A
Northwoods Almanac for 11/1 – 14, 2013
Bobcat
or Lynx?
Mary Guenther in Minocqua wrote to tell
me of a unique encounter she had early in October: “I was walking the half mile
back from the mailbox on our quiet dead end road, reading the mail. I glanced
up and stopped dead in my tracks. Right on the side of the road was an animal
facing away from me. The first thing I noticed was its long golden tail with a
black tip swishing in a cat-like fashion. Its legs were long, and its coat was
sleek and beautiful, golden with black spots. It looked to be around 30#'s if I
had to guess. Suddenly it turned and noticed me. Our eyes locked, no kidding,
for a few seconds, and then it ran off. I think both of us were thinking,
‘Where did YOU come from!’ . . . I'm thinking it wasn't a bobcat because of the
long tail. Any thoughts?”
Then a few days later on 10/24, Phil
and Nancy Williams sent me some great photos of a pair of bobcats hunting in
their yard. Phil noted, “I had to go out on the porch to get a better picture,
and they just sat and looked at me even after one of our labs came out to see
them.”
So,
how does one tell the difference between a lynx and a bobcat, and even a cougar?
First, a disclaimer: I’ve never seen a lynx or a cougar, so I’m using what the
literature says to try to clearly draw the difference.
The
problem in ID’ing a lynx from a bobcat is that both are medium-sized cats with
long, tufted ears and a short, bobbed tail! Adult male bobcats and lynxes weigh
20 to 30 pounds and average 3 feet in length, though the lynx tend to be a bit
larger than bobcats. Because
of their similarities, bobcats (Lynx rufus) and lynxes (Lynx canadensis) both belong to the Lynx genus, but
they are clearly separate species.
Here’s
how to differentiate between them. The lynx sports extra-long tufts of fur on
its ears – almost an inch long – and a shaggy mane of fur around its cheeks,
while the bobcat’s ear tufts are perhaps a third of an inch.
A
lynx also has much larger feet (3.5 inches in diameter) than a bobcat (2+
inches in diameter) and longer legs to help it navigate the deep snow common in
its more northern range. In fact, lynxes are twice as effective
as bobcats at supporting their weight on the snow. Their big, furry paws act like snowshoes to
help then chase down food in the winter, their diet consisting of between 60-90
percent snowshoe hares, the animal most of us think of as the acknowledged
master of running on top of snow. Because of the differences in paw size and
leg length, the only area where the Canadian lynx and bobcat coexist is along
the U.S.-Canada border.
The
lynx also sports a heavier, mostly gray fur that lacks much of a pattern,
whereas a bobcat’s fur is shorter with more spots and ranges from light gray to
the more common brown.
Lynxes
and bobcats both have short, rounded tails that appear to be cut, or
"bobbed." But the bobcat's is banded with black stripes and is black
at the top of the tip and white at the bottom, while the lynx's tail lacks
banding and is completely black at the tip. A bobcat's
tail ranges from five inches to eight inches, averaging 6.5 inches in length.
Although short compared to a domestic cat, the bobcat's tail averages two
inches longer than the tail of lynx. Still,
a bobcat’s tail can be up to 12” long, so it may be “swishable.” The
cougar is so much larger than a bobcat or lynx that there should be no confusion
regarding them. Male and
female cougars vary in size and weight with adult males reaching more than eight
feet long and weighing 135 to 175 pounds. Adult females may be up to seven feet
long and weigh between 90 and 105 pounds.
If
size isn’t enough to ID a cougar, the tail length should be,
measuring about one-third of their overall body length.
Sightings:
Orange Peels, Snow Buntings, Hemlock Varnish Shelf, Sandhill Cranes, Northern
Shrikes, and a Very Cold Hummer
Hannah Dana in Arbor Vitae sent photos
of a beautiful red-orange fluted fungus that is growing in her yard despite the
early snow. It’s called “orange peel” for its obvious resemblance to the
remains of an orange, but it can come in a variety of shapes, from a perfectly
round cup to wavy flutes to stubby, knobby projections. Orange peel grows most
typically on disturbed soils, like on paths and roadsides, but is also found on
woodland soils.
Because it contains carotenoids like a
sugar maple leaf, the more sunlight that hits the mushroom, the brighter orange
it will be.
On 10/20 Judy Barnard on Pokegama Lake
in Lac du Flambeau wrote, “We always plant a couple of planters of impatiens
for the hummingbirds. And because of the weather, they are still in full bloom.
Imagine our surprise when we had a hummingbird feeding on them YESTERDAY!!! He
looked larger than usual, so hopefully he is getting ready to migrate. I was
going to dismantle those planter boxes a couple of weeks ago - now I'm glad I
didn't.” Judy’s sighting is why we are always encouraged to leave our
hummingbird feeders up until later in the fall – there may be that one hummer
which is taking its sweet time heading south.
On 10/22, the staff at Crex Meadows
Wildlife Area conducted a count of sandhill cranes at Crex and Fish Lake Wildlife
Areas, recording 12,201 birds! If you have an interest in going over to see
these birds, the best viewing areas are on Main Dike Road on the south side of
the Crex refuge.
On 10/24, Carol McKay emailed with a
sighting of “a small group of birds that I thought were juncos until they took
flight as a group. They were too white to be juncos, and they flew up in a
group, not individually. The only birds that came close in the Peterson
book were snow buntings, but our area is not their normal range.” Carol was
indeed watching snow buntings, which nest in far northern Canada, and have
begun migrating through our area.
Wil Conway sent me some photos of a
large conk mushroom attached to a conifer. He noted, “What caught my attention was the rich mahogany
color and sheen . . . I have never seen anything like it; it must have had the
snow or snow melting before I got there.” The mushroom is called “hemlock
varnish shelf” for its shellacked-like surface, and is most typically found on
dead hemlock trees.
Finally, on 10/24, Mary spotted the
first northern shrike of the year, perched in one of our crabapple trees and
within 20 feet of our bird feeders. While we were delighted to see it, our
songbirds surely took a much dimmer view of its appearance.
First
Wave of Monarchs Now in Mexico
The first wave of migrating monarchs
were reported to be entering Mexico on 10/24. If you want to keep track of
where they are, pull up the Monarch Watch website at http://www.learner.org/jnorth/maps/monarch_peak_fall2013.html
for a series of different maps that show the monarchs progress to their 12
overwintering sites about 50 miles west of Mexico City
The monarch colonies are located in a relatively small area
at 19.5 degrees north latitude and 100 degrees west longitude, but why this
latitude and longitude, and why these same locations in the forest each year to
form colonies is unknown. Amazingly, the over-wintering area that the monarchs have
to hit is very, very narrow, only 1.1 degrees wide in longitude (over 60 miles).
To survive from one season to the next,
they migrate to oyamel fir forests above 10,500 feet, a cool habitat where the
daytime temperatures seldom exceed 65°F and the nighttime lows are seldom below
freezing. If the temperature
is lower, the monarchs will be forced to use their fat reserves. The humidity
in the oyamel forest assures the monarchs won’t dry out allowing them to
conserve their energy. Monarchs remain relatively inactive
through the winter, surviving by converting fats stored in the fall to blood
sugars necessary to keep their bodies functioning.
Tamarack
Gold
Tamaracks
are just past peak, glowing the most lovely gold in the slanting late afternoon
light. In his book “A Natural History of Trees,” Donald Culross Peattie had
this to say about tamaracks: “The tamarack goes farther north than any other
tree in North America . . . growing in the summer by the light of the midnight
sun. At this season, it is the most tenderly beautiful of all native trees,
with its pale green needles like a rime of life and light.
“But
in winter it is the deadest-looking vegetation on the globe. Many a tenderfoot
has been horrified coming upon a tamarack swamp, to see miles of these trees
that he concludes have been swept by fire . . .
“Then
when spring comes to the North Woods . . . these same trees that one thought
were but ‘crisps’ begin, soon after the wild geese have gone over, and the ice
in the beaver ponds is melted, to put forth an unexpected, subtle bloom. . . .
And there is no more delicate charm in the North Woods than the moment when the
soft pale-green needles first begin to clothe the military sternness of the
Larch.”
Celestial
Events
Planets
to look for in November: At dusk, brilliant Venus can be found low in the
southwest. Jupiter rises around 8 p.m. in the northeast and is high in the
south by 4 a.m. At dawn, Mars is high in the southeast, while Saturn is very
low in the southeast.
As
of 11/3, we’ll be down to 10 hours of daylight. The new moon also occurs on
this date. The mid-season mark between autumn equinox and winter solstice takes
place on 11/7. Look for the peak North Taurid meteor shower well before dawn on
11/12.
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.
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