NWA 10/4/13

A Northwoods Almanac for Oct 4 – 17, 2013

Loon Research

With autumn comes the pre-migratorial flocking of loons. Typically, loons that failed to breed, or that were unsuccessful in hatching or rearing chicks, group together first. But by October, all loons socialize, with flocks of 50 or more loons often congregating on large lakes like Fence, Trout, and Tomahawk. Despite their massing together, when it’s time to head south, loons will migrate singly or in very loose groups with adult loons preceding the chicks. For the chicks, it is a race against ice-up. Hopefully they’ve grown strong enough by November to handle their long flight to warm ocean water.

Several people have contacted me with sightings of flocks of loons congregating on their lakes, while Mary and I saw 13 loons just off the eastern shore of Madeline Island on Lake Superior last weekend.

All of which brings me to noting the exceptional research on loons that has been conducted for several decades in the Lakeland area. The researchers that I personally know sacrifice a great deal to increase our understanding of loons. They’re up night after night during the early summer capturing and banding loons, an exhilarating but exhausting enterprise. An example of their dedication comes from the email I recently received from Tony Waisbrot, chairman of the Alma-Moon Lake District in St. Germain. He copied to me a letter that he had sent to DNR Secretary Stepp:

“Secretary Stepp: Just a quick note to let you know how much we value and appreciate DNR staff member Mike Meyer from the Rhinelander office, who, on his own time on a Saturday night on Labor Day weekend at 8:15pm, came to Moon Lake East with his battery, light equipment, and net to rescue our loon chick from an embedded fishing lure.

“Our lake residents, Ken and Teri Beier, called Mike and assisted him with the boat, lights and net to capture the loon chick, remove the hook, inspect the bird and release it, thereby saving it.

“I wanted you to be aware of the selfless dedication shown by Mike Meyer who has always been helpful and available to our lake district residents. This was another of his outstanding efforts to provide assistance to us. He continues to be an example of a staff member that is truly living the mission of the DNR.”

Tony added this note to me: “Mike came out on his own time. He had his family up for the Labor Day weekend, but he took time out to do this service for us.”           

I’ve reprinted Tony’s emails because the DNR often is a lightning rod for intense criticism (some of which is certainly deserved, but most not). However, the field staff rarely receive equally impassioned praise when they do great work. Mike Meyer’s research on Northwoods loons has been cutting edge nationally. A wildlife toxicologist and research scientist, Meyer has studied Wisconsin loons' exposure to mercury for 22 years.

In one mercury study he conducted on lakes in four northern Wisconsin counties – Vilas, Oneida, Forest and Iron – Meyer and his crew found that concentrations in the blood of Wisconsin loons declined between 1992 and 2000, but increased from 2002 to 2010. Meyer attributed the increase in mercury concentrations not to increased mercury deposition, but to a change in lake hydrology because of ongoing drought in northern Wisconsin. Low water levels increased the rate of methylation of mercury that had already been deposited.

Meyer’s future research I’m told will synthesize his and others' decades of work on a multitude of stressors that impact breeding loons in Wisconsin, including botulism, lead fishing tackle, climate change, mercury, and development on lakes. Fifty loon citizen scientists assist Meyer in his research by monitoring loon productivity on over 75 lakes in northern Wisconsin.

Numerous other loon research projects are ongoing in our area, but one in particular is visually fun to follow. Kevin Kenow, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), studies common loon migration by tracking the birds' movements with satellite telemetry. In the summers of 2010 and 2011, Kenow put transmitters on 31 adult loons in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This has allowed him to track their migration and primary wintering locations in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Atlantic off the Florida, Georgia and Carolina coasts. A few loons have even surprised everyone by wintering on reservoirs in Kentucky and Indiana. The movements of these loons can be tracked by logging on the USGS website at: http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/migrations.html.

Kudos to these men and women who continue to deepen our understanding of the lives of loons and our impacts upon them.

Sightings

            On 9/25, Dick Schroeder had an experience that just about everyone in our area hopes to have at least once in his life. He was driving down Cty. N near Crystal Lake at 2:30 p.m. when he slowed down for what at a distance he thought was a horse standing by the road. The horse, however, soon could be seen to have a large rack, and quickly transformed into a bull moose, which eventually crossed the road and walked into the woods after Dick and another car had stopped to observe it.

Jim and Sue Ferguson on Lake Tomahawk dropped me a note regarding the date of last visit to their feeders of several bird species:

 Baltimore oriole – Male: August 28, Female: September 11

 Ruby-throated hummingbird – Male: August 22, Female: September 12

             They also observed a noticeable reduction in numbers of almost all bird species over the summer:

             Jim and Sue also took out their pontoon tow weeks ago for a last look around the lake, mainly to count loons, but were very disappointed by the lack of loons – only six from Windy Point to the western edge of Tomahawk, a small number for Lake Tom. However, as they were returning along the north shore, they saw four red-necked grebes. And soon after turning back westward they came across about 13 more grebes. The grebes were very wary, but they were able to tell that there was a red-necked with the rest being either horned or eared by their size. 

            One last sighting of note, and an unhappy note at that: we still have a good population of mosquitoes hanging about as of 9/30. The little ravagers should be long gone by now, but while I bravely and naively said earlier in the summer that this was a normal hatch, they’ve really turned out to be pretty over-the-top. We’re rooting for some serious hard frosts to do them in.

Mushroom Mania

            Mary and I led a 3½ day hiking trip to the Bayfield area last week, and though being really rank amateurs at identifying mushrooms, we were able to ID 27 species with our group. We totally thumbed up Cora Mollen’s excellent book “Fascinating Fungi of the North Woods” with the help of our group members, nearly all of who fell in love with finding and then trying to identify the mushrooms. We’re well known for leading slow hikes, but this was probably the slowest group we’ve ever been associated with! They knew how to take their time, poke around, and marvel at all the little stuff that most of us pass right by in our haste to get somewhere. With me looking up for birds, and Mary looking down for mushrooms, we got nowhere fast, and we had a brilliant time doing it!

            Mary photographed most of the mushrooms as did Gayle Overholt from our group, and I’ve included several of the most interesting photos in this column. They include a large cluster of yellow-tipped coral which we found on the ground, brilliant red scarlet waxy caps that were scattered in numerous locations, and a patch of black trumpets which look like black vases with a wavy arched lip.

            We even got into finding slime molds, one of the most bizarre life-forms I’ve run across, but which have wonderful names like “chocolate tube slime,” “wolf’s milk slime,” and the one we found, “scramble egg slime.” These guys sort of ooze through their habitats, consuming bacteria and microscopic food particles as they go. Very weird, and very fun. Kind of makes you into a kid again.

            Oh, and we saw a fascinating lichen called lungwort, which looks like oak leaves on a tree, but grows on the bark without any stem. Apparently this is a favored food of moose, and was used at a monastery in Siberia as a replacement for hops in brewing beer, an unusual idea born I suspect of living at the furthest reaches of the Earth with a bunch of guys and nothing to do on a Saturday night.

Celestial Events

            I don’t know how it got to be October, but so it is, and if you look at dusk in the southwest, you should see Venus glowing brilliantly, as well as Saturn. Before dawn, look for Mars high in the east and Jupiter high in the south.

            New moon on 10/4. On 10/6, look after dusk for Saturn about 2° above the sliver of moon with Mercury and Venus nearby.

            On 10/8, the peak Draconid meteor show occurs before dawn. A rather modest event, rated at 10 meteors per hour on average, they might still be worth looking for if sleep is eluding you.

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.