A Northwoods Almanac for 2/21/20

A Northwoods Almanac for 2/21 – 3/5/20  by John Bates

January – Warm and Cloudy!

            January was quite warm, at least by Northwoods standards. According to climate data for Minocqua, the average high in January is 20°, with an average low of 1°. However, we experienced only three days in January where temperatures fell below 0° (1/12 at -2°, 1/16 at -13°, and 1/17 at -15°), and our average low for the month was 14.2° while our average high was 27.2° (from www.weather.com). Worth noting is the variation in data based on the website – Weather Underground’s website says the average high for Minocqua was 25.7, and the average low 11.7°. It’s fair to say, however, that no matter the source, it was significantly warmer than usual.

            And we weren’t the only ones experiencing a warm January. January 2020 was Earth's hottest in 141 years of record-keeping, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There has never been a warmer January in modern history.

            However, we’ve certainly had a good year for snow, with about 20” of snow as of 2/17 still on the ground in Minocqua, and up to 30” in northern Vilas and Iron counties. The snow came early in November, and it’s stayed all winter, making it an excellent recreational season for skiing, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling.

            Wildlife are the winners in the temperature analysis, at least so far. Temperature extremes, which can be killers, have been very modest. At our home in Manitowish, we’ve had two nights over the entire winter where we slid to slightly below -20°, remarkably “warm” extremes given that we used to hit -30° regularly every winter, with occasional -40°s. 

            Of course, winter is very likely here to stay until at least April. So, we’ll see what we still have in store. It’s never wise to bet on warm late winter/early spring temperatures in the Northwoods.

            January was also very cloudy. Since we installed solar panels, we now get double enjoyment out of any sunny day – we’re warmer and we’re making electricity! On our solar graph for January, we showed only 7 days of any significant solar gain, which means we had 24 days of gray for the month.

our solar production for January - only 7 days of sun!

            The good news is that February has been far brighter. As of 2/17, we’ve nearly doubled our solar production over January – 11 days have been at least partly sunny, and of those, 7 have been clear or nearly clear all day. While we’re still well below the solar production we expect to see in June, we’ll take it! 

Beaver Reproductive Cycle

            Beavers mate in February, and are monogamous, or at least until one dies, then the mate will select another partner. Gestation is about 3 ½ months, and three or four kits will follow in May to early June. The kits’ eyes are open when they are born; they can swim within 24 hours of birth; and they are gnawing trees down and building with them after only 11 days.

            They’ll nurse for six to eight weeks, and ultimately stay with their parents for two years, but then are kicked out to fend for themselves. Beavers are known to live for over 20 years, so that’s a lot of kits over a lifetime.

A beaver family spends all winter together inside their lodge. Lodges can be modest or spacious with an initial low feeding platform where the beavers can eat, groom, and dry off, sort of like a mud-room/kitchen combo in human homes. Above this platform, most lodges have a slightly higher level that’s often carpeted with wood shavings where the beavers sleep. The inside chamber can be 5 feet across and 2 feet high, though the record beaver lodge had beds for about eight beavers, and stood 16 feet high and 40 feet wide with walls 4 feet thick. The inside of an ordinary lodge usually just consists of one room, but eight or more beaver may occupy the lodge.

beaver lodge on Day Lake

Which brings up family dynamics. Most of us would be ripping at one another's throats after five wintery months inside a single dark, damp room, but a Canadian study of family dynamics within a lodge found that they got along well, even sleeping together in a friendly heap. In one study, a window was cut into the back of a lodge and the beavers were observed for two years, revealing virtually no familial problems. 

Thus, as usual, the animal world has a lot to teach us about how to get along.

Other February Breeders

            While there may appear to be little going on in February, animals know via photoperiod that spring is on its way and they need to ensure that their young are born when spring arrives. Thus, in Wisconsin, wolves breed most often in February, and the female delivers the pups two months later, typically sometime in later April. 

            Red foxes also mate in February, with 3 to 7 kits born after a 52-day gestation – usually sometime in later April. 

red fox photo by Jeff Richter

            And coyotes usually mate between February and March, with five to seven pups born in late April to early May after a 60 to 63 day gestation. 

coyote photo by Bev Engstrom

Bee My Valentine

            For Valentine’s Day, Mary and I bought one another all the equipment necessary to raise two hives of honey bees this spring. We’ve been talking about doing this for decades, but now we are exceptionally fortunate to have found a mentor who is willing to patiently walk us through all the things we need to know, and are we excited! We’re going to build a shed to house the hives in, and to do so, we’ll use wood from an old cabin that Mary’s grandfather built back in the 1920s. He later dismantled and hauled the wood across the Manitowish River to a spot below where we live now and built a shed. 

            We tore most of the shed down this fall, and we weren’t sure what to do with the wood, but now we have a project in which to repurpose the boards. Hopefully the bees will like very, very weathered wood! We bought a couple of the hive boxes with windows in the sides, so once the shed is built and the bees arrive, we can then watch how they work.

            We’ve already found out there’s both science and art involved in this beekeeping venture, and we don’t even have the bees yet! So, we’ll see how we do and keep you posted. 

            Wherever we travel, we always bring home local honey. The rumor is that I have a sweet tooth, and that’s why we’re always hauling honey around, but you should know it’s purely a myth. Hopefully, we’ll now find out how honey tastes from our own home, and we won’t have to haul it as far.

Goldfinches to Start Molting in March

            Over the last several weeks, we’ve finally been getting flocks of goldfinches at our feeders along with a few pine siskins. Bev Engstrom, ace photographer in Rhinelander, has often shared photos of male goldfinches in their dull winter plumage, and I’ve included one in this column. But that’s soon to change. Watch for the males to start changing their uninspired winter wardrobe into their brilliant lemon-yellow breeding plumage. Apparently, females prefer to mate with males that exhibit the brightest colors, so this change isn’t just for the sake of fashion.

American goldfinch photo by Bev Engstrom            

Celestial Events

            The new moon occurs on 2/23 – the darkest, and therefore best night for star gazing in February. 

            We reach 11 hours of daylight as of 2/27. We’re rapidly heading for spring equinox on 3/19!

            Venus continues through the end of February remains throughout March as the brilliant, and only, planet visible after dusk – look in the west and you can’t miss it.

            If you want to see more planets, before dawn is where the action is: look in the southeast for Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Thought for the Week

            From Thoreau: “Can he who has discovered only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to have discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant for his ivory be said to have “seen the elephant”? These are petty and accidental uses; just as if a stronger race were to kill us in order to make buttons and flageolets of our bones; for everything may serve a lower as well as a higher use.

            “I have been into the lumber-yard, and the carpenter’s shop, and the tannery, and the lampblack factory, and the turpentine clearing; but when at length I saw the tops of the pines waving and reflecting the light at a distance high over all the rest of the forest, I realized that the former were not the highest use of the pine. It is not their bones or hide or tallow that I love most. It is the living spirit of the tree, not its spirit of turpentine, with which I sympathize, and which heals my cuts. It is as immortal as I am, and perchance will go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still.”

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, call 715-476-2828, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com.