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.