A Northwoods Almanac for July 20, 2018

A Northwoods Almanac for 7/20 – 8/2/18  by John Bates

Sightings – Bull Moose, Eastern Gray Treefrog, Hooded Merganser with Hitchhikers, Mystery Fledgling 

On 7/6, Bill Draves was paddling upstream on an area river at 8:30 in the morning when he heard water rustling and thought it might be otters. He came around a bend in the river and instead found a bull moose standing in the middle of the stream about 100 feet away. He noted, “So immense. First time seeing a moose for me in 40 years . . . Got 4 photos in 5 seconds and turned around and paddled back downstream. Definitely a 20-year canoe highlight in my life!” 

photo by Bill Draves

On 7/5, Sally von Zirngibl on Papoose Lake was sitting on her pier in the late afternoon when a hen merganser swam past with 6 chicks on her back. Sally wrote, “She was fording the choppy waters into the wind quite valiantly. Occasionally she would dip briefly under the water leaving the chicks to fend for themselves. Upon her momentary return, they would scramble back onto her back. I marveled at her wise approach to scaffolding them into swimmers.” I wish Sally had gotten a picture of the hen, because that’s the most chicks I’ve ever heard of hitchhiking a ride on their mother’s back!                                                   
            Kay Rhyner on Yawkey Lake in Hazelhurst went out to water her window box flowers and found an eastern gray tree frog perched on the box. She noted, “We were just talking a few nights ago and wondering why we haven't heard their voices in the evening. This tree frog did not seem to mind me getting up close and personal.”

photo  by Kay Rhyner

Donna Rifken spotted a large fledgling bird near Blue Lake in Minocqua. When her dog Gertie went to sniff the odd bundle of fluff, Dona said, “The little creature rolled onto its back and snapped at Gertie with its little, yellow talons . . . It had some flight feathers but wore a downy shirt.”

photo by Donna Rifken

Fledgling birds are often hard to identify, and that’s the case with this bird. So far the best thoughts from several experts are that it could be a merlin or a sharp-shinned hawk – take a look at the picture and see what you think! 

Ravens Bombing Sled Dogs with Rocks

Sandra Brown Gellis and Mark Gellis sent me this fascinating email last week: “When we visited Denali National Park, we went to the sled dog kennels (this park being the only one using sled dogs). The ranger there told us about a resident raven family with what is apparently learned behavior, as this has gone on for years . . . the parent ravens fly over the kennels and drop small rocks; whichever dogs react the most are the ones who continue to get rocks dropped on them all summer long. He told us to watch for this behavior and, sure enough, during the sledding demonstration, what should happen but ravens are dropping rocks on dogs left in their kennels. 

“I would think that in a place with short summers the ravens would be real busy making nests, making babies, protecting babies, feeding babies, etc., and that this would leave little time for dropping rocks on dogs to see them bark and jump, but apparently that is not the case. I realize that this is not a Northwoods story; nevertheless, they were just amazing, especially because we do have ravens in the Northwoods.”

So, dear readers, while you’re trying to figure out the identity of the fledgling bird, figure this story out, too, because I have no explanation other than apparently ravens have an unusual sense of humor.

Balsam Fir Mortality

I’ve received several emails about balsam fir dying off, so if you have some of these trees on your property turning brown, here’s the explanation from Paul Cigan, Forest Health Specialist for WDNR. “We have seen and received tens of reports of widespread balsam fir mortality across the entire upper Great Lakes region this spring due to a phenomenon called winter drying. The Cable area was hit especially hard from my observations. Severe winter drying occurred this spring due to extreme weather conditions. It was caused when the deep snow kept the soil frozen so that water could not be absorbed by tree root systems, while at the same time trees were losing water through their needles due to the presence of warm, dry air. Then, after the snow melted, we received little precipitation until late May. This was a recipe for mortality for many balsam firs.”  

Deer Flies

            Tis the season not only for mosquitoes, but deer flies. As part of the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas, Mary and I joined our friends Jeff Wilson, Terry Daulton, and Bruce Bacon last week to count birds in the block they were assigned on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. Bruce is a master bird bander, so he spent the morning setting up nets and banding birds while Jeff, Terry, Mary and I had the far easier job of boating very slowly around the Flowage and trying to identify and ultimately confirm nesting birds.

            The deer flies were abundant on land, so I gave Bruce a commercial deer fly strip that I place on my hat which acts like a fly paper to capture the endlessly circling little beasts. When we returned, Bruce had 74 stuck on his hat, covering every square millimeter possible on the strip. I noted with some pride that he didn’t equal my record of 75 from a hike I did several years ago, but Bruce also claimed he had killed at least another 100 that hadn’t landed on his hat, so he’s got me beat.

            I’ve written about this in previous July columns, but it’s worth repeating. If deer flies are making you crazy, run, don’t walk, to various outdoor supply shops or hardware stores, and buy a pack of these strips. If you want to go direct to the ingenious fellow in Michigan that invented them, go to www.deerflypatches.com. These strips really do work, and they can make all the difference between a great hike and one that leaves you slapping ceaselessly at the very nimble and very quick deer flies. 

Loon Parenting

Jim Phelps on Mermaid Lake in Presque Isle sent this note last week: “We had the first successful loon chick in years. It was first spotted swimming around June 22. While my wife and I were sitting on the dock watching mom and the chick swim by, another loon flew by and landed. The two adults then swam away and went around a point and out of site. For an hour, the chick kept swimming by and then back out in the lake. Finally, we lost sight of it. It headed the opposite direction of the adults. A half hour later three adults came around that same point. No chick. To us this seems like very early for the chick to be on its own.” Jim was curious if I could provide an explanation for what appeared to be some seriously poor parenting by the adults. 

On all things loony, I consult either Dr. Mike Meyer or Dr. Walter Piper who have banded and researched loons in our area for decades. Here was Mike’s response: 

“A loon pair will hide their chick or lure an ‘intruding’ loon away from their chick as the intruding loon will often attempt to kill the chick in an attempt to destabilize the pair bond and usurp the territory. The parents will reconnect with the chick once the intruder is driven off the lake, which can take quite some time. They will often relocate the chick using vocalizations. Of course, other bad things could happen to a young chick off on its own regardless of the intruder - think bald eagles, large pike, jet skis, etc. However, many young loons are killed by intruding loons every year, so it is adaptive for the parents to leave the chick alone while driving the intruders from the territory.”

Mike then suggested we watch a short video of a loon battle that Walter Piper had observed: https://loonproject.org/loon-research/loon-territories/

Paddle on Cedar Lake – Loon Battle

Not long after this email exchange, I joined a program through ICORE (Iron County Outdoor Recreation Enthusiasts) that brought Susan Knight, interim director of the Trout Lake Limnology Station and an exceptional aquatic botanist, to Cedar Lake in Iron County to help folks learn to identify aquatic plants. We had a wonderful morning poking around looking at submerged and shoreline plants and were just heading back to the boat landing when we noticed two loons racing across the water, one chasing the other. The loon doing the chasing would invariably catch up to the loon in front, forcing the front one to dive and come up in another direction at full speed flapping its wings and rowing itself across the water. This went on for several minutes until the chase was directed right by our canoes and kayaks so we had a “ringside” seat. 

It was unnerving to watch. The chasing loon was clearly beating up the other loon, and we couldn’t understand why the front loon wouldn’t try to fly away because it was losing badly. Eventually the beaten loon swam into some shoreline shrubs, and perhaps crawled up on to the bank – we couldn’t see it clearly to know. Meanwhile, the other loon “stood guard” 15 feet out from the shrubs, waiting for the other loon to emerge. 

It never did. We paddled over to see if it was injured, but it concealed itself beautifully, and we couldn’t find it. Meanwhile, the guarding loon took off.

So, we were left wondering who was who. Intruding loons often force combat from territorial loons on our area lakes – they want the territory and the male or female from the mated pair have to defend their site or lose it.  

 Walter Piper wrote about these conflicts in his last blog post, “The Forgotten Ones” (see https://loonproject.org/recent-events/): “Many loons live on the margins. These are ‘floaters’ –  mostly 2 to 7-year olds who spend the entire summer without a fixed home. Floaters are the individuals that forage alone on small lakes or skulk along the outskirts of defended territories, occasionally socializing with or accosting territory holders. Unlike territorial loons, they drift about.

“Although their lives might seem simpler and less stressful than those of territorial loons, floaters – even young ones – face challenges of their own. Our work has shown that 2- to 4-year olds are much lighter than 5- to 7-year olds, are more submissive to territory holders during territorial intrusions, and almost never initiate battles for territorial ownership. Yet these youngsters do intrude into breeding territories . . . Our data show that young floaters intrude strategically into territories within a focused area (usually about 10km in diameter) so as to meet and interact with owners of their own sex that they might evict down the road.

“Having reached optimal adult condition, floaters of 5+ years of age begin to size up owners with greater urgency, choosing to battle those that appear weak or are noticeably weaker than they were on a previous visit.”

I had read this prior to our paddle, so our group talked about these battles, but we still didn’t know what to make of the battle until we quickly came around an island across from the boat landing and saw an adult pair swimming with a chick. Given their appearance of calm, we speculated that it was the territorial adult that had driven off an intruder, and was back with his/her mate. There was no way to know for sure, however. But intruders that defeat the territorial male or female often harass or outright kill the chick from the previous pair. And while the winning intruder will then be accepted by the formerly mated individual, I don’t know if this happens instantaneously.

One way or another, it sure isn’t Disneyland out there for loons.

Celestial Events

            On 7/20, look after dusk for Jupiter about 4 degrees below the waxing gibbous moon. Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on this date in 1969.

            On 7/25, look all night for Saturn about 2 degrees below the moon. The full moon, the year’s most distant and smallest full moon, occurs on 7/27.

            Look for the peak Delta Aquarid meteor shower in the early morning hours of 7/28. This is a modest shower, averaging 15 to 20 per hour.

Thought for the Week

“In July, the blue pontederia or pickerelweed blooms in large beds in the shallow parts of our pleasant river, and swarms with yellow butterflies in continual motion. Art cannot rival this pomp of purple and gold. Indeed, the river is a perpetual gala, and boasts each month a new ornament.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com. 

A Northwoods Almanac for 7/6/18

A Northwoods Almanac for July 6 – 19, 2018  by John Bates

Loon Update

From Walter Piper’s blog (https://loonproject.org/recent-events/): “As of today [6/30], 32 of our territorial pairs have hatched chicks [Piper is monitoring 123 pairs overall]. We are on pace with last year, despite the three-week delay in nesting resulting from the cold winter . . . 2018 looks to be at least an average year for chick production.”

Piper notes that in the past two weeks, four pairs lost their chicks. He adds, however, that “loss of chicks in the first two weeks of life is not terribly surprising. Young chicks must confront a great many challenges, including simply keeping themselves warm and avoiding physical injury as they learn to swim and move about. But the greatest hazards to hatchlings, we have learned, are strictly biological. Being tiny, having limited mobility, and with only a vague sense of the dangers posed by much larger organisms in their habitat, young chicks can be attacked and killed by a wide variety of animals — intruding loons, snapping turtles, muskies, and eagles, to name a few.”

photo by Bev Engstrom

Isle Royale Update

The National Park Service gave final approval of a plan to capture 20 to 30 mainland wolves over three to five years and transport them to Isle Royale to fill the role of the apex predator. 

Wolves made their way to the island in the late 1940s. Their numbers reached as high as 50, but only two remain. Inbreeding and disease are believed responsible for their recent drop-off. 

Without this action, the extirpation of wolves was expected, which raised concerns about possible effects to the current Isle Royale ecosystem, including impacts of an unchecked moose population on forest vegetation communities. 

Sightings - Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtle, Wood Turtle, Polyphemus Moth, Downy Woodpecker Save 

Darlene Kaminski sent me a photo of an eastern spiny softshell turtle laying eggs near the Manitowish River. This is a notable sighting given that these turtles are very uncommon in the Northwoods, preferring warmer waters found further south.

photo by Darlene Kaminski

Equally uncommon are wood turtles, a threatened species in Wisconsin. But on 6/1, Mary and I spotted one across the road from our home in Manitowish. We’ve lived in Manitowish for 34 years, and this is the first one we’ve seen close to our home.

Howard P. sent a photo of a Polyphemus moth that was visiting his yard in Minocqua. These moths can have up to a 6-inch wingspan, and are noted for their single oval transparent spot ringed with yellow, black, and blue on each wing. In Greek mythology, Polyphemus refers to the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon; hence the connection. 

photo by Howard P

The top of a tree snapped off in a windstorm and came down in the Rhinelander backyard of Sharon Gobert. This is not unusual, but the tree had a nest of downy woodpeckers inside a cavity, and Sharon and her daughter Kristen could hear the chicks calling. They thought that if they could prop the tree back up against some other trees, the mother could get back to her babies. But they couldn’t budge the tree.    

The next morning, they could hear the parents call in distress because they couldn’t get to their chicks. So, Sharon and Kristen called a few friends to come over and help them lift the tree and prop it up. Kristen said the adults sat on a branch and watched this transpire, and as soon as the tree was up, the female flew in to check the chicks. Not only that, Kristen said, but the male came and perched on the wood pile next to her, looked at her and cheeped a few times as if to say “thanks so much for the help and saving our kids,” and then flew off to the nest.

Tapetum Lucidum - Eyeshine

Sarah Krembs from Manitowish Waters went out last week at dusk to listen for whip-poor-wills, and while she didn’t hear any, she instead saw one sitting on the road, its eyes glowing red in her headlights. I’ve seen this before, too, and my question has always been, “Why red?”

Whip-poor-wills, like many animals, have a mirror-like structure called a tapetum lucidumimmediately behind the retina which reflects visiblelightback through the retina. This increases the light available to thephotoreceptorsand contributes to the superior night visionof many animals.

Since whip-poor-wills hunt for insects in the poor light of dusk and pre-dawn, as well as during full moons, they need night-adapted vision. I haven’t been able to find anything in the literature which explicitly explains why their eyes reflect orange or red, but I suspect it has to do with their need to be less visible when sitting on a nest or to prevent being seen by predators at night.   

Night eyeshine occurs in a wide variety of colors– white eyeshine occurs in many fish, like walleye; blue eyeshine occurs in some mammals such as horses; green eyeshine occurs in cats, dogs, and raccoons among others; while red eyeshine occurs in coyote, rodents, opossums, and birds.

Sarah would likely never have seen the whip-poor-will that night if its eyes didn’t reflect her headlights. But whip-poor-wills are also almost impossible to see during daylight, too, due to their cryptic coloration. A ground-nesting species, the eastern whip-poor-will lays its 2-egg clutch directly on the leaf litter of the forest floor. During the day, adults remain motionless on the nest or on a roost site, and you literally have to nearly step on one to see it. If you were to see one, the adults usually perform a broken-wing display like a killdeer to try to lead you away from the nest.

I find it interesting that the hatching of chicks seems to be closely tied to periods of the full moon. Eastern whip-poor-wills usually forage at dawn and dusk, but on bright moonlit nights they also catch moths and other insects throughout the night. This greater availability of food helps them meet the energy demands of their rapidly growing chicks. 

According to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, eastern whip-poor-will populations have declined by almost 3% per year between 1966 and 2015, resulting in a cumulative decline of 75% during that time.The reasons for their decline include the loss of habitat to agricultural crops and grazing, the maturation of forests, better fire control, and collisions with cars while they’re feeding on or near roads at night. 

I love hearing whip-poor-wills, but I also love being able to roll up my windows and leave because they call so loudly and incessantly. In one study, the birds sang approximately 59 songs per minute, or one per second, and for 15 minutes or more without pause. Some researchers have recorded them singing continuously for over 1,000 calls, and that can drive a person a little crazy. 

More on the Interior Decorating Skills (or Lack Thereof) of Male House Wrens 

A friend and I have been enjoyably bantering back and forth about whether male house wrens are good examples of how males in general completely lack interior decorating skills. She’s right, of course, but I feel compelled to at least partially defend my gender. Her latest shot across my bow, however, quoted this: “At times when the female bird [a house wren] disapproves of the material used by the male bird, it dismantles the nest by throwing out the sticks used by the male bird one at a time. After choosing a nesting site the female wren then takes over the construction and makes a nest cup over the pile of sticks made by the male bird. Materials used by the female wren to line the nest are soft material like feather, hair, wool, spider cocoons, strips of bark, rootlets, moss, and trash.”

Perhaps I should just concede defeat.

Flowers Currently in Bloom

            Mary and I took a short walk down old Hwy. 51 in Manitowish on 7/1, and the flowers along the roadside and in the wetlands were prolific. We saw the following: joe pye weed, marsh milkweed, common bladderwort, blue flag iris, and marsh cinquefoil in the wetter areas, and in the drier areas, common St. John’s wort, daisy fleabane, daisy, bush clover, wood sorrel, common milkweed, tall buttercup, brown-eyed Susan, tall meadow rue, heal all, marsh hedge-nettle, wild mint, everlasting pea, bird’s foot trefoil, orange and yellow hawkweed, fireweed, and large white-flowered anemone, among others.

May – Warmest Ever

Almost every tract of land in the contiguous United States was warmer than normal in May, helping to break a Dust Bowl-era record. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the month’s average temperature of 65.4 degrees eclipsed the previous high mark of 64.7 degrees set in 1934. The pattern presented a major contrast from April, which ranked the 13^thcoldest on record. However, thanks to May’s record-setting warmth, the nation overall posted its 22nd-warmest spring (March through May) in records that date back to 1895, more than offsetting the cold April. 

Celestial Events

            Today, 7/6, the earth is at aphelion, or the farthest from the sun that it will be in 2018 – 94.5 million miles.

The next three weeks or so mark the average warmest days for our area, with an average high of 79°, and an average low of 55°. 

On 7/10, we’ll be blessed with 15 hours and 30 minutes of daylight, down from our high of 15 hours and 45 minutes on summer solstice.

New moon occurs on 7/12. On 7/15, look for Venus after dusk 1.6° below the waxing crescent moon.

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. Every place, like every person, is elevated by the love and respect shown toward it, and by the way in which its bounty is received.”
― Richard Nelson, The Island Within