A Northwoods Almanac for 11/ 8 – 21//24

 A Northwoods Almanac for 11/ 8 – 21//24  by John Bates

 

Sightings – Trumpeter Swans and a Great Egret

            On 10/30, Sarah Krembs told me she had received a phone call from someone who saw an unusual all-white bird flying around Pipke Pond in Presque Isle. It wasn’t a gull said the caller. What was it, she wanted to know?

            Sarah and I talked about the possibilities – after all, there aren’t that many all-white birds to choose from – but with so little information, we couldn’t draw any conclusions.

            The next morning, Sarah emailed this: “It’s an egret. I drove around Pipke Pond in the driving rain this morning. There are still a minimum of 16 Trumpeter Swans out there. But in addition to the swans this morning, along the shoreline, I spotted a blob of white between the swipes of my windshield wiper blades. I grabbed the binoculars, and I could see it was a cold, wet, hunched up Great Egret standing there. Poor guy. He should have flown south yesterday when the getting’ was good.”

great egret, photo by Bev Engstrom

            Great egrets are a rarity up here, but every few years one shows up. In a quick look at some of my old columns, I have records of one in our area in 2021, 2016, 2011, and 2009, so they do wander our way. But the sighting of a southern species like this always raises the question of what are they doing up here? 

            They are listed as a threatened species in Wisconsin, but while Wisconsin is at the northern edge of the great egret’s range, during the 2006 breeding bird survey in Wisconsin, 10 breeding sites were found in the state. Their primary range, though, is well south of here along the Mississippi River and around Horicon Marsh/Lake Winnebago. 

            Still, great egrets can turn up almost anywhere in the summer, often traveling hundreds of miles north from their spring rookeries, for reasons no one can say. But this late in the year? Well, it’s been a warm autumn overall, so perhaps this individual was just on an adventure and delaying its inevitable migration south.

great egret range map

            As for why 20+ trumpeter swans were hanging out on Pipke Pond, well, trumpeter swans don’t necessarily have to migrate south to survive, needing only open water and sufficient forage to stay north. For instance, a small flock stays all winter on the Manitowish River near Benson Lake. 

            However, most Wisconsin trumpeter swans migrate, and largely to Illinois, but they can go just about anywhere given that they’re a re-introduced native species hatched from Alaskan eggs, and thus don’t have an established migratory route in Wisconsin.

            Okay, well, why so many in one place? Territory defense only lasts until their cygnets hatch and leave the nest, or they may remain territorial until fledging of the cygnets, but after that, trumpeters obviously are happy to socialize. 

            And why so many specifically on Pipke Pond? Well, it must be good foraging, because trumpeters are North America’s largest waterfowl species, and they eat a lot. But many other Northwoods lakes have good forage, too, so . . . As with many things in nature, there’s no easy answer. “Knowledge is an island in a sea of mystery,” wrote Chet Raymo, and I abide by that.

            

The Muddy Ontonagon River

            I recently attended a wonderful event in Eagle River celebrating Joe and Mary Hovel’s selection for the 2024 Land Legacy Award from Gathering Waters, Wisconsin’s alliance organization for more than 40 Wisconsin land trusts. Joe and Mary have worked for decades to conserve and protect lands in the Border Lakes region of Wisconsin, as well as in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and in Wisconsin’s Central Sands region. Together, they have raised public awareness of the importance of land conservation, served as watchdogs for land use, and negotiated and facilitated the purchase and sale of thousands of acres of land and conservation easements. 

            I have them properly placed on my “conservation heroes” pedestal where they belong. We should all aspire to work as hard for conservation as they do.

            During the event, Joe gave a talk on Wisconsin’s connection to Michigan’s wild and scenic rivers, and the question came up as to why the Ontonagon River begins clear but becomes quite red and muddy as it passes through wild sections of the U.P. Ron Eckstin, retired DNR wildlife manager, noted, “These [north shore] rivers flow through a wide band of red clay soils. The red clay soils are ”young” soils formed in glacial times on the bed of Lake Superior when the lake was much higher (Glacial Lakes Duluth and Algonquin). These soils are subject to natural erosion that is accelerated by agriculture, development and past lumbering. The “red” in the rivers is iron oxide formed when the red soils come in contact with oxygen.”

            I also brought up the impact of the intense logging and subsequent river drives that took place in the U.P. and Wisconsin, all of which scoured the river bottoms and obliterated shorelines. Can you imagine how much our narrow and shallow rivers were altered by literally tens of thousands of logs being driven down them, as well as the erosion of the river banks after the drives from the clearcutting to the river edges? 

            If you haven’t read Deep Woods Frontier: A History of Logging in Northern Michigan by Theodor Karamanski, I recommend it highly. The Diamond Match Company was the single biggest timber cutter in the UP, and their impact was immense. Kamanski writes,”The high water mark of pine logging in northern Michigan came in the 1894-95 season. Forest fires, caused by a dry summer but spurred by the debris from Diamond Match’s own logging, ravaged the woods of southern Ontonagon County. The fast burning fire did not consume the pine forests, but the trees were badly scorched by the blaze.” 

            Loggers were concerned that the wood had to be cut immediately or insects would consume it. So, they brought in “Six thousand lumberjacks, a small army, [who] labored the winter butchering the timber. Thirteen million board feet of pine per week fell in the wake of their cross-cut saws. A total of 1200 horses, brought from farms in far-off Iowa and southern Wisconsin, hauled the mountain of wood from the cuttings to the banks of the Ontonagon River . . . One hundred eight-five million feet of pine were scaled at the side of the Ontonagon River . . . it was estimated that if all the logs were loaded on railroad flatcars, it would take a train more than 250 miles long to carry the haul . . . 

            “It was at this point that the ambitious appetite of the Diamond Match Company ran afoul . . . of the serpentine Ontonagon River. Mammoth log jams occurred all along the course of the drive . . . For the remainder of 1895 and all through the spring and summer of 1896, the Ontonagon River remained choked at Grand Rapids . . . Finally in 1897, the jam was cleared and all the logs delivered to the lakeshore.” 

            Well, there’s so much more worthy of reading here, but the point is to try to envision 185 million feet of pine being cut in one year and sent down one river, and all the jams that ensued. The violent gouging of the river banks and the dredging of the river sediments is, for me, nearly impossible to imagine. At the time, this was considered the “world’s greatest logging operation.” What would have been its impacts to the red clay banks of the Ontonagon, and what are the impacts still today in this often hilly region of the U.P.? I believe it’s part of the reason the river runs so red.

 

The Flambeau Trail

            While I’m talking history, I read a recent article in “The Wisconsin Archeologist” (January-December 2023) by John Wackman entitled “The Montreal Portage Trail/Flambeau Trail – A History” that challenged what I thought I knew about the 45-mile long Flambeau Trail.

I had always understood there was a single trail starting at the mouth of the Montreal River that ran all the way to the north end of Long Lake in Iron County. From there, Native Americans and fur traders would paddle south to the base of Long Lake, enter Long Lake Creek, which flows into the Turtle River, then head into Echo Lake (formerly Big Turtle Lake) in Mercer. From there, a short 100-yard portage took them into Tank Lake (formerly Grand Portage Lake), then into a tiny creek that runs under Hwy. 51 right next to the giant fiberglass loon greeting folks entering Mercer, and into Mercer Lake (formerly Sugar Camp Lake). Then a nearly four mile portage had to be taken southeast through some serious wetlands into the Manitowish River. 

            Now the options were to head upriver on the Manitowish through the current “Chain of Lakes” in Manitowish Waters, which wasn’t a chain back then, and on into the Trout River to Trout Lake and through a series of lakes and portages to the Wisconsin River.

            Or they could go downriver on the Manitowish until they hit the Bear River, and paddle upstream into Lac du Flambeau. 

            Well, it turns out the Flambeau trail had two branches, one originating at the mouth of the Montreal, and the other at Saxon Harbor. Both, however, came together about three miles later near Saxon Falls. Which of the trails was the principal trail is a matter of conjecture, but Wackman believes the Montreal River mouth was the main starting point.

Montreal Portage Trail and Flambeau Trail

            The trail was first described in writing by Raddison in 1661 and Perrot in 1667, but was later described among others by Schoolcraft in 1820, Cram in 1840, Owen and Norwood in 1848, and Sweet as late as 1880. 

            The earliest use of the trail is unknown and can only be speculation. Archaeologist Robert Salzer (1969) described the long-term occupation on Strawberry Island in Lac du Flambeau: “We can hypothesize a minimum of three occupation periods: Middle Woodland (sometime during the first few centuries after Christ?); Late Woodland (beginning as early as AD 1000 . . .); and Historic, dating around AD 1900.” Without written records over these periods, the earliest use of the trail, which would have brought people to Strawberry Island, will likely never be known. 

            The trail was a 120-pause portage, a “pause” occurring when the travelers had to stop and rest, which depending on the terrain, was usually about a half-mile. 

            Think about this for a moment. What’s the longest portage you ever did? The longest single portage I ever accomplished was a one-miler in the Boundary Waters, and I was pretty spent after carrying a pack and a lighter weight canoe to the next lake. The voyageurs and natives carried 95 pound packs, but more often two packs, so they didn’t have to return and do the trail twice. 

            So, the Flambeau Trail was surely not for the faint of heart or frail of body. Francois Victor Malhiot, a 28-year-old Frenchman appointed to take charge of the North West Fur Company's trading post in Lac du Flambeau, crossed the Flambeau Trail in July of 1804. He's most often quoted for this observation of the trail: “Of all the spots and places I have been in my thirteen years of travels, this is the most horrid and most sterile. The Portage road is truly that to heaven because it is narrow, full of overturned trees, obstacles, thorns, and muskegs. Men who go over it loaded and who are obliged to carry baggage over it, certainly deserve to be called ‘men’ . . . This vile portage is inhabited solely by owls, because no other animal could find a living there, and the hoots of those solitary birds are enough to frighten an angel or intimidate a Caesar.”

            Attempts have been made to relocate the trail, but given the intensive logging that occurred in the late 1800s, and still occurs today, and how quickly trees grow back, the trail has for the most part been obliterated.

            

Celestial Events

            Yesterday, November 7, marked the midway point between the autumn equinox and winter solstice. 

            After dusk on 11/10, look for Saturn barely below the waxing moon.

            The full moon – the Beaver/Freezing/Ice is Forming Moon – occurs on 11/15.

            Look before dawn on 11/17 for the peak Leonid Meteor Shower, which averages 15 meteors per hour.

 

Thought for the Week

            “History is a very tricky thing. To begin with, you can’t get it mixed up with the past. The past actually happened, but history is only what someone wrote down.” – A. Whitney Brown

            

 

A Northwoods Almanac for 10/25 – 11/ 7/24

 A Northwoods Almanac for 10/25 – 11/ 7/24  by John Bates

 

Avian Bird Flu

         Recent articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (“Bald eagle recovery a testament to wildlife protections, improvements,” Paul Smith, 8/4/2024) and The Washington Post (“In eagle nirvana, avian flu is decimating America’s national bird,” Mark Johnson, 10/5/2024) have raised concerns about the impacts of avian influenza on Wisconsin’s bald eagle population. 

         I read these avidly, because we had an active eagle nest across the river from us for decades, but we haven’t seen any nesting activity there or nearby for the last two years. So, we’re curious, too, regarding what may be going on.

         Eagles have been doing great in the seventeen years since the Fish and Wildlife Service removed them from the endangered species list, and numbers nationwide have continued to rise over that time. But avian influenza hit particularly hard in late 2021, and eagles began to die in many states. 

         In Michigan, the number of occupied eagle nests had risen from 52 in 1961, to 114 in 1984, and then to 1,000 or so by the end of 2021. Once avian influenza reached Michigan, the impact in 2022 was immediate – the number of occupied nests plunged 50 percent with tests on dead bald eagles performed by the Michigan DNR revealing that 38 percent of those that could be diagnosed had died of avian influenza.

         In Minnesota, eagles have been dying, too, but no comprehensive figures exist on the impact of the disease because the state does not collect all dead eagles for necropsy, the animal version of an autopsy.

          Eagles were dying even as far south in Florida and Georgia  where avian influenza caused an alarming rate of bald eagle deaths and nest failures. 

         How as this happening? Waterfowl were dying of “bird flu,” and the eagles were eating the waterfowl. 

         So, what’s been happening here? Wisconsin now has the third highest population of bald eagles in the nation, trailing Alaska and Minnesota, so this is a big concern. 

         The problem is it’s hard to say exactly, because the DNR no longer conducts aerial nest surveys, partly because the species is doing well and partly due to funding shortages that required its staff to focus on areas of greater need.

         To fill the void, Bald Eagle Nest Watch (BENW), a citizen science program begun in 2018 by the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance (then called Madison Audubon), started working in partnership with the WDNR. In 2022, as bird flu – more precisely Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) –  spread through the wild bird population in Wisconsin, BENW documented a sharp reduction in nesting success.

         The disease was found in dead and dying adult bald eagles and was confirmed as a source of mortality in eagle chicks when BENW volunteers in Milwaukee County recovered a very young, recently dead eagle and submitted it for testing.

         The eaglet was positive for HPAI. It helped explain the 65% failure rate among Wisconsin eagle nests in 2022, according to BENW data. The program had documented an average of 19% nest failures from 2018 to 2021. 

         That was a very serious decline. However, the good news is that last year, 2023, bald eagles appear to have recovered well with only a 15% nest failure, at least according to the limited BENW data. 

         So far in 2024, BENW volunteers have monitored 219 active nests across 40 counties (out of 72 in the state) and found 43 nests (20%) failed, but for many reasons including being toppled during severe storms this spring.

         Drew Feldkirchner, Director Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation for the WDNR, responding to a request for information from Ron Eckstein, retired eagle bander for the DNR in Rhinelander, wrote, “At this point, we have no plans to resume those [aerial] surveys. However, we are staying engaged on bald eagle work including the excellent NestWatch program led by Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance. We continue to receive those data every year and take that information into account.”

         Carly Lapin, Northcentral Region Ecologist for the DNR, wrote, “As far as I am aware, we are not seeing the bald eagle die-off that we did several years ago at the peak of avian influenza in the state. In fact, our nest success numbers appear to have returned to normal, based on observations from NestWatch.”

         With eagles now nesting in all 72 counties, it may be that the eagles have dodged this current bullet, at least in this incarnation of HPAI. However, there will likely be more variants to come.

 

Sighting – Juncos and Harris’s Sparrow

         Dark-eyed juncos arrived at our feeders in Manitowish on 10/7 and a Harris’s sparrow visited our feeders on 10/10. 

dark-eyed junco, photo by Bev Egnstrom

Harris’s sparrows are a far northern nesting sparrow that rarely visit on their spring and fall migrations, and one we haven’t seen for many years. It’s always a blessing when you look out your window and a rare bird looks back at you, isn’t it?

Range map for Harris's sparrow

Harris's sparrow

Lingering Trees

         Research into the natural genetic diversity and selective breeding of trees offers some  hope for imperiled tree species like ashes, American beech, eastern hemlock, butternut, American chestnut, and American elm. The trick is to find those very few trees that are surviving and showing resistance to these diseases, and then to crossbreed them in hopes of restoring them to some of their original abundance in our forests. 

         And that’s where all of us come in. Researchers need help finding “lingering” trees. If any of us are aware of a tree or trees that appear to be doing well – they’re “lingering” – while others of the same species around them are dying, we are asked to download the app TreeSnap and submit our observations. 

         A caution. It’s important to not submit observations of trees like eastern hemlock where the hemlock wooly adelgid (HWA) hasn’t reached as of yet, like our area in northern Wisconsin. But if you live in North Carolina or Massachusetts or other eastern states where the HWAs have killed millions of trees, then that’s the area where the survival of hemlocks is rare and needs to be documented.

         So, if you’re in an area that has been decimated by a specific tree disease or pest, but you see an individual or more doing well, consider sending information in to TreeSnap. Follow up questions will come your way, and your observations will not be shared with anyone except certified researchers in order to protect the trees. 

 

 Always More on Wolves 

         Pat Durkin in a recent excellent “Patrick Durkin Outdoors “column notes the following statistics (https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com): “From 1985 through 2023 [38 years], the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources paid $3.38 million in sundry veterinary bills and abatements [for wolf ‘depredations’] to cover 750 calves, 450 hunting dogs, 270 sheep, 235 chickens, 150 adult cattle, 150 domestic turkeys, 65 pet dogs, 25 horses or donkeys, and other livestock injured or killed by wolves.”

         Big numbers, right? Well, as Durkin points out, if you break them down in annual numbers over 38 years, those big numbers suddenly look pretty small, don’t they?

         More importantly to my mind, Durkin notes: “The DNR, however, doesn’t track or write abatement checks for cats, dogs, parakeets or other suburban pets picked off by foxes, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, hawks or bald eagles. Good thing. Imagine the drama of politicians demanding the DNR hold those evil-doers accountable, too.”

         So true. Just wolves are the evil-doers. No coyote or bobcat or other predator gets headlines in papers for killing a lamb or calf or chickens or someone’s house cat. No one gets paid for losses from other predators. 

         And if you want to take it to its furthest end, no one gets paid for the damage woodpeckers do to all of our wooden siding. Or the damage sapsuckers do to our apple trees. Or . . . 

         Maybe the DNR should be paying us for all this other stuff, too!

         No . . . they absolutely should not.

         We live in a state that has exceptional wildlife. To enjoy the remarkable benefits of having them on the landscape, sometimes there’s a cost, one everyone should be more than willing to pay for the privilege of not living in a sterile city. 

         

The Other Side of the Wolf Coin

         Durkin also points out that there are those who think if we just had more wolves, we could eliminate CWD in deer. Or if we just had more wolves, they would control the ever burgeoning deer herd.         

         Nonsense. 

         I’ve written this before, but it bears continual repeating. All the best research has said that wolves eat from 17 to 20 deer annually. Multiply that times our 1,000 wolves, and that’s a pittance of 20,000 deer. If instead we have 1,500 wolves, as so loudly proclaimed by those who always believe they know better than the DNR, that’s a larger pittance of 30,000 deer. Out of a deer herd of somewhere around 1.6 million statewide – around 400,000 in the northern counties – that still leaves an army of deer on the landscape

         Simply put, wolves will never control the deer herd in Wisconsin. Never. 

         The math doesn’t work for the wolf haters, nor does it work for the wolf lovers.

         Now, if only math mattered. 

         Durkin ends his column with a perfect quote from wolf researcher David Mech who wrote in 2012, “The wolf is neither a saint nor sinner except to those who want to make it so.”

 

Celestial Events

            Planets to watch for in November: After dusk, look for brilliant Venus very low in the south-southwest; for Jupiter rising in the east-northeast; and Saturn high in the southeast.

            At dawn, look for Mars in the south-southwest.

            New moon on 11/1.

            The peak Taurid meteor shower occurs in the predawn on 11/5.

 

Thought for the Week

         The smoke from the first meaningful fire in the wood stove, the one that just might keep going now until spring, smells sweet and crisp from the white birch that has laid silent in the pile for two years, snapping now and crackling and popping, spinning tall tales in long shadows as the sun sets, luring us to the couch to warm our feet, the air inside now pungent, too, from opening the stove door for gentle rearrangements, encouraging fire from individual logs I recognize by now as old friends from all the cutting and the splitting and the stacking and the hauling, and with the possibility of the first flakes of the season flying by morning, we are exactly where we want to be, the inside of our house reflecting the magnificent yellow of our woods outside, and time is slowing in that perfect way that only happens when you light the first purposeful fire of the year. – Bob Kovar

 

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 10/11 – 24/24

 A Northwoods Almanac for 10/11 – 24/24  

 

Estivant Pines

         Mary and I recently spent three days in the UP’s Keweenaw Peninsula, where the highlight of the trip was a hike in the Estivant Pines Nature Sanctuary, a site considered the largest and best stand of remnant white pines left in the Upper Midwest. Over the last 20+ years, Mary and I have scoured the region looking for the best stands of remnant old-growth forest, and we both agree with that assessment – the Estivant Pines represents the best of what few remnant pine forests we have left. 

         The Nature Sanctuary was originally part of a 2,400-acre tract of land owned by Edward Estivant of Paris, who sold it to Calumet and Hecla Mining Company in 1947. It was then sold in 1968 to Universal Oil, which proceeded to cut down 300 acres of nearby forest and began plans for future logging. Hearing of this, the Michigan Nature Association (MNA) led a three-year statewide fundraising campaign to purchase 200 acres of the Estivant Pines from Universal Oil in 1973 and succeeded in making the initial acquisition. Three additional acquisitions occurred between 1989 and 2019, bringing the sanctuary to 570.5 acres.

         Two loop trails totaling 2.5 miles showcase the towering pines and forest. The 1-mile Cathedral Grove loop passes some of the largest and oldest giant white pines, growing more than 125 feet tall and dating back 300 years. One pine on this loop was determined to have germinated around 1695 after a wildfire swept the ridge. 

         Much of this sanctuary sits on a high ridge of volcanic bedrock that dates back to the earliest period of Earth’s history, some 1.1 billion years ago. Multiple glaciers left behind a very thin layer of soil that can support plant life but generally is not deep enough to anchor a 100-foot-tall tree. To compensate for the lack of soil, most of the pines have grown roots deep into fractures and crevices in the bedrock. Some trees have been lost to windstorms, but remarkably few have fallen considering that the sanctuary sits at an altitude that varies between 200 and 500 feet above lake level, which leaves these trees exposed to powerful winter winds that blow across Lake Superior. In the winter, the sanctuary can get more than 275 inches of snow.

         We measured the diameter of many of the pines, the largest of which was 45” in diameter at breast height. Many were between 36” and 42”.

45" diameter white pine in the Estivant Pines

 

         Below the emergent pines at Estivant, sugar maple and balsam fir dominate with very few young white pine seedlings or saplings in the understory. This can’t be explained by a paucity of seed production, since white pines begin seeding at 20 to 30 years and typically have good seed years every 3 to 5 years.

         Most projections suggest that the white pine will decline in future decades, while sugar maple and balsam fir will increase. White pine re-establishment is usually thought to require major disturbances such as fire or windstorms for reproduction in late-successional stands like this. Other studies , however, report the ability of white pine to reproduce in canopy gaps. In an extensive survey of regional white pine forests, one researcher (Fahey 2011) found that although most pines (white and red pine) were established after large wind and fire disturbances, around 35% of pines successfully re-established after smaller gap disturbances.

         Change is always the name of the game in forest communities. Carbonized tree stumps and little bits of charcoal strewn across the Estivant landscape point to a large wildfire that swept through the area in the late 1700s and likely wiped out most of the white pines that had been standing there. Just as the towering, mature pines today prevent the young pines from growing underneath, those earlier pines likely prevented few new ones from growing beneath them. 

fire-scarred white pine, photo by John Bates

         So, who knows what the future will bring for these aging relicts? It was white pine that made Michigan the nation’s leading lumber-producing state from 1860-1910, and nearly all – 99.8%+ - were cut down. What a shame it would be if this last marvelous stand, by far the largest in Michigan, failed to sustain its community of pines.

 

Orange Peel Fungus (Aleuria aurantia)

         On a far tinier scale in the middle of a different trail near Houghton-Hancock, Mary and I came across a number of  bright orange, cup-shaped mushrooms that resemble orange peels strewn on the ground. The species name, “aurantia,”  derives from the Latin word aurantia for, you guessed it, “orange.” 

         Orange peel fungus grows throughout North America, but can also be found in Chile and in Europe fruiting mainly on bare disturbed soil.

Orange peel fungus, photo by John Bates

         The orange color is derived from a chemical similar to carotenoids found in trees like sugar maple, which causes the leaves to turn a brilliant yellow and/or orange. 

         It’s said to be edible, but not choice. We don’t collect wild mushrooms, preferring to allow them to be enjoyed by others during their brief life. But it’s important to remember that picking mushrooms doesn’t kill them – the mushroom is the fruit of the fungus, akin to an apple on an apple tree.

 

Hawk Ridge

            As of 9/29, six weeks into the fall migration count at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, the professional counters have tallied over 40,000 raptors! If non-raptors (like waterfowl and songbirds) are included as well, they have counted over 170,000 total birds, of 148 different species!

            The biggest raptor day for 2024 was on 9/20 – here’s what their write-up said: 

            “The raptor flight began early, and Sharp-shinned Hawk (SS) and Kestrel movements built to a steady flow all day. Shortly after 0900, the first Broad-winged Hawk (BW) kettle appeared on the western horizon. The BW flight slowly built into larger and larger kettles, mostly overhead, until groups reached a maximum size of 800-1000 birds! . . . Low and slow Sharp-shinned Hawk and kestrels delighted onlookers hundreds of feet below the massive kettles. By days end, nearly 900 SS and over 15,000 BW had passed by the overlook!”

            A few days later on 9/22, yellow-rumped warblers took the stage, with 5,794 passing over the ridge.

            The bird of choice in the first week of October was the American robin – 7,160 cruised past the ridge on northwest winds on 10/3. 

 

Baby Snapper Survival

            Jeff Kenkel wrote on 10/1: “We have a long, shared,  gravel road to our eastern Presque Isle place. At two locations it crosses the creek which emanates from the lake we are on. We frequently see turtles here in the spring looking to and laying eggs.  We always wonder if/ how many will survive. 

            “Rather suddenly, about a week ago, several holes were dug roadside in both crossing locations by what I presume was a racoon . . . How sad, I thought, to have made it this long and perhaps only days away from hatching, only to be devoured by a predator.”

            I have written in the past about the very long odds of success that our native turtles have of making it to adulthood. Here’s the best summary I’ve seen in the literature (from Susanne Kynast):

            “Reproductive success is highly variable due to the unpredictable environment. The weather during the incubation period plays an important role since embryos develop only at temperatures above 20°C (68°F) . . . 

            “In northern populations, short cool summers with high amounts of precipitation cause frequent years with complete reproductive failures. However, because survival from year to year is naturally so high for adults, reproductive failures in one year have normally little impact on lifetime reproductive success and population stability . . . 

            “Predation on nests is also extremely high. [Up to] 94 % of nests are annually destroyed by mammalian predators (skunks, raccoons, mink, red foxes), but yearly variation is high . . . Only about 14% of all clutches emerge annually. 

            “However, the lucky undisturbed nests in good years can produce up to 50 hatchlings. Still only about 15 hatchlings will leave a successful nest . . . 

            “If the air and surface temperature is too low, hatchlings attempt to overwinter in the nest, a strategy which is successful in the south, [but] in the north this strategy is fatal, and the hatchlings freeze to death . . . 

            “All those factors together cause huge fluctuations in reproductive success from year to year. It is possible that only one year of ideal climatic conditions for nesting and hatching out of 5 to 10 may be enough to maintain or increase the population, but only if nest predation is also low in that year. Predation on hatchlings and juveniles is still heavy especially during the first year, and only slightly lower during the 2nd and 3rd year. They get eaten by raccoons, mink, weasel, skunks, herons, and large fish while they are still under three inches (7.6 cm) in length.             “The probability of survival from egg to adulthood is 1 in 1445 individuals, the probability of survival from hatching to adulthood 1 in 133. This results for female snappers in a probability of death between hatching and breeding age of 99.17%. Annual recruitment into the breeding population (the number of juveniles reaching maturity in any given year) is only 1 to 1.8%.”

 

Fall Colors? And First Frost

            As of 10/4, our autumn colors have been relatively drab and dull, with occasional exceptions of brilliant red maples and sumac. My best guess is that our very dry weather over the last two months has conspired to reduce the vibrancy of color. But, I’ve been fooled many times before trying to project the scope and reasons for our autumn display, so time will tell.

            Our first frost finally occurred on the morning of 10/4, which might hasten the colors.

 

Celestial Events

         As of 10/14, we’re down to 10 hours and 59 minutes of sunlight. Look this night after dusk for Saturn just below the waxing gibbous moon.

         Look on 10/17 for the full moon – the “Hunter’s Moon” or “Falling Leaves Moon” – which will be this year’s closest, and therefore largest, full moon. 

         Our average low temperature drops to 32° as of 10/17, this for the first time since April 26. We now begin (for Minocqua) a string of 194 days on average that will be at or below 32°.

         Look for the peak Orionid meteor shower during the predawn of 10/21. 

 

Thought for the Week

            If the only prayer you said was “thank you,” that would be enough. – Eckhart von Hochheim

 

A Northwoods Almanac for 9/27 – 10/10/24

 A Northwoods Almanac for 9/27 – 10/10/24 

 

Eagles Migrating

            Jerry Crabtree in Hazelhurst emailed me on 9/17 saying, “We witnessed 10 bald eagles congregating and circling high up to the north of our lake. Five of them eventually headed south. Are they starting to migrate?  We have had a pair on our lake for many, many years.”
            Eagles are currently migrating out of the north, and actually migrating began a lot earlier in the month. Hawk Ridge in Duluth had a high count of 234 bald eagles passing over the ridge on 9/2, 189 on 9/7, 99, on 9/6, 86 on 9/8, 71 on 9/9 and 51 on 9/12. And they’re still coming.

            I asked Ron Eckstein, retired WDNR wildlife manager and eagle bander extraordinaire, about where the migration of our local eagle population takes them to, and I was surprised at his answer. Juvenile and two-to-three-year-old eagles fan out, going as far south as major reservoirs in Oklahoma and Tennessee, as well as along major rivers like the Ohio and the Mississippi.

            However, adult eagles– five-years old and older – all stay in Wisconsin, though some may dally on the other side of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. They apparently choose to stay closer to their breeding territories, whereas the younger eagles are more footloose (wingloose?).             Breeding bald eagles return to their nesting territories very early in the “spring,” typically by late February or early March, and are typically on nest, incubating eggs by April 1. 

 

Sightings: Cedar Waxwings and Robins Migrating, Snappers “Migrating” Too

            Mary and I can vouch for the fact cedar waxwings and American robins are currently migrating, because a flock of each one of these species has been in our yard eating every last mountain ash berry, elderberry, nannyberry, and dogwood berry we have. I’ve determined that robins were named as such because they are in fact robbers! I’ve asked them to please leave some berries for our anticipated Canadian winter visitors, the pine grosbeaks and bohemian waxwings. But no, the greedy little devils have taken them all. 

            I laugh at myself for getting mad at them – we did plant the trees specifically for birds to utilize. I just have to accept I have no control over when that happens.

cedar waxwing, photo by Bev Engstrom

            Snappers: Chuck Stonecipher on Circle Lily Lake in Manitowish Waters helped 22 baby snapping turtles find their way across the road on 9/18. Our very warm September has likely made it possible for most, if not all, snappers to hatch out and leave their nests this fall rather than for some to overwinter in their nests. The tiny snappers’ emergence is a migration of sorts, too, albeit far shorter, but not without all the dangers inherent in any migratory journey.

baby snapper, photo by Mark Westphal

 

Aspen Dieback

            Jill Wilm in Presque Isle wrote to me: “I’ve noticed that a great number of the aspen trees have lost their leaves prematurely and the fallen leaves are brown/black/curled and clearly diseased. Any idea what’s going on with them?”

            I almost always refer these questions to Linda Williams, Forest Health Specialist for the WDNR in Rhinelander, who really knows her stuff. 

             Her response: “This year we had a lot of rainfall in the spring and early summer that promotes fungal disease. Very early in the growing season the leaves of many aspen trees were heavily infected by leaf disease. Those leaves remained small and off-color for the entire growing season, although they didn’t develop the typical dead leaf blotches until more recently. It was easiest to see the small leaves and off-color leaves from a distance, especially when trees growing nearby had normal non-infected leaves. The diseased leaves are what you see dropping at this time. 

            “I sent in a number of samples earlier this summer and so far Marsonina Leaf Spot is the primary culprit, with Phylosticta Leaf Disease and Venturia Leaf Blight showing up on a few of the samples. We are still analyzing samples as well, just in case we missed something.  

            “All of these leaf diseases will not kill the tree.  Some trees may have been a little stressed by not having fully functional leaves for the growing season, and those trees may be attacked by Bronze Poplar Borer, which will start by attacking a few branches in the very upper parts of the tree and can kill some of those upper branches, but that damage may not show up until next year. 

            “Next year your trees should leaf out normally. Some of them may end up with some upper branches that die, but overall I anticipate that they should be ok next year. And if we have a more normal amount of rainfall next year we shouldn’t see as much leaf disease.”

 

Freshwater Jellyfish

            Bob McGucken from Mermaid Lake in Presque Isle wrote to me on 9/16: “I have been on this 67 acre (56 feet deep) lake for 26 years now. Approximately 5 weeks ago, I noticed thousands upon thousands of freshwater jellyfish. I have never seen these in the 26 years that I have been on the lake. They were still present as of yesterday. What would cause there to be a sudden explosion of these creatures? Why have I never seen them before?  I spend a lot of time on the water every year, so I am pretty certain that I would have noticed them if they were present in the past.”

         If you’re not familiar with freshwater jellyfish, they are quarter-sized, typically hover in the water column from several inches deep to as far down as one can see, and are translucent with a cross shape on their back. 

range map for freshwater jellyfish

         It’s thought that the jellyfish are one of two species native to China, both of which (Craspedacusta sowerbii and C. sinensis) live in the Yangtze River. Freshwater jellyfish were unknown outside of China until 1880 when the jellyfish were found swimming in a large, water-lily tank at the Royal Botanic Gardens outside London, England. Four years later in 1884, immature jellyfish polyps were found in a stream in Pennsylvania.      

            The earliest record of freshwater jellyfish in Wisconsin was in 1969 in a farm pond in Sauk County where wood ducks are speculated to have carried them to the pond. Since then jellyfish have been found in upwards of 100 different water bodies in the state. The last record I’m aware of was from 2020 in Hunter Lake in Vilas County. These "jellyfish waters" vary in size from tiny ponds to lakes 9,842 acres in size (Lake Mendota) and 236 feet deep (Big Green Lake). 

            Why did the jellyfish just show up this year in Mermaid Lake? The US Geological Service website says this: “Craspedacusta sowerbii more often exist as microscopic podocysts (dormant "resting bodies"), frustules (larvae produced asexually by budding), planulae (larvae produced sexually by the hydromedusae), or as sessile polyps, which attach to stable surfaces and can form colonies consisting of two to four individuals and measuring 5 to 8 mm.”

            Well, that’s a lot of difficult scientific terminology, but it does tell me that when folks ask why freshwater jellyfish have suddenly shown up in their lake, the jellyfish may actually have been there for many years in one of the forms described above. 

         The literature on the jellyfish’s natural history in Wisconsin says to look for jellyfish when lake shallows warm rapidly during spring. The jellyfish emerge in mid-June and are restricted to a narrow band of water temperature between 65 to 75 degrees. If the water surface of a lake becomes warmer than 75°, as some of our lakes do during hot summer afternoons, the jellyfish congregate in deeper water where they can find their preferred temperature range. 

         The jellyfish feed on zooplankton and capture even larger prey, such as water mites and insect midge larvae. Their impact, if any, is unclear. While their preference for large zooplankton could influence zooplankton species structure, no one knows if this is an issue.

         These tiny jellyfish are not dangerous to humans. The mature jellyfish live a few weeks, release eggs, and die.

          

Germany’s Use of Renewable Energy – For the Record

         In his closing statement during the recent presidential debate, Donald Trump made a comment that earned a pointed response from the German government: “You [Kamala Harris] believe in things like we're not going to frack, we’re not going to take fossil fuel . . . Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants.”

         Germany’s Federal Foreign Office responded immediately: “Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down—not building—coal and nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest.” 

         Germany’s electricity system has made a steady shift from fossil fuels and nuclear to renewables. Wind, solar and other renewables were 54 percent of the country’s electricity generation last year, an increase from 24 percent in 2013.

         However, outside the electricity sector, Germany has struggled to make a shift away from fossil fuels, including for heating buildings and for transportation. Natural gas is the major fuel used for heating buildings in Germany. The country got the majority of its natural gas from Russia, but phased down those purchases in 2022 in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They’re now building liquid natural gas terminals to process natural gas imports from other countries.

         The point here is that is that energy use is complex and varies from country to country. As examples, Albania, Iceland, and Paraguay obtain essentially all of their electricity now from renewable sources (Albania and Paraguay 100% from hydroelectricity, Iceland 72% hydro and 28% geothermal). In Scotland, renewable energy technologies in 2022 generated the equivalent of 113% of their overall electricity consumption. Ethiopia produces 123% of its own annual electricity needs. See https://www.iea.org/countries for energy production for every county in the world.

         What is simple about energy use, however, is the need for both major political parties in the U.S. to fully support investment in renewables and actions to reduce carbon emissions. The transition to net zero – the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas that's produced and the amount that's removed from the atmosphere – is reachable and inevitable. The debate has to be about how to execute the conversion as far and as quickly as feasible, not whether to do it.

 

Celestial Events

         For stargazing in October, look after dusk very low in the northwest for brilliant Venus, high in the southeast for Saturn, and for Jupiter rising in the northeast around 8 p.m. 

         Before dawn, look high in the south for Mars.

         The new moon occurs on 10/2. It will be at its apogee – the farthest from Earth in 2024 at 252,597 miles.

         On 10/4/1957, Russia launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. Sixty-seven years later, the most recent figure I can find on the current number of satellites comes from May 2024 – 9,900. 

         On 10/5, look after dusk for Venus about 3 degrees above the waxing crescent moon. How much is 3 degrees? Holding your hand at arm’s length and looking up, your pinkie finger is one degree, while your closed fist is 5 degrees.

 

Thought for the Week

            I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return . . . Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure. – Oliver Sacks

 

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 9/13-26, 2024

 A Northwoods Almanac for 9/13-26, 2024

 

Nighthawks! 

8/26/23 was a nighthawk flight to remember. Between 6 AM and 4 PM at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN, counters tallied nearly 12,000 nighthawks flying along the shore, most of those coming earlier in the day. Some single flocks were over 1,000 birds. 

Then, shortly after 5 PM, the floodgates opened again and didn’t stop until sunset. Hundreds of nighthawks were passing every second. There were easily thousands of birds in view at any given moment! 

Between 5pm and dusk, over 23,000 nighthawk had flown by, bringing the cumulative daily total to over 35,000! 

These were unprecedented numbers and exceptionally encouraging for a species that has seen an overall decline. Cornell’s “Birds of the World” notes that recent Breeding Bird Survey data suggest a substantial decline in numbers of this species, perhaps owing to increased predation, indiscriminate use of pesticides leading to lowered insect numbers, or habitat loss. Nighthawks are listed as Threatened in Canada – a decline of about 50% has been noted there over the past three generations. In the United States, nighthawks are considered critically imperiled or imperiled in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Delaware.

nighthawk, photo by Mark Westphal

 

Blue Jay and Broad-winged Hawk Migration

            Blue jays may remain over the winter at your home, or they may migrate. What triggers an individual to stay while another leaves is unclear, but blue jays have been on the move. On 9/1, counters at Hawk Ridge in Duluth tallied 1,122 blue jays flying over the ridge. The Hawk Ridge record count for blue jays was just last year on 9/10 when 14,054 cruised by, so there are more to come. 

While most blue jays are permanent residents, it’s believed that about 20 percent of the population regularly migrates. Breeding jays may be migratory one year, sedentary the next, then again migratory in a subsequent year. Adult jays that presumably breed at one location may summer substantially farther south in subsequent years. And sometimes jays captured and marked as adults during winter have been recaptured substantially farther south in subsequent winters.

In other words, blue jays do whatever the heck they want any given year, and no one really knows why.

            Broad-winged hawks are the usual stars of the show at Hawk Ridge. The record count was over 101,000 on 9/15/2003, with the next highest count at nearly 48,000 on 9/18/1993. Weather conditions have to come together perfectly for massive flights like these, the best scenario being three days of rain to ground the birds in mid-September, then a blast of cold with winds out of the north or west to release all those that have been waiting out the rain.

            Hawk Ridge holds a weekend festival every September, which I highly recommend attending. Bird migration research and education programs have been shared with visitors throughout the world each fall at Hawk Ridge for over 50 years. This year’s event occurs from 9/20-22 – see www.hawkridge.org. If the winds are right, you can have the birding thrill of a lifetime. And if the winds are wrong, well, you’ll have a lovely time overlooking Lake Superior with hundreds of other like-minded, but disappointed folks.  

 

Nodding Ladies’-Tresses

            Mary, Callie, and I found a colony of nodding ladies’-tresses orchids in flower in late August, and as of 9/5, they’re still in bloom. The white flowers grow in a tight spiral on a tall stem, and each blossom “nods,” or tips down slightly, giving it its name. They are thriving in a recently mowed meadow, which apparently is a habitat they prefer along with roadside ditches. One doesn’t tend to think of orchids living in such disturbed habitats, but this species excels there, and over time disappears as the site matures.

nodding ladies'-tresses, photo by John Bates

            I wasn’t sure what a “ladies tress” was, so I looked it up and found that it refers to the inflorescence which resembled to some highly imaginative soul the braided locks of hair worn by women. To come to this likeness I think would require a full bottle of wine first.

 

Trees and Shrubs for the Birds

Over the years, Mary and I have planted an array of tree and shrub species to attract birds to our yard, and our efforts have paid off. Shrubs and vines currently in fruit include pagoda dogwood, red-osier dogwood, gray dogwood, nannyberry, downy arrowwood, American elderberry, grapes, Virginia creeper (aka woodbine), blueberries, and high-bush cranberry. Plus we have volunteer raspberries and blackberries for the taking.

            The birds have already cleaned out our serviceberries (aka Juneberries), currants, chokecherries, and a lot of our crabapples, but we have a good crop of mountain ash berries and rose hips still awaiting the fall migration, and hopefully some of those will still be left for Canadian birds visiting our yard this winter. 

our honey harvest on 9/2 from our 2 hives

            Early autumn is a good time to plant trees and shrubs for attracting birds. I recommend getting a 16 page booklet published by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology – “Creating a Bird-Friendly Yard with Native Wisconsin Plants” by Mariette Nowak. Download the pdf at https://wsobirds.org/images/pdfs/BeyondBirdFeederBookletFINAL.compressed.pdf. 

 

Wildlife Damage – Ticks Lead the Way

            I’m currently being tested for chronic Lyme disease, and it’s a pricey process. Going through this reminds me of a column I read back in February from Pat Durkin comparing the costs of Lyme disease in Wisconsin to wildlife damage claims.

            He wrote, “During 2022, the state recorded 91 babesiosis cases, as well as 17 cases of ehrlichiosis, 53 cases of Powassan virus, 511 cases of anaplasmosis, and 5,327 cases of Lyme disease. A 2016 study by the National Library of Medicine estimated each Lyme disease case costs society about $2,000 and each patient $1,200. That’s 6,044 diagnosed tick-borne diseases at $2K each for Wisconsin, totaling an estimated $12.1 million in medical costs for 2022. 

            “According to the DNR’s 2022 report on wildlife damage claims and abatements . . . agricultural damage in [the] 26 northern counties in 2022 was:

            “$40,372 from turkeys, 98% of the statewide $40,990 total.

            “$65,131 from elk, 100% of the statewide total.

            “$137,535 from black bears, 92% of the statewide $148,744 total.

            “$270,951 from white-tailed deer, 25% of the statewide $1.06 million total.

            “For comparison, wolves caused $171,386 in damage in 2023 . . . and $177,000 on average from 2019 through 2023 across their range in Wisconsin's northern and central forests.” 

            To put this into further perspective, it’s hard these days to buy a decent two-bedroom home in the Northwoods for under $300,000. Thus, wolf damage isn’t even equal to the cost of a single house. And keep in mind, deer cause far more damage than all other wildlife species combined.

But none of them cause as much damage as ticks.

            

Thinking of Moving to Phoenix?

On 9/3, temperatures in Phoenix, AZ, hit 100 degrees for the 100th day in a row. The longest previous 100-degree streak was 76 days in 1993. This year has seen an uninterrupted stretch of 100-degrees days at least 3½ weeks longer than in any other year since records began in 1896. The streak, which began on May 27 with a high of 102, shows no sign of ending. Long-range forecast models suggest that highs could reach the century mark or more for two more weeks.

For comparison, last weekend on 9/6 and 9/7, the highs here were predicted to be in the upper 50’s, to which I say, “Hooray!”

 

Autumn Equinox

The official autumnal equinox varies from year to year, occurring between September 20 and September 23. This year it’s on the 22^nd, and on this day, the sun’s direct rays will move across the equator and continue to migrate south, slowly bringing spring to the southern hemisphere and winter to the north. The sun rises on the equinox at around 6:51 a.m. and sets at 6:49 p.m. Now our days will be getting shorter by more than 3 minutes every day.

The ancient Celts called the passing of the autumn equinox Mabon. Mabon marked the end of the grain harvest, and was considered a time of thanksgiving when most of the crops were reaped and life’s abundance was so appreciated. 

As an “advanced” society, we note the passing of solstice and equinox as little more than quaint, old-timey notions. Most of us are so far removed from spring planting and fall gathering, harvesting, and storing that these events have faded in significance.

Mary and I are still trying to honor the fall gathering. We have already canned strawberry-rhubarb sauce and peaches, frozen many quarts of blueberries, and harvested 13 quarts of honey from our two hives on 9/2. We’ve also been eating kale, carrots, zucchini, peas, tomatoes, beans, and various herbs from the garden, with applesauce from our apples yet to come.

As of 9/6, we’ve yet to have a frost. In these days of climate change, the first frost date keeps moving into later September, so the garden continues to keep on giving. For the first 20 years that we lived here, 1984 to 2004 or so, we always had a frost around August 20.

 

Celestial Events

            The full moon – aka the Harvest Moon or Acorns or Leaves Changing Color Moon – occurs on 9/17. A partial lunar eclipse will be visible that evening. The moon will just graze the Earth’s umbral shadow, and become noticeably darker for about 30 minutes on either side of the the maximum eclipse at 9:44 p.m. Only 8% of the moon’s diameter will be covered. 

The steady golden light just below the eclipsed moon will be the planet Saturn.

 

Thought for the Week

It dims slowly, the greening does, a slight paleness at first, from Emerald Forest Green to Pear and Moccasin brown, Chantilly and Guacamole, a yellowing of stems scattered here and there blanched by shorter days and cooler nights, curling at the edges like old photographs, fading into sepia-toned memories, and there is something comforting about this time of year, a rainy day reprieve, a rest day in between the uproar of Spring and before the brilliant crescendo of Autumn, the meticulous preparation for the long dark quiet of Winter. – Bob Kovar, Manitowish Waters

 

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