NWA 4/18-5/1, 2014

A Northwoods Almanac for 4/18 – 5/1, 2014   

Smoke-Phase Wild Turkeys

Judith Bloom sent me some fine photographs of a smoke-phase wild turkey within a flock of seven others that has been coming into her yard in Lake Tomahawk. The pictures were very much appreciated, but I was most pleased by her solving a question I’d wrestled with for a while of whether these “white” turkeys were partial albinos. What I’ve now learned is that wild turkeys have four distinct color variations: the smoke phase, the erythritic or red phase, the melanistic or black phase, and the true albinos, which are pure white with pink eyes, all of which occur due to recessive genes or mutations.                                    One researcher estimates roughly one in 100 wild turkeys is smoke-colored. Their heads are light blue or gray, and their caruncles are a faint red or pink, similar to a normally colored turkey. The body feathers show a varying amount of white or light gray feathers tipped with black, while the tail is most often a shade or two lighter than a standard turkey's tail.                                                                                                     Smoke-phase wild turkeys can produce offspring that are partially white or normal-colored, though broods can occasionally have some of each.

Sightings: First-Of-Year (FOY), and others!

3/29: Tim Oksiuta spotted a color-banded northern shrike just west of Ashland and reported the color band combination to Ryan Brady, a DNR research biologist and bird bander. It turned out Ryan had banded this bird within a hundred yards or so of where Tim saw it seven years earlier to the day on 3/29/2007. Given that the bird was in its first year when banded and had hatched in the summer of 2006, this made it 7 years, 9 months of age and, according to USGS Bird Banding Lab records, the second oldest northern shrike known in North America!

4/1: Joe Mastalski saw his FOY great blue heron in Hazelhurst, and perhaps the first one in the area.

4/4: FOY song sparrow in Manitowish during our 16” snowstorm.

4/4: Jim Schumaker in St. Germain sent some beautiful photos of trumpeter swans and Canada geese that had landed on a little open water on Lost Creek.

4/6: FOY striped skunk, eastern meadowlark, and cowbird in Manitowish.

4/7: Linda Thomas reported her FOY yellow-bellied sapsucker in the Sayner area.

4/7: Pat Schwai reported her FOY great blue herons.

4/8: Mary Rodman sent a great photo of a river otter on the rotting ice of the Manitowish River in Boulder Junction.

4/8: Laurie Timm on Witches Lake reported her FOY purple finches.

4/9: Nancy Johnson observed two chukars in the back parking lot of First Merit Bank in Boulder Junction. Chukars are a western bird, and when we see them here, the default explanation is that a local hunter was training his or her dogs on these pen-raised birds, and a few got away.

4/9: FOY turkey vulture in Mercer and osprey in McNaughton.

4/10: FOY woodcock in Manitowish, and the Manitowish River finally opened up below our home.

4/11: FOY fox sparrow in Manitowish.

4/11: Dick and Barb Lemanski sent me two excellent photos of a snowy owl that they observed sitting on a stump near their home in Hazelhurst. They also sent a photo of a sharp-shinned hawk that had terrorized their bird feeders for several weeks.

4/13: Sharon Lintereur in Lake Tomahawk observed her FOY dark eyed juncos, American tree sparrows, house finches, and purple finches.  

4/14: FOY eastern phoebe in Manitowish.

Celestial Events - Lyrid Meteor Shower

The Lyrids, April’s shooting stars, peak in the pre-dawn hours of the 22nd. The Lyrid shower normally produces 10-20 meteors per hour, but has been know to surge up to 100 per hour. The meteors seen are often bright and leave trails. The radiant for the shower is near the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra, which rises in the northeast around 10 PM.

Isle Royale Wolf Dilemma

            I wrote in my last column about the intense debate in the scientific community regarding what to do about the genetic inbreeding of the wolf population on Isle Royale.

The director of the National Park Service, Jon Jarvis, is considering three options:

1 - He could do nothing, let the wolves die out, and thus let nature run its course.

2 - He could order the genetic rescue Rolf Peterson recommends and bring a few wolves in to repopulate the island and reset the genetic options.

3 - He could allow the wolves to die out, and then bring new wolves to the island.

            One argument for allowing nature to run its course is that 98% of Isle Royale is a federally designated wilderness, one tenet of which is to keep our hands off  and all human interventions out of the game.

            Another argument is that wolves and moose aren’t native to the island – moose didn’t arrive until the beginning of the 20th century, and wolves didn’t arrive until after World War II.

There is also the reality that species die out all the time on islands. Caribou and lynx used to be the primary mammals, but they died out long before wolves and moose showed up.

So, many folks are saying if nature wants to save wolves, it will have to find its own way.

The other side of the coin is that nothing is untrammeled, nothing is untouched by human hands, and particularly so in this era of global climate change. Several factors have played a role in the wolves’ demise, including a devastating epidemic of canine parvovirus brought to the island in 1981 by a boater and his dog, and the loss of three wolves in 2012 found floating at the bottom of a flooded mine shaft at Todd Harbor, the probable victims of thin ice over the hole that gave way. In previous decades, the loss of three wolves would have been a blip, but in 2012, three represented nearly a quarter of the population.

So, other folks are saying humans have their hands directly or indirectly in everything, and a genetic rescue doesn’t only save the animals, it will save an entire ecosystem. Perhaps, they say, this is an opportunity to actually inject a positive human influence to balance out all the ways we continue to negatively impact this planet.

Do we try to keep things the way we think they should be, or do we admit we’ve lost control, that we have to adapt and learn to wave goodbye?

More thoughts in my next column.

Science on Tap

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Kemp Natural Resources and Trout Lake Stations have been conducting cutting-edge, nationally important research in Wisconsin’s Northwoods for many decades, much of which has transpired under the radar of local residents. Over a year ago, the researchers decided to change that by providing free monthly presentations on high profile topics at the Minocqua Brewing Company. Folks can share a beer with friends while engaging in lively discussions with some of the best scientists not only in our state, but in the country.

In early April, Phil Pellitteri from the UW-Madison Department of Entomology and Holly Frost, a physician and researcher at Marshfield Clinic, gave “Tick Talk: A Look at Wisconsin Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases,” a timely presentation given that ticks emerge as soon as the snow is off, which as we all know will occur in July. A decade ago, about 18 percent of deer ticks carried Lyme disease, but now it’s over 40 percent statewide. Ticks and tick-borne diseases are currently on the rise in Wisconsin – Wisconsin now ranks sixth nationally in the number of reported Lyme cases.

On May 7^th, Maggie Turnbull, a freelance astronomer and astrobiologist, will discuss what it means to think about "habitable" planets orbiting other stars, the latest results in the search, and her own work with NASA in designing a new kind of observatory to detect Earth-like worlds. 

 To view previous presentations go to: http://www.scienceontapminocqua.org/past-events.html