A Northwoods Almanac for March 28 – April 10, 2025

 

A Northwoods Almanac for March 28 – April 10, 2025  

 

Cougar Cubs!

For the first time in more than 100 years, cougar cubs have been discovered living in the Michigan wild. State biologists confirmed the existence of two cougar cubs on private land in Ontonagon County in the western Upper Peninsula. 

The spotted cubs, believed to be 7 to 9 weeks old, were verified from photographic evidence of the cubs taken March 6 by a local resident.

This is the first time cougar cubs have been verified since the big cats were hunted out of existence in Michigan in the early 1900s.

Cougars are believed to have been extirpated from Wisconsin back in the early 1900s as well. The last native mountain lion in Wisconsin was believed to have been killed in 1908.

            Cougars are one of three wild cats native to the state, along with the bobcat and Canada lynx, but only bobcats are known to breed in Wisconsin.

Sightings – First-of-the-Year (FOY)

3/11: Jim Sommerfeldt reported seeing his FOY purple finch at his home on Middle Sugarbush Lake in Lac du Flambeau.

3/12: Hannah (Bonnie) Dana reported two FOY American robins in her yard in Arbor Vitae.

3/12: Jeanne Milewski saw her FOY American robin in a crabapple tree at the Marshfield Clinic entrance in Minocqua.

3/13: Jane Lueneburg wrote: “Right on schedule, first robin seen in Tomahawk this morning. He was in a flowering crab (not flowering yet).”

3/13: The Manitowish River opened up below our house in Manitowish. Last year the river only iced-over from Jan. 15 to Jan. 30, the shortest period in the 41 years we’ve been here. An average date for the river opening below our house is around 3/16. The latest year of opening was 2014 when the ice went off on 4/10.

3/14: I saw our FOY red-winged blackbirds in the wetlands below our home.

3/15: Common grackles appeared in Manitowish at our feeders. And a male northern cardinal was singing up a storm! Now all we need is a female cardinal to wander by. On a hike on the dikes at Powell Marsh, I observed my FOY mallards and sandhill cranes.

3/16: We had our FOY dark-eyed juncos arrive in Manitowish. Out on Powell Marsh, we saw our FOY northern harrier. 

dark-eyed junco, photo by Bev Engstrom

3/16: Nancy Burns observed her FOY hooded mergansers and common goldeneyes on the Manitowish River.

hooded merganser, photo by Bev Engstrom

common goldeneye, photo by Bev Engstrom

3/19: Sondra Katzen sent me a note saying that there are three active bald eagle nest within miles of her mother-in-law’s home in the suburbs of Chicago, and two of the nests are fairly close to busy intersections. This is just another example of the remarkable comeback, and adaptive capabilities to human presence, of bald eagles.

 

Wolves and Beavers

The Voyageurs Wolf Project (https://www.voyageurswolfproject.org) in northern Minnesota has numerous trail cameras placed in an attempt to understand the behavior of wolves in the greater Voyageurs National Park Ecosystem. One aspect of the research is the interaction between wolves and beavers. It’s long been knows that beavers are critical prey for wolves, but to what extent has been unclear. Researchers have now found that in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem from roughly April to October/November – when ice on lakes is largely absent – that beavers constitute on average 30% to 40% of all biomass the wolves obtain from predation during this period. 

They note, however, that have studied numerous other wolves within the Voyageurs ecosystem for which beavers are the primary prey during the spring to fall, and for those wolves, beavers can constitute up to 82% of all biomass killed during this 7-8 month stretch. 

Part of the reason wolves rely so heavily on beavers in the Voyageurs area is due to the abundance of beavers there. There’s one beaver lodge per square kilometer with typically five beavers per lodge, and that’s been the case for about 40 years.

That’s a very high beaver density and a major reason why the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem has sustained very high wolf densities for many years.

In 2018, the researchers wrote a peer-reviewed publication summarizing all that was known on wolf-beaver interactions up to that point (“The forgotten prey of an iconic predator: a review of interactions between grey wolves Canis lupus and beavers Castor spp,” Mammal Review, February 2018). Even after years of study, however, they acknowledge there’s a great deal they still don’t understand.  

To see wolves carrying off beavers, see the video: https://www.facebook.com/VoyageursWolfProject/videos/3953592814911574

 

Maple Sugar – Red Squirrels Are Addicted, Too

            Maple syrup producers have been boiling sap since early March, and those of us that are addicted to pure maple syrup are salivating at the thought of waffles smothered in this year’s hot syrup. 

However, humans are not the only ones harvesting the sap and enjoying the end product of maple syrup and maple sugar. In a 1992 study in western Maine (“Maple sugaring by red squirrels,” Journal of Mammalogy, 73(1):51-54), biologist and author Bernd Heinrich found that red squirrels “tap” sugar maples, biting through the trees’ outer bark and returning later to lick up partly-dried streaks of candied sugar and syrup. Heinrich noticed that his local red squirrels understood the sugaring season every bit as well as humans now do: they selected sugar maples almost exclusively, got up early to check their taps, and sugared only on warm days in late winter and early spring.

            It’s important to note that raw sap from sugar maples is a dilute sucrose solution that scarcely tastes sweet to humans, and likely to red squirrels, too. Water content averages about 98.8% in red maple to 97.5% in sugar maple.

But somewhere along their evolutionary history, the squirrels figured out that if they bit the trunks of the trees and let the sap run, then returned at a later date once the water had evaporated out of the sap, they would have a very sweet treat.

In Heinrich’s study, the streaks of sugar that had condensed onto the maple trunks were avidly sought by squirrels. In over 100 observations of two to five individuals over 6 of 7 days, Heinrich watched the animals working their way up the individual streaks, licking the syrup and chewing the sugar that had candied.

The squirrels came to harvest sugar primarily in the early morning, one to two hours before the sap started to run, when there was sugar concentrate left from the previous day. They harvested on bright sunny days when the sap was running, as well as on days when there was no running sap available at any tap examined. 

Interestingly, individual squirrels were separated by at least 20 meters from one another, and they appeared to ignore each other. This contrasts with red squirrels at my house who are very combative around our feeders and seldom cooperative. I suspect it was simply a matter of there being plenty of sugar maples trees to go around, so they didn’t have to be competitive.

         The squirrels were highly selective in Heinrich’s study, harvesting almost exclusively from sugar maples even though most of the sugar maple sites also contained red maple.

Heinrich noted that he also observed the characteristic tooth marks left by sugaring red squirrels at 22 other sites in Maine and Vermont, so it wasn’t just red squirrels in Maine who had figured this out.

We don’t have sugar maples on our property (our soils are too sandy), so I’ve never watched red squirrels tapping trees, but I’ll bet those of you with sugar maples on your property may have seen this behavior. If not, keep an eye out and see if Wisconsin red squirrels have a sweet tooth, too.

 

2025 DNR Spring Hearings

         This year’s DNR Spring Hearings and Wisconsin Conservation Congress County meetings will feature in-person meetings on April 14 in each county and on-line voting from April 14 - 16. 

         The 2025 ballot will feature 43 proposed DNR rules changes, mostly on fisheries questions. Votes on proposed rules changes are not binding but are important considerations for the DNR as it acts on the measures.

         The WCC also is presenting 25 advisory questions. 

         To me, the advisory question with the greatest environmental consequence calls for a phased elimination of lead ammunition and lead fishing tackle.

         The question's preamble states, “As a result of decades‐long reliance on lead ammunition, susceptible wildlife falls to the debilitating and lethal effects of lead poisoning. Mammals, eagles, waterfowl, corvids, even songbirds as tiny as chickadees, routinely feed on the remains of harvested animals. Ingesting a small amount of animal tissue with lead can result in prolonged suffering and death for wildlife that feeds on the remains that are left behind.

         “Non-toxic options for bullets, shot and fishing tackle are available and often comparable in price to lead. Lead poisoning is preventable and can be eliminated.”

         The question (#47) then asks: “Would you support phasing out uses of lead so that it is not left behind on our lands and in our waters?”

         I hope literally thousands of you take the time to vote YES on this question. It’s long past time to eliminate lead everywhere.

         The WCC's District Leadership Council has also once again introduced a resolution to hunt white deer, specifically in five southern counties that are claiming “several landowners and municipalities are experiencing damage because of the growing white deer population.”

         Really? White deer are causing more damage than occurs from the regular overpopulated southern deer herd?

         “Several” landowners and municipalities also amounts to how many – three? Hardly enough to warrant even the consideration for inclusion in this questionnaire.  

         The question asks, “Would you support legalizing the harvest of white deer in five counties: Jefferson, Marathon, Portage, Winnebago and Wood.”

         Vote NO. If this goes through, next year they’ll be coming for Vilas County.

         See the entire questionnaire at:

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/About/WCC/2025/2025_Spring_Hearing_Questionnaire.pdf

 

Celestial Events

         A partial solar eclipse will occur at sunrise on 3/29. We’ll see a large bite taken out of its left side. Please remember you must wear protective eyewear to watch the eclipse.

 

Thought for the Week

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

         

A Northwoods Almanac for March 14-27, 2025

 A Northwoods Almanac for March 14-27, 2025  

 

Sightings – Canada Geese, Redpolls and Pine Siskins Arrive

         Judith Bloom on Lake Tomahawk sent me a photo of Canada geese, trumpeter swans, and mallards all sharing a bit of open water on Lake Tomahawk. 

photo by Judith Bloom

         Individuals of all three species often return quite early, even when there’s little open water to be found.

         So, migration has begun, albeit for only a few species. The first songbirds are soon to follow. We expect to see our first red-winged blackbirds in the wetlands below our home right around spring equinox, with American robins not too far behind. 

         There may even be a few species already sitting on eggs – Canada jays and great horned owls are particularly early breeders and are often on nests by mid-to-late March.

         Other birds who have been wintering south of here are now stopping over for a while to feed or are passing through. Redpolls and pine siskins began showing up at feeders near the end of February and are growing in numbers. 

         However, American goldfinch continue to rule the roost at most residential feeders with many folks reporting a small army of up to 100.

 

The Character of Snow

         A heavy snowstorm like we had on 3/5 reminded me of the varying character of snow. On any given day, snow can create opportunities or problems, and every species has its own story on how it responds to the changing conditions.. 

         Snow can feed or starve; free or trap; freeze or warm. During the snowstorm, our bird feeders were crammed with birds, the most at any time this winter. The reason was simple – the heavy snow completely covered every branch and bud and blade of grass, making it extremely difficult to find other sources of food. So, for the songbirds, the snowstorm was a starving event. 

         But the heavy snow on top of the icy conditions from the previous day bent many trees over, bringing buds and conifer foliage closer to the ground for browsers like deer and hares. So, for them, it was a feeding event.

white pine sapling bent over with snow load

         For all the mice and shrews that have had so little snow to hide under this winter, this was a warming event – they now had 8 inches of snow to insulate them and protect them from being easy prey for predators. However, as the temperatures warmed and the snow began to melt, it became more of a freezing event for many animals, because nothing conducts heat away from the body faster than water.

         Still, as the snow warmed and began to “set up,” it became much easier for travel for a species like a snowshoe hare with huge feet that gives them an advantage on softer, powder snow. It became a freeing event.

         However, as the week has worn on and the temperatures warmed, the snow has developed a crust, which for deer, is particularly difficult for travel. They break through and really struggle. So, for them, a deep snow with a crust, is a trapping event.

         We humans tend to see snow in terms of three things: driving, shoveling, and recreating. Our needs have mostly to do with convenience and efficiency of travel, and very little to do with survival. Thus, we see snow in a comparatively superficial way that masks its complexity. If we were more closely tied to the natural world, we’d certainly see it in a different light.

 

Birding in Colombia

         I returned on March 1 from a 9-day birding tour of a small portion of the Colombian Andes. We birded from as low as 3,000 feet at the Laguna de Sonso to 13,000 feet in Los Nevados National Park, the highest part of Colombia’s Central Cordillera (a cordillera is a system of parallel mountain ranges with intervening plateaus). 

The "crew." with Vanessa, one of our guides, in the center.

         Colombia holds the title for having the greatest bird diversity in the world – nearly 20% of the world’s birds. Just to give you an idea of the astonishing diversity, I mentioned in my last column that Colombia supports 167 species of hummingbirds, but it also has 103 species of tanagers – we have just one, the scarlet tanager. The tanagers come in every hue and combination of colors imaginable. I think God and evolution conspired with a bunch of kindergarteners to create the most extraordinary looking birds possible using the 64 megapack of crayons that is usually reserved only for the most creative 5-year-olds. 

         We were in wetlands, tropical forests, dry forests, and cloud forests, as well as in the unique high-elevation paramo (at the limit of tree growth) ecosystem. 

         We tallied 256 species and then added two more while waiting for our plane in the Cali airport. We “only” saw 28 species of hummingbirds, in part because of dense fog on the day we were in the paramo where we had hoped to see more high elevation hummers.

         Absolutely perplexing to me was the fact I only had one mosquito buzz my ear the entire nine days. I loved their absence, of course, but I came prepared with my 100% DEET super juice only to see it languish in my pack. 

         Would that this would happen here in June.

         I had great trouble remembering the bird names as we went along, in large part because so many of their family names were brand new to me – motmots, gnatwrens, antwrens, conebills, puffbirds, honeycreepers, manakins, antpittas, brushfinches, cinclodes, tapaculos, peepershrikes, plushcaps, tyrannulets, and on and on.

         I have to admit I also had trouble remembering them because I’m old – new words seem to bounce off me now rather than be absorbed. 

         But I wasn’t there to become expert at bird ID or to add to my bird life list (I don’t keep one anyway). I was there to add to my life list of “WOWs”, and I’m fairly certain I used that word over a thousand times, likely to the chagrin of my three other birding buddies.

         I’d return in a heartbeat, though I think I’ll take a blindfold so I don’t have to watch the utterly suicidal motorcyclists take chances on the mountain roads and in the cities that no sane person would ever contemplate.

         I think I even learned ten words of Spanish. 

         So, gracias for reading this.

 

Celestial Events

         Hopefully the skies were clear and you watched the total lunar eclipse that occurred this morning, 3/14. Look ahead now to 3/29 when as the sun rises we will be graced with a partial solar eclipse. 

         The vernal (spring) equinox officially occurs on 3/20, but the moment when we begin to exceed 12 hours of sunlight actually occurs for the Northwoods on 3/17. On 3/20, the sun will be directly above the equator. And by 3/26, we’ll be up to 12 ½ hours of sunlight. 

         By the last week in March our average high temperature will be in the 40’s, so there’s hope that spring is somewhere hiding on the horizon.

         

Thoughts for the Week

         I gave a talk in Madison last weekend on various writers who have authored pieces about water, so here are a couple short passages to cheer us on toward the time when the ice goes off the lakes and rivers, and liquid water reigns again.

         “What we see in lakes depends much on what we bring to the shore - King Arthur's sword or the Loch Ness monster. . . Human beings are, in a sense, bags of water which evolved spine and intelligence enough to walk around and manipulate other forms of life and matter. It is not hard to imagine that when we stop to look into the sea or listen to a mountain creek, the attraction we feel is the water inside calling to the water outside, two ponds, perhaps, stopping by the road of time to trade the news.” – Peter Steinhart

         And from Sigurd Olson’s book The Singing Wilderness: “The movement of a canoe is like a reed in the wind. Silence is part of it, and the sounds of lapping water, bird songs, and wind in the trees. It is part of the medium through which it floats, the sky, the water, the shores. 

         “A man is part of his canoe and therefore part of all it knows. The instant he dips a paddle, he flows as it flows, the canoe yielding to his slightest touch, responsive to his every whim and thought. The paddle is an extension of his arm, as his arm is part of his body . . . 

         “He feels at last that he is down to the real business of living . . . Life for some strange reason has suddenly become simple and complete; his wants are few, confusion and uncertainty gone, his happiness and contentment deep.

         “There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude, and peace. The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness and of a freedom almost forgotten. It is an antidote to insecurity, the open door to waterways of ages past and a way of life with profound and abiding satisfactions. When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known.”

         

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 February 28 – March 13, 2025

 A Northwoods Almanac for February 28 – March 13, 2025  

 

Why Is It So Quiet When It Snows?

         “Freshly fallen snow is an excellent absorber of sound. The porous structure of the snow, with all the air pockets between the snowflakes, traps sound waves and dampens vibrations. This is precisely why it gets so wonderfully quiet when it snows.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

Snowshoeing at Last!

         We finally got enough snow in early February to warrant wearing snowshoes, and what a pleasure it’s been to get out on them! One of our best snowshoe adventures began on a trail with wolf tracks immediately evident as we pulled into the site. The tracks ran the entire way down the trail until we came to a river. Here they went down the bank and left a dance hall worth of tracks out on the ice. We’re not sure what the wolves were up to – there was no sign of a fight or the consumption of prey, just a ton of tracks out on the ice in the middle of the river. Our best guess is they were just playing. Dogs play, including wolves.         

         Mary and I appreciated the opportunity to lead two snowshoe hikes during the month, and the enthusiasm folks had for winter and for learning more about winter ecology, was striking. For all the people who dislike winter, there’s a host of us who embrace it.

         Full disclosure, however – I love our woodstove, too. The older I’m getting (I’m 73), the colder I seem to be getting, so I’m always glad to come back to a warm home and a wood fire.

         We’re clearly blessed to have a home we love, one that is filled with memories of Mary’s grandparents who bought the place in 1924, and which we restored after it was sitting vacant for 13 years. Here’s what Scott Russell Sanders writes about the importance of home: 

         “The shell of a house gives only shelter; a home gives sanctuary . . . Real estate ads offer houses for sale, not homes. A house is a garment, easily put off or on, casually bought and sold; a home is a skin. Merely change houses and you will be disoriented; change homes and you bleed. When the shell you live in has taken on the savor of your love, when your dwelling has become a taproot, then your house is a home.”

         We have formed that taproot. We’re grounded here, and no matter where we travel, we are always overjoyed to return.

 

Sightings – Canada Jays and Big Pines

         Denise Fauntleroy in Watersmeet sent us a photo of several Canada jays coming to her bird feeders. She’s pretty blessed to have them given their rarity now in northern Wisconsin. They’ve visited her feeders for years, and Denise thinks they’re the same family coming back again and again.

gray jays, photo by Denise Fauntleroy

         Mary and I snowshoed back to one of our favorite old-growth white pine stands, and we were delighted to see them all still standing. I always hold my breath going back there because with a remnant stand of very old trees, many of which are declining, you never know if a big storm might have taken them down. 

         We had to do our requisite measuring of the biggest grandmother amongst them, and she was 50 inches in diameter.

         Another white pine nearby has an extensive lightning scar running the length of it, but it’s still going strong – I’ve attached a photo.

lightning strike on white pine, photo by John Bates

         

Porcupine Den Trees

            On one of our recent snowshoes, we came across an old porcupine den in the base of a large yellow birch, the den now abandoned for reasons unknown. Porkies often use the same tree over many years and may use the same den for their entire life (10 to 12 years in the wild). In fact, prime dens may be occupied continuously for decades, and the literature says that several individuals may use the same den site together or at different times, proving that while they’re prickly, their personalities apparently are not.

An individual generally occupies a den in November and uses it off and on until May. Porkies don’t hibernate, but they may spend their days asleep in the den or hanging out in the top of a conifer in which they’ve been feeding.

         The telltale sign of a den is a large mound of porcupine droppings at the base of the tree. Porkies are unusual in that they defecate in their den, and when the scat piles up, they plow it out in front of the tree. 

porkie den in old yellow birch, photo John Bates

            The scat is easy to identify. The pellets are elongated, can be straight or curved, and measure about 1 inch long and 3/8 inch wide, kind of like cashew nuts in size and shape. They’re mostly sawdust, so they’re often dry to the touch if you’re so inclined to pick one up.

            We mostly see porkie dens in the base of large diameter, old trees, but in other landscapes, they often den in rock crevices – 70% of porcupine dens in a study in the Catskill Mountains were in rock outcrops.

            Another easy sign of their presence is the presence of cut hemlock twigs on the snow. They scale the trees using their long claws and wrinkly paws, and often edge out close to the end of branches to get the newest, and thus tastiest, growth.  Look for the nipped twigs, cut at a 45-degree angle, scattered on the ground. They seem to particularly like hemlocks, perhaps in part because the snow cover under hemlocks is really reduced, making for easier travel for a very chunky rodent with short legs.

            Most often, they’re seen hunched into what appears to be a black ball high in a tree, minding their own business. 

 

Colombian Birds

         By the time you read this, I’ll be on a flight returning from Colombia where I just spent 9 days chasing birds with three other guys and two exceptional guides. 

         Colombia is the “birdiest” country in the world, with over 2,000 species of birds recorded, so I should have had a remarkable experience (I know, don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched – I hope I haven’t!).

         Most amazing to me is their count of 167 species of hummingbirds alone. Yes, 167 species. We in the Northwoods have – count ‘em – one species, the ruby-throated hummingbird.  

         I’ll report back in my next column on how many species we will have seen, but the guides indicated we should see 40 or more hummingbird species among the hundreds of other species we’ll encounter. My head will have been on a swivel and my brain overloaded and smoking, but I’ll bet I smiled the entire time. More on this in my next column.

 

Weather Stats for 2024

         According to the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, Wisconsin’s 2024 weather was officially the warmest year on record (since 1895) for Wisconsin – 3.8 degrees above the 1991 to 2020 normal. 

         Most areas experienced temperatures three to four degrees above normal, and a few pockets even reached four to five degrees above normal. 

         Dubbed the “Lost Winter,” impacts included a snow drought, early maple tree tapping, very short ice duration on most lakes in the state, and lost income for many northern businesses.  Additionally, early bud break in trees, grape vines, and flowers was observed across the state.

         Wisconsin also saw a notably wet year in 2024, ranking as the 13th wettest on record with a statewide average of 37.0 inches, compared to the normal of 34.05 inches. This included the wettest March-through-August period on record. However, conditions quickly switched to the sixth driest September-through-October on record, representing another “precipitation ping-pong” pattern like what Wisconsin experienced in 2023.

         

Celestial Events and Total Lunar Eclipse

         Planet watching in March nearly all takes place after dusk – no need to get up early in the morning to see the planets! Look for brilliant Venus low in the southwest, and then look much higher to find bright Jupiter also in the southwest. To find Mars, look high in the east, but by dawn, you will have to look in the northwest to see it setting. Mercury can be found low in the West.

         Saturn is hiding behind the sun and isn’t visible in March.

         For those eager for spring, in the first few days of March, our average high temperature will reach 32° for the first time since late November. Minocqua averages 268 days a year with high temperatures above freezing, or 73% of the year. Of course, that means 27% of the year we average high temperatures below freezing, but that’s the price we have to pay to live in the Northwoods. 

         On March 8, we will experience 11 hours and 32 minutes of sunlight, or 48% of the entire day. 

         A total lunar eclipse begins at 10:57 pm on March 13 and reaching maximum totality at 1:58 am. This lunar eclipse will be visible in its entirety from almost all of North America, including the contiguous United States and Central America, as well as from most of South America.

 

Thought for the Week

“[They] who marvel at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter . . . In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.” –  John Burroughs, The Snow-Walkers, 1866

 

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.