A Northwoods Almanac for May 27 – June 9, 2022 by John Bates
Sightings – First-Of-Years (FOY)
Cal and Beth Huizenga in Presque Isle sent the following FOYs:
5/9: first male hummingbird
5/11: first male and female rose breasted grosbeaks, plus male and female Baltimore orioles
Beth also sent pictures of both the female and male orioles perched on their hummingbird feeders. If you don’t know, Baltimore orioles commonly drink sugar water! We used to have an oriole sugar water feeder that was frequently used by the orioles. So, besides putting out oranges for the orioles, you might consider putting up an oriole sugar water feeder.
Greg Bassett in Hazelhurst sent me this note on 5/18: “I'm watching and taking pictures of three scarlet tanagers fighting over the suet. And then I watched as they got bumped from the feeders by two red-headed woodpeckers, while a lone indigo bunting was working the area under the feeder. The tanagers are gorgeous!! They make the red-headed woodpeckers look bland.”
At our home in Manitowish, we had our first rose-breasted grosbeak on 5/8, our first hummer and our first white-crowned sparrow on 5/11, our first Baltimore oriole and brown thrasher on 5/12, and our first indigo bunting on 5/13.
We did our first of three frog counts for the DNR on 5/10, and were surprised to already hear American toads and leopard frogs, along with spring peepers and wood frogs. The ice had only gone-off most of our sites two weeks earlier, so that was a quick appearance for the toads and leopard frogs.
Earlier that day on a hike north of Winchester, I found firsts of ovenbirds, blackburnian warblers, pine warblers, black-throated green warblers, common yellowthroats, black-throated blue warblers, chestnut-sided warblers, and Eastern peewees.
And birds were still migrating through as of 5/22, as evidenced by two Wilson warblers that were foraging in our yard. Wilson warblers nest well up into Canada, but not here.
Birds are Laying Their Eggs Earlier
A new analysis published in the Journal of Animal Ecology shows that the average egg-laying dates have moved up by nearly a month for 72 species of birds in the Upper Midwest region.
A 120-year-old collection of eggshells held by Chicago’s Field Museum provided the data. The museum houses hundreds of the shells, most of which were collected before the 1920s, along with data about the types of birds and when the eggs were laid. The scientists also used records of bird nesting observations taken in the Chicago area between 1880 and 1920 and about 1990 to 2015.
Over time, the researchers found, the average egg-laying advanced by an average of 25.1 days, with less shift for resident species and a wider shift for short- and long-distance migrants.
Birds are sensitive to climactic shifts. The researchers found that small changes in temperature – approximated using carbon-dioxide data from over the years – affected birds’ laying patterns.
Loons Often Slow to Initially Incubate Their Eggs
From Walter Piper’s blog (“The Loon Project” – see www.loonproject.org) on 5/15: “We have learned over the years that loon pairs take a day or more to ‘accept’ that they have laid an egg and must incubate it. On these initial days, pairs sometimes wander far from their new nest, leaving the egg dreadfully exposed. I find this curious. The egg is, of course, in danger of being found and eaten from the moment it is laid. The embryo inside it cannot begin developing rapidly until it becomes optimally warmed by the parents. Every moment spent off the eggs seems time wasted and needless risk taken. I suppose, though, that I must defer to my study animals, who have a pretty good record of turning eggs into chicks.”
Barren Strawberry
Barren strawberry (Waldsteinia fragarioides) is in flower everywhere in the dry, sandy soils of the Northwoods. Their bright yellow, five-petaled flowers appear in May to early June often in large numbers in pine/acid habitats. The leaves look very similar to wild strawberry, being compound and having three toothed leaflets at the end of a long slender stalk, but they’re shorter and more wedge-shaped. The big difference between the two plants, and evident by the name, is that barren strawberry lacks runners and strawberries, instead producing a dry non-descript fruit that no one would bother to pick, much less eat.
A member of the huge rose family, which includes most of the best fruiting species like blackberry, raspberry, thimbleberry, apple, cherry, and plum, the barren strawberry is the bridesmaid among the clan. To the casual observer stumbling upon a large colony of these plants, the immediate promise of fruit would be large, but the payoff nil.
Barren strawberry spreads by creeping rootstalks, and holds its flowers often into July. The species name fragarioides comes from the Latin root, fraga, meaning “fragrant”, but the aroma is slight to my nose.
JASM – Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting
Last week, Mary and I, along with 2,500 others from 57 countries, attended the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting in Grand Rapids, MI, the world’s largest gathering of aquatic scientists, students, practitioners, resource agency staff, and industry representatives in history. Comprised of nine groups representing various interests within aquatic sciences (the American Fisheries Society, Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation, Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society, International Association for Great Lakes Research, North American Lake Management Society,
Phycological Society of America, Society for Freshwater Science, and Society of Wetland Scientists), the JASM 2022 meeting was designed to bring together multidisciplinary expertise in a collaborative effort to solve the complex environmental problems facing our societies and our planet today.
Mary was invited to show her woven portraits of women in a display she’s entitled “Women and Water: A Global Exhibit.” Her exhibit is still a work in progress, but she’s completed 19 portraits with quite a few more to go.
My task is to write-up the stories of each of these remarkable women’s lives. I’ve had the opportunity to learn the stories of Rachel Carson’s life and her 1962 publication of Silent Spring; of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas’ successful efforts to protect the Florida Everglades; of Berta Caceres who won the world’s foremost prize for environmental defenders, the Goldman Environmental Prize, for rallying the indigenous Lenca people of Honduras to successfully stop the construction of a dam from flooding their lands, and was murdered for her effort; and of Nafisa Barot in India, who after watching a child die from lack of clean water, organized communities of women to fight for their right to clean water, and in doing so, had to also challenge deep patriarchy, feudal exploitation, and caste discrimination at local and national levels.
The conference gave Mary the opportunity to not only share her work, but to meet others who she may portray, including nine women scientists from Africa who are working on protecting the seven Great Lakes of Africa (see the photo).
We’ve been involved in other art and science collaborations in the past, all with the goal of bringing scientific findings into a more accessible light through artistic interpretation, but this is Mary’s most ambitious effort to date. And from the exceptionally positive comments we received from those who viewed the exhibit, she’s on the right path.
More on this as it progresses.
Plum Lake Old-Growth Forest Dedication on June 1
On Wednesday, June 1st, at 1:00 pm, the Plum Lake Hemlock Forest State Natural Area of the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest will be formally inducted into the national Old-Growth Forest Network. To celebrate the dedication of this protected forest, a ceremony will be held at the trailhead. Old-Growth Forest Network’s Nick Sanchez will present a plaque to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Following the ceremony, I’ll assist in leading a short (one hour max) trail walk.
We will gather for the small celebration at the parking area off of Hook Road. To get there from the junction of Hwy. 155 and N in Sayner, go east and north on N for 4.8 miles, then southwest on Tramper's Trail (Hook Lake Road) 0.8 miles to a parking area. This one-lane dirt road no longer has a road sign –it is just before (south of) the entrance to the East Star Lake campground.
Plum Lake Hemlock Forest stretches between Star Lake and Plum Lake and comprises one of the best hemlock-hardwoods stands remaining in Wisconsin. The stand is thought to primarily have originated from a fire that occurred around 1810, though there are hemlocks significantly older than this within the stand.
Across Star Lake was the site of the Star Lake saw mill, which was built in 1895 on the peninsula jutting into the lake. It’s estimated that nearly 2 billion board feet of pine timber was logged from lands around Star Lake. At any one time, the mill had 30 million board feet of timber piled in its yards. The mill sawed its last log in 1906, the planning mill shut down in 1908, and forest fires charred the area in 1903, 1908, and 1910. In less than 15 years, Star Lake went from a boom town to a cutover/burned-over forest and near ghost town, but this stand of trees was saved.
The mission of the Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN) is to connect people with nature by creating a national network of protected, mature, publicly accessible, native forests. The organization’s goal is to preserve at least one forest in every county in the United States that can sustain a forest. OGFN’s program works to identify forests for the Network, ensure their protection from logging, and connect people to these properties to experience old-growth forests.
Plum Lake Hemlock Forest State Natural Area will be the third Wisconsin forest to join the Old-Growth Forest Network. It will join Cathedral Pines in Oconto County and Muskego Park in Waukesha County. The full list of forests in the Network may be viewed at www.oldgrowthforest.net.
Celestial Events
On 5/28, look in southeast before dawn for Mars dangling just below Jupiter.
The new moon occurs on 5/30.
On 6/1, we’ll be the recipients of 15 hours and 30 minutes of sunlight. Summer solstice occurs in just three weeks from this date.
Thought for the Week
It’s May. The day starts early now, and with its own exultance. Soon after first light the birds begin to celebrate the dawn, and those who would know bird song at its best are awake and listening. – Hal Borland
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