A Northwoods Almanac for 1/3-16, 2025

 A Northwoods Almanac for 1/3-16, 2025  

Psychological Effects of Watching Birds

            I recently helped run a couple birding routes on both the Manitowish Waters and Minocqua Audubon Christmas Bird Counts, and I was surprised at how few people feed birds! Birds have charisma and fascinating personalities. I’m amazed at their aerodynamic capabilities, and I’m often humbled by them. We have our breakfast table set up next to large windows with feeders right outside for easy viewing of the birds. 

            Mary and I derive genuine joy out of observing birds. In 1979, a medical director named R.A.F. Cox wrote the following in a note titled “Ornitherapy” for the British Journal of Medicine: “To the depressive or physically homebound, the simple pleasure of watching birds can be an incalculable comfort, while a deeper study of their identification and behavior can add a new dimension to the most despondent of lives. As a tranquilizer, birdwatching may be as effective as any drug, but cheaper and safer than many.”

            Well, that’s true, but awfully limiting. While watching birds is certainly peaceful, it is far more than a comfort or a tranquilizer. 

            Conservation biologist Nils Peterson and colleagues conducted an experimental study cited in the Journal of Environmental Psycholog, June 2024, in which college students were randomly assigned to a control condition (receiving no specific instructions), a nature-walk condition (instructed to take a specific walk through nature at least once a week), or a birdwatching condition (take the same walk and notice how many birds you see using a phone app). Students who noticed birds on their walk reported significant increases in positive emotion and significant decreases in distress compared to the other two conditions. These findings indicate that there’s something specific about looking for birds (or at least looking for specific elements in nature) that leads to mental health improvements.

            A 2013 study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that, of all the natural sounds one might hear, people were most likely to associate birdsong with stress recovery and attention restoration.

            A 2017 study published in BioScience found that bird abundance in urban neighborhoods was associated with a lower prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress. 

            Another study published in 2020 in Ecological Economics showed a correlation between happiness and the number of bird species around people’s homes and towns. 

            And in the book Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard, author Joan Strassman says “The mental-health benefits are profound. There’s lots of drama . . . They can fly. They can do something that we can never do, outside of a plane, so there’s that fascination.”

            She notes that there’s a soap opera that plays out in the treetops every day, and, boy, is that true. There’s clearly a pecking order between species – blue jays feed first, for instance. But also within species, chickadees, for instance, employ a strict hierarchy with the largest male and female, which have nested at least once successfully, dominating the feeders. Then below them are a “beta” couple, followed by other pairs and then singleton juveniles. Typically, males dominate females and adults dominate juveniles.

            While it may not seem “fair,” and it’s easy to assign the “bully” label to various birds, their rank in the social order helps alleviate conflicts at the feeders and save energy during the winter when energy serves as the currency that runs their economic system. Energy-in has to equal energy-out. If they overdraft their account, the consequences can be dire. 

            In doing these bird counts, the time passes with hardly a notice because we’re so attuned to trying to find them. It’s one of only a few times when our attention is so in the moment and so focused. I love that feeling. 

JB on Lake Superior

            Observing birds also helps us feel connected to this place we live in – less a tourist, more a community member. I feel an empathy for the birds and a deep appreciation for how hard it must be to withstand a Northwoods winter, even a relatively mild one as ours has been so far. Each species has a winter story, and the unraveling of at least some of each story is often quite remarkable. 

            If you’re not feeding and watching birds this winter, and the winter is already feeling pretty long, I recommend buying some bird seed and some feeders, and seeing who might come to visit.

 

Manitowish Waters Christmas Bird Count

            We conducted the 32^nd annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in Manitowish Waters on 12/14 with temperatures in the high teens and only a few inches of snow on the ground.      

            What were our takeaways? Well, we had 1073 total birds, which is 1 more than last year at 1072. Pretty coincidental!

            Most remarkable were the number of white-winged crossbills –  90 – our highest count ever for this species. No red crossbills, just white-winged.

white-winged crossbill

            We had 40 trumpeter swans, also our record high.

            American goldfinch were the most common bird, even besting chickadees, which is no small feat. 

            No evening or pine grosbeaks, no bohemian waxwings, and only Mary and I had a small flock of cedar waxwings at our house on our high bush cranberries. 

            Redpolls are scarce, too. Only one of our counters found a small flock. And while pine siskins are around a little bit, they’re not what I’d call numerous. 

            Finally, no gray jays again. We haven’t had any since 2011.

            Mary and I have a common grackle coming to our feeders. One of her wings is a bit distended, so we wonder if she’s incapable of a long migration flight.

 

Mice!

         A few years back we had a fall/winter explosion of mice finding their way into our house, and this winter has provided a similar invasion. I’ve caught 28 in our basement to date, but I’ve heard of other folks catching 50 or more already. 

         Why the influx? Well, I can only speculate that our last winter’s extreme moderation made for a good reproductive spring, and we’re now reaping the benefits of that population bomb.

         I haven’t noticed any weasels around our property, but I hope one or two find their way here soon along with a fox or bobcat, all of whom are excellent mousers. We’d be happy to share our bounty of mice.

 

How Active are Plants in Winter?

            I was recently asked if plants are active at all in the winter, or are they all dormant? Of course, the answer is mixed (few things are ever simple and universal!) Most people think herbaceous plants are dormant under the snow, but a little light does penetrate through the snow, and those plants that retain their leaves throughout the winter, like a few fern species, wintergreen, and others, can still engage in photosynthesis. 

            A few deciduous trees can also continue to photosynthesize on warmer sunny days –white birch, beech, cottonwoods, and aspens, for instance. Even though their leaves are all gone, photosynthesis can happen in plant tissues other than leaves. The inner bark of woody plants contains chlorophyll, so when sunlight can penetrate species with thin outer bark, a tree like an aspen can photosynthesize during the winter. 

white birches in winter

            Evergreens, by dint of retaining most of their foliage, can and will also photosynthesize during the winter, particularly if the temperature rises above freezing. 

wintergreen

            There’s also the issue of surviving extreme cold. Plants either utilize something akin to antifreeze, or in the case of truly northern species like jack pine, balsam fir, black and white spruce, and others, they utilize “extra-cellular freezing” which allows them to literally freeze solid without bursting their cells. 

            Every species has a story for how it survives winter – it’s quite an intellectual and investigative journey to try to consider it all.

 

Contagious Communication 

            The question often comes up about how we can influence more people to do right by the environment, to be more “green” if you will. It turns out that while our individual actions feel awfully small and to little matter in the larger scheme of things, they can act as billboards for others looking for cues on what to do in their own lives. Policies coming out of Washington or Madison are essential, but they’re an abstraction for most of us. We pay more attention to what people around us are doing.

            Says Michael Brownstein, a professor who studies societal change, “It’s a shift of perspective to see yourself . . .  as an entrepreneur of norms.” What captures our attention is what our neighbors are doing, particularly successful neighbors. If your neighbor can grow an abundant garden, maybe you can, too. If you put in a heat pump or solar panels, and they clearly reduce your energy bill while helping the environment, well, maybe I can, too.

            Think of bicycling. Over the last few years, I’ve seen incredible numbers of people out biking, in part because we have so many excellent trails now, but also because people of all ages and sizes are doing it with smiles on their faces. 

            To see what factors influence people’s environment-related behaviors from recycling to switching modes of transportation, researchers examined data from 430 individual studies (see the March 21, 2023 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) and summarized their results. They found that providing data or facts to people to change their behavior ranked last, persuading an average of 3.5 percent of people compared to a control group. Appeals to act more sustainably fared better, but were still middling performers. Financial incentives such as subsidies or savings performed relatively well, persuading about 12 percent. 

            Leading the pack in creating change, however, were what scientists called “social comparisons” – people’s ability to observe the behavior of others and compare it with their own. This persuaded more than 14 percent of people to change their behavior in experiments from around the world. 

            Still, it’s mighty complicated what’s going on in people’s heads, and why they chose behaviors that they do. 

            It seems the best we can do to try to create change is model what works.

            Solar panels are a classic example. In a 2021 paper published in Nature, researchers found the most important factor that determined whether someone installed panels on their roof wasn’t subsidies, geography or policy. It was whether their neighbor had them. 

            In another study, a single solar rooftop project increased installations by nearly 50 percent within a half-mile radius.

            Thus, it appears the primary barrier in helping people to make a change is finding enough trusted others to show the way. 

             A popular saying goes “be the change you wish to see in the world.” Proving that something works not only helps our lives, but it can show the way for others to do the same. 

            The researchers concluded, “The most persuasive argument might be you.”

            Be the change. 

 

Celestial Events

         Look after dusk tonight, 1/3, for Venus just a degree or so above the waxing crescent moon.

         On 1/4, the Earth will be at perihelion, its closest to the sun in 202. Look for Saturn after dusk less than a degree below the moon. 

         Don’t look now, but as of 1/12, we will have gained 20 minutes of sunlight since the winter solstice on 12/21. We now have 8 hours and 59 minutes of sun, and we’re also now gaining over one minute of sunlight per day.

         

Thought for the Week

            “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” – Joseph Campbell