A Northwoods Almanac for 5/3/2019

A Northwoods Almanac for 5/3–16/2019 

Sightings Including Some First-of-the Years (FOY)

4/15: Bev Engstrom sent a series of beautiful photos of sandhill cranes standing in the Wisconsin River near Rhinelander.

photo by Bev Engstrom

4/16: Our FOY cowbirds appeared at our feeders in Manitowish, which was not necessarily a welcome sight given that they are “brood parasites,” meaning they lay their eggs in other bird’s nests.

4/17: John Randolph observed ospreys on both nesting platforms on the east and west sides of Hwy 47, north of Fawn Lake Rd. That same day in Manitowish, a flock of pine siskins showed up at our feeders. In our area, siskins have been conspicuous by their absence – we saw none the entire winter.

4/18: Mary Jenks reported the first loon of the season, which arrived on Mann Lake in Boulder Junction. She noted: “This is earlier than last year when the first loon arrived on April 25. Due to the rain we had and our aeration system, about 40% of the lake is open. We haven’t seen any fledged chicks in two years, so we are hoping for a successful breeding season this year.” 

Mary also said she had seen a yellow-rumped warbler, eastern phoebe and belted kingfisher in the previous two days, all FOYs. Our FOY tree sparrow appeared in Manitowish.

4/19: Female red-winged blackbirds arrived at our feeders today, almost a month after our first male red-wings arrived. Studies say they typically follow the males by three weeks, so these were a bit tardy.

4/20: Bob Kovar on Wild Rice Lake in Manitowish Waters reported two loons had returned to the partially open waters of the lake. In Manitowish, we saw our FOY eastern phoebe and northern flicker.

4/21: Mark Pitman, walking on the Minocqua Country Club golf course at 8:30 a.m. spotted a snowy owl. He wrote, “I’m not sure if this sighting qualifies for FOY or LOY (last-of-year), you’ll have to make the call.” 

4/24: Pat Schmidt on Silver Lake in Hazelhurst reported that a loon had returned to the partially open water. On Powell Marsh, all the ice had melted, and the waterfowl were well dispersed. Duck species included buffleheads, ring-necks, common and hooded mergansers, and mallards. At our home in Manitowish, FOY white-throated sparrows arrived as well as a FOY pied-billed grebe. And we heard our first choruses of wood frogs, spring peepers, and chorus frogs.

4/26: I heard our FOY pine warblers.

            I apologize that these sightings are only up to 4/26. We were out of town over the weekend and were unable to update them any further.

Floods

The Manitowish River was still flooding heavily as of 4/26, filling all the floodplains to their maximum capacity. 

flooded Manitowish River from our home in Manitowish on 4/25/19

Ecologically, this is good. Natural springtime floods are scrubbers and spongers. During floods, rivers cut new channels, resculpt older ones, clean silt out of spawning gravels, and flush accumulated autumn leaves and woody debris into the water from the flood plain. The floodwater additionally scours long strings of filamentous algae and other plants off the riverbed. 

Floods also carry wood and rock debris that drop out along the way and provide new structure within the river. Since different fish need different habitat structure for spawning, feeding, and resting, floods are key events in shaping and maintaining high-quality fish habitat. 

Though some fish and other animals die in floods, most survive by resting in floodplain side channels, sloughs, and logjams. When the waters slowly recede, they multiply on the abundance of food and new spawning habitat. 

During all this high flow, the perennial plants along the shore and in the shallow water hold the soil and sediments in place with their network of roots, while the floodplains work to sponge up the high water, and then release it slowly, keeping the river flowing in summer’s drier months.

Where we’ve kept floodplains intact, where we’ve kept homes out of floodplains, where we’ve kept the shorelines of feeder creeks and streams intact, and where farmlands have buffers along waterways, floods usually remain positive forces, not destructive ones. We get into trouble, however, when we ignore the enormous volume and power of snowmelt and spring rains and assume we can outwit the floods with dams and channelized rivers. 

As we all know and/or have learned, nature always bats last. But if we work with nature, we usually win by being on her team, so when she bats last, we bat with her. 

I’ve attached a photo of the Manitowish flooding so you can see some of its extent.

Migrants

Many birds currently at our feeders are just passing through on their way to their far northern breeding grounds. Fox sparrows, tree sparrows, and common redpolls are common at our feeders as of 4/26, and all three species will eventually push on many hundreds of miles north before stopping to create a territory and find a mate.

They’re tourists, if you will, in need of a good restaurant and hotel as they press onward. Like us in our travels, sometimes they stay a while in one place because the service is good.   

Our homes can be rest stops for them. Whether we provide a 5-star hotel or merely a 7-11, they’re all important. It’s fun to see yourself as a bed-and-breakfast for migrating birds, providing the necessary cover and food to entice them to visit a while. What we get in return is the privilege of seeing them for whatever time they’ll share with us, which, I think, is a great trade.

Spring Molt

            By now, nearly all American goldfinches should be molted into their colorful “pre-nuptial” plumage. The male goldfinches display this change for us to see at our feeders, gradually transforming into their brilliant yellow and black breeding plumage. 

            Feathers simply wear out over time and need to be replaced. Smaller birds replace all their feathers once, and sometimes twice in a year. But large birds such as eagles and pelicans don't grow a new set of flight feathers each year; they take multiple years to gradually restore all of their individual primary and secondary feathers on their wings.

Mother’s Day Birds

            I love Mother’s Day because it helps me to stop and remember all the things my mother did for our family, and that Mary does now for our family. But I also love Mother’s Day because it usually marks the return to our feeders of ruby-throated hummingbirds, Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and indigo buntings, a sudden color collage that highlights the return of our neotropical migrants. 

These four species all winter in Central and South America, and base their return flights on the length of daylight they experience down there. Once they’ve crossed the Gulf of Mexico, they make their way to us, hip-hopping as the weather dictates. In average years, they typically appear within 3 days on either side of Mother’s Day.

            To establish territories, the males usually arrive several days to a week or two prior to the females, so you should see them first.

            These four species aren’t the only neotropical migrants arriving around Mother’s Day – 133 of our 236 breeding species in Wisconsin spend the winter in Mexico and points south. 

Most incoming neotropical species, however, seldom visit our feeders because they’re not seed or nectar feeders. They rely instead on insects. Their successful return hinges on coordinating their arrival with good insect hatches. A late freeze or snowstorm can be very stressful on these insect-eating birds. So, if you want to see the most birds, make sure you have a yard full of native plants that attract insects as well as providing seeds and nectar.

Hummers and White Sugar

While the use of white sugar is a major curse on present day human civilization, it is the only sugar you should be putting in your hummingbird feeder. Not organic, not brown, not turbinado, not agave, not maple, not molasses – using these can cause death because of their high iron content. So, while I hate to support the white sugar industry in any manner, hummers can’t digest the other sugars – plain and simple. 

The correct proportion is one part white sugar to four parts water. And there’s no need whatsoever for red food coloring or dyes – the hummers will find your feeders whether the sugar water is clear or red.

Celestial Events

            For planet watching in May, look before dawn for Venus very low in the east (lost by mid-month in suns glare), Jupiter bright in the southeast, and Saturn also in the southeast. After dusk, look for Mars low in the northwest.

            The new moon occurs on 5/4. May 5 marks the mid-point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. We hit 14 hours and 31 minutes of daylight on this day.

            The peak Eta Aquarid shower occurs in the early morning of 5/4 – look for about 20 meteors per hour.

            Look on 5/7 for Mars about 3 degrees above the waxing crescent moon.

Thought for the Week

            “Many times I have looked into the water, at the algae, the beetles, the rough-skinned newts, and minnows, only to discover my own image, albeit one that is usually shadowlike and distorted. And then occasionally, I have experienced those fleeting, yet paradoxically timeless, moments when the boundary between myself and the world has suddenly dissolved, and the lake and all its myriad creatures have become powerfully and indelibly incorporated into my own, and the existence and fate of the animals and plants and insects have been felt as my own.” – Duncan Taylor