A Northwoods Almanac
for 11/24 –
12/7/17 by John Bates
Sightings: Red
Crossbills and Tundra Swans
On 11/4, Mary and I kicked up three flocks of red crossbills while driving
south on Hwy. 47 within a few miles of our house. The first flock held 30
birds, two of which were dead on the road, victims of the crossbill’s typical
lack of wariness relative to cars. We were able to drive right up to this flock
and watch them for several minutes without their expressing the least interest
in us.
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| red crossbill photo by Sarah Krembs |
Currently, red crossbills are classified as coming in ten
varieties, or types, each one associated with one or more different conifer
species. Each type also produces a slightly different call note,
distinguishable by experts on a spectrogram. The ten types also show slight differences
in size and beak shape,
as well as differences in their ranges.
Watch for small flocks of red crossbills on roadsides and
often in the middle of the road, and be sure to slow down. These birds
experience little contact with humans, and thus many have not learned the
danger of cars.
On 11/12, Sarah Krembs was walking
with friends in Manitowish Waters when she started hearing “unusual sounds in
the sky.” Here’s how she went on to describe the sounds and how she eventually
identified them. “My brain's first thought was there was a bunch of grade
school kids playing on a playground laughing and yelling. Then a “vee” of swans
came into view, and they were the sound! I knew they weren't trumpeter swans, and
thought they might be tundras migrating, but I don't have any experience with
those swans. There were 35 of them. I went home, got on the computer and played
sounds from tundras on allaboutbirds.org and what do you know...that's what we heard!”
Tundras have two separate wintering populations
that migrate south from their breeding grounds in arctic wetlands. One group
winters mostly along the west coast of the U.S., while the other group that we
see in Wisconsin stops over for many weeks along the upper Mississippi River,
and then flies east non-stop for 1600 miles to winter on Chesapeake Bay and
along the coast of North Carolina. Their calls are usually compared to barking
dogs or a flock of geese but at a higher pitch.
Ibis in Boulder Junction!
John and Pam Winkelman in Boulder
Junction sent an email describing their remarkable encounter with an ibis: “John and I went out on our property with our two dogs about
3:30 pm on October 30th . . . [the dogs] took off like rockets as
soon as we opened door, so we quickly ran to their side knowing they must have
spotted an animal. The two dogs were standing about 15 feet away from an area
behind one of our garages, barking their heads off. A large bird appeared
to be hunkered down in a
small clearing in our woods. John got the dogs inside while I walked
closer to the bird to see if it was injured. I thought it might be an injured
duck, but much to my surprise it had a long, thin neck, a very small head, and
a long curved bill. It was an iridescent green color. It looked kind
of prehistoric! It was obvious from the position of its right wing that the
wing was probably broken.
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| Pam with the injured ibis (photo by Pam Winkelman) |
“I ran back to the house and called the Northwoods Wildlife
Center and was asked to try and catch it and bring it in. John and I
grabbed two big bath towels with the idea that we could wrap it up in at least
one of them. As I approached the bird, it rose up on its very long, spindly
legs and trotted off across the open area through the woods, down a wooded
hill, and into Upper Gresham Lake. John joined me and we followed it to the
water’s edge. There was a partially submerged
log sticking out in the water from the shore. The bird tried to pull itself up
onto the log using its bill. The injured wing prevented it from being
successful, and it fell head first into the water. John jumped in with a
towel and threw it over its body, and he was able to grab it. He passed
the bird to me, and I simply wrapped the other towel around the wet bird and
the wet towel it was already wrapped in. There was some snow on the ground
and the temperature at our property was below freezing.
“We immediately got to our car and drove to the Wildlife
Center. They immediately took the bird in to be examined, and we were told it
had a broken femur and had lost blood.
“[The next day] we were very
saddened to hear that the ibis did not survive, but this is not surprising
considering its injury.”
The Winkelman’s
story is remarkable because neither of the two species of ibis, white-faced or
glossy, are known to nest in Wisconsin. In fact, the glossy ibis nests
along the Atlantic coast from New Brunswick through Florida, but rarely inland,
while the white-faced ibis nests mostly in western states.
I emailed Ryan Brady, expert birder and research
scientist with the WDNR in Ashland, to ask his opinion. He wrote, “[In
Wisconsin] White-faced ibis occurs most frequently (a handful each year now)
and has been increasing in frequency in the past decade or so, especially in
spring. They may have nested one year at a SE WI wetland, but it wasn’t entirely confirmed. Glossy ibis is very rare, being more of a
coastal species than an interior one like white-faced and has never nested
here. There were several white-faced seen in WI around the time of this
discovery, though obviously that doesn’t clinch the ID
as such. Regardless, a white-faced record this far north is exceptional as most
are found south of the north woods and tension zone. The late date is also
pretty incredible. One has to wonder what happened here?!”
Ryan added in a later email, “Some ibises occur throughout summer months [in WI], but this is
common among the large wading birds as they have a large contingent of
non-breeders in the population and juveniles that disperse . . . White-faced,
for example, are seen throughout the New England coast in June-July but don’t breed there either. We are hoping to find the state’s first confirmed nesting of white-faced during this [Breeding
Bird] Atlas.”
Snowy Owl Invasion
Again?
Wisconsin is again experiencing a
possible snowy owl invasion year. As of 11/15, 37 distinct snowies, nearly all
juveniles, had been documented in the state. The question is whether the
numbers will continue to increase or fizzle. Ryan Brady published the following
numbers for comparison over the last five years:
Year First
in WI # by11/15 #by 1/15
2017-18: 10/20 37 ??
2016-17: 11/15 2 49
2015-16: 10/15 79 131
2014-15: 11/1 28 239
2013-14: 11/15 1
229
The Lake
Michigan shoreline appears to be a favored wintering area. Four snowies alone
were reported at the Sheboygan harbor marina on 11/18.
 |
| snowy owl on Lake Minocqua in 2015 |
Wolf Bill
Reps. Adam Jarchow, Mary Felzkowski
and Romaine Quinn, along with Sen. Tom Tiffany, have proposed a bill that would
profoundly alter the state’s effort to manage wolves.
Directly quoting from the proposed
bill:
“No law
enforcement officer may knowingly enforce or attempt to enforce a federal or
state law that relates to the management of the wolf population in this state
or that prohibits the killing of wolves in this state.
“Neither
the department [WDNR] nor its staff may do any of the following:
1. Expend
funds for the purpose of managing the wolf population in this state other than for any of the following purposes:
a. Paying claims under the endangered resources program for
damage caused by wolves.
b. Taking action to protect private property, including
domestic cattle, from wolf depredation.
2. “Take
any action to inform or support federal law enforcement officers regarding the enforcement of any federal or state law
relating to wolves.”
The
lawmakers released the proposal on 11/8 in a memo to their colleagues seeking
co-sponsors, saying that “Wolves have taken over northern Wisconsin. They are
depredating our deer population, killing livestock and attacking family pets .
. . wolves [are] running rampant throughout our state.”
Such a claim requires objective proof that
wolves are “running rampant”. I looked up the 2017 online DNR wolf depredation records that
show as of 11/17 that there have been 39 confirmed wolf attacks on 17 hunting
dogs, 20 cattle, 1 sheep and 1 pet dog, along with 11 probable other wolf
depredations. Importantly, 13 of those attacks come from what the DNR labels as
“Chronic Farms.” For comparison, the DNR recorded 76 confirmed wolf attacks in
2016.
Under “Confirmed Non-Wolf
Depredations” are 2 pet dogs by coyotes, 13 cattle by coyotes, 1 goat by
coyotes, 1 cattle by a black bear, 1 hunting dog by a black bear, and 1 cattle
by a domestic dog.
These statistics and the proposed
bill beg two questions: Do the statistics equate to “wolves
running rampant” and “taking
over” the state? And who, if not the DNR,
would be in charge of managing wolves in Wisconsin, since management entails
far more than paying claims and protecting private property?
Wisconsin has a long and proud
tradition of wildlife management based on scientific research, carefully
gathered field records, and engagement with citizens and public agencies. This
proposal would clearly reverse that, as well as abrogating the ethical and
legal responsibilities required of our DNR wildlife managers.
Wisconsin’s
wolf population was estimated at between
925 and 952 wolves last winter. For perspective, Wisconsin covers 36 million
acres; however, wolves mostly occupy the northern one-third of the state. So,
that’s about 1,000 wolves spaced over 12 million acres, or 1 per 12,000 acres.
Celestial Events
Woody
Hagge’s temperature records for the Hazelhurst area show that on 11/27 our
average high temperature drops to 32° for the first time since March 5. Woody
notes that our area averages 100 days a year where high temperatures never get
above freezing.
Ice-up has been a variable affair
so far with many smaller lakes, ponds, and bays lightly icing-over weeks ago
and then losing their ice when a big wind has come up. Where ice has stayed, it
currently remains unsafe for anyone other than otters, who are the only animals
I know that are quite happy if they fall through.
Shades of
gray describes this November. And for many, it’s meant an emotional grayness as
well. Sullen, dismal, dreary, dingy, gloomy, bleak – need I go on? Here’s
hoping for more sun and blue sky.
December’s
full moon occurs on 12/3. Called variously the “popping trees” moon, the “long
night” moon, or simply the “cold” moon, it will be the year’s closest and
largest full moon.
Thought for the
Week
Winter is a predictable kind of
Armageddon, a calamity calmly weathered, an end of a world that they [wildlife]
understand and are preparing for; caught between the forces of darkness and
light. – Diana Kappel-Smith
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