A Northwoods
Almanac for December 13 – 26, 2013
Winter
Finch Forecast
Every year
Ron Pittaway, a Canadian ornithologist, issues his “Winter Finch Forecast,”
which, while he focuses on Ontario, can be extrapolated to the rest of the
eastern half of the continent. The last two years he’s been dead-on, so his
insights are well regarded. Unfortunately,
Pittaway says this year looks rather sparse in comparison to last winter’s significant
irruptions. Redpolls, nuthatches, crossbills, and grosbeaks are predicted to
mostly stay put in boreal Canada, taking advantage of good cone and mountain
ash crops across the region. The key trees
affecting finch movements in the Northeast are spruces, pines, hemlock, birches
and mountain ashes. Here’s what he says: “Ontario’s cone crops (except white pine) and deciduous seed/berry
crops are generally above average to excellent. Very good to bumper spruce cone
crops extend across Canada’s boreal forest from Yukon (bumper) east to Atlantic
Canada, with rare exceptions . . . Finches this winter should be widespread
given the almost continent-wide extent of the seed crops. Limited movements
southward to traditional wintering areas . . . are expected. “Birders
in the northeast may still see evening grosbeaks this year as their populations
appear to be on the upswing following spruce budworm outbreaks in the far
north, and white-winged crossbills are expected to range widely, though not in
the numbers seen in recent years. As
for the non-finches that sometimes show up in big numbers in our area, the one
species I look forward to most is the bohemian waxwing. Unfortunately, Pittaway
believes “most bohemian waxwings will remain in the boreal
forest this winter because mountain ash berry crops are very good to bumper from Alaska to Newfoundland and
Labrador.” So
far this winter, Pittaway is right on the money. I haven’t had a single report
of a redpoll, pine siskin, purple finch, or evening or pine grosbeak.
Losing
Heat
Here’s
a newsflash – it’s cold! The temperature this morning (12/8) dipped to minus 18°F,
though the wind had finally died down. The temperature the previous night had
dropped to -16°, and our highs have consistently been in the single digits. Two
weeks ago during the opening weekend of the gun-deer season, low temperatures
and strong winds caused many hunters to pack it up early and head inside.
Whether the dip in harvest numbers can be attributed to the weather will be
endlessly debated, but the conditions were just one more proof of how nature,
and cold, always bats last.
The
deer were undoubtedly cold, too, and likely sought the most sheltered areas to
hunker down. Their laying low, coupled with the decreased intensity of the rut
due to the late date of the hunt, likely also played a role in the lower
harvest numbers.
Cold changes behaviors. Deer, like all
animals seeking to endure a northern winter, have had no choice but to make their
survival of cold into an art form. There are many ways to lose heat, and the
least deadly must be utilized at the right times.
Animals are at the mercy of four
physical forces that consort to drain them of every calorie of heat they
possess. I’ve grouped these forces—radiation, evaporation, conduction, and
convection—together into the acronym RECC, because of the wreck animals will
find themselves in if they don’t pay attention to them.
The
deer on opening day were losing heat through all four forces, as were the
hunters. First, they were all losing heat by simple radiation—warm bodies emit
energy. Radiation occurs even in a vacuum, so just by standing around, animals
(including humans) lose heat.
They
were also losing heat to evaporation, because heat is lost when water changes from
a liquid to a vapor. Every breath pumps heat away.
They
were also losing heat to convection – to the wind – a factor determined by the
total area of exposure, the intensity of the wind, and by the difference in
temperature between the temperature of one’s body surface and the outside air.
That day the difference was about 91 degrees, while this morning (12/8) the
difference is 116 degrees!
Then
every time something cold is touched, like snow, more heat is lost through
conduction. The rate of conduction is heavily influenced by the thermal conductivity
of the material that skin is in contact with. Thus dry snow conducts less heat
away than wet snow since the conductivity of heat skyrockets with greater water
content. Animals know well the commandment “Thou shall stay dry.”
So,
a deer, or any other animal, has to pick its poison relative to losing heat. Is
it better on a given night for a deer to bed down in the snow, conducting heat
away to the snow, but reducing the loss of heat via the wind? The deer surely know the comfort
difference between laying down on wet snow or dry snow, and they surely know
the difference that convection makes, because you rarely find deer beds out in the
open. Without taking a course in physics, deer know to bed down in areas with
dense cover that stops the wind and reduces the snow on the ground. They may
not be smart enough to build shelters, but they know how to utilize the natural
shelter that microhabitats provide.
The
same holds true for the chickadees at your feeder. You do your neighborhood
birds a great favor by planting conifers near the feeders that cut down the
wind, and by placing your feeders on the east or south side of the house, away
from the prevailing coldest winter winds.
Conserving
energy isn’t optional for animals in the wild – it’s often the bottom line on
whether an individual will see the spring.
Local
Christmas Bird Counts
The
21st annual Manitowish Waters Audubon Christmas Bird Count is scheduled for
Saturday, December 21. We need people to actively
help us search for birds within the count circle, or to just count birds
visiting their bird feeders that day. If you live within a 7.5-mile radius of
the intersection of Highways 51 and County W, and want to get involved counting
your feeder, please contact me through my e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net or by phone at 476-2828.
Counting birds at your feeder is the simplest way to help, takes very little
time or expertise, and is our area of greatest need. Winter birds concentrate
around feeders, so we tend to get our best counts from folks just watching out
their windows.
The
Christmas Bird Count for the Minocqua area, which uses the intersection of Hwy.
51 and 70 West as its center point, is organized through the North Lakeland
Discovery Center, and is scheduled for Saturday, 12/14. If you want to help out
on that count, please call Guy David at 588-3694. They’re in particular need of
feeder counters, and since many of you watch your feeders throughout the day,
why not help out if you can?
Sightings
– Loon Rescue, Badger, and Ice-up
Courtney
Wright, the Assistant Director of Education at the Northwoods Wildlife Center
in Minocqua, sent me several photos of a loon rescue that took place on
Squirrel Lake on 12/4. Carol Bohlin found the loon trapped in a small opening
on the lake and called the NWC who responded with a team of four people. They
were able to skid a boat across the ice and eventually net the juvenile loon.
They then transferred the loon to Marge Gibson’s Raptor Education Group in
Antigo for treatment and hopeful release.
We
visited family for three days over Thanksgiving and returned home to find that
a badger had dug four large holes next to our house in a likely successful
predation of the chubby chipmunks that had for months been hauling sunflower
seeds from our feeders down to their den. We’ve seen no sign of the badger
since our return.
The
Manitowish River iced-over below our house on 12/4, a relatively average date –
the river always ices over a week or more after most of our lakes due to the
river’s velocity of flow.
Celestial
Events
The
Geminid meteor shower is often one of the year’s best, but viewing this year
will be hampered by the waxing gibbous moon which doesn’t set until an hour
before dawn. The best viewing will therefore be in the pre-dawn hours of 12/14
when the meteor shower peaks. However, since the moon sets an hour earlier for
each day before this, you can also try the pre-dawn hours on 12/12 and 12/13.
The radiant of the shower is near the stars Castor and Pollux in the
constellation Gemini, though the meteors may appear anywhere in the sky – look
to see a meteor every minute or two.
The
full moon occurs on 12/17. The moon’s path across the night sky attains its
highest trajectory of the year in December, so combined with our snowcover,
this should be an especially bright night to go exploring.
Science
and Spirit
In
her book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin
Wall Kimmerer writes, “I spend a lot of time thinking about our relationships
with land, how we are given so much, and what we might give back. I try to work
through the equations of reciprocity and responsibility, the whys and
wherefores of building sustainable relationships with ecosystems . . . This is
why I made my daughters learn to garden – so they would always have a mother to
love them, long after I’m gone . . . Gardens are simultaneously a material and
spiritual undertaking . . . Knowing that you love the earth changes you,
activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the
earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms from a one-way street into a
sacred bond.”
If
I had one Christmas wish for everyone, it would be to love where you live, and
to feel that the gifts of the land and water given back to you are your love
returned. That relationship, that reverence for one another, would be a
transformation we need, because it’s very difficult to harm someone who gives
you love.
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. Merry Christmas!
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