A Northwoods Almanac 12/21/18

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/21/18 – 1/3/19  

Manitowish Waters Christmas Bird Count

            On 12/15, eleven intrepid birders fanned out in the Manitowish Waters area to count birds as part of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. The morning began sunny and cold at 12°, but warmed to 40° by 11 a.m. It may have been the most comfortable Christmas bird count of any of the 25 we’ve done prior to this! 

            It may also have been the quietest.

            Every participant commented on how few birds they’d seen or heard that morning. Our total number of individual birds were well below our average. Still, we somehow came up with 28 species, which is above our average of 25! 

            Quite unusual were sightings of a wood duck, a hooded merganser, and a red-breasted merganser – waterfowl are typically long gone by the time we do our count. 

Conspicuous by their absence were birds like gray jay, bohemian waxwing, purple finch, both crossbills, and all raptors other than eagles. More unusual yet were the very low numbers of common winter visitors like pine siskins, common redpolls, pine grosbeaks, and American goldfinches.

            Their relative paucity leads me to wonder about our conifer cone crop. I see very few cones on white pines, eastern hemlocks, balsam firs, and both spruces, so perhaps our dinner table is a bit bare for them. Time will tell, of course. They may simply be biding their time until they’ve run out of food further north and are forced to forage come south and visit our feeders. 

Sightings: Weasel, Pileated Woodpecker, Basswood Seeds 

            Bob Collins dropped off a photo of a weasel chasing a gray squirrel around a tree on his property in Hazelhurst. While ermine are exceptionally quick and ferocious hunters, I wonder about their ability to catch a squirrel up in the trees. Squirrels are circus acrobats, the flying Wallendas of the rodent world, racing around in the branches, performing amazing leaps between trees, and leaping from trees to the ground. Can a weasel match their agility? I don’t know, but every article describing their diet includes squirrels, so perhaps they can win an arboreal chase. Their normal bill-of-fare, however, is more grounded and includes chipmunks, ground squirrels, insects, small birds, frogs and snakes. 

photo by Bob Collins

            Bev Engstrom sent several superb photos of a pileated woodpecker in flight amply illustrating their marvelous size. Pileateds are the largest commonly seen woodpecker in North America and the sixth largest in the world. Roughly crow-sized, they’re 16 to 19 inches long, with a wing-span of 26 to 30 inches, and an average weight of 11 ounces.

photo by Bev Engstrom

photo by Bev Engstrom

Pileateds play a crucial role in forest ecosystems by excavating large nesting and foraging cavities that are subsequently used by a diverse array of birds and mammals, particularly secondary cavity users. These are the cavity nesters who are unable to excavate their own cavities, but utilize natural cavities or those already created by primary excavators like pileated, flickers, red-headed woodpeckers, and yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Secondary cavity users include bird species like wood duck, bufflehead, common merganser, common goldeneye, American kestrel, screech owl, saw-whet owl, tree swallow, red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatch, black-capped chickadee, and mammals like American marten. 

Pileateds also are important in helping control some forest beetle populations because their diet consists primarily of wood-dwelling ants like carpenter ants and beetle larvae.

I’m told some folks still shoot them, thinking they’re harming a tree. Far from it, they’re performing surgery! They’re good guys, deserving of our admiration and protection.

Lastly, the seed-du-jour visible everywhere on ski trails this winter has been basswood. The pea-sized seeds hang on a stem from a narrow parachute-like structure – I think they look like little hang gliders. Basswoods, like all trees, are cyclical in their production of seeds, and 2018 looks like the year they chose to be celebratory.

Celestial Events – Days Now Growing Longer

Today, 12/21, marks the winter solstice. The sun is now its furthest south of the equator, providing us with only 8 hours and 39 minutes of day length. Or if you prefer, tonight we’ll have 15 hours and 21 minutes of dark. To mark the sun’s passage back north, try fixing a bit of tape to your window on which you’ve written the date. 

The full moon – the Cold/Long Night/Popping Trees Moon – occurs on 12/22. This is the year’s northernmost full moon rise and the year’s highest altitude in the sky for a full moon.

            The 22^ndis also the peak Ursid meteor shower, a modest affair offering an average of 10 meteors per hour. Look predawn for the best show, though the light from the full moon will likely wash out most viewing. 

Christmas day, 12/25, gives the gift of our first day growing longer since June 20 – hooray!

12/27 to 1/7 mark the year’s latest sunrises. Every morning look at 7:40 for the first rays of the sun. These sunrises are 3 hours and 32 minutes later than our earliest sunrises which occur in mid-June at 4:08 (5:08 Daylight Savings Time).

As of 12/30, our days begin growing longer by 1 minute/day – we’re starting to cook now!

            On New Years’ Day, 1/1, we’ll be up to 8 hours and 45 minutes of daylight, or 36% daylight! Look before dawn for Venus just 1.3° south of the waning crescent Moon.

            On 1/2, the Earth will be at perihelion, its closest orbital point to the Sun in 2019, a mere 91.4 million miles away. This proves that the distance between the sun and the earth has very little to do with the warmth on any given day. It’s all about the tilt of the Earth, not the distance to the sun. At perihelion, we’re 3.1 million miles (3.4%) closer than during aphelion, our furthest away point, which will occur this year on July 4.

Look for the peak Quadrantid meteor shower on 1/3. At 40 meteors per hour, this might be worth braving the cold for. Look also before dawn for Jupiter about 3° south of the waning sliver of moon.

Future DEET Alternative?

Yes, it’s winter and mosquito larvae are all under water, but it’s never a bad time to talk about natural controls. So, I’ve just learned that compounds derived from coconut oil have been found to repel some insects better than DEET, at least according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture bulletin published in September in the journal Scientific Reports. The study found that fatty acids derived from coconut oil had long-lasting insect-repelling properties against flies, ticks, bed bugs and mosquitoes. Note that the compounds extracted from coconut oil – notthe oil itself – were found as an effective repellent (so, don’t go slathering yourself with coconut oil this spring).

The USDA release says the coconut oil compounds out-performed DEET at repelling stable flies, and repelled bed bugs and ticks for two weeks, as compared with DEET's three days of effectiveness. However, the study notes that a much greater concentration of coconut oil acids are required to effectively repel mosquitoes as compared with DEET. Ah, well.

Solutions Needed!

            Most social media feeds are filled with people complaining about various political problems without even attempting to discuss, or offer, solutions. I’m often guilty of that when discussing climate change, even though I know the key to fixing problems is offeringnew approaches and ideas, or examples of proven solutions. So, what can be done to alter the accelerating trajectory of climate change? Here are ten of the best ideas I’ve found, and all can be done without significant sacrifice:

·      Expand renewable energies dramatically and slash our use ofcoal and oil as far as we can. 

·      Maximize vehicle fuel efficiency and the heating and cooling efficiency of all buildings.

·      Place limits on the amounts of carbon that industries are allowed to emit. 

·      Invest heavily in existing/developing efficient energy technologies and industries.

·      Plant trees and dramatically reduce tropical deforestation. 

·      Eat lower on the food chain and purchase all goods from sustainable sources - know what and from whom we’re buying.

·      Reduce our consumption and waste of virtually everything.

·      Educate all girls everywhere and reduce the world’s population through family planning.

·     Read. Become well-versed in the issues. Trust the sciences. 

·      Support national and international climate change policies. Work for immediate change.

Kathleen Dean Moore writes: “People ask me, What can one person do? My answer is always: stop being one person. Join up with other people, brainstorm together—what are our skillsets, what are our challenges? Climate change can be such a lonely sorrow. No one talks about it, and you think no one is worried about it, but when you find your group, you’re really empowered . . . This is going to have to be systematic change and that takes community organizing and public action.”

Mary Oliver writes, “The world, moist and beautiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response. That’s the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. ‘Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?’” 

Far be it from me to ever offer any change to a Mary Oliver quote, but I’d substitute “commitment” for “comment.” And climate change is where we need commitments.

Thought for the Week

Terry Tempest Williamswrites, “The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy. Daily prayers are delivered on the lips of breaking waves, the whisperings of grasses, the shimmering of leaves.”Merry Christmas!All blessings on your coming New Year.

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/7/18

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/7-20, 2018 

Sightings: Northern Shrike, Barred Owl, Spruce Grouse, Red-bellied Woodpecker

We had our first northern shrike of the year visit our feeders on 11/27. Mary and I watched it for five minutes as it fluttered slowly up and down from tree to tree, an unusual behavior for a lightning-fast bird that predates on smaller songbirds. We speculated that it was trying to flush songbirds from dense vegetation where they might have been concealed. It was unsuccessful in the time we watched, and we haven’t seen it since. Ryan Brady photographed a northern shrike capturing a white-breasted nuthatch at one of his backyard feeders in Washburn – see the photo.

photo by Ryan Brady

Mark Pflieger recently hung a deer carcass in his yard near McNaughton, and that evening a barred owl came in and dined on it for two and a half hours. Mark noted that it “looked like it was starving,” which is a likely scenario given that barred owls are not known to feed on carrion. Barreds are a true generalist predator, consuming a variety of birds up to the size of grouse and small mammals up to the size of rabbits, while during the summer, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates are also taken. In the winter, however, they feed mostly on small mammals like rodents and squirrels.

photo by Bev Engstrom

John Heusinkveld reported seeing four spruce grouse on private land in the town of Newbold, which may be the most southern record in Wisconsin for a sighting of spruce grouse. He noted “at one point, we walked directly underneath them at maybe 12 feet. This was the best photo, but we also got video of the male eating buds off a jackpine . . . I’ve stomped the Northwoods for 17 years always wanting to see just one. He was fat, proud, magnificent and unconcerned. They all were. The two apparent juveniles seemed to be males by plumage, but inconclusive. We watched them for 15 minutes with 10x40 binocs. So, it was my Christmas ‘And a Spruce Grouse in a Jack Pine,’ to the tune of ‘A Partridge in a Pear Tree.’ It felt like hope in this crazy age.”

Chuck Dutton on the north end of Squaw lake in Lac du Flambeau reported having had a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers feeding in his yard since October. 

Christmas Bird Counts

The 26^thannual Manitowish Waters Christmas Bird Count (CBC) takes place on Saturday, 12/15, and less than a week later, the Minocqua CBC, sponsored by the North Lakeland Discovery Center Bird Club, takes place on Thursday, 12/20.  

For the Manitowish Waters Count, if you live within a 7.5 mile radius of the intersection of Hwy 51 and Cty. W, you can count birds in your own yard and from your bird feeders, and then report the results. For the Minocqua Count, if you live within a 7.5 mile radius of the intersection of Hwy 51 and Hwy 70 West, you can likewise count birds in your own yard and report the results. If you have friends or family who live within these areas, please also encourage them to count birds in their yard and report their results to us.  

If you’d rather not count but would be willing to have us come to your yard some time during the day to count your birds, let us know. We’ve learned a long time ago that winter birds know where the best restaurants are, and that’s folks’ backyard feeders.

The  CBC is a census of birds in the Western Hemisphere, performed annually by volunteer birdwatchers and administered by the National Audubon Society. This will be the 119^thyear of Christmas bird counts, making it the longest running citizen science survey in the world.

The data helps to provide an understanding of bird population trends across North America in early winter, and provides an enjoyable social experience – tens of thousands of birdwatchers participate in this event each year.

More than 100 Christmas bird counts take place in Wisconsin. If you’re interested in participating either as a field counter or by counting birds at your feeder, please contact Donna Roche (p-lanz@hotmail.com) for the Minocqua count or contact me (manitowish@centurytel.net)for the Manitowish Waters count. 

Snowy Owl Status

As of November 26, Ryan Brady, Bird monitoring coordinator for the WI Bird Conservation Initiative,noted that “an estimated 26 snowy owls have been reported from 14 Wisconsin counties. 

“The total of 26 owls is well short of the 97 seen by this date during last year’s big irruption but greater than the 7 seen by now in 2016-17, which was a non-irruption year. While it’s a little early to know exactly how things will unfold by mid-winter, one thing is already clear – the proportion of juvenile birds hatched last summer is much lower this year than recent years past. This is consistent with reports from the Arctic that suggested a summer of low lemming numbers and poor reproductive success for snowy owls.”

Monarch Butterfly Status

            I tried this week to find the latest information on the status of monarch butterflies, but I was only able to find information up through the fall migration. Still, it was very encouraging. Based on activity in the monarchs’ primary Midwestern breeding grounds, Monarch Watch founder and expert Chip Taylor predicted in September that “the migration should be the strongest since 2008.” He wrote that “the sequence of events and temperatures that determine how the monarch population grows through the season has been better this year than for any year since 2001 . . . but there is still a big unknown. Will the fall conditions favor survival during the migration? Most of the migration through Texas occurs in October so should sufficient rains occur, nectar scarcity would not be an issue. Monarchs then still have to pass through northern Mexico, a traverse of another 600 miles or more depending on the routes taken.” 

Apparently, mortality during migration may have increased in recent years for monarchs, potentially contributing to the declines in their overwintering population. For example, the abundance of monarchs was one of the highest in decades in the Northeast during the 2017 breeding season, but in the subsequent winter, the population was well below historic levels in Mexico, likely linked to the fact the southern autumn of 2017 was the hottest in over 100 years. 

            So, even though 2018 was a great year for monarch reproductive success, the jury is still out on their migratory success.

Fourth National Climate Assessment

Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment was released on 11/23 by the United States Global Change Research Program.President George H.W. Bush signed the Global Change Research Act into law on November 16, 1990, with a mandate to understand and respond to global change, including the cumulative effects of human activities and natural processes on the environment.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), one of thirteen federal agencies comprising the USGCRP team, was the administrative lead agency. The report was produced with the assistance of 1,000 people, including 300 leading scientists, roughly half from outside the government. For the 1,500-page report, go tohttps://nca2018.globalchange.gov. 

Copper Bullets

Several readers noted that they had switched from lead bullets to copper bullets based on what I had written in my last column. Randy and Debbie Augustinak in Land O’ Lakes noted that “initial attempts to locate all-copper bullets locally were futile (i.e. Fleet Farm & others), but we were eventually able to order them online from Cabelas. We subsequently learned that the national chains carry these products because non-lead shot is mandated in California.”

I’m very surprised to learn that copper bullets aren’t available locally – if true, consider contacting your local supplier and requesting they stock copper ammo.

Winter Solstice

Cold temperatures are only one element in the difficulty of living out a northern winter – the long nights are the other. For many of us, the coming of the winter solstice is truly a time for celebration given that in the Northern Hemisphere, the December solstice marks the turning point for the return of light. 

The 2018 December solstice takes place on Friday, December 21 at 4:23 p.m. CST, marking our shortest day – 8 hours and 39 minutes. 

But, in fact, our earliest sunsets occur at 4:14 p.m. from 12/5 to 12/14.So, why doesn’t the earliest sunset come on the shortest day? Here’s the answer from earthsky.org: 

“The key to understanding the earliest sunset is not to focus on the time of sunset or sunrise. The key is to focus on what is called true solar noon – the time of day that the sun reaches its highest point, in its journey across your sky. In early December, true solar noon comes nearly 10 minutes earlier by the clock than it does at the solstice. With true noon coming later on the solstice, so will the sunrise and sunset times.

“It’s this discrepancy between clock time and sun time that causes the Northern Hemisphere’s earliest sunset and the Southern Hemisphere’s earliest sunrise to precede the December solstice.” Got that?

Celestial Events

            The new moon occurs tonight, 12/7. 

The peak Geminid meteor shower takes place on the night of 12/13 through the predawn of 12/14. This is the year’s best meteor shower, averaging 50 to 100 meteors per hour.

Thought for the Week

            “What makes a place special is the way it buries itself inside the heart, not whether it's flat or rugged, rich or austere, wet or arid, gentle or harsh, warm or cold, wild or tame.” Richard Nelson 

A Northwoods Almanac for 11/23/18

A Northwoods Almanac for 11/23 – 12/6/18 

Early Ice-Up

The long-term forecast that said November would have above-average temperatures sure missed the mark. Numerous small lakes and marshes have iced-up already. Woody Hagge sent me this note about 39-acre Foster Lake in Hazelhurst, a seepage lake that is broadly representative of average area lakes: “Foster Lake froze-over on November 14 (night of November 13-14). November 14 is the earliest freeze-up date since 1995 when the lake froze on November 11. November 14 is the 4th earliest ice-up date since I started keeping records 43 years ago (7 Nov. 1991 and 8 Nov. 1976 were the earliest).” (Note: the latest ice-up occurred on 12/28/2015.)

The average autumn ice-up on Foster Lake over the last 42 years has been 11/27. This is two weeks early. The average date has been steadily climbing in the last 30 years, so this is a good reversal of that trend, however momentary it may be in the overall trend. 

The average duration of ice cover on Foster is 140 days, or 20 weeks from now. That’s April 16 if you’re already waiting.

Our larger lakes ice-up significantly later in the fall and ice-out later in the spring, Trout Lake or Fence Lake usually taking the honor.

One last statistic: Given that we had such a late spring this year and ice-out was May 7^th on Foster Lake, 2018 was the shortest open water season since Woody started keeping records – 193 days. The average open water season lasts 225 days, with the longest season lasting 265 days in 2015.

Sightings – Evening Grosbeaks, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Northern Bobwhites

            On 11/16, Jim Schuppel on Fish Trap Rd. in Park Falls had 14 evening grosbeaks visiting his feeders, while a friend in Washburn reported 17 at his feeders on 11/13. Watch for them this winter – this may be one of our best winters for seeing them in the last 20 years.

            Several individuals contacted me with sightings of red-bellied woodpeckers at their feeders and wondered about their abundance in our area. In the southeastern U.S., it’s the most abundant woodpecker, but in the Northwoods, red-bellied woodpeckers remain quite uncommon. It was once thought that the tension zone in Wisconsin was its northernmost limit, but since the 1960s, the species has been moving northward likely due to maturing forests and an increase in backyard feeders. We had individuals visiting our feeders in Manitowish a few years ago, and we had one for a few days this summer, but they remain relatively rare the further north you go (see the range map). 

red-bellied woodpecker rang map

            Jinny Swartout sent me a photo of nine northern bobwhites eating seed beneath one of her feeders in Minocqua. Perhaps if you were in southern Wisconsin, this wouldn’t be too unusual, but northern bobwhite aren’t really a northern species – their northernmost range is central Wisconsin. Jinny’s birds are likely a release, planned or otherwise, of pen-raised birds by a hunter training his dogs.

            And Mary and I were sighted cross-country skiing on 11/15, though we could easily have been skiing as of 11/12. Early snow that’s staying -yay!

Historical Aerial Photos

            Zach Wilson sent me this link to aerial photos taken in Wisconsin in 1937 and 1938: 

            https://maps.sco.wisc.edu/WHAIFinder/#7/44.750/-89.750. Click on where you live to see what it looked like 80 years ago!

            We live in Manitowish in Mary’s grandparent’s home (John and Ann Nutter) that they bought in 1922. We were always told about the bridge that Grandpa Nutter built across the Manitowish River before Highway 47 existed. Well, it’s here in one of the 1938 photos, which is a treasure for us to see. 

Check out the website - you might find something equally interesting about your family or about the landscape where you now live.

Bird Feeders

            Now’s the time to have your bird feeders stocked. Some folks question whether to start feeding birds if their family plans on going away for a few weeks (or more) in the winter. Won’t the birds starve? The simple answer is no.

            Birds have an assortment of places they check for food, and if your feeder is empty, they’ll move on to a restaurant that’s still serving. 

            There is some concern that birds may be staying further north, or expanding their rangesfurther north, in response to how much food is available at feeding stations. After all, an estimated 50 million households in the U.S. and Canada buy bird seed every year, creating a $4 billion market.

Other concerns exist as well such as fostering dependency, altering natural distribution, density and migration patterns, facilitating the spread of disease, increasing birds hitting windows, and increasing the risk of death from cats and other predators also attracted to feeders.

These are many of the same concerns expressed for feeding deer, bears, or any other wildlife, though I would contend that the feeding of large mammals has far greater negative consequences due to their habitat altering capabilities.

But as for bird feeding, I honestly don’t know if there’s a clear answer to whether it is good or bad. In our relatively unpopulated area, my sense is we’re doing significantly more good than harm. But perhaps the “good” is even more about the gain in our appreciation and understanding of birds than it is in the food we offer. Our love of birds leads to caring more about conserving habitats and minimizing our direct environmental impacts, and that alone is a major “good”. 

Humungous Fungus More Humungous Than Thought

Researchers have just discovered that the “humungous fungus” first found 25 years ago in Michigan's Upper Peninsula has gotten much, much larger. When it was first discovered, the mammoth honey mushroom (Armillaria gallica) was estimated to cover 36 acres and weigh about 220,000 pounds. Researchers now estimate the fungus spreads across 168 acres and weights at least 850,000 pounds. 

photo by Thomas Meyer

They also now believe the specimen to be 2,500 years old, although the fungus could actually be much older. 

Honey mushrooms, like most fungi, produce mushrooms above the ground, but most of the organism is composed of a network of underground tendrils called mycelium, which branch out looking for new food sources. This is how they can sometimes grow to such gargantuan sizes. In fact, the largest known fungus in the world, an Armillaria ostoyaefound in Oregon, covers an area of about 2.5 square miles.

Celestial Events

            We were in Marquette, MI, last weekend, and on Sunday we watched the sunrise over Lake Superior. Venus dominated the southeastern sky. No other stars were visible as the sky lightened, but Venus was brilliant. This makes sense since at -4.6 magnitude, no other celestial object is brighter other than the full moon, which is -13 magnitude. 

The magnitude scale is logarithmic, which if you remember your high school math as well as I do, means little to you. So, here’s the take-away: A difference of 1 in magnitude corresponds to a change in brightness by a factor of 2.51. Each additional difference of 1 in magnitude is then multiplied by 2.51. So, a difference of 2 magnitudes is 6.3 times brighter; 3 magnitudes is 15.8 times brighter; 4 magnitudes is 39.8 times brighter; 5 magnitudes difference is 100 times brighter, etc.

            The brightest star in the night sky is Sirius at -1.5 magnitude, a full 3 magnitudes less than Venus. So, the planet Venus is about 16 times brighter than the brightest star in our sky. That’s bright!

            The full moon occurred last night, 11/22, but is still 99% illuminated tonight, 11/23.

            On 11/26, the average high temperature in Minocqua drops to 32° for the first time since March 5. Minocqua averages 100 days with high temperatures for the day at or below freezing.

            On 11/28, Venus reaches its greatest brilliance for the year at -4.8 magnitude.

            On 12/3, look before sunrise for Venus about 4 degrees below the waning crescent moon.

            We are well on our way to winter solstice, but the days are growing shorter at a much reduced rate – only one minute per day now (thank goodness!).

            On 12/6, look before sunrise for Mercury about 2 degrees below the waning crescent moon.

            For planet watching in December, before sunrise look for Mercury and Venus in the southeast (look much later in month for Jupiter emerging in the east-southeast).

            After sunset, look in the south for Mars, which then sets in the west around midnight. 

            

Thought for the Week

“Earth may be alive: not as the ancients saw her – a sentient Goddess with a purpose and foresight – but alive like a tree. A tree that quietly exists, never moving except to sway in the wind, yet endlessly conversing with the sunlight and the soil. Using sunlight and water and nutrient minerals to grow and change. But all done so imperceptibly, that to me the old oak tree on the green is the same as it was when I was a child.”  James Lovelock

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call 715-476-2828, e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI

A Northwoods Almanac for 11/8/18

A Northwoods Almanac for 11/9 – 22, 2018 

Winter Finch Forecast

Birdwatchers in the Northwoods know that the abundance and diversity of species seen from one winter to the next varies enormously. One year we can be awash in redpolls or pine siskins at our feeders – seemingly little armies of them – and the next year, nada nada. The fluctuations occur mostly in the highly nomadic northern finches, birds like redpolls, siskins, purple finches and pine grosbeaks.

Northern finches only leave their breeding ranges in northern Canada and move far south when there is a shortage of “seeds” (berries, catkins, and cones) to get them through the winter. If the seed crops of white and yellow birches, alders, American mountain-ashes, pines and spruces are good in the boreal forest, the birds can manage to stay the winter up there. But if those seed sources are poor, they’ll fly as far as it takes to find the food they need.

Since 1999, Ron Pittaway of the Ontario Field Ornithologists has prepared an annual forecast of what winter finch species are most likely to move south based on the abundance of seed crops in the boreal forest. According to Pittaway, it’ll be an irruption year – a year when the birds come south in big numbers – because the seed crops are poor in most of the boreal forest. This is tough on the birds, but great news for those of us here who will be the beneficiaries. 

So, stock your bird feeders! This should be a banner winter to see cone-loving species. But take this with a grain of salt. “Should” means could - the question is always whether these birds will concentrate in only some areas or be spread out across the entire north. If you can get neighbors to also consistently feed, therefore setting up an abundant dining area, you could see excellent numbers of birds.

As for individual species, here’s Pittaway’s breakdown:

Pine grosbeaks love mountain ash berries and conifer cones. They’re in short supply in the far north, so we’re likely to see good numbers of pine grosbeaks coming south. They like black sunflower seeds, so keep those feeders supplied! And if you have mountain ashes (and crabapples), the grosbeaks will also likely find you.

Purple finches prefer both conifer and hardwood seeds, so again given the poor seed crops well north of here, we should see good numbers of purple finches. They, too, like black sunflower seeds.

Common redpolls feast on birch, alder, and conifer seeds, and because of the poor northern crops, we could be awash in redpolls this winter. They like both niger and black sunflower seeds.

common redpoll photo by Bev Engstrom

Pine siskins prefer spruce, fir, and hemlock seeds, which are relatively poor up north, so we could see good numbers of these birds, too. 

Evening grosbeaks have been in strong decline for several decades, so even though conifer and hardwoods seed crops are poor in their normal wintering areas, we will be lucky to see moderate numbers of evening grosbeaks. I often wonder if we’ll ever see big numbers like we used to back in the 80’s and 90’s.

Finally, white-winged and red crossbills may appear in small numbers this winter, particularly white-winged crossbills because of their preference for spruce cones. These birds are so nomadic that it’s difficult to know just where they’ll go.

Bohemian waxwings aren’t finches, but they are gorgeous birds that we look forward to seeing every winter, and they, too, should be numerous. Watch for them in crabapple and mountain ash trees. They like buckthorn berries, too, which is unfortunate, because they’ll help spread them. You’ll often hear bohemians before you’ll see them – they make a continuous twittering.

Two types of irruptions may occur: one in the fall and the other in the late winter when a modest tree seed supply further north is exhausted. So, if you don’t see all these birds early this winter, keep watching.

Keep an eye also on the trees around you for their relative abundance of seeds. Eastern white pines have bumper crops every three to five years, while white spruce produces bumper crops every two to six years. Eastern hemlocks have good cone crops usually every second year. Interestingly, the abundance of seed crops is usually widespread over hundreds of miles and typically synchronized between species.

So, November is the time to clean your feeders, stock up on sunflower seeds, cajole your family into buying you a good pair of binoculars for Christmas if you don’t have a good pair, and get ready for what could be an excellent winter for watching birds.

Sightings – Bohemian Waxwings and Common Redpolls

            I saw my first flock of common redpolls in Marquette, Michigan, on 11/3, along with a few pine siskins. We also had our first flock of bohemian waxwings appear on our crabapple trees on 11/5.

House Wren Architecture 

Sarah Krembs in Manitowish Waters wrote to me several times over the summer and fall of her observations of house wrens. She recently took a very detailed, and I think fascinating, look at the nest construction of male house wrens. Here’s some of what she discovered:

“Not that I'm rescinding my summer's comments about male house wrens (i.e. poor interior decorators), but I may be owing the male house wren a bit more respect. As I mentioned, we cleaned out the bird houses around the garden and in three of them I found evidence of a very hard working male house wren. I had watched this summer as he busily created nests but I hadn't realized HOW busy he had been. Two nests were partials and a third nest was huge. The nests were all made of the same type of twig (looks like poplar). He had zero creativity in finding nice soft materials for his lady friend to get comfortable in during the duration of incubation, but I know that's not his job. Instead, he gathered over a thousand sticks one by one and placed them into boxes in the hopes his lady would approve of one of them. I cannot fault the male house wren in his persistence.                     
             “Here are the facts: I counted all the twigs in the nest which was half as small as the large one I have in the picture. The half-size nest had 317 twigs, all of the same type, but of all different lengths. The longest twig was over nine inches long. The large nest had to have at least 600 twigs. Between all three, I figure this guy had carried in the range of well over 1,000 twigs. That's 1,000+ individual flights to go find a twig, bring it back, shove it in a one-inch hole, arrange it in the house, and go back and do it again. This doesn't even count the number of times he had to retry with a twig, because I saw him drop quite a few as he attempted shoving them into the hole of the box.

           “Here's the saddest part: we never had a family of house wrens in the area where he built all these nests this summer. I don't know if his lady friend never made it back, decided she didn't like ANY of his efforts, or if something else happened. But, poor Mr. House Wren did A LOT, A LOT of unpaid and unappreciated labor without complaint for his lady friend, and for that, I've gotta respect the guy.”    

I followed up Sarah’s study with some research and found that the male house wren claims an unoccupied territory, then places some sticks in a cavity or nest box apparently to demonstrate to a female that he’ll be a good mate. He’ll also typically add some bits of wool or cotton, some seed fibers from early seeding trees like aspens and cottonwoods, and/or some insect cocoons. If and when a female then pairs with the male, she’ll largely take over the nest-building, finally lining the stick nest with soft material. Her total trips to finish the nest average about 170.

It’s thought that all the sticks that the male first places in the cavity act as a “house-on-stilts” so that any rainwater leaking in can run out the bottom of the cavity or collect in the bottom without wetting the actual nest.

Re-use of cavities is common, so it will be interesting to see if Sarah’s male returns, and if his efforts get rewarded in 2019 after he was so spurned in 2018.

Celestial Events

            On 11/11, look for Saturn 1.5 degrees below the waxing crescent moon. 

            The peak North Taurid meteor shower occurs later that night and into the predawn of 11/12. 

            The peak Leonid meteor shower is best seen in the predawn of 11/17 through the predawn of 11/18. As the Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Temple-Tuttle, the comet litters our atmosphere with bits of debris that vaporize, which we then see as “meteors.” The Leonids are famous for periodic storms of meteors, but no Leonid storm is expected this year. Nevertheless, if you’re up early and the moon has set, this is a meteor shower worth watching. BTW, you don’t need to look in any particular part of the sky for the meteors. They streak out in all directions, and thus appear in all parts of the sky.

            The full moon – the Beaver/Freezing/Ice Is Forming/Snow Moon – occurs on 11/22.

Thought for the Week

            You could throw away the calendar and still know it is November if you listened. The wind has its November voice, and so do the fallen leaves; but the unmistakable voices are those of the owls and the geese . . . The owl’s call is the companion of long, deep nights and the winds that rattle the latch. The geese say, “Get up and go!” but the owls say, “Stay and tend the fire.– Hal Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

            

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call 715-476-2828, e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI