NWA 9/5/14

A Northwoods Almanac for 9/5 – 18, 2014

Antlers

Jim Swartout in Minocqua sent me excellent photos of a young buck’s development of its antlers over the course of 31 days. He took his first photo on 6/30 and last on 7/31. The four intervening shots were taken on 7/7, 7/11, 7/16, and 7/20.

Antler development typically begins just before the first birthday of a male deer, usually in late May, though male fawns on occasion grow small antlers their first fall. The growing antlers are supplied with blood throughout this “velvet” stage until they are full-grown by the end of August. The size and shape of the antlers are determined by a combination of the animal’s nutrition and its genetics (the vigor of the doe as well as the buck). Once the blood flow is essentially cut off, the buck rubs the velvet off by rubbing the antlers on the branches or trunk of a tree, revealing minute pores where the blood vessels entered. The amount of bleeding that occurs during the rubbing stains the antlers and determines the final color of the rack, though the bark of the tree may also contribute to the color.

Most interesting to me is that once the rut is over, the degeneration of the bone-to-bone bond between the antlers and the pedicle (the attachment point on the skull) is the most rapid deterioration of living tissue known. A buck can be picked up by the antlers one day, and cast the antlers the next day. Antlers are also considered to be the only regenerating living tissue in the entire animal kingdom. To produce these remarkable appendages annually is simply unknown in other animals, though some animals like lizards can replace their tails, but this is not an analogous annual process.

Hawk Migration Is On

            Mary, Callie, and I stopped up at Hawk Ridge in Duluth in the late afternoon on 8/27, and while we didn’t see any hawks at that time, we did see nighthawks, which aren’t true hawks, migrating through Duluth as we drove into town.

The peak hawk migration occurs in mid-September with daily numbers occasionally in the tens of thousands. Hawk Ridge holds an annual weekend festival to celebrate this marvel, which this year is the weekend of 9/20-21. Mary and I will be up there on 9/20 with a group from Nicolet College – we hope to see some of you there as well!

Mushrooms – Sometimes You Have to Look Small

Lisa and Mike DeHorn in Hazelhurst recently emailed photos of some great coral fungus they have growing under the ferns in their yard. Mary has become very good at spotting mushrooms wherever we walk, and this wet year has certainly provided a bundle of opportunities for mushrooms to grow! Some mushrooms are large, colorful, and very obvious, but many are much smaller, and require an observer to go slow, poke around, and sometimes get down on the ground with a hand lens to really get a good look at them.

One species that we’ve noticed poking through the soil is crested coral, a delicate, white mushroom with many branches, all of which are decorated with a crest at the tip.

Another species of coral looks much different - strap-shaped coral pops up from the soil looking usually like a bunch of tiny yellow tongues. Both corals are saprophytic, meaning they live off of dead, decaying matter on the forest floor.

A great book to get started on learning the mushrooms is “Fascinating Fungi of the North Woods,” co-written by Cora Mollen of St. Germain and Larry Weber of Duluth.

Monarch Butterflies – A Threatened Species?

Mary Madsen on Twin Island Lake in Presque Isle sent a fine photo of a monarch butterfly on a purple coneflower. She noted, “It's nice to see monarchs this summer after a summer without them last year. They're really enjoying the cone flowers, and a bumper crop of milkweed.”

We’ve noticed a few monarchs as well, but the news on monarchs is very disheartening. The population of monarch butterflies in the eastern U.S. has declined by 90 percent since 1995. Just last week, three major conservation groups and a leading monarch researcher called on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate monarchs as a threatened species, a move that would provide federal officials with more latitude in efforts to preserve them.

In a nutshell, here’s the amazing life cycle of our eastern monarchs: In March, monarchs begin their migration back to the eastern U.S. from their mountain wintering grounds in Mexico. In April, now in the southern U.S., they lay their eggs on milkweed plants, which, after four days, hatch into baby caterpillars. The baby caterpillars eat the milkweed for about two weeks, at which point they will be fully-grown. They then find a stem or leaf to attach to and start the process of metamorphosis, transforming into a chrysalis. The adult monarch butterflies emerge from the chrysalis in ten days and fly away, feeding on flowers but only living for about two to six weeks. This first generation of monarch butterflies will then die after laying eggs for generation number two.

The second generation of monarch butterflies is born in May and June, and heads further north, repeating the same life cycle, and then the third generation will be born in July and August. These monarch butterflies will go through exactly the same four-stage life cycle as the first generation did, dying two to six weeks after they become adults. In the Northwoods, the third generation then migrates to Mexico beginning in early September, and will live there until it is time to start the whole process over again. In more southern areas, a fourth generation may be born in September and October, and goes through exactly the same process as the first, second and third generations.

Sightings

Diane Steele sent a great photo taken by her son-in-law Benj Drummond of a tiny chorus frog resting on a coneflower in their garden.

On 8/22, Audrae Kulas observed a huge flock of grackles off Hwy. B. Pre-migratory flocking of various blackbird species is occurring now, and will continue until they migrate south.

David Schwerbel sent this note back on 8/11: “Sitting in a cove on the east side of Pokegama Lake (Lac du Flambeau), watching three mature eagles try to take a fish away from an immature eagle, we noticed what appeared to be 7 or 8 crows sitting in a dead tree . . . Turned out there must have been at least a dozen turkey vultures, including the birds we mistook for crows in the dead tree.” All I can add to this is that turkey vultures continue to appear much more common than they have historically, though this is just a personal observation – I don’t have any data to support this, nor any literature to cite.

Curly Leaf Pondweed – A Model Case Study

Rolf Ethun sent me a thorough summary of the exceptional collaborative success that the Harris Lake Association, the DNR, the North Lakeland Discovery Center, the Winchester Town Lakes Committee and Town Board, and the Army Corp of Engineers had in controlling an infestation of curly leaf pondweed found on Harris Lake.

In 2008, Sandy Wickman, a DNR water resources management specialist, was teaching Harris Lake residents how to collect and identify aquatic vegetation when she was shocked to pull up invasive curly leaf pondweed (clp).

            Sandy quickly passed the news to Kevin Gauthier, a DNR grant specialist, through whom a DNR Rapid Response Grant application was begun in conjunction with the Harris Lake Association.

            The grant award provided the funding to conduct a survey of the extent of the infestation, and then to provide remedial treatment and follow-up monitoring over a three-year period.

Then – and here’s one of the best parts of this story – the Winchester Town Lake Committee recommended that the Winchester Town Board cover the 25% local cost share. And they did, considering it a town-wide problem, rather than just a lake owners' issue.

            Onterra LLC of De Pere, WI, was then contracted to conduct the survey, manage the treatment, and do the long term monitoring. The initial survey indicated approximately 14 acres of infestation scattered around Harris Lake.

            In 2011, 2012 and 2013, spring surveys were completed right after ice-out, with chemical treatment of the emerging curly leaf pondweed (which grow under the ice) prior to emergence of the native species.  Each fall a second survey was completed to determine the results of the remediation. 

            Following the 2011 treatment, residents of Harris Lake were concerned about possible damage to native vegetation, fish and other aquatic life from the chemical applications, and volunteered to hand-pull the plants in smaller patches in shallow water. Though pulling of curly leaf pondweed had not been tried elsewhere, the scientists at Onterra and DNR agreed that it was worth an experimental try.

            During both the 2012 and 2013 seasons, a large number of lake residents regularly monitored and pulled CLP plants out by the roots.

            Also due to concern for residual negative impacts of the herbicide treatments on water quality, vegetation and animal life, the Army Corp of Engineers did weekly surveys of water quality throughout the summer of 2012.

            The spring 2014 spring survey of infestation sites revealed no new emerging plants in any of the previously identified sites. However, it will be necessary for continual monitoring for at least seven years, since the overwintering buds can lay dormant on the lake bottom for five to seven years.

            The Winchester Town Lakes Committee has since proposed, and the Town Board has unanimously approved, a multi-year town-wide lake management planning grant project to be managed by the North Lakeland Discovery Center, including employment of a summer intern to work with Winchester residents. The 2015 grant application will include Harris Lake and one other lake, with two or three lakes in each of the subsequent years.

While it is wonderful that Harris Lake is currently free of curly leaf pondweed, perhaps most noteworthy is that it was only accomplished with the collaboration and cooperation of all of the partners. This is the way things need to get done in the Northwoods – through maximizing cooperation between government agencies, town boards, and private citizens for the good of all concerned in a township and beyond.

Celestial Events

Full moon occurs on 9/8. Planets visible this month include Mars (magnitude +0.5) and Saturn (magnitude +0.4), both still visible low in the southwest after sunset. Venus (magnitude - 4) is still a morning object, low in the east at dawn early in the month, but disappearing behind the sun at mid-month. Jupiter has now moved into the morning sky and may be viewed in the east before sunrise throughout the month.