our FOY blue-headed vireo.

5/7: On a hike on the Logan Creek Preserve State Natural Area in Door County, we saw our FOY spring beauties, large-flowered trilliums, trout lilies, sharp-lobed hepatica (we see round-lobed hepatica almost exclusively around here), cut-leaved toothwort, large-flowered bellwort, and wood anemone. On the shoreline of Clark Lake within the Logan Preserve, we saw our FOY great egrets, white pelicans, and double-crested cormorants.

5/8: On a hike at the Ephraim Preserve at Anderson Pond, we heard our FOY great-crested flycatchers and Nashville warblers, which BTW, have nothing whatsoever to do with the city of Nashville – just for the record. Later in the day, we hiked at the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Nature Preserve and saw numerous FOY Caspian terns and northern rough-winged swallows.

5/9: Our FOY ruby-throated hummingbird stopped by for a sip from one of our sugar water feeders. And very oddly, in the early evening a whip-poor-will began singing below our house, the first time we’ve ever had a whip-poor-will on our property in 41 years.

5/10: On a bird hike at Powell Marsh, we saw two horned larks, a grassland species that rarely nests here. They were most likely just passing through.

5/11: Juneberries came into flower. On a Mother’s Day hike on the Escanaba Trail, we heard our FOY least flycatcher, Blackburnian warbler, parula warbler, and yellow-throated vireo. We also saw our FOY barren strawberries in flower. It’s been so dry in our area that many spring flowers seem to have been waiting for a big rain before they’re willing to risk flowering.

5/12: Four Baltimore orioles appeared at our home in Manitowish and immediately began eating the oranges we had put out for them in anticipation of their arrival.

5/12: On a bird walk on Powell Marsh, we came upon my FOY marsh wrens singing up a storm in some old cattail stalks from last year (see their surprising natural history later in this column).

5/13/25: I saw or heard my FOY magnolia warbler, scarlet tanager, and chestnut-sided warbler on Deadhorse Trail in Iron County.

5/13/25: The redhorse were spawning beneath the bike bridge over the Manitowish River. It’s hard to estimate their numbers, but I’ll bet we saw at least a hundred fish all lined-up facing upstream in the current waiting for the magic of spawning to begin.

 

Avoiding Mosquitoes 101

Mosquitoes began hatching out on 5/15 after a good rain the prior evening. And so begins the summer-long battle to repel them. Like in any battle, you need to know your enemy, so here are the things they key in on, and thus you need to limit.

One: Mosquitoes locate their targets by sensing the carbon dioxide emitted in your breath – they can detect carbon dioxide from as far as 100 feet away. So, do what you can to slow your breath down and stay calm. The more excited you are, the more excited they are.

Two: Mosquitoes find victims at closer range by smelling a chemical cocktail of odors that can include lactic acid, ammonia and other substances expelled via human sweat. They are also attracted to people with higher body temperatures. So, avoid strenuous exercise which increases lactic acid and heat in your body. 

Three: Mosquitoes also use vision to locate humans, so don’t wear dark colors that attract them –  black, dark red, and orange. Colors like green, blue and white are less attractive. And wear loose clothes – mosquitoes bite right through tight clothes.

Four: Despite doing all the right things, some people seem to be mosquito magnets. Why? One reason is blood type. One study found that mosquitoes landed on people with Type O blood nearly twice as often as those with Type A, while people with Type B blood fell somewhere in the middle. So, while there’s nothing anyone can do about their blood type, at least you can take some solace in knowing why you’re loved by your local mosquito army.

 

Yellow Warblers

Mary and I often walk the dikes on Powell Marsh, and we always look forward to seeing the FOY yellow warblers in the willow and alder thickets that clothe the wet edges of the dikes. This year they arrived on May 9^th  from their wintering grounds in Central and South America. 

Yellow warblers are easily identifiable because of being strikingly yellow with variable amounts of chestnut streaking on their breast – they’re the “canary” of our northern warblers.

Their songs generally fit the mnemonic “sweet sweet sweet I'm so sweet” or “sweet sweet sweet sweeter than sweet,” but their songs can be quite variable within and between populations. Most male yellow warblers have song repertoires of up to 20 song types, so they can fool even careful listeners (I speak from personal experience).

What I find particularly amazing about them is how yellow warbler females respond to cowbirds who regularly parasitize their nests by adding their eggs to the yellow warbler’s eggs. They respond to these incursions by burying the cowbird’s eggs as well as their own with plant material, and then re-laying eggs on the new nest floor. 

The problem with that is the female cowbird often returns and lays more eggs on the new second floor. So, the female yellow warbler again covers those eggs, as well as her own, and then lays her third set of eggs. And on it goes. These multitiered nests can become little skyscrapers. In an Ontario study, researchers recorded 29 two-tiered nests, 7 three-tiered, 2 four-tiered and 1 five-tiered nest out of 399 parasitized nests. One warbler nest even had 6 tiers and contained 11 cowbird eggs, distributed as follows: 1 cowbird egg laid during nest construction, 3 eggs in first tier, 1 in second tier, 2 in third tier, 2 in fourth tier, 1 in fifth tier, and 1 in the sixth tier. The nest was 14.6 cm (nearly 6 inches) tall – a high-rise condo!

The good news is that yellow warblers are often successful in rearing their own young even while raising the brown-headed cowbird young.

            Look for yellow warblers nesting in shrubby thickets along the shores of many of our regional lakes.

 

Spruce Budworm

On numerous hikes over recent years, Mary and I have noticed lots of downed balsam firs laying across and along trails, many of which are smaller trees that one would think should be healthy. The culprit killing them is the eastern spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana), a native forest insect of coniferous forests across the upper Midwest. 

Despite its name, balsam fir trees are most susceptible to budworm, while spruces are only moderately susceptible. 

The budworm larvae feed on new foliage growth through May and June, then pupate and emerge as brown moths by mid-July. The adult moths then mate, lay eggs, and eventually die in later summer.

The budworms feed first on the outer branch shoots in the upper crowns of the trees, and the partially eaten needles can be seen webbed onto branch tips and turned to a reddish-brown color.

Long-term damage on balsam firs from budworm defoliation can kill the tree tops in 2 to 3 years, but repeated defoliation causes the trees to usually die after 3 to 4 years.

Spruce budworm has been causing defoliation in Wisconsin since 2012 according to Linda Williams, Wisconsin DNR forest health specialist. Outbreaks occur every 30-50 years, and usually last about 10 years.

“Our last round was in the 1970s,” says Williams. “Unlike our hardwoods – which, if their leaves are eaten early in spring, will send out additional leaves to get them through the rest of the year – our conifers don’t re-foliate after their needles have been eaten. The growth they push out in the spring is all they’ve got. These trees can suffer top die-back or die completely.”

Homeowners with just a few spruce or fir trees to protect can treat them with the biological insecticide Btk (Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki).

 

Marsh Wrens – The “Nazi” Bird

On a recent bird hike in Powell Marsh, our group came across a cattail stand with numerous marsh wrens singing their reedy, gurgling songs. 

I think the song is really quite pretty, but others see it differently. Early ornithologist Alexander Wilson thought it “deficient and contemptible in singing,” similar to the sound “produced by air-bubbles forcing their way through mud or boggy ground when trod upon.”  Audubon compared the “song, if song I may call it... [to]... the grating of a rusty hinge.” 

There’s no denying, however, how complex their songs are. Males learn 50 to 200 song types and engage in complex counter-singing duels with other males, singing almost continuously, day and night, in their bid for a territory. In their zeal, the males also build at least a half dozen dummy nests for every breeding nest ultimately used by a female.

Marsh wrens are also known for their habit of not only destroying the eggs of other species, but also of other marsh wrens. Both male and female marsh wrens of all ages peck and destroy eggs if given the chance, and thus the species has earned the title from one writer as the “Nazi” bird. 

The aggressive interactions with other species goes both ways. While male wrens destroy both the eggs and young nestlings of yellow-headed blackbirds, the yellow-headed blackbirds sometimes perch on or in front of wren brood nests, thus blocking the female wren's return to incubate. They also are known to chase marsh wren males and hop up and down on their nests, compressing them. 

Both male and female red-winged blackbirds get in on the aggression too, also attacking singing marsh wrens. The smaller wrens typically escape by dropping into dense vegetation that the larger blackbirds can’t fly through.

Why are they harassing the wrens? In one study, a researcher watched male wrens destroy and partly drink contents of red-winged blackbird eggs, and 14 of 51 blackbird nests showed evidence of wren destruction. A later study found that wrens destroyed up to 52% of red-winged blackbird nests in a British Columbia marsh.

 

Thought for the Week

“The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.” – Gaylord Nelson

 

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

 

 

A Northwoods Companion for 5/9-22, 2025

A Northwoods Companion for 5/9-22, 2025  by John Bates

 

Great Backyard Bird Count – A Great Success!

Cornell’s Great Backyard Bird Count was held Feb. 14-17, and wow, a bunch of worldwide records were set! Some 8,078 bird species were found, representing about 74% of the 10,960 species on the planet. This was 158 more than were found in 2024.  

In North America, 792 species were recorded in Mexico, 670 in the U.S. and 247 in Canada, though those totals were dwarfed by species reported in South America, including the 1,376 in Colombia, 1,137 in Ecuador and 1,094 in Brazil.

Outside the Western Hemisphere, India was the top country with 1,085 species, while Kenya led all countries in Africa with 700.

Closer to home, people in 71 of Wisconsin's 72 counties participated in this year's GBBC and reported 128 species (Vilas County folks found 24 species, Iron County 18).

Worldwide, an estimated 838,113 people took part, which is a remarkable statistic in and of itself and amply demonstrates the immense popularity of bird watching.

The largest flock of birds recorded was 500,000 European starlings in England. In California, a flock of 350,000 common murres were seen off the Pacific coast, and about 200,000 greater and lesser flamingos were reported at a site in Tanzania – can you imagine what that must have looked like?

 

Planting for Hummingbirds

            Hummers usually arrive right around Mother’s Day, so get your feeders out if you haven’t already. And rather than just providing sugar water, consider planting species that provide real nectar over the long run like butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), bee balm (Monarda), cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), and jewelweed (Impatiens capensis).

 

Sightings – FOYs (First of Year)

4/18: FOY yellow-rumped warblers coming to our feeders, which is unusual. Tree swallows on Powell Marsh, but no insects hatching. Frog Lake opened up and is ice-free.

yellow-rumped warbler, photo by Bev Engstrom

4/19: Harris’s sparrow at our feeders in Manitowish.

4/21: FOY brown thrasher below our feeders. Pied-billed grebes out on Powell.

4/23: White-throated sparrows returned to our feeders. And it was Mary and my 46^th anniversary! We hiked a seven-mile section of the North Country Trail in celebration.

4/24: FOY woodcocks, and the first female red-winged blackbirds appeared. They’re usually two to three weeks later than the males.

4/26: FOY American bittern on Powell Marsh.

4/27: FOY pine warbler.

4/28: FOY swamp sparrows, and Wilson’s snipes are now winnowing over our house.

 

Mosquito Time is Coming!

Enjoy, really and truly enjoy, this last week or so of mosquito-free hiking. The first big hatch usually occurs around May 20, but it depends on the weather – warm and wet as we all know brings them out quicker. 

 

Maple Syrup Season

            Whenever I need further education in the art and science of maple sugaring, I call my friend and internationally-known forester Bob Simeone who has been making maple syrup for 38 years near Land O’Lakes. I wanted to confirm with him that this was a good year for syrup given our plethora of above freezing days and below freezing nights, which is the general rule for a robust season of sap. 

Well, I was partially right. It was a good season for quantity, but a poor season for quality. 

I hadn’t accounted for two major factors. First, Bob told me, you have to remember that the previous summer, defined as mid-May to the end of July, determines in large part the sugar content of the sap for the following spring. This is the period when sugar maples have leafed out and are doing their maximum photosynthesizing (PHS).

You may remember early summer last year was often wet, cool, and cloudy, conditions less conducive for PHS than warm, sunny, and dry. The better the PHS, Bob said, the higher the sugar content in the sap the following spring.

Given this, Bob predicted that a lower sugar content would be the case this spring, and he was right on the money. Sugar content in the first spring run of sap is usually from 3.5 to 3.7%, which makes for a light, amber colored, and mild flavored syrup. As the weather slowly warms, the sap runs decline in sugar content until they reach 2%, at which point it’s usually close to 60° and Bob pulls his taps.

This spring, the first sap run occurred very early, the second week of March when our daytime temps hit 60° for several weeks. Bob tapped then, and his first run of sap was abundant, but low in sugar – only 2.5% – and thus the resulting syrup was dark and strong-flavored from the get-go. 

Bob made 10 gallons of syrup in this first run, and by the next run, the sugar content had dropped to 1.5%, much too low to continue the effort of boiling sap, so Bob pulled his taps. Bob usually makes 40 gallons in a good year, so by his standards, this was a poor year indeed.

Bob noted, however, that lots of syrup makers did not pull their taps, and the sap kept running, but made for a very dark and strong-flavored syrup.

And that’s where the second factor has to be taken into account, and that’s the magic number of 60°, a point where the trees begin to metabolize leaves, and the sap becomes sulfur smelling. Why 60° is the magic number, Bob doesn’t know, but he does know that it’s a real thing, and that it always means the end of the season.

The problem with this spring season is we began early on with 60° temps, but then we reverted to a more normal spring with fluctuating temps between 20° or so at night and 40° or so during the day. That spell of 60° contributed to the conversion of sap to a lower sugar content and the resulting dark syrup.

Bottom line? For those who kept tapping, this was a good year for the quantity of sap, but  the sap boiled down to a low quality syrup. Quantity vs. quality – an issue in a thousand other things, too. 

 

Spring Flowers!

By the time you read this, spring ephemerals should be in full riot. However, as of this writing on May 1, flowers are still just poking through.

4/23: Pussy willows flowering.

4/27: Silver maples flowering.

4/28: Male and female flowers on hazelnut and tag alders. Quaking aspen flowering.

4/29: Trailing arbutus and round-lobed hepatica were just beginning to flower in Frog Lake and Pines SNA.

Trailing arbutus, photo by Mary Burns

 

FE Returns!

I wrote in my last column about ABJ, the world’s oldest known banded loon as a chick, returning to the Seney National Wildlife Refuge in the U.P. on April 11. At that time, however, his female mate for much of his life, “Fe,” had not returned.

Well, refuge researches announced on 4/29 that she had arrived in Seney, settling upon I Pool, her Seney home since splitting from ABJ in 2022. Fe was first color-marked in 1990 when she was at least four years old, and thus will be at least 39 this summer. Although ABJ is the eldest common loon of known age, turning exactly 38 this June, Fe could well be 42 or 47, and occupies the pedestal of the most senior documented member of her species. 

Last year, Fe and an unbanded male produced two offspring, but, unusually, both perished within weeks. The long-term average for chick survivorship among all refuge pairs is 82%, and during their quarter-century partnership ABJ and Fe fledged 91% of their young.

Meanwhile, ABJ has paired with “Aye-Aye.” Like Fe, she was originally color-marked as a successful adult mother in 2018 (thus she was at least 4 years old at the time), making Aye-Aye at least 11 this summer. 

ABJ has never sired young with anyone but Fe, so we’ll see if this changes for he and Aye-Aye in 2025.

 

Frog Count 

            Mary and I conducted our first DNR frog count of the year on 4/26, an annual survey we began back in 1988 on 10 sites in western Vilas County. We survey the sites three times, once between April 8-30, then May 20-June 5, and finally between July 1-15. 

            This spring the surprise was the number of wood frogs we heard. Six of the 10 sites had wood frogs “quacking” right along with the usual chaos of spring peepers.  

            To identify wood frogs by appearance, look for their characteristic dark triangular-shaped “mask” that extends from the tip of the snout back through the eyes, accented by a white line along the upper lip. Their dorsal (back) color can vary from tan to brown to gray to bronze to even pink, so look for these facial features to identify them.

            The females lay 500-800 eggs in masses in the shallow waters of temporary vernal ponds or semipermanent wetlands. These sites provide enough water for larval development, but don’t support overwintering fish or other amphibians that prey on the eggs or larvae.

The larvae hatch out in 12 to 15 days, undergo a rapid metamorphosis in May to late June (45 to 60 days), and then hop out of the water into woodlands where they live for the rest of the summer.

            As the name suggests, wood frogs need woodlands with nearby wetlands for breeding. One study showed that wood frogs aren’t found in landscapes with less than 30% forest cover.

            They’re the most northern frog in North America, even breeding north of the Arctic Circle, with a range extending from the Pacific coast of Alaska to the Atlantic coast of Quebec, and south into the Appalachian Mountains.

            Their “singing” lasts only a couple weeks, then that’s the last you’ll hear of them until next spring. They may in fact have wrapped up their singing by the time you’re reading this. If not, this is your last chance to hear them in 2025 – get out there!

 

Thought for the Week

“It is not enough . . . to think of different species merely as potential ‘resources’ to be exploited, while overlooking the fact that they have value in themselves. Each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plant and animal species which we will never know, which our children will never see, because they have been lost forever. The great majority become extinct for reasons related to human activity. Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such right.” -  Pope Francis

 

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

 

  

A Northwoods Almanac for 4/25 - May 8, 2025

A Northwoods Almanac for April 25 – May 8, 2025  by John Bates

Home Grown National Parks

         Planting time is on the horizon! If we want to attract wildlife to our properties, we all need to get on board with planting native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. I’ve emphasized planting native species in the past (harped on it might be more accurate) for one simple reason – native plants co-evolved over millennia with our native insects, birds, and other animals, and non-native plants did not. The upshot of that? For instance, most of our native insect fauna cannot, or will not, use non-native plants for food. Thus, insect populations in areas with non-native plants will be smaller than in native plant areas, and a land without insects is a land without most forms of higher life.

         Aren’t fewer insects a good thing? Nope. Insects are great at converting plant tissues to insect tissue, and a large percentage of the world’s fauna depends entirely on insects to access the energy stored in plants. 

         Birds are the best example – 96%, or nearly all of the terrestrial bird species in North America, rely on protein-rich insects to feed their young.

Entomologist Doug Tallamy has written and spoken on this topic for decades, and his work has helped spawn the movement for restoring the habitats where we live, work and play – our lawns, gardens, woods, shorelines, et al – by planting native species.   

Tallamy calls this “reconciliation ecology.” He cites study after study that show the vital role of planting yards and gardens with native plants as the best means of saving wildlife.

Recently, he coined the name “Homegrown National Park” to describe making a difference in and around our homes.

He writes, “Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale, are too small and separated from one another to preserve (native) species to the levels needed. Thus, the concept for Homegrown National Park, a bottom-up call-to-action to restore habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser extent where we farm and graze, extending national parks to our yards and communities.”

On his website (see homegrownnationalpark.org), Tallamy lists those native plants that are regional “keystone species” (the most productive) for wildlife, All you need to do is type in your zip code, and a list comes up of the most important species you can plant in your area.

Although Tallamy has written extensively about the large array of species that are of benefit to specific wildlife, I was surprised that the list on the website is constrained to a relatively small number. There’s a lot more species that we all can consider planting.

And remember it’s not just about food that plants provide. Wildlife species utilize plants for cover, too – for safety, for raising young, for protection from the weather, for breeding, and so on.

Here are the species of highest wildlife value I suggest you consider for planting on your property. For fruiting or masting trees, I recommend planting red oak, white birch, black cherry, pin cherry, crabapple, juneberry, and mountain ash, along with conifers like white pines, white cedar, and white spruce for cover and seed cones.

For shrubs, consider planting elderberry, nannyberry, winterberry, maple-leaved viburnum, highbush cranberry, dogwoods (red-osier, pagoda, gray), wild rose, blueberry, grapes, woodbine, and sumac, and sweet gale along shorelines. 

For groundlayer herbaceous plants, consider trying columbine, swamp milkweed, butterfly weed, common milkweed, jewelweed, sunflowers, coneflowers, bee balm/wild bergamot, asters, and black-eyed Susans.

            And again, make sure you plant native varieties specific to our area and not cultivars or exotics.

 

Sandhill Crane Count

            As we have done for over three decades, Mary and I paddled a section of the Manitowish River on 4/12 to count sandhill cranes as part of the Midwest Sandhill Crane Count. We were on the river shortly after 6 a.m. with the temperature at 28°, but the wind was light, which made all the difference in our handling the cold. The river level was quite low for this time of year, but not unexpected given how little snow we had this winter.

         The highlight was the number of trumpeter swans we encountered – 14! The cranes were far more circumspect, with “only” six being heard in the distance – three pairs duet calling from different areas along the river.

            Numerous song sparrows sang along the way despite the cold. And as always, being on the river so early in the morning and so early in the spring was absolutely beautiful. 

 

Sightings – FOYs (First-of-Year)

4/12: Joan Galloway reported seeing the FOY eastern phoebe in her yard.

Later that same day on Powell Marsh, we saw our FOY ring-necked ducks, great blue herons, and rough-legged hawks.

4/12: Again on Powell, we saw our FOY Wilson’s snipe, American widgeon, and a lifer for us – a Ross’s goose.

4/13: On Powell, we were fortunate to see our FOYs northern flickers, northern pintails, green-winged teals, hooded mergansers, northern shovelers, and a fabulous view of a peregrine falcon sitting on the marsh grass in perfect view of our scope. And we heard our FOY spring peepers.

4/15: Amidst the cold and new snow on Powell, we found our FOYs American coot and a small flock of greater yellowlegs .

4/16: One more time on Powell, we saw our FOYs buffleheads, blue-winged teals, and several swallows (couldn’t get a good enough look to ID  the species).

 

Ross’s Goose

            As noted above, we initially misidentified the Ross’s goose on Powell for a snow goose – they’re very similar in shape and coloration, but the Ross’s is overall much smaller. I have to admit Ross’s goose wasn’t even in my consciousness to consider, which made it all the more enjoyable to have our misidentification corrected and converted into a species we had never seen before.

Ross's goose

            So, what makes the Ross’s goose of interest? Well, the species wasn’t described in detail for science until the later 1800s, and their arctic nesting grounds remained unknown for another 80 years until Angus Gavin, a manager with the Hudson's Bay Company, located them in the Perry River region of the central Canadian Arctic in 1940.

            The Ross's goose formerly only wintered in central California, and was sold in California markets between 1880 and 1913. So many were killed during this period that they were thought to be threatened with extinction. 

Hunting of the Ross's Goose became illegal in 1931, but poaching and incidental killing helped keep numbers to only 2,000 to 3,000 into the early 1950s, but enforcement of hunting laws and protection of habitats eventually helped the birds recover.

Now, over the past few decades, the bird has expanded its range and its numbers so much so that the continental population is estimated to exceed 2 million birds! And, as with many good things, their numbers, along with the equally expansive population of snow geese, have grown too large, and both species are seriously impacting arctic wetland habitats. Liberalized hunting regulations are attempting to bring the numbers under control, but with limited success.

So, why was this bird named after some guy named Ross? Well, the Ross's Goose was named in 1861 after Bernard Rogan Ross, a Hudson's Bay Company clerk and chief trader at various forts owned by the company in what was called in those pre-Canada days, The North-Western Territory and Rupert's Land. Ross was a keen naturalist who sent hundreds of specimens to the Smithsonian in Washington and the British Museum (Natural History) in London, along with excellent notes on the habitats and nesting habits of each species that he collected. 

Range map for Ross's goose

Oldest Known Common Loon Returns on 4/11!

ABJ, the oldest known banded common loon, has returned once again to his natal grounds at the 95,000-acre Seney National Wildlife Refuge in the U.P. of Michigan. He was banded as a chick in 1987 and turns 38 this summer. His former mate of 25 years, Fe, who has yet to return, was banded as a breeding adult in 1990 and may be at least 39 years old.

It took ABJ ten years before he acquired a territory and his mate, Fe. They hatched their first chick in 1998 and their last chick in 2020. They were together for an unprecedented 25 years, raising a record number of 32 chicks, many of whom have returned as breeding adults to Seney, until the two unexpectedly split in the spring of 2022.

They’ve been spotted together briefly since then, but both have also been with other partners since the split. Fe has had other loon suiters while ABJ has been in territorial skirmishes with other males. He’s suffered a broken beak, has nested unsuccessfully with Daisy, a loon 20 years his junior, and had a “brief dalliance with” Aye-Aye, the loon that is said to have “precipitated” his split with Fe (I wonder what she did!).

ABJ begins his 35th season with the same intent all adult loons have: Claim a territory, find a mate, fight off challenges from would-be usurpers, share egg incubation duties for roughly a month, hatch one or two chicks, and diligently feed and protect them until they fledge in the early autumn. 

In the meantime, common loons have returned to a number of area wetlands where the water has opened – we saw our first pair of loons on 4/15 on Powell Marsh – but most loons, as of this writing on 4/18, are still flying daily recon missions over frozen lakes impatient for the ice to disappear and open water to rein again.

 

Celestial Events

            The new moon occurs on 4/27.

            Planets in May include at dusk, Mars high in the southwest and Jupiter bright in the west-northwest.

            Before dawn, look for Venus brilliant and low in the east, and Saturn in the east south-east.

            Look after dusk on 5/3 for Mars 2° below the waxing crescent moon.

            May 5 marks the mid-way point between spring equinox and summer solstice. Look before dawn for the peak Eta Aquarid meteor shower – expect 20 per or so hour.

            

Thought for the Week

“Familiarity with things about one should not dull the edge of curiosity or interest. The walk you take today is the walk you should take tomorrow, and the next day, and next. What you miss, you will hit upon next time. If Nature is not at home today, call tomorrow, or next week.” - John Burroughs

            

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

 

 

A Northwoods Almanac for April 11 – 24, 2025

 A Northwoods Almanac for April 11 – 24, 2025  

Yes! There’s Proof Maple Syrup is Good for You

            Given my addiction to maple syrup, this obviously HAS to be my lead story. In a study published in the October 2024 issue of The Journal of Nutrition (“Substituting Refined Sugars With Maple Syrup Decreases Key Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Individuals With Mild Metabolic Alterations: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled Crossover Trial”), scientists at Université Laval in Quebec tested whether maple syrup is a healthier choice than refined sugar. Researchers asked 42 adults with moderately increased risk of cardiometabolic disease to substitute maple syrup for some of the refined sugars in their typical diet, for example, by adding syrup to plain yogurt rather than eating presweetened products. 

As a control, half of the participants ate a sucrose solution with artificial maple syrup flavor. 

After eight weeks of swapping maple syrup for refined sugar, participants had reduced blood pressure and less fat around the belly and upper body. They also regulated their blood sugar levels better in a glucose tolerance test. Together, these responses reflect improved cardiometabolic health via a small dietary intervention – about two tablespoons of maple syrup daily.

         Following the maple syrup diet, participants also had lower levels of gut bacteria from species associated with infection, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease. Meanwhile, beneficial bacteria such as the probiotic Lactobacillus casei became more abundant, probably because they thrive on plant compounds found in maple syrup.

         Like table sugar, maple syrup is mostly sucrose, but unlike table sugar, maple syrup also contains all the above benefits. So, for sweetening your morning coffee or tea, consider a spoonful of maple syrup rather than refined sugar. Or use maple syrup for sweetening yogurt, making a smoothie, or wherever your sweet tooth leads you. You’ll be supporting both a local maple syrup producer and taking better care of your own health.

         It’s always essential to look at who funded a study, so I should note that the study was jointly funded by Québec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food of Quebec. Quebec leads the world in maple syrup production, producing 67% of all the world’s supply. Eleven million gallons of maple syrup annually come out of sugar shacks in Quebec, accounting for more than 90% of all Canadian domestic production. More than 13,500 maple syrup producers work in some 7,600 sugar groves in Quebec.  

         So, Quebec is indeed very serious about their “liquid gold,” and thus is highly motivated to find good study results. With that I mind, perhaps take these results with a grain of, well, salt.

 

Not All Springs are Created Equal      

         Of course, not every spring produces a good maple sap run. When Mother Nature is generous, it can result in production surpassing demand, but when weather conditions are unfavorable, producers can’t supply all the maple syrup that consumers want. This unpredictability is why the Québec Maple Syrup Producers established its “Global Strategic Reserve” by pasteurizing surplus maple syrup and then storing it in food-grade barrels. In a poor harvest year, syrup in the reserve is then made available to buyers, ensuring that Quebec is virtually never out of stock and the markets remain supplied. 

         Three warehouses in Quebec hold this reserve of maple syrup. With a combined capacity of 133 million pounds (216,000 barrels), the three warehouses can hold the equivalent of 53 Olympic-sized swimming pools of maple syrup. At full capacity, this represents a value of $400 Million US ($557 million CAD).

         The United States is the second-largest worldwide producer of maple syrup, accounting for approximately 29% of global production. Vermont leads the way by far with 48.9% of United States production, followed by 17.9% from New York, and 11.2% from Maine. Wisconsin is a distant fourth with 5% to 10% depending on the year.

         The U.S. doesn't begin to make enough maple syrup to fulfill the needs of our domestic market, so we very much need Canadian syrup. In 2024, Quebec exported around $450 million worth of maple syrup to the U.S. 

         With the possibility of a 25 per cent or greater tariff looming on Canadian imports, manufacturers who utilize maple syrup, along with all of us addicted consumers, are worried about where the prices may be headed. I’m hoping our government sees the light on this, and our pancakes and waffles will not, by dint of too high of a price on the real stuff, be subjected to one of the great crimes of humanity – fake maple syrup.

 

The Sticky

         Oh, and if you want to get really carried away about all this maple syrup stuff, watch the new Amazon Prime TV series “The Sticky” which is very, very loosely based on the “The Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist” of 2011 when $18 million worth of maple syrup, nearly a half million gallons, was stolen from the Global Strategic Reserve. The syrup was stored in unmarked white metal barrels, inspected only once a year. The thieves used trucks to transport the barrels to a remote sugar shack, where they siphoned off the syrup, refilled the barrels with water, and then returned them to the facility. Eventually, the thieves began siphoning syrup directly from the barrels in the reserve without refilling them, and found a way to sell the syrup via a black market.

         (This is my kind of heist!)

         An investigation by Quebec provincial police, however, led to the arrest of 26 individuals, including the ringleader behind the scheme, Richard Valliere. In April 2017, Valliere was found guilty of theft, fraud and trafficking stolen goods. He was sentenced to eight years of prison and was fined nearly $9.4 million.

         The lesson of that sentencing? Don’t mess around with the suppliers of maple syrup in Quebec.

 

Sightings – FOYs (First-of-year)

         3/20: We had our FOY Cooper’s hawk appear at our feeders and scatter our songbirds hither and yon. 

         3/20: Mark Westphal sent me a wonderful photo of three flying squirrels, and noted, “They were seen peeking out of a nest box that had been designed for  screech  owls. Although I never really expected to attract any owls in this particular box, I am glad it is getting some use. I know flying squirrels are primarily nocturnal, but  their curiosity got the better of them as I passed by the nest box in the middle of the afternoon. Apparently the crunch of my boots in the snow was a sound they needed to check out.”

flying squirrels, photo by Mark Westphal

         3/21: Our FOY American robins appeared in Manitowish.

         3/23: Starlings made their first appearance in Manitowish.

         3/27: Somewhere around a gazillion birds – mostly pine siskins and American goldfinches – swarmed people’s feeders all around our area as a big snowstorm rolled through and covered up easy sources of other food.

         4/3: Our FOY fox sparrow found its way to beneath one of our feeders and began its characteristic hopping back and forth while scratching the ground with its claws to expose seeds.

fox sparrow, photo by Bev Engstrom

         

Why Does Ice Appear Blue?

I read this recently: Ice appears blue because the dense, compacted ice absorbs longer wavelengths of light (red and yellow), while shorter wavelengths (blue) are scattered and reflected back, creating the blue hue.

 

Plantings for Birds

         It’s nearly time to do spring planting, and one consideration in what to plant should always be providing native foods for the birds we all so enjoy seeing at our feeders. 

         With that in mind, the Audubon Society has produced a database of native plants specific to wherever one lives. Just enter your zip code, and up comes a list of the best plants, what birds are attracted to them, and where to buy them (see https://www.audubon.org/native-plants). 

         So, I entered my zip code, and up came a lengthy array of plants. For instance, I clicked on “Service-Berry” (also known as Juneberry and one of our favorite small trees that we’ve planted), and it listed 10 families of birds that are attracted to the fruits: cardinals/grosbeaks/buntings, chickadees, mockingbirds and thrashers, nuthatches, blackbirds and orioles, sparrows, thrushes, vireos, waxwings, wood warblers, wrens, and woodpeckers – one heck of a list!

Juneberry flowers, photo by John Bates

         It also provided a statewide list of where to buy Juneberries, including our local ClearView Nursery on Fawn Lake Road, off of Hwy. 182. There are, however, many other plant nurseries in our area one could call to see if they carry native Juneberries. Please be sure to ask for our native species, given that our native insects and birds have co-evolved with them, and you will get the most birds from planting the native plant species they prefer.

 

2025 State of the Birds report 

Speaking of birds, the 2025 State of the Birds report, produced by a coalition of leading science and conservation organizations, was released in March, and revealed continued widespread declines in American bird populations across all mainland and marine habitats. Some 229 species were listed requiring urgent conservation action.

Key findings included that more than one-third of U.S. bird species are of high or moderate conservation concern, including 112 “Tipping Point” species that have lost more than 50% of their populations in the last 50 years.

According to the report, bird populations in almost every habitat are declining. Most notably, duck populations have declined, which is surprising because they have been a bright spot in past State of the Birds reports.

On the positive side of things, proactively working to protect America’s birds boosts the U.S. economy. Nearly 100 million Americans engage in birding activities. Findings from the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, demonstrated that the total economic output related to birdwatching activities is $279 billion, and birding related activities support 1.4 million jobs. 

The report can be found at https://www.stateofthebirds.org/2025/. 

 

Celestial Events

            The full moon occurs on 4/12. Variously called the “Awakening Moon,” the “Grass Appearing Moon,” and the “Maple Sugar Moon,” this will be our most distant full moon of the year, appearing 14% smaller than our closest full moon which occurs on Nov. 5.

            On 4/14, we will now be blessed with 13 hours and 31 minutes of sunlight..

            Ice-out on most area lakes “should” occur with the next two weeks. According to Woody Hagge’s 52 years of data, the average ice-out date on 39-acre Foster Lake in Hazelhurst is April 16. Foster Lake averages 224 days of open water, or if you’re a glass-half-empty type, 141 days of ice cover – 61% to 39%. 

            Look predawn on 4/22 for the peak Lyrid meteor shower – average is 10-20 meteors per hour.

 

Thought for the Week

             “Heaven is beneath our feet as much as over our heads.” – Henry David Thoreau 

 

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