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

 

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.