NWA 5/14/21

 A Northwoods Almanac for May 14 – 27, 2021  

 

Sightings

4/26: White throated sparrows returned to Manitowish.

4/28: We heard our FOY (first-of-year) broad-winged hawk. Their distinctive high whistle – tee-teeee on one pitch - is easy to learn. The male’s call is an octave higher than the females.

5/1: Zach Wilson, Conservation Specialist for the Iron County Land and Water Conservation Department, was fishing on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage and reported seeing a flock of white pelicans, perhaps 50 to 100 birds, fly into Horseshoe Bay.   

5/3: Dan Carney in Hazelhurst reported his FOY rose-breasted grosbeak. We spotted our first rose-breasted grosbeaks on 5/7 in Manitowish.

5/5: Ed Marshall in Lac du Flambeau reported a sharp-shinned hawk was lingering around his feeders. This is good news for about two seconds – it’s exciting to see a sharpie – but then the realization that the hawk is there to eat your songbirds changes your perspective.

5/7: Bob and Carolyn Kovar in Manitowish Waters have an eagle nest on their property that they’ve been watching for 40 years. Bob called today and thinks the nest failed, which would be the third consecutive year. Mary and I are also concerned that the eagle nest across the Manitowish River from our house has failed as well. Eagle chicks typically hatch by May 1.

            Bob contacted Ron Eckstein, retired DNR wildlife biologist and well-known eagle expert and bander, for his thoughts, and Ron said “the usual factors include weather events, adult inexperience, predation (raccoon, great horned owl), human disturbance, or death of one of the adults.” Which of these was the factor, however, is really hard to pin down. We’ll see if some clues turn up in the next week or so.

5/8: On a brighter note, Bob Kovar called to report two ruby-throated hummingbirds appeared in his yard. He’d put his feeders up earlier in the week, so they had some nourishment. We keep having hard frosts with lows of 24°, which is pretty tough sledding for hummers. 

5/7-9: Mary and I spent three days exploring wild lakes in Washburn County. We saw our FOY yellow warbler here, and in several locations, found blooming large-flowered trilliums, wood anemone, and bloodroot, which we rarely see in the sandy soils around our area. Leatherleaf was in flower in the wetlands, and Juneberry along the roadsides.

5/9: Bev Engstrom in Rhinelander spotted the first Baltimore Oriole – a female – that I’ve heard of this spring.

5/9: Three evening grosbeaks, a male and two females, appeared at our feeders in Manitowish.  Evening grosbeaks used to nest near us in the 1980s –the young would come to our feeders – but we haven’t had them nesting here for probably 30 years. What a delight it would be if a pair stayed and raised young!

5/9: Pat Schmidt on Silver Lake in Hazelhurst reported seeing her FOY ruby-throated hummingbird. She also noted the female loon on her lake had laid eggs the previous day, 5/8, but the loons were already being hounded by black flies. 

5/10: I heard my FOY ovenbird and Nashville warbler in the Beaver Creek Hemlocks near Springstead in Iron County.

5/11: A yellow-headed blackbird appeared at our feeders this morning, which is a rare sighting in our area, though not uncommon in the western part of the state and into Minnesota. 

            Bird migration remains slow due to our consistent cold temperatures and northerly winds, but with the 60° temperatures forecast for the latter part of this week, the birds should come streaming in – be on the look-out! For me, these last two weeks of May are the best weeks of the year with the peak blooming of ephemeral wildflowers and the return of neotropical migrant birds, not to mention (hopefully) the lack of mosquitoes.

 

Maple Syrup

            As a confessed addict of maple syrup, I like to find out how good the syrup season went every year. So, I called Bob Simeone, who lives near Land O’Lakes and has produced maple syrup on his property since the early 1990s, for his impressions of the season. Bob used to put in 1200 taps, but now has found his sanity and “only” does 250 taps. His overall take on the season was that it was good but short. It lasted only 3 weeks beginning around March 10, and ended when temperatures hit 60° and he had to pull his taps. A “normal” season used to average 5 weeks.

            His sugar content was average, starting on his first run at 2.8% and finishing on his third run at 2.4%. 

            Over the last 15 years, Bob notes that the season now starts 2 weeks earlier than in the past, the season ends quicker, and warm-up comes earlier. Still, Bob made 36 gallons of syrup, A Midas treasure if you ask me.

            

Ornate Box Turtles

            Ornate Box Turtles are an endangered species in Wisconsin, residing only in far southern counties, and they’re a species I’ve never seen and thus seldom think about. In Illinois, however, they’re a threatened species, and Sondra Katzen, the Director of Public Relations at the Chicago Zoological Society/Brookfield Zoo, sent me photos and a video of a recent survey made of these turtles. The survey took place in The Nature Conservancy’s 3,800-acre Nachusa Grasslands and marked the 15th anniversary of the longest and largest-ever health survey of box turtles in North America.

            The ornate box turtle was once found in nearly half of Illinois’ 102 counties, but are believed to now inhabit fewer than 10. The Nachusa Grasslands is one of the last remaining homes for the species, so folks from the Chicago Zoological Society and the University of Illinois Wildlife Epidemiology Laboratory, trekked there to find as many ornate box turtles as possible.

            What I found particularly interesting about this survey was that specially trained Boykin spaniels, fondly called “turtle dogs,” are used to find the turtles. It usually takes a biologist four or five hours to find a turtle, but the spaniels can sniff out 2.5 turtles per search hour, bringing the turtles back gently in their mouths to the researchers. The dogs are trained by scattering fiberglass turtles scented with bacon grease, which would probably work on some humans I know.

            Forty-four turtles were discovered, which were then given complete health examinations. The species can live into their mid- to late-50s, so the health of a box turtle can act a bit like a canary in a coal mine for assessing overall environmental health. Up to 70 percent of the turtles in a given year have often been previously evaluated which helps researchers understand how health indicators change over time. 

 

February Wolf Hunt Assessment

            The February wolf hunt was highly controversial for a host of reasons, but the impacts of the hunt were largely unknown. Wisconsin’s Green Fire, an organization made up of members with extensive experience in natural resource management, environmental law and policy, scientific research, and education, recently released an assessment of the hunt. 

            Key findings include: “During the February hunt wolves were removed primarily from core habitats on public lands where conflicts with pets, livestock or human safety are rare. Based on currently available information and our understanding of wolf populations and behavior, there is little evidence that the February 2021 wolf hunt will significantly reduce human – wolf conflicts.

            “Based on loss of bred females and alpha males, it is reasonable to estimate that 60-100 of Wisconsin’s wolf packs may lose all pup production due to the February hunt. If this impact is realized it will represent 24-40% of the expected reproduction from 245 known wolf packs outside of Indian reservations in Wisconsin.”

            To read the entire assessment, go to: https://wigreenfire.org/the-february-2021-wisconsin-wolf-hunt-a-preliminary-assessment/.

 

Doing Nothing to Manage Garlic Mustard?

            Compared to the prevalence of garlic mustard in southern Wisconsin, the Northwoods is doing rather well, but the worry of how to control it when and if it invades remains a concern. Garlic mustard is not browsed by herbivores, nor does it have any effective insect pests or diseases to keep it in check. If you’re not familiar with it, it often forms thick monocultures in forests, sometimes entirely eliminating native plants. 

            The usual process for control is to pull every plant one can before they go to seed, or use herbicides or fire, and then repeat that effort for at least 10 years running. However, a recently released decade-long study done by Cornell University researchers says that doing nothing is the best way to manage garlic mustard. According to Dr. Berndt Blossey, a Cornell University conservation biologist who specializes in invasive plants, pulling up large swaths of garlic mustard is both futile and actually worse than leaving it alone. 

            Blossey contends that deer abundance and non-native earthworms drive garlic mustard infestations, and that garlic mustard only establishes after earthworms have invaded a site for some years and deer then help to spread it. Where deer are excluded or greatly reduced in number, garlic mustard competes with native species, but doesn’t displace them.   

            The study shows that within ten to 12 years, garlic mustard becomes scarce as a species, while pulling garlic mustard actually prolongs its run. 

            This is, of course, controversial. See “Residence time determines invasiveness and performance of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) in North America,” Ecology Letters, (2021) 24: 327–336 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7839695/).

 

Celestial Events

            On 5/15, look in the west after dusk for Mars 1.5 degrees below the crescent moon. 

            We hit 15 hours of daylight as of 5/16. 

            The full moon – the “Flower” or “Planting” Moon – occurs on 5/26. This will be the year’s closest and largest full moon – 14% larger than normal. If you live in the western U.S., you’ll be able to see a total lunar eclipse. In our area, we’ll experience a partial eclipse beginning at 4:44 in the morning. The moon will set at 5:21 before we can see the total eclipse.

 

Thought for the Week

“I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only knows
where the rarest wildflowers
are blooming, and who goes,
and finds that he is smiling
not by his own will.
                                    Sabbaths 1999 II ― Wendell Berry, Given

            

 

NWA 5/28/21

 A Northwoods Almanac for May 28 – June 10, 2021  

 

Red-headed Woodpeckers!

            In recent weeks, I’ve received four reports of red-headed woodpeckers appearing at people’s feeders. Gale Fisher and David Wenninger observed a red-headed woodpecker at their feeder in Hazelhurst and wrote, “First one we’ve seen in 7 or 8 years! He actually preferred the birdseed to the suet. A beautiful sight on a dreary morning.” 

            Greg Bassett in Hazelhurst had red-headed woodpeckers nesting on his property last year, and he was very pleased to report that they had returned. In fact, he said he had two pairs now, and there’s been “nothing but fighting since they got here. And they are not quiet fighters. Constant noise.”

            Dan and Judy Lucas on Fence Lake observed a pair of red-headed woodpeckers on May 13, and JoAnn Zaumseil reported that one came to her suet feeder on Mother’s Day, 5/9, a first time sighting for her in Lac du Flambeau. 

            This is good news because red-headed woodpecker populations have declined in most regions that support the bird, and the species is now listed as Threatened in Canada and several U.S. states. Partners in Flight lists the red-headed woodpecker as a Yellow Watch List Species for the United States and Canada due to steep population declines and threats to its habitat – using Breeding Bird Survey data, the red-headed woodpecker population is estimated to have declined by 67% between 1970 and 2014.

red-headed woodpecker photo by Bev Engstrom

            Why the decline? Well, red-headed woodpeckers primarily nest in dead trees, or in dead portions of live trees, or occasionally in utility poles, and they predominate in open areas with little ground vegetation or in stands of trees with no understory. The removal of dead trees and branches in urban areas and the loss of nesting habitat to firewood cutting, clear-cutting, agricultural intensification, and channeling of rivers in rural areas has contributed to their decline. Add in the loss of small orchards, the loss of chestnuts, the decline of their favored oak-savanna habitat, fire suppression during the 20th century, and a switch to “cleaner” farming practices (removal of hedgerows for larger monoculture fields), and you have a species in trouble. 

            To make things worse, as with many cavity-nesting species, red-headed woodpeckers run into aggressive interactions with the non-native European starling. In a study in Ontario, almost half of nest failures were attributed to cavity takeover by starlings, and nests with starlings present were four times more likely to fail than nests without starlings in the area.

            How to help them? Creation or maintenance of dead or dying snags, and retaining dead branches in trees should be of the most benefit to them. In fact, populations are increasing in areas in the eastern U.S. where high beaver populations have created flooded woods with abundant dead snags for nesting. Restoration of savannas using fire has also resulted in increased abundance of red-headed woodpeckers in Minnesota. 

            Besides being strikingly beautiful, they’re a fascinating bird! They are the best example of a sexually “monomorphic” woodpecker – adult males and females are indistinguishable in the field. They’re also highly omnivorous – their diet includes various seeds and nuts; crops such as corn, berries, and fruit; insects, bird eggs, nestlings, occasionally adult birds, and mice. They’ve even been observed placing pine cones and nuts on roads to be crushed by cars at Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina. They are known to feed on sap oozing from sapsucker drill holes, and to come to bird feeders in the winter, particularly to suet. Plus, they’re the most expert flycatcher in the woodpecker family, sallying out from a tree to capture insects in the air. 

            They also are one of only four woodpeckers, out of the 198 woodpeckers in the world, that commonly store food, and the only woodpecker known to cover stored food with pieces of wood or bark. They cache insects (particularly grasshoppers), acorns, and beechnuts, breaking them to fit into cracks and crevices in posts, in cavities of partially decaying trees, or under patches of raised bark. They store nuts, corn and cherries in gate posts and railroad ties, even under shingles of houses. They’re known to hammer acorns into crevices so tightly that other animals like blue jays can’t steal them, and they regularly store grasshoppers alive, wedged into crevices so tightly that they, too, cannot escape. 

            Historically, red-headed woodpeckers were a popular target for sportsmen, although Audubon described their flesh in 1844 as tough and smelling “strongly of ants and other insects, making redheads scarcely eatable” – what a pity.

            So, don’t eat them (it’s illegal to kill one anyway), and be thrilled if one or more show up in your yard - it’s a blessing.

 

Black Flies on Loons

            Several people have written about the hordes of black flies mobbing the nesting loons on their lakes. Mary Adams-Pflieger wrote on 5/18, “Yesterday I was working out by my dock and the male loon had to check out what I was doing. He took a few dives from the middle of my lake and ended up about ten feet away from me. His head was covered with black flies – literally hundreds! He tried to rub them off the back of his head by rubbing it on his back. This was after swimming hundreds of yards under water! What a Hell to live through.” 

            Jeff Labudda in the Park Falls area wrote, “Yesterday, Sunday, May 16, I was fishing for crappies on a nearby lake. I watched as a Loon climbed onto her nest on a mound of matted, dead reeds. There was a very dense, almost opaque, cloud of swarming gnat-like insects all around the Loon. It was distressing to see. The bird’s head was covered by the insects.  After just a minute, she fled the nest, repeatedly dunking her head to shed the insects.

            “I watched for a long time; well over an hour. She didn’t return to the nest. The insect swarm remained over the nest in her absence. It would be unbearable for her. If a Loon chick managed to hatch with those flies present, the chick would die from the assault. I expect that nest, and presumably many others, will be abandoned this year. Hell of a life for the beautiful loons.”

            The bad news is that the black flies can force very high percentages of nesting loons to abandon their nests – last year, Dr. Walter Piper reported nearly 80% of loons in his study area in Oneida County abandoned their nests. 

photo from The Loon Project, Dr. Walter Piper

            The good news, however, is that these particular black flies (Simulidae annulus) are only really abundant for about three weeks. Once the female gets her blood meal, she lays her eggs and moves on, allowing the loons to make a second attempt at nesting, which is most often successful.

            In his article “Common Loons respond adaptively to a black fly that reduces nesting success” (The Auk, 135(3): 788-797, 2018), Dr. Piper discusses how black flies, while quite bad, are not as bad as predators of loon eggs, like raccoons. He notes that the black flies are a temporary issue, whereas egg predators are always present. Loons commonly reuse the black-fly-impacted nest sites, apparently behaving as if they understand that the black flies are a short-term threat that will go away.  Renesting occurs on average three weeks after the initial failure.

             However, if an egg predator steals or eats the eggs, the male almost never reuses the nest sites and moves the nest to another location (if you aren’t aware, males, not the females, choose the nesting site). The male loon apparently understands the predator is an issue that likely won’t go away, so he abandons the site altogether, and renesting is significantly less likely to occur.

            What I’d like to understand is if these black flies have dramatically increased in recent years, and if so, why? They sure seem to be more of an issue than they were a decade or more ago.

 

Sightings  - Broad-winged Hawk, Indigo Bunting, Warblers, Saw-whet Owl, Gray Treefrogs, Spring Flowers

            Greg Bassett took a photo in Hazelhurst of a broad-winged hawk that had a snake in its talons but had died very shortly thereafter when it was apparently hit by a vehicle. Greg noted, “My guess is it had swooped in on the snake warming on the blacktop. Unfortunately it looks like its timing couldn't have been worse and a car or truck came through at the same time.” 

broad-winged hawk photo by Greg Bassett

            Broad-wingeds are called a “sentinel forager,” spending large proportions of their time sitting quietly, scanning for a wide variety of prey including amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals, and juvenile birds. Small mammals (like chipmunks and shrews) and amphibians (like frogs and toads) constitute the most frequent prey and greatest biomass in most studies. Their propensity for amphibians likely explains why they are often seen near water and why they migrate in mid-September – amphibians and reptiles are usually going into hibernation by then, so they need to head south.

5/12: Toads began trilling in Manitowish.

5/12: Dan Carney reported his FOY palm warblers, black-and-white warblers, and Nashville warbler.

5/13: And the next day, Dan spotted a blackburnian warbler and American redstarts.

Blackburnian warbler photo by Bev Engstrom

5/14: Joan Galloway on Clear Lake in Manitowish Waters reported her FOY male indigo bunting.

indigo bunting male photo by Bev Engstrom

5/15: A saw-whet owl was calling near our home in Manitowish at 11 p.m. The incessant monotonous call goes on and on and on and . . . we loved hearing him.

5/22: Eastern gray treefrogs were calling for the first time in Manitowish. Bunchberries had just come into flower west of Park Falls, along with bluebead lily, blue cohosh, and bishop’s cap.

5/24: The Green-Up is in full swing with all our rain. Have you ever seen so many shades of green?

 

Celestial Events – Partial Solar Eclipse!

            June 1 provides us with 15 hours and 30 minutes of daylight as we rapidly approach summer solstice. Enjoy these long days!

            For planet watching in June, look after dusk for Venus very low in the northwest and for Mars a little higher in the northwest. Before dawn look for Jupiter in the southeast and Saturn in the south.

            The new moon occurs on 6/10. There will be a partial solar eclipse that morning when the moon passes in front of the lower left rim of the sun. This partial eclipse begins at 3:56 a.m. before it’s light, so it won’t be visible until the sun rises at 5:08 a.m. (Minocqua times). The maximum eclipse occurs only four minutes later at 5:12, and it all ends by 5:46 – so be prepared to be up early and have an open northeast view of the sunrise! 

 

Thought for the Week

            “Rained gently last night, just enough to wash the town clean, and then today a clean crisp fat spring day, the air redolent, the kind of green minty succulent air you'd bottle if you could and snort greedily on bleak, wet January evenings when the streetlights hzzzt on at four in the afternoon and all existence seems hopeless and sad.” ― Brian Doyle, Mink River

 

A Northwoods Almanac for April 30, 2021

 A Northwoods Almanac for 4/30 – 5/13/21  

Ravens

            Last week, Mary and I celebrated our 42^nd anniversary by taking a 3-day trip to Minnesota’s North Shore and hiking and birding in as many places as we could squeeze in. One of the many highlights we shared was seeing four raven chicks being fed by an adult raven in a cliff-side nest along one of the whitewater rivers in the area. From the trail, we were able to look down into the ledge nest along the cliff-face and watch as the adult flew in and stuck its bill down each of the chick’s throats, regurgitating a morning meal. 

            The chicks were mostly naked and just getting their pin feathers, so they were perhaps two weeks old. One researcher describes them as “grotesque gargoyles” when they are this age and younger, which, while a bit harsh, does describe how big they already are while still being mostly featherless and uncoordinated. They won’t be fully feathered until 5 weeks or so of age, at which point they can fledge. Once fledged, the juveniles may leave in a week or so, or they may stay in the area for up to 6 weeks and be fed by the parents. Usually by July or August, they’re independent.

            This seemed a bit early for the chicks – it was April 22. Given the likely age of the chicks and the 20 to 25 day incubation period, the eggs had to have been laid a month or more earlier in mid-March. 

            We first saw this nest with chicks in the exact same place back in 2010. This is the only raven nest we’ve ever seen, so we have to rely on research studies for our background information. The research says there’s circumstantial evidence that the same birds return to the same nest site, but there’s no long-term studies to confirm this. Apparently ravens may renest on the same site, or they may have multiple nest sites relatively nearby, or sometimes they alternate between nest sites from year to year. 

            Ravens also appear to be monogamous, but no long-term study with marked birds exists to support this either.

            So, while we’d like to believe this is the same raven pair that produced young in this nest 11 years ago, we have no evidence. But the fact that the same nest site is still being used suggests it may be the same pair. The record life span for a banded, wild bird is just over 13 years, but captive birds are reported to have lived more than 44 years. 

 

Horned Grebes, Harlequin Ducks, and Long-tailed Ducks

            Besides the ravens, we had some other wonderful sightings during our trip. The most numerous waterfowl we encountered on Lake Superior were horned grebes, a species we rarely see, but which we saw this trip on three different occasions, and each time in large flocks. In their breeding plumage, horned grebes display a yellow, swept-back and erectable plume of feathers on either side of its head, a bright red eye, and rufous neck. In other words, they’re stunning!

horned grebe range map

            They’re a circumpolar species, meaning they breed in northern regions across the world, in this case from Greenland to Scotland to Scandinavia to Russia to Alaska and western Ontario. Around our area, I’ve seen them only a few times over three decades of birding here.

            There was more. In the harbor at Grand Marais, we were amazed by continual excellent views of a pair of rare harlequin ducks, another northern breeder but one that occupies a unique niche among North American waterfowl – it feeds and breeds in fast-flowing rivers and moves with great agility in raging white water, diving to river bottoms to pick larval insects, snails, crabs and other small creatures from rocky substrates. The literature says they’re relatively tame and can be approached, and that was certainly our case in the very calm water of a sheltered bay.

            The male is crazy colorful with a large white crescent in front of the eye, and a white circle behind its dark eye that one would think was its eye. Two broad stripes mark the base of its neck and upper chest, and its sides and flanks are a lovely chestnut – oh, just look at their picture! Their name derives from a character of traditional Italian comedy and pantomime, the harlequin, who appeared in costumes of multicolored triangular patches.

harlequin pair, photo by Bob Kovar

 

harlequin duck range map

            And finally, also at Grand Marais but out on the lake bouncing in the waves, was a flock of long-tailed ducks. This species is a true circumpolar Arctic species, breeding as far north as 80°N around the globe. What I find most interesting about them is their ability to dive to impressive depths. They’re probably the deepest diver among waterfowl and have been recovered from nets and hooks set up to 66 meters deep in Lake Michigan.

 

long-tailed duck range map

Counting Cranes and Bank Beavers

            For our part in the annual sandhill crane count on 4/17, Mary and I paddled a stretch of the Manitowish River that we do every year. And like every year, we put-in at around 5:45 a.m. It was a beautiful morning, but the difference this year was that it was 21°, and while we thought we had warm enough gloves, well, such was not the case. You know that feeling when your hands are so cold that when they finally warm-up, they just ache and ache? We’ve done the count for over three decades now, and in all kinds of weather, so you’d think we would have it all figured out by now. Still learning, I guess.

            Despite being really cold, we had a great morning for wildlife sightings. The water level on the river was exceedingly low because of the refilling of the Manitowish Chain of Lakes. We were scraping bottom regularly, but the lack of water in the adjacent wetlands forced waterfowl to feed and loaf directly on the river, which certainly helped our observations. 

            We not only saw two pairs of sandhill cranes, but we also observed trumpeter swans, blue-wing teals, green-wing teals, common mergansers, hooded mergansers, wood ducks, mallards, Canada geese, bald eagles, and one lone shorebird – a greater yellowlegs.

            Perhaps most interesting of all, and disturbing, were the number of exposed bank beaver holes in the shorelands that were high and dry. We’d never seen so many. Thus, we saw more active beavers on the river than we’ve ever seen before, because they didn’t have homes below water where they would be secure. 

            If you aren’t aware, beavers not only live in lodges that they build, but some also live in bank holes. They dig these bank holes underwater, then tunnel up and create a den above the waterline. 

 

            The dramatic drawdown of the Manitowish every spring to refill the Chain exposes both the entrance holes to lodges as well as the entrances to bank dens. It also leaves any muskrats, minks, and otters who have dens/lodges on the edge of the water higher and drier. For any waterfowl that are trying to build nests along the river edge, they, too, are left well above the waterline. And for fish that have spawned early in the wetlands after ice-out, like northern pike, their eggs are left to dry in the mud.

            But that’s the long-standing management strategy. Once the Chain fills, the river will be apportioned its minimum share of water based on keeping the Chain at its maximum fill.

            Back to the birds: I’ll report the results of the crane count when they’re available, but as usual, it was a wonderful morning!

 

Voyageurs Wolf Project 

            The Voyageurs Wolf Project is a University of Minnesota research project that was started to address the question of what do wolves do during the summer? Their goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the summer ecology of wolves in an area that includes Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota, and specifically to understand the predation behavior and reproductive ecology of wolves (e.g., number of pups born, where wolves have dens, etc.) during the summer.

            They learned quickly that the only feasible way to understand where wolves are traveling and hunting prey during summer is by attaching GPS-collars to wolves, so they’ve done that now for over three years. Their latest video comes from the first-ever camera collar footage from a wild wolf (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JxN33fl6bs). It’s notable because this lone wolf knew how to hunt and catch fish. On the video, he can be seen eating three different fish, which were all killed and consumed along the Ash River. 

            The collar only took videos for 30 seconds at the beginning of every hour of daylight, so the researchers only got 7 total minutes of video footage each day (14 hr of daylight x 30 second per hour), so it’s a random sample of wolf behavior.

            In previous years, the researchers documented wolves from a single pack hunting and killing fish. However, this footage clearly demonstrates that other wolves know how to hunt fish and they do so in different areas. See https://www.voyageurswolfproject.org for additional information and videos.

 

March Global Temperatures

            March and April seem to have flipped their positions in the calendar – March was warmer than April in our area of the Northwoods, and as I write this, snow is falling on 4/26. What began as a very early, warm spring has fallen back into more of what we usually expect in the Northwoods – wild temperature fluctuations with snow and heavy frosts heading into May. 

            However, what any one of us sees out our windows is a very tiny view of the world. It takes a global perspective to understand what is taking place regarding the climate, and for March, the average global land and ocean-surface temperature was 1.53 degrees F (0.85 of a degree C) above the 20th-century average of 54.9 degrees (12.7 degrees C). This ranks the month as the eighth-warmest March in NOAA's 142-year global temperature record. 

            Given how unusually warm March felt here in the Northwoods (according to NOAA, March 2021 was at least 3.6 degrees F warmer than average across southern and eastern Canada and the eastern half of the contiguous U.S., so the statistics back up our experience), I would have thought the rest of the world had to be experiencing record warm temperatures, but such was not the case. Still, March 2021 was among Earth’s top-10 warmest, and it was the 45th-consecutive March and the 435th-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average.

            I’ll be curious to see what the global averages are for April, because at the moment out my window, the Northwoods continues to experience below-average temperatures.

 

Celestial Events

            For planet-watching in May, look after dusk for both Mercury and Venus very low in the WNW twilight. Look also for Mars in the west.

            Before dawn, look for Jupiter in the SE and Saturn in the SSE.

            May 5 marks the midpoint between spring equinox and summer solstice. We’re now up to 14.5 hours of daylight! 

            The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks before dawn on 5/6. 

            New moon on 5/11. The moon will be at apogee – the farthest away from Earth that it will be in 2021 (252,594 miles). 

 

Thought for the Week

            It’s time for spring ephemeral wildflowers to be blossoming in profusion: Where flowers bloom, so does hope . . . Almost every person, from childhood, has been touched by the untamed beauty of wildflowers.  Lady Bird Johnson