A Northwoods Almanac for 11/29 - 12/13/12, by John Bates
Snowy Owl Tries
to Eat Common Merganser!
On 11/14, Ryan Brady, a research scientist with
the WDNR, was watching an immature female snowy owl sitting on one of the walls
of Tern Island in Ashland, an artificial structure on Chequamegon Bay that
hosts a nesting colony of common terns, when “the owl began head bobbing as if
intrigued by potential prey. It soon jumped its perch and flew hard toward
one of the pilings. From my vantage, the bird was hundreds of yards away and
the pilings somewhat obstructed my view, but I knew it had attacked something,
and I figured it was probably a mink. But soon I noticed that the snowy owl
was literally floating in the water. And not too long after that, I was able
to see the head of a female common merganser under her and barely above
water. The owl continually drifted away from the pilings farther out into
the lake, likely the result of wind drift and the merg's attempts to
escape. But the bird had only moderate trouble swimming back toward the
pilings with the merg in tow by rowing its wings like many of us have seen an
eagle or osprey do. The problem, though, was getting back up onto the
pilings, which the owl could not do with its hefty catch. So again and
again, the bird would float away from the pilings and swim back. After
about 15 minutes, the owl gave up and released the merg, which surprisingly
swam off looking completely frightful but seemingly uninjured. The owl
hopped on its perch and spent some time drying off, later showing interest in
several other waterfowl nearby. It flew half-heartedly toward a few, which
thankfully brought it closer in view, but nothing else ever materialized.”
Ryan was able to briefly video the snowy owl
swimming, but he got far better photos of the owl in flight – please see his
photo. Ryan also
photographed a second snowy owl on a beach north of Washburn, so snowies are
already moving into Wisconsin.
Ryan’s observation of the snowy capturing a
merganser is remarkable but not unheard of. Snowy owls have been observed on
occasion preying on ducks. A
recent study on the snowy owl’s wintering grounds in southwestern British
Columbia found that grebes and ducks made up 80% of the owls’ diet, with the
horned grebe, captured on the water, most prevalent.
Snowies
are even known to catch fish. In 1840, John James Audubon wrote about observing
a snowy owl catching fish while it was lying lengthwise belly down on a rock
beside a water hole. Small fish were devoured near the hole, while larger ones
were carried off.
Winter
Finches Swarming into Wisconsin
The
winter finch flight into Wisconsin so far has been spectacular! Reports of
evening grosbeaks, pine grosbeaks, pine siskins, common redpolls, white-winged
and red crossbills, and bohemian waxwings are coming from every corner of the
state, and it’s only mid-November! These birds come down out of Canada in large
numbers whenever tree seed and fruit crops fail, and apparently the trees are
bare in Ontario because the birds
are showing up early and in big numbers.
Perhaps
most abundant have been evening grosbeaks, particularly in the eastern part of
the state, and all the way down into Illinois. Evening grosbeaks are
particularly attracted to box elder and maple seeds, but if you want to attract
them to your yard, spread black oil sunflower seeds on the ground or on
platform feeders, and provide a bird bath or fountains for them.
Pine
grosbeaks are numerous as well – we have at least seven females and/or juvenile
males coming to our crabapple trees. Pine grosbeaks love fruit sources like
mountain ash berries and crabapples, but they’ll readily come in to feed on
sunflower seeds, too. They have a lovely, soft whistle that is easy to
identify, and they’re often very tame, permitting close-up views and
photography.
Bohemian
waxwings have been observed in our area in flocks of well over 200. Several
people reported a massive flock of bohemians swarming fruit trees in Woodruff.
Bohemians typically roam in these large flocks in search of fruiting trees,
descending en masse to denude them in rather short order. They don’t come in to
sunflower seed feeders – they want fruit. Find cherry trees, crabapples,
mountain ash, high bush cranberry, you name it, and that’s where they’ll be if
they’re in the area. You don’t have to tramp into wild areas to find this
species – they readily feed right in the middle of cities. This may be one of
the biggest flights of bohemians into our area in many years, so be on the
lookout for them now while the fruit lasts.
Common
redpolls and pine siskins are seed eaters, consuming birch, alder, willow, and
various conifer seeds, as well as gleaning seeds from still-standing tall
herbaceous plants like goldenrods. They, too, are already widespread across the
Northwoods. Both species commonly come into sunflower and thistle feeders, but
often don’t come in large numbers until later in the winter when the wild seed
supply has dwindled.
The
last finches to watch out for are the crossbills. Both species have irrupted
into the state, though I’ve not been seeing them so far in our area, nor have I
heard from others that are seeing them. They are specialists on conifer cones,
with the red crossbills being separated into 10 types based on the shape of
their bills and the subsequent conifer cones they focus on. The “Type 3” red
crossbills are the one being seen most right now. These have rather small
bills, and thus work the smaller cones of hemlocks in particular.
The
white-winged crossbills also feed on small cones, and are most likely to be
found in conifer bogs where they’ll be working on tamarack and black spruce
cones. Neither crossbill species utilize sunflower seeds at backyard feeders,
so you need to be checking their favored habitats to find them.
So,
this winter is shaping up to be a great year for finches! Please keep me posted
on what you’re seeing!
The Wolf
Hunt
The wolf hunt has generated lots of
controversy, and rightly so – there was a lot to be desired in how the hunt was
created. Part and parcel of trying to judge the correctness of a wildlife
management strategy is to first do our best to understand the biology of the
animal in question, so here are some wolf statistics from previous studies:
Approximately
25% of adult wolves are lost every year due to the following:
- Diseases like mange, canine parvo virus,
and blastomycosis
- Car kills
- Interspecies and intraspecies territorial
disputes that result in death
- Wildlife services killing wolves that
have preyed on livestock
- Farmers shooting wolves that have preyed
on their livestock
- DNR culling of wolves that have become
“too close” to people
- Illegal shooting of wolves (25 wolves
were found shot last year)
Approximately
70% of wolf pups die before reaching adulthood.
Approximately
30% of wolf packs don’t produce pups, often because the alpha male has died.
Twenty
wolves were reported killed during the 2012 Wisconsin gun deer season, 18 of
which were killed by hunters with firearms while two were taken by trappers.
The wolf
harvest stands at 98 as of 11/26 – the season will close on 2/28 or when
harvest quotas are reached, whichever comes first. The DNR set a statewide
harvest quota of 116 wolves for non-tribal hunters and trappers.
Trappers
have killed 57% of the wolves in the Wisconsin season. Sixty percent of the
wolves were male, while only two of the wolves had radio-collars, leaving about
45 radio-collared wolves remaining in the state’s wolf population.
Wisconsin
had a minimum of 815 to 880 wolves in late winter, though the number typically
doubles each year after pups are born, according to wolf experts.
Given
all these numbers, what is the “right” number of wolves to harvest, if any? My
hope is that there will be thorough scientific analysis and discussion this
spring after the hunt has concluded, something that was sorely missing from the
original hunt proposal. In such matters, there never is an exact “right” answer
– our knowledge of wildlife populations is too incomplete and our value systems
too complex and contradictory to find an absolute truth. But there’s no substitute
for science-driven discussion, even if the science can never be perfect
(science, after all, is always the pursuit of truths, not THE truth).
Near Marquette, MI in
the town of Chatham, a male vermilion flycatcher has been hanging around near a
farmer’s manure pile since the beginning of November. Vermillion flycatchers
belong in southern Arizona in the summer, and Central America in the winter,
not in the U.P. in November, so this fellow is in for a world of trouble if he
doesn’t get his compass reoriented.
John Spickerman in Lac
du Flambeau had a Townsend’s solitaire briefly visit his feeder on 11/14. This
species nests in the mountains of Colorado, and is only a rare visitor east of
the Mississippi, so John had a great sighting! Unlike the vermillion flycatcher
which is used to warm winters, the Townsend’s could stay around and survive our
winter if it chose to do so. Why it’s here in the first place, however, will
always be a mystery.
As
of 11/19, several thousand sandhill cranes are still roosting at Crex and Fish
Lake Wildlife Areas. Check the Crex refuge an hour after sunup or an hour
before sundown. During the day large numbers of cranes can be seen feeding in
agricultural fields south and east of Grantsburg.
On
11/18, 1,000 Tundra Swans were reported on the west shore of Green Bay off of
the Pensaukee Wildlife Area – “Their calls and whistles were awesome to hear,”
wrote the observer.
Celestial
Events
According to Woody Hagge’s 37 years of
statistics, today, 11/30 makes the first time the average high temperature will
drop to 32° since March 8. Minocqua averages 99 days with high temperatures
that are at freezing or below. Thus, the long freeze begins.
Despite
the fact that winter solstice occurs on 12/21, the earliest sunsets of the year
(4:14 p.m.) commence beginning on 12/5, and last through 12/14, at which point
the sun will begin setting one minute later every day until we reach summer
solstice in June.
On
12/11, look before dawn for Venus a degree or so below the waning crescent
moon. The peak Geminid meteor shower occurs in the predawn of 12/13 – the new
moon should provide perfect darkness. The Geminids average 50 to 100 meteors
per hour.
Please share
your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail
at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47,
Mercer, WI 54547.
