NWA March 16 - 29, 2012

A Northwoods Almanac for 3/16 – 29, 2012

Migration Is On!

            On 3/12 at our home in Manitowish, we saw our first-of-the-year (FOY) robins and red-winged blackbirds. Pat Schmidt in Hazelhurst called us the same morning to report seeing two robins. But Uwe Weichering in Arbor Vitae and Glen Esswein in Woodruff win the FOY contest on robins – they e-mailed with their observation of robins on 3/11.

            On the morning of 3/9, Glen Esswein saw a pair of Canada geese on the Little Trout River. On 3/10, John Werth observed several geese flying over his home on the Manitowish River! Those are the FOY geese that we’ve heard of. The next day, 3/11our daughter Callie and Mary’s sister Nancy Burns saw Canada geese flying over Powell Marsh.

Our average FOY dates for these species are as follows: March 20 for red-winged blackirds (14 years of data), March 23 for robins (13 years of data), and March 16 for Canada geese (12 years of data).

Coming very soon with all this warm weather will be other early birds like song sparrows, Eastern bluebirds, phoebes, juncos, woodcocks, grackles, tree swallows, fox sparrows, lesser and greater yellowlegs, snow geese, tundra swans, great blue herons, sandhill cranes, killdeer, northern harriers, horned larks, and waterfowl of nearly all species. Keep your eyes peeled!

Rivers Opening

The Manitowish River opened below our house on 3/8, then briefly iced over again on 3/9, and reopened on 3/10. Our 21-year average date for the Manitowish to open by our house is 3/17.

First Turkey Vulture

On 3/5, Rod Sharka sent me a photo of a turkey vulture perching on his bird bath and wrote: “Can spring be getting close? Check out the attached photo of a turkey vulture that visited my birdbath just 10 feet behind our house today. Needless to say, it was a rather unusual sight. I found it a bit creepy the way it was looking at me (and drooling). I'd say it was either jumping the gun on spring or a bit lost.”

He later added, “I almost fell over when I looked out the window and saw that buzzard. My wife said it must have been taking a sitz-bath as our bird bath is heated.”                        Turkey vultures typically first return to southern Wisconsin at the end of February/beginning of March, so apparently they’re on time down there. But we don’t tend to see them up here until much later in March or into April depending on winter conditions.

Your Cheating Heart – March as Country Music

            All these bird species returning so early are likely in for some tough sledding when winter kicks back in again. March may be our most fickle month, with the only thing consistent about it being its extraordinary inconsistency. I liken March’s infidelity, the way it always sets us up for disappointment, to some bad country music song titles like:

• It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing

• I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying

• It Didn’t Look Like Alcohol

• I Thought the Wreck Was Over

• Looking for a Heartbreak Like You

            I’m sure there are other titles that will make you cry as much as March wants you to. I’m willing to bet the farm that this 70° stuff is just a dream. Of course, I’ve been wrong ten thousand times before, but this bet has proven to have awful good odds.

March Mating

            Depending on a species’ gestation time, if an animal wants to give birth in the height of spring, March is typically the best time to mate. From cottontails and snowshoe hares to chipmunks and squirrels, and from muskrats and otters to bobcats and lynx, love is in the air. A few days back I watched two red squirrels dashing madly up and down trees, and it had nothing to do with territoriality. Despite March’s manic-depressive personality, spring is in the air, and hormones are in full tilt.

Bobcat Eating a Squirrel

Paul and Alene Lantz sent me several photos of a bobcat eating a squirrel in their yard, noting: “We live just west of Lower Kaubashine Lake, west of Hazelhurst. We saw this bobcat at the beginning of March when he tried to attack a squirrel, and started up a tree – he missed. Then a few days later, he got lucky! As you can see by the last picture, he ate the whole thing.”

Ruffed Grouse in Rooftop Suite

To stay warm during a cold winter’s night and for protection from predators, ruffed grouse are well known for diving into deep snow, then “swimming” in a few feet for maximum insulation. However, Ron Winter in Boulder Junction photographed a remarkable twist on this adaptation. He recently wrote to me: “One evening about 6 PM, I was watching a grouse pick up sunflower seeds under my feeders. After getting his fill, he took off like a rocket (like they do) and flew right towards the house, above the window. I then saw a white flurry of snow from the roofline. Thinking he landed on the roof, I went out for a look. As you can see from the photo, he had buried himself in the snow on the roof. I didn't want to disturb him so I waited until the next day to investigate further. The tunnel was 14" deep, and this snow is compacted. I knew they did this on the ground but it kind of surprised me he chose the penthouse for his nights stay.”

Why a grouse would choose to tunnel on a rooftop rather than on the ground is wide open to speculation. My first, and only, thought is that the grouse would clearly be safer from mammalian predation up there. Any other thoughts from readers? And has anyone else ever seen this?

Other Sightings

Lynn Winchell saw a chipmunk in her yard in Mercer on 3/10. This week I suspect many of us will be seeing first-of-the-year chipmunks given the forecast for warm weather.

Headless Critters

It’s not Halloween time, but on occasion folks contact me about finding headless animals, and they wonder what the story is. A number of contributors to the Wisconsin BirdNet have been exploring the theme as well, and most are pointing to barred owls. One bird bander noted, “The consumption of the head only of another bird is typical of barred owls. I guess they only like the brains. While birds are not necessarily their first choice for a meal, they will eat birds if given the opportunity, such as those captured in mist nets at banding stations at dusk. They quickly learn to travel the net lines, and take only the heads, which they twist off. I've walked up on a couple barred owls doing just that in the past.”  

            Tom Erdman, a long-time expert bander and avian researcher in Green Bay, responded to someone’s post who found a headless coot, “ Typical owl kill.... either great horned or snowy. They usually eat the head first. I trapped a snowy once next to a coot that looked just like this. While we were taking biometrics she coughed up a pellet which contained the coots head!”

Another individual noted that when he worked in Colorado, red foxes were often guilty of killing people's chickens and ducks, and they often took only the heads, a phenomenon he witnessed quite often over a span of 22 years.

Finally, one punster noted, “The wise old owl is sometimes a ‘brainiac’.”

Wildlife Cams

Wildlife cams abound these days. To see the site of a great horned owl with two young in the nest as of March 9, and one to hatch, go to: www.livewildlifecams.com The Decorah, IA, eagle webcam that received so much viewing last spring is also found on this website.

To see three webcams filming black bears in hibernation, go to www.bear.org, the North American Bear Center website in Ely, MN.

             

Celestial Events

            The official vernal equinox, where the sun is directly above the equator, occurs on 3/20. However, in terms of reaching equal days and nights, we hit the equinox on 3/17 when we receive 12 hours and 1 minute of daylight, the first time the day is longer than the night since September 26.

            The new moon takes place on 3/22. On 3/25, look for Jupiter about 3 degrees below the crescent moon. On 3/26, look for Venus 1.8 degrees above the moon.