A Northwoods Almanac for June 11 – 25, 2010
Frog Count – Bullfrogs Already Singing
On 5/25, Mary and I conducted the second round of our annual frog count for the DNR in western Vilas County, and we were very surprised to hear bullfrogs and green frogs already calling. We began running this route in 1988, and can’t recall in those 22 years ever hearing bullfrogs this early.
The timing for the singing of breeding frogs goes like this: In the ephemeral woodland ponds of spring, the water warms far more quickly than in larger permanent lakes, so we hear the early spring woodland frogs singing first (spring peepers, wood frogs, chorus frogs, and a little later, the northern leopard frog) when water temperatures hit an optimal point for their breeding, usually about 50°F. As the temperatures in wetlands and lakes increase, other frogs begin to chime in. The late spring breeding frogs (American toad, eastern gray tree frog) breed most productively in semi-permanent wetlands when the water temperatures reach 60°F. Finally, the summer breeding species (green frog, mink frog, and the bullfrog, which is the last voice in the choir), usually don’t vocalize until at least mid-June or when water temperatures hit 70°F.
The calling of these frogs so early in the season tells us how quickly the lakes have warmed up. Pair abnormally shallow waters with abnormally warm April and May temperatures, and one result is much earlier breeding frogs.
Nighthawks Booming
During our frog count, we also heard nighthawks peenting and booming along Bear Lake Road, which has had substantial recent clearcutting. A nasal “peent” or “beernt” (some say the sound resembles the word “beard” being whispered) is produced during level flight by both sexes.
However, the booming sound produced (presumably) by the male is the real attraction. The males produce the sound as air rushes through their primary feathers after a sudden downward flexing of their wings during a dive. They begin their dives from 15 to 100 feet up, and descend at about a 70° angle, often only turning when they are less than 10 feet from ground, and then climbing upward at about a 60° angle. They dive on average about once per minute.
The booming flights are associated with mating displays, and are not made outside of the breeding season, so if you want the best chance to see and hear them, you need to go out within the next two weeks. Recent clear cuts are the best sites to find them, or over open fields.
Early Flowerings and Fruitings, Egg-layings and Hatchings
Everything has been early this year (except for perhaps the arrival of neotropical migrating birds like hummingbirds). Leaf-out, wildflowers, and fruits seem to be at least two weeks ahead of what I consider “normal” dates. Rosy Richter in Mercer reported finding ripe wild strawberries over the Memorial Day weekend – the normal time is mid-June. Mary and I found wild roses in prolific bloom on Powell Marsh on 6/5 (though they may have been in bloom earlier). We usually expect them at the earliest in the latter half of June. Blue-flag iris was also in flower prior to the Memorial Day weekend, and is also a flower we would more normally expect to see in June.
Painted and snapping turtles were laying eggs over the Memorial Day weekend, typically a mid-June event.
We saw our first loon chick out on Powell Marsh on June 5th. June 15th is the usual average date for around here.
Sightings
5/26 – Betsy Ullman, next door to us in Manitowish, had a red-bellied woodpecker visiting her feeders.
5/27 - Jim Sommerfeldt reported seeing a male goldfinch, “except the bright yellow color was all white. All the black color was normal.”
5/29 - Jim and Tally Schuppel reported hearing a whip-poor-will “for the past four nights that is doing a wonderful job as an alarm clock at all hours of the night. It's been about 7 years since we have heard a whip-poor-will. We also spotted a pair of cedar waxwings in our yard this morning.”
5/31 – Mary and I were biking an old railroad grade near Sandy Beach Lake and were looking into the surrounding bog when a sandhill crane suddenly stood up about 50 feet out from us. A few seconds later, another crane stood up right in front of the first one. The second crane walked steadily away, but the first stayed relatively tight to the area where it first stood up, a likely indication that it had been sitting on a nest. So, we quickly walked our bikes away, and as quickly, the crane settled itself back down on the bog mat, further indicating that it was probably on a nest. The “Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Wisconsin” states that the latest recorded date in Wisconsin for eggs is June 20. Incubation averages around one month, thus for a sandhill to still be on nest on May 31 would not be unusual for our area.
6/2 – John Werth reported hearing “a sound we never heard before! It took some time and a visit to our bird book when we got back home. I've seen many nighthawks in my life, but never heard that sound which came at the low part of which I would explain as almost a freefall! It was fantastic as the bird was only about 50 yards from us!”
6/3 – Lynn Wilkins on Squaw Lake was delighted to find a luna moth on her property. To my eye, the exquisite green coloration, split tail, and four-inch wingspan of the luna moth make it one of the most beautiful creatures one can find in the Northwoods.
6/3 - Jane Flanigan in Hazelhurst sighted seven bears in her yard. “At 6:20 a.m., we had two medium-size bears, one of which got the hummingbird feeder. Then at 6:40 a.m., along comes mama bear with her three little cubs. And at 8:30 am I finally thought the coast was clear and was going to open the door to let the dog out and along strolls another bear. Far too many bears for me.”
Drought Update
We received a long steady rain on 6/4, amounting to nearly an inch – good news for the start of June. But the month of May came up well short of the average precipitation, adding to our drought condition. According to biologist David Schmoller, the precipitation data for May showed 0.89 inches at the Minocqua Dam. Thus, for the year, we are at 3.32 inches at the Minocqua Dam, which is 6.27 inches below our average to date of 9.59 inches. Since 1/1/03, we are 36.14 inches below normal.
Summer Solstice/Celestial Events
June 21 marks the summer solstice, the sun reaching its highest altitude above the horizon and rising its farthest north of the equator. We are blessed today with 15 hours and 45 minutes of sunlight. Tomorrow, the sun will rise a minute later – the first time since December 27th.
The sun rises today, 6/11, at its earliest time of the year – 5:08 CDT.
New moon occurs on 6/12. On 6/14, look at dusk for Venus about four degrees north of the crescent moon.
Wolf/Deer Role Reversal
Last year, I read an article in the Wisconsin State Journal about Jim Hintz, a logger from Fifield who in mid-February, 2009, was using his skidder to move logs at a timber sale in Ashland County when he watched several adult deer charge two wolves. “The smaller wolf didn’t wait. It ran away,” Hintz said. “The big one stayed and those deer just overhauled him. First they stood on their hind legs and batted him with their front hooves, and then some of them turned and kicked like mules with their back hooves. I’m sure they broke his ribs . . . I doubt the whole thing lasted a minute . . . If I hadn’t seen it myself, I’d think someone was telling a bald-faced lie.”
Hintz had been cutting maple and yellow birch for several months, causing 30+ hungry deer to congregate every day and eat the tops. Hintz wasn’t surprised when the wolves appeared because he often saw their tracks.
Veteran wolf researchers, Dave Mech at the University of Minnesota and Michael Nelson of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Wolf Project, said that although they had never witnessed similar attacks in nearly 80 years of combined field work, they weren’t surprised. Nelson once saw a deer face down three wolves until they left; and Mech saw a deer leap over a wolf three times and mule-kick it each time it landed. Plus, they cited a case in which a wolf died after getting gored by a buck’s antlers — and another died after a deer crushed its skull with a kick.
They also said wolves kill deer in only 20 percent of their chases. “People generally think wolves kill anything they want, but their success depends on the deer itself and the wolf’s age and experience,” Mech said.
I’m citing this article to run a bit of interference for me in relating a similar observation I had on 5/31. Our daughter Callie and I were walking a logging road north of Minocqua in the late afternoon when I heard a loud crashing to my left and saw a deer running towards us through the woods. I could also see, however, that the deer was chasing a large mammal, which I couldn’t see well enough to immediately identify. They burst out onto the road, crossed it in a second, and were gone into the woods on the other side. The deer was chasing what clearly looked like to me to be a mangy wolf.
Now, when folks call me with strange sightings, my “doubting Thomas” antennae go up, and I try as kindly as possible to ask pertinent questions that will help confirm what they saw. I start kiddingly with things like their state of sobriety, and move on to questions about size and coloration, how good a look they got, and their familiarity with the species in question. I do this because I know how I often I misidentify things. If I had a nickel for every time I was wrong about something, we’d have some major land holdings.
So, yes, I was sober. Yes, I got a very good look, but it was also very brief. And no, I’m not an expert on coyote vs. wolf identification.
In the meantime, our little (28 pound, one-year-old) Australian shephard, Zoe, took off at race-car speed after the deer and wolf, and fortunately gave up the chase with Callie and I screaming at her to STOP! She likes to play with other dogs, you see.
So, what to make of it? I related the story to Rosie Richter who worked the front desk at the Woodruff DNR for many years, and thus heard many stories, and she said that they would get three or four calls every year around Memorial Day from folks who were having trouble with deer intimidating their dogs. Does are well-known to occasionally give birth to their fawns close to people’s homes, presumably to reduce predation from bears, wolves, coyotes, and others which tend (but not always) to stay deeper in the woods. Thus, many Fidos and Fluffies of all breeds have likely had an unfriendly enounter with a protective doe.
So, I suspect the large doe I saw was protecting her fawn from this single wolf, which, in its mangy condition, may no longer be associated with a pack, and may not be healthy enough to win a battle with an angry and much larger doe.
Hard to know, of course. We speculate a lot about animal’s intentions, observe and study their behaviors endlessly, and hope by doing so that we can better understand their life cycle, and thus do a better job of managing their habitats and our behaviors that affect them. We get it right lots of times, and are surprised lots of times. All we can do is share what we see, and by a consensus of similar observations try to gain a little understanding into the life of an animal.
All I know is that Callie and I saw something quite amazing, and we were buzzing about it for long afterwards.
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