John Bates

Sunday, January 12, 2025

A Northwoods Almanac for 1/17-30, 2025

A Northwoods Almanac for 1/17-30, 2025

Otters Sliding and Playing

I recently photographed an otter slide near our home on the Manitowish River. He, or she, was running and sliding for quite a ways down the river, likely enjoying the perfect conditions of the light powdery snow on top of the ice.

Otter slide on the Manitowish River

Otters clearly use sliding as a form of locomotion to get from one place to another, but do they also slide for the pure joy of it? A study done in 2005 on the Youghiogheny River in southwestern Pennsylvania confirms that while otters do slide for the practical purpose of travel, they also use sliding as a form of play (“Sliding Behavior in Nearctic River Otters: Locomotion or Play?,” S. Stevens and T. Serfass, Northeastern Naturalist, 2005).

The researchers set up remote video cameras and obtained a video of three otters sliding 16 different times down an incline, for a total of 53 seconds, each slide traveling two to five meters, and all in the same area. Clearly they weren’t going anywhere. They were also wrestling and scent-marking, which involved a “dance” in “which the otter treaded both back feet for approximately five to 10 steps while holding its tail in the air.”

The study authors note that play has been defined as “any behavior that does not directly serve the functions of food-getting, reproduction, safety from predators, or other immediate vital needs of the organism or the species.” The researchers, thus, summarize the study by saying “our observation of three river otters repeatedly sliding down an incline suggests that in some cases sliding is also a form of play behavior.”

So, there you have it – otters play. Now about that dance . . .

Endless Overcast Days?

This winter has often felt like the sun has deserted us, and that sunrises have become an endangered phenomenon. However, I’ve learned the hard way over time that what we think is going on environmentally isn’t always supported by the data. So, have we had an inordinate number of overcast days?

The easiest way for me to check that is to look at our solar panel data. We have 22 solar panels that we installed five years ago, and a software program graphs how much solar energy we produce every day. The program then summarizes our gains by the month, by the quarter, and by the year, allowing us to compare data over time

So, relative to overcast days this winter, yes, it has been quite overcast. In fact, this December was the least sunny of the last five years. But all Decembers are generally gloomy – it’s just a fact of life for living up here. We produce the least amount of solar power in December, in large part because the days are the shortest, but also because the sun prefers to hide behind clouds on most days.

To give you a sense of how gloomy it has been this winter, on the last six days of November, we produced only a hint of solar power, perhaps an hour or so total. Then from the beginning of December through the 23^rd, 13 of those days the sun didn’t shine at all, and on another 5 of those days, the sun shone for perhaps half an hour. Only on one of those days did the sun actually shine for almost half the day. So, for 29 days in a row, we were almost completely entrenched in shadow.

Things perked up for the last 8 days of December, and on 12/30, we actually had one full day of sun, the only day of full sun in all of December (see December’s graph).

So, if you felt like there was no such thing as sunrises or sunsets during December, you were correct.

As of this writing on the evening of January 9, things are looking up. We’ve had two full days of sun so far in January, three days of about half a day of sun, two days when the sun made an appearance for maybe an hour, and two days of overcast. Not great, but we’ve already produced more electricity in January than we did in all of December.

Our lifetime revenue in saved electricity bills over the last 5 years is nearly $5,000. Utilizing tax credits, depreciation, and a Focus on Energy rebate, we will have paid back the cost of our system in two more years.

When I last looked at our propane furnace bill, there was no payback, and will be no payback – ever.

Our solar production over 5 years in Manitowish, WI

Fire Scars

One of the blessings winter provides is how far one can see into the woods now that all the leaves are down. Mary and I commonly walk in the Frog Lake and Pines State Natural Area across the river from our home, and we have known for a long time that this was an area regularly burned by the Ojibwe prior to Euro-American settlement. Over the years, we’ve found major fire scars on numerous trees throughout the site, and a DNR study on one red pine along the lake noted that the tree began life in 1805 and had fire scars from 1833, 1846, 1855, 1864, 1877, and 1895.

Well, on a recent hike, we found additional trees with fire scars because we could see beyond all the hazelnut shrubs whose leaves usually block our view. In this case, we found a row of five smaller red pine all with similar size small fire scars on them. The scars were all facing south, meaning the fire most likely came from the north. I’ve written about this before, but as a reminder, as a fire passes through a woods, the fire often “eddies” on the backsides of trees and can sit there and burn while the rest of the fire continues forward. Thus, you can surmise the direction the fire was running by where the scar is on the trunk.

Fire scars on five red pines in a row

Usually fires in our region come out of the south or west, because they most often occur in the spring before leaf-out, and it’s a warm wind blowing the fire along.

Evidence of historic controlled fire’s benefits and its crucial value to Native populations is documented and preserved in Ojibwe oral tradition. Low intensity ground fires cleared the understory and made conditions perfect for the growth of blueberries in particular. We often think that Native American tribes only used fire in the prairie country of southern Wisconsin, but Native tribes used fire extensively in the North Country as well,.

Friday, January 3, 2025

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

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/20/24 – 1/2/25

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/20/24 – 1/2/25

Wisdom Returns

Wisdom, a female Laysan albatross and the world's oldest known, banded bird, returned to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on 11/27/24 and was soon seen incubating an egg. When she was banded in 1956, she was conservatively estimated to be five years old – the earliest age that the Laysan albatross reach sexual maturity. This corresponds to a hatching date of 1950-51 at the very latest, so she is at least 74 years old and could be even older!

Of the more than 250,000 birds banded since biologist Chandler Robbins banded Wisdom in 1956, the next oldest bird known is a mere 52 years old, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The US Geological Survey has tracked Wisdom since she was first tagged and estimates that she has flown over 3,000,000 miles since 1956, or approximately 120 times the circumference of the Earth. Over this time, the USGS has replaced her tag six times.

Wisdom overlooking her egg, USFWS photo

Snowy Owl Update – A Big Influx!

Nick Anich in Ashland posted the following on 12/8: “Super quick check of the lake [Lake Superior] netted 6 Snowy Owls – 2 on the ice shelf at Maslowski [Beach], 4 at Bayview Park . . . Most of these birds are far out [on the bay] during the day, but start to come inland, move around, and sit around the lakeshore around 4 PM.”

In my last column, the numbers reported then suggested an average year. But these new numbers in Ashland alone suggest a possible irruption year.

I’ll keep you posted as more are reported. In the meantime, a trip to Ashland to look for snowies might be in order!

Ice-Up

From Woody Hagge: “Foster Lake [in Hazelhurst] froze over entirely on Tuesday, December 3. Earlier than I imagined given the warm autumn.”

Woody began keeping records in 1976 for ice-up, and has now compiled 49 years of data on ice-up and ice-out dates for 38-acre Foster Lake. The average date for ice-up on Foster is now Nov. 27.

Meanwhile, the Manitowish River below our house finally froze completely on 12/12 after our first truly cold night when we hit -14°F.

A Short History of Evening Grosbeaks

Every species of plant or animal has a story, but the story of evening grosbeaks is particularly unusual because they are relatively recent arrivals in Wisconsin – they’re an immigrant, though a native one. Until the mid-1800s, they were a common western bird, but were very uncommon east of the Rockies and rare east of Mississippi River. They appeared in the Midwest and east of the Great Lakes in a notable winter irruption in 1854-55, followed by sporadic irruptions over many decades, until finally reaching Rhode Island in the winter of 1910–1911.

By the 1920s, they had been recorded in winter in all 48 contiguous states and were a regular winter visitor in New England. Their expansion was largely attributed to the widespread planting of the lowly box elder in prairie windbreaks and as an ornamental in northeastern cities. The seeds of box elder persist on the tree through winter, allowing winter flocks of evening grosbeaks from the west to now overwinter in the east. Combine the box elder seeds in winter with huge spruce budworm outbreaks in the summer, and evening grosbeaks became relatively common from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic.

In fact, they became abundant. In the East, from about 1965 to the mid-’90s, huge numbers were common every winter all the way down to the Carolinas and sometimes farther south. Literally everyone who fed birds during that timeframe remembers having such large flocks at their feeders that many wished they’d go away, because they ate enormous quantities of bird seed and were bullies at the feeders.

But beginning in 1995, winter numbers in the eastern United States crashed. A 2008 study by the avian conservation group Partners in Flight found that evening grosbeaks no longer appeared at half of their historical sites, and that flock sizes had shrunk by more than a quarter. And the numbers kept shrinking. According to a 2019 article in the journal Science, the species suffered a 92 percent population reduction.

The American Bird Conservancy currently says the evening grosbeak is experiencing the steepest decline of any land bird in the continental United States and Canada.

The question, of course, is why. Surprisingly, relatively little is known of the species' life history, because during the breeding season, it’s secretive. Its courtship occurs with little song or display, and its nest is placed high in a tree in mostly northern boreal forests, making it very difficult to study. As a result, the reasons for its decline have been hard to pinpoint.

One of the very likely factors, however, is the chemical spraying for spruce budworms, which reduces the abundance of the budworms and other nearby insect prey. In high budworm population years, the caterpillars offer a feast for evening grosbeaks and other boreal birds, and likely contribute to higher reproductive success. Whether government and private timberland owners who routinely spray budworm “hotspots” with pesticides and other biological agents will reduce their spraying is an open question.

Take heart – there is some good news. You may recall that during the winter of 2022–2023, many people, including Mary and me, reported good numbers of evening grosbeaks coming to their feeders. This was one of the biggest years since the decline started in the ’90s.

Did that year presage a significant recovery? Well, the jury is still out. Researchers say that evening grosbeak populations in southern Quebec and the Gaspé Peninsula appear to be growing, while populations south of that appear to be in decline.

Evening grosbeaks once nested, albeit uncommonly, in northern Wisconsin. Mary and I used to have a pair of evening grosbeaks nesting somewhere near our home in Manitowish because we’d see juvenile birds at our feeders in the summer. I don’t recall the year we stopped seeing them, but it was sometime in the 1990s. Whether they will ever nest again in our area is truly unknown. Right now, we’d be very happy to just have them visit in winter.

evening grosbeaks lined up at the feeder in Manitowish, 11/30/22

Wisconsin Frog and Toad Survey Results from 2023

The nine species of frogs and toads that breed in our area are all now in full hibernation – wood frogs, spring peepers, chorus frogs, and gray treefrogs are underground in small depressions in upland forests where they freeze nearly solid; green frogs, bullfrogs, mink frogs, and leopard frogs are on the bottom of lakes and rivers laying on the sediments or in the muck and leaf debris, and American toads are buried below the frost line in loose soil.

So, the question every year is did they have a successful breeding season? To answer this, the WDNR began an annual volunteer frog and toad survey in 1984 because of concerns about declines in some frog species. Plus, frogs are good indicator species for the quality of habitats where they are found, so their numbers offer a “canary in the coal mine” perspective on environmental changes that may be occurring.

Mary and I have run one of the survey routes in western Vilas County since 1988 – 36 years now. We are just one of around 150 routes throughout the state.

The results are tabulated and sent to us in the late fall of the following year. So, here are the general findings for 2023: Of the twelve frog species found in the entire state (again, only 9 of these breed in the Northwoods), eight showed an increase in percent occurrence in 2023 from 2022 levels. These were the American toad, Blanchard’s cricket frog, boreal chorus frog, Cope’s gray treefrog, gray treefrog, northern leopard frog, spring peeper, and wood frog. Four species were below the previous year’s occurrence levels: American bullfrog, green frog, mink frog and pickerel frog.

Since these numbers change from year to year based on weather conditions – a wet spring, for instance, obviously offers far more breeding opportunities for frogs than a really dry one – what does 2023 really tell us?

Very little really. The key, like in all wildlife surveys, is to look at long-term data for trends, rather than jump to conclusions based on just a year or two of observations.

With that in mind, I recommend the purchase of a mammoth book that came out in 2022 – Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin, edited by Joshua Kapfer and Donald Brown, published by the University of Wisconsin Press. At 1,173 pages and weighing nine pounds, you won’t be carrying it in your back pocket as a field guide. But you will be referring to it incessantly for its comprehensive job of summarizing the known research on all of our Wisconsin amphibians and reptiles.

So, for instance, how are spring peepers doing in Wisconsin? In a nutshell, “Despite reports from Wisconsin in the 1980s and 1990s of a small but statistically significant decline, recent Wisconsin Frog and Toad Survey data suggest that populations are stable to slightly increasing.”

The book will set you back $75, but if you want to know the population status of any of these species, how they’re adapted to the winter, what their breeding habitat is, who are their predators and their prey – and on and on – this is the book to buy.

Poetry

I’ve recently published my second book of poetry, The Birds are Singing in the Snow. The 90 poems celebrate the extraordinary diversity of life in the Northwoods and explore how we’re to honor the gift we’ve been given of living here (see www.manitowishriverpress.com). I want to also recommend three books of poetry that are to my mind beautiful, profound, and well worth your time: Wendell Berry’s This Day: Collected and New Sabbath Poems; Mary Oliver’sDevotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver; and Joy Harjo’s When the Light of the Word was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, an edited anthology of Native Nations poetry.

Thought for the Week and for the Ending of 2024

“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. Whatever the vexations or concerns of their personal lives, their thoughts can find paths that lead to inner contentment and to renewed excitement in living. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.” – Rachel Carson (from The Sense of Wonder)

Monday, December 2, 2024

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/6-19, 2024

Losing Loons

From Walter Piper’s blog post (https://loonproject.org/2024/11/18/not-giving-up/) on 11/18/24: “Wisconsin breeding [loon] pairs fledge 26% fewer chicks now than they did 25 years ago. Our more limited data from Minnesota indicate low breeding success there as well.

“But . . . loss of chicks while under their parents' care is less of an issue than the escalating die-off of young adult loons after they leave the breeding grounds. Survival in this later stage of the life history is down over 80%. Of 99 chicks that we banded in 1998, 1999, and 2000, we had resighted 38 (38%) as adults by 2004. In contrast, we have reobserved as adults only 9 of 155 chicks (6%) banded between 2018 and 2020.

“These young loons are also the future. From their ranks come replacements for breeders that die each year. So young adults . . . are essential to population stability.

“We have lost several of our traditional territories in Wisconsin during the past few years. We did not find breeding pairs on Bridge, East Horsehead, Hildebrand, Miller, Oneida-East, Pickerel-North, Tom Doyle, Swamp, or Muskellunge (Lincoln Co.) in 2024 . . . Still, there has not been a wholesale loss of territorial pairs in the Upper Midwest, which one might have expected from the high mortality of young adults. So while we have far fewer young nonbreeders milling around, the decline in the territorial loon population is, as yet, small.

“Thus, the loon population might be more resilient than we had feared. We have long known that the majority of young loons that return to the breeding grounds never settle on a territory. Perhaps the die-off of young adults merely reduces their number to those few that would normally claim territories anyway. It is a hopeful thought!

“I am connecting with water quality specialists in Wisconsin and Minnesota in hopes of learning why we are losing water clarity in July, which harms loon chicks. And I am searching feverishly – both on the breeding grounds and in Florida, where most of our birds winter – for the cause of the high mortality in young adults. These are not quixotic quests. I feel that people who love loons in the Upper Midwest will step up and help them if we can pinpoint the factors that endanger their population.”

If you care about loons, and you are looking for an excellent scientific study to donate to, may I recommend Walter Piper’s efforts - https://loonproject.org/donate/.

common loon, photo by Bev Engstrom

Snowy Owl Numbers

Ryan Brady, DNR conservation biologist from Washburn, tracks the number of snowy owl sightings in Wisconsin each year. For the winter of 2023-24, he tallied 24 individual snowy owls in the state, the lowest number in the last decade.

In 2022-23, for comparison, 36 snowies were documented in the state, while 140 were recorded in 2021-22. More than 200 were documented in the big irruption years of 2013, 2014, and 2017.

As of November 25, 11 owls have been reported statewide, including several along the Great Lakes shorelines and others at inland locations such as Wausau and Eau Claire. This fall’s total is below that of a typical irruption year, suggesting it may be an “average” year. More should be arriving, but typically not here in the Northwoods – we’re the wrong habitat. They typically are seen at large lakefronts (Lake Michigan, for instance), farm fields and even wide open developed areas like airports.

"Our last irruption was 2021-22,” according to Brady. “If the approximately four- to five-year cycle holds up – and that’s a big if – then next year or the year after should see a higher pulse of birds."

eBird map of snowy owl sightings as of 11/28/24

But . . . you never know. Ryan just shared (11/28) a photo of a snowy perched on top of the roof of an Arby’s in Ashland. If the snowies are already staking out the fast food joints, it might be a banner year after all.

the snowy owl on the peak of Arby's in Ashland

Bear Hunt Totals

Hunters registered 4,285 black bears during the 2024 Wisconsin bear hunting season, according to preliminary data released by the Department of Natural Resources.

The five-week season was marked by a high statewide success rate of 37%, up from 24% last year and the 31% five-year rate. The 2024 bear kill exceeded the statewide target by 11% and represents a 46% year-over-year increase.

The last two seasons were substantially different primarily due to a huge acorn crop in 2023, according to DNR reports. The natural food source reduced the effectiveness of bait placed by hunters last year, illustrating just one of the many reasons why hunt numbers for any species can vary from year to year.

Wisconsin has an estimated 23,000 black bears.

Book Ideas for Christmas

Looking for great books about nature to give for Christmas? Here are some recommendations:

The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees – Douglas Tallamy

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World – Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth – Zoë Schlanger

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us – Ed Yong

The Backyard Bird Chronicles – Amy Tan

The Seed Keeper – Diane Wilson

Loon Lessons: Uncommon Encounters with the Great Northern Diver – Dr. James Paruk

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature – J. Drew Lanham

Gear Ideas for Christmas

I’m always advocating for people to upgrade their binoculars from that old non-waterproof, heavy pair that was handed down to you when you were a kid. So, what to know? Model numbers on binoculars essentially tell you their magnification power and the size of the objective lens (basically how much light the lens lets in). In 8x42 binoculars, for example, “8” is the magnification power and “42” is the diameter in millimeters of the objective lenses. A ratio of magnification to objective lens of at least 1:5 is what you want. Too small a ratio and less light enters the binocs, which makes for poorer viewing.

An eight-power magnification is generally ideal, because going any higher, like to a 10 power, makes for a heavier binocular that is harder to hold steady, and which also has a smaller field of view for actually finding that little warbler high in that hemlock that is making you crazy.

You can certainly buy more compact binocs that are lighter to carry – Mary and I each have a pair of these, too (8x28). But the quality suffers because less light enters the lens.

Make sure the binocs are waterproof, fog-proof, and rubber coated. Now you can take them out in your kayak or fishing boat and not worry about dropping them in the water.

Also, be sure the pair has adjustable eyepieces that twist out. If you wear glasses, you want the eyepieces twisted in, which keeps the binocs at the right distance from your eye. If you don’t wear glasses, you want the eyepieces twisted out, otherwise you may only see blackness because the lenses are too close to your eyes. It’s called “eye relief,” and you want 11mm or more.

You can go far into the weeds on the lens materials and coatings, but know that newer “roof prism” models are lighter and smaller than older “porro prism” models.

Finally, buy from a company that offers a lifetime guarantee no matter what foolish thing you do to your binocs. I’ve utilized my lifetime guarantee four times now for reasons too embarrassing to divulge. Vortex, a Wisconsin company, offers this guarantee, and I’ve been very grateful.

Other Optics to Consider as Gifts

Buy a folding glass hand lens for looking at plants and feathers, as well as the splinter in your finger. They come in different magnification powers, but a 10 power is plenty. I also like to buy one that comes with a LED light, which really helps seeing some flowers or mushrooms in a dark woods.

Buy a cheap one, as we have many times, and you get what you pay for. Spend at least $20 on one, and you’ll be much happier in the long run. They’re called “magnifying loupes” by most companies. Opticron and Bausch & Lomb make good ones, as do many other companies.

On the other end of optical pleasures, consider going big and getting a spotting scope. If you live on a lake and enjoy watching birds and other wildlife out on the water, you will absolutely love having a scope. Again, Vortex makes scopes – Mary and I have an 11x33 zoom scope, which is compact and light for traveling compared to the much heavier 20x60 scopes. And ours came with that lifetime guarantee, too, which in this case, I’ve only had to use once. Dropping things gets easier as you age.

Celestial Events

The peak Geminid meteor shower occurs in the predawn of 12/13. This can be a big one – 50 to 120 per hour, though the nearly full moon will be hard to block out. An asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon is responsible for the Geminid meteor shower, but it’s still not known how material from the asteroid’s surface, or interior, is released into the meteoroid stream.

Our earliest sunsets of the year – 4:14 p.m. – already began on 12/5 and will continue at that time until 12/14, whereupon the sun will start setting later on 12/15.

12/14 also marks the date when in 1972, Eugene Cernan left the last human footprint on the moon (Apollo 17). Since the moon has virtually no atmosphere – and thus no erosion – his prints may last indefinitely. Hard to believe no human has set foot on the moon for 52 years!

December’s full moon – the Cold/Long Night/Popping Trees Moon/Little Spirit – occurs on the 15^th. It’s the highest and northernmost of all moonrises in 2024.

Most of the best planet watching in December occurs in the early evening. Look for Venus low in the SSW, Mars rising in the ENE after 6 p.m., Jupiter low in the ENE, and Saturn in the South. Mars will be just below the waning gibbous moon on 12/18.

Thought for the Week

“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.” - Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times