A Northwoods Almanac for October 14-27, 2022 by John Bates
Piping Plovers, A Good News Story
The Great Lakes population of piping plovers fledged 150 chicks in the wild this year from 72 distinct breeding pairs, the greatest number of chicks fledged since the population was listed as federally endangered in 1986. Of those 72 pairs, 48 were in Michigan, with the stronghold for this population at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
In Wisconsin, Long Island in the Apostle Island chain had a record-breaking six nests, which produced a total of 22 fledglings. At Cat Island in Green Bay, plover pairs successfully fledged 11 wild chicks out of 12 chicks that hatched, an impressive 92% fledge rate.
For a chick to be considered fledged, it must live until at least 23 days old, which is three weeks that plover chicks are running around busy beaches and are incapable of flight, making them vulnerable to predation, dogs off leash, and human disturbance. Volunteers at nesting sites spend hours each day checking on the birds, educating beachgoers, and protecting plovers from the myriad of threats.
Despite the steady increase in pairs, the population is still only about halfway to the minimum recovery goal of 150 breeding pairs. Nevertheless, this is great news!
Cliff Germain, 1923-2022
Cliff Germain passed away recently at 99 years old, his passing of importance because he was hired in 1966 as the first staff ecologist and program manager of Wisconsin’s State Scientific Areas Program, later renamed the State Natural Areas Program (SNA). The program had its start in 1951 as the nation’s pioneer statewide natural area protection program leading the way for other states to follow.
Under Cliff’s guidance, the Wisconsin SNA program grew into the largest and most successful of its kind in the country. SNAs protect the “last great places” left in our state, from native natural communities, to significant geological formations and archeological sites, thereby providing some of the last refuges for rare plants and animals. We’re now blessed with 673 SNAs designated in the state, encompassing over 400,000 acres.
Later on, Cliff also was instrumental in bringing together nature preserve professionals from eight states and The Nature Conservancy in 1974 , where the idea to form a national organization of natural areas was born. Consequently, in 1978 the Natural Areas Association (NAA) was created, with Cliff as a founding member.
In 1987, NAA honored Cliff with its very first George B. Fell Award for lifetime achievement in the natural areas profession, the Association's highest award, In 2002, the Germain Hemlocks SNA in Oneida County was named after him, and in 2014, Cliff was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.
I never had the opportunity to meet Cliff, but I’ve led numerous hikes in the Germain Hemlocks, and the beauty of the site speaks volumes about his work and his legacy.
Holmboe Conifer Forest SNA Dedicated into the Old-Growth Forest Network
On 10/6, Holmboe Conifer Forest State Natural Area was added as a designated forest to the Old-Growth Forest Network, a national organization whose goal it is to locate and designate at least one old-growth, protected forest in every forested county in the United States. The Network estimates there are approximately 2,370 out of 3,140 total counties in the U.S. that have native forests, so this is an enormous undertaking to say the least. The organizers work not only to identify forests for the Network and ensure their protection, but also to inform people of the forest locations and to build an alliance of people who care about forests. Homboe is the 177th forest now recognized by the Network.
The forests they choose to designate all have formal protections in place that ensure that their trees and ecosystems are protected from commercial logging, and all are open to the public so that everyone can experience them
With the addition of Holmboe, four forests are now dedicated in Wisconsin: Cathedral Pines SNA in Oconto County, Plum Lake Hemlock Forest SNA in Vilas County, Muskego Park Hardwoods SNA in Waukesha County, and now Holmboe Conifer Forest SNA in Oneida County.
If you’re not familiar with Holmboe, it’s 32 acres of relict hemlock-hardwoods located smack dab in the heart of Rhinelander along the Pelican River, just across from the city's sewage treatment plant and next door to a gravel plant, both reminders of what this site could so easily look like if not for early conservation efforts. The forest was donated in 1965 to The Nature Conservancy by Frithjof Holmboe and his son, Thorvald. In 2007, the Conservancy donated the preserve to the Northwoods Land Trust for long-term protection and management.
The stand contains a few remnant old hemlocks (200+ years) amongst a mature stand of hemlock, white pine, and red pine that is reputed to be around 125 years old. The biggest pines reach over 100 feet with diameters around 36” dbh, and the hemlock may also push 100 feet. Two loop trails follow along steep moraines, making the hike a bit rugged.
It’s a unique place of beauty and quiet within a small urban environment, and is relatively unknown to even most locals. I highly recommend it!
Sightings – Migrating Lapland Longspurs, American Robins, Trumpeter Swans
On three different occasions over the last few weeks, Mary, Callie and I have seen flocks of Lapland longspurs feeding along the dikes at Powell Marsh Wildlife Area. This is a notable sighting because Lapland longspurs breed across vast areas of the Arctic and are sometimes the only nesting songbirds in these extreme locations. The bird not only nests in North America’s arctic tundra but also is circumpolar, breeding across Greenland, Iceland, and the far reaches of northern Scandinavia and Russia.
They winter in prairies, open weedy and grassy fields, grain stubbles, and any open ground that has little snow cover and provides access to seeds. Huge flocks can sometimes be seen in the Great Plains of the Dakotas.
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| Lapland longspur range map |
The breeding male is gorgeous in spring, but sports less vibrant colors in the fall.
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| Lapland longspurs in flight at sunset on Powell Marsh |
Far more common, of course, are American robins, who migrate through our area in droves in late September and October. We see them usually the last week of September as a large flock descends on our crabapple trees, nannyberries, and mountain ash trees, and strips them bare. We planted those species specifically to feed wintering birds, so I’m often unhappy about their gluttony. I know they need food in their migration, but I’d like them to leave half for the grosbeaks and waxwings we hope to see in the winter.
Robins are still migrating through in good numbers. The high number so far at Hawk Ridge in Duluth was 3,658 on 10/5.
Hawk Ridge Migration Numbers
Speaking of Hawk Ridge, I wonder if any of you can guess (no looking ahead!) what bird species is usually the most commonly seen in the fall at Hawk Ridge? Broad-winged hawks hold the record day of 101,698 on 9/15/2003, and the record seasonal high of 160,703 that same year, but those numbers were anomalies. This year, at least as of 10/7/22, the total number of broad-wingeds is 39,419, and their migration is fundamentally over.
So, drum roll, the bird with usually the highest numbers . . . blue jays! As of 10/7, 60,133 blue jays had flapped by the counters on the ridge. Cornell’s “Birds of the World” says this about blue jay migration: “Individuals that depart an area in autumn may be replaced by those migrating from farther north. However, distance traveled by migrants varies, and, in most areas, many jays are resident year-round; the proportion that migrates is probably not >20% of the population even in northern parts of the range . . . Breeding jays may be migratory one year, sedentary the next, then again migratory in a subsequent year, although this pattern is probably uncommon. Similarly, an adult jay that presumably has bred at one location may summer substantially farther south in subsequent years. Likewise, jays captured and marked as adults during winter have been recaptured substantially farther south in subsequent winters.”
So, what does this say about the blue jays currently at your feeders? Well, it says that unless the birds are banded, you have no way to know if the birds are the resident breeders that have been dominating your feeders all summer, or whether they’re migrants passing through or migrants coming to stay for the winter.
Odd Fungi and Slime Molds
As long as we have sufficient rain, autumn excels in producing mushrooms and slime molds, In recent walks, we’ve found four tiny and fascinating species: blue stain fungus, witch’s butter fungus, orange peel fungus, and salmon eggs slime mold, and they all look like their names suggest.
Blue stain is usually just seen as a general blue tinting of a decaying log or branch. But occasionally one gets lucky to find the fruiting stage where the wood is covered with tiny brightly-hued caps.
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| Blue stain fruiting bodies magnified |
Witch’s butter also goes by the equally wonderful name of “yellow brain fungus” and is a common jelly fungus. Witches’ butter deceptively appears to grow on a wood substrate. However, the fungus is parasitic on other wood decay fungi. They appear to be growing on wood substrate because the mycelium of the host fungus on which they subsist grows inside the wood and is consequently not visible.
Witch’s butter may be so named to suggest that it was deliberately deposited by a witch to cast an evil spell. Various folk legends of Eastern Europe associate witches’ butter with the hex of a witch; according to this superstition, the only way to remove the spell was to pierce the gelatinous talisman with holes to drain the fluid to dehydrate and consequently extirpate it. However, this would likely have little effect, as the fungus is capable of rehydration during moist weather conditions, which would then restore the spell.
It’s always a problem defeating witch’s spells.
Orange peel fungus is stemless, lays directly on the ground, and grows in open areas along woodland trails in clusters. It often fruits in places where the soil has become compacted, and in fact, that’s where we found it – right in the middle of a compacted hiking trail. Apparently, this is an edible mushroom, but is reputed to have no taste.
Finally, salmon eggs slime mold looks exactly like I imagine salmon eggs look like, except these are miniature versions living on dead branches of both conifers and hardwoods. Slime molds consist of numerous amoeba-like organisms that come together when their food source is depleted and form a fruiting body and spores. Most slime molds are acellular (plasmodial), and while feeding, they are like one giant amoeba cell with thousands of nuclei. Check out PBS Nova’s special on “The Secret Mind of Slime.” I guarantee you will be amazed.
Thought for the Week
“Humans aren’t as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy. Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, that were ‘reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail me 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.
