A Northwoods Almanac for March 17-30, 2023

 A Northwoods Almanac for March 17-30, 2023  by John Bates

 

Chickadees Singing  

            Despite the snow continuing to fall this March, male chickadees have begun singing their two-parted song: “Sweet-ee, Sweet-ee” or simply, “Fee-bee, Fee-bee.”

            But the scientific literature says that the black-capped chickadees’s song is far more complex that this with at least 16 different kinds of vocalizations : “Fee-bee; Faint fee-bee; Gargle; Subsong; Chick-a-dee; Begging dee; Broken dee; Variable see; Hiss; Snarl; Twitter; High zee; the Contact note, or tseet; the Flight or Restless note, the Distress call, and the Squawk.”

            And other studies say there’s more to their songs yet. “High-ranking males sing more during the dawn chorus than low-ranking males; bachelor males sing more than paired males; and birds provided with supplemental food sing more than non-supplemented birds.” 

photo by Bev Engstrom

            These songs are sung extensively at dawn during the breeding period, and are also produced in aggressive daytime countersinging exchanges – kind of a version of the sing-offs on the television show “The Voice.”  

            The singing is territorial and to maintain pair bonds or produce new ones, though chickadees are remarkably monogamous over time. Of 94 pairs observed over 10 years in a Massachusetts study, only 15 divorces occurred, while 79 (84%) stayed together. Another study in Ontario had similar results: of 49 pairs studied over 8 years, there were 11 instances of divorce, while 38 (78%) other pairs remained intact.

            Females who did divorce then paired with males of higher dominance status than their previous mate, and were more likely than females of intact pairs to have had extra-pair young in their nest prior to divorce – tsk tsk! 

            All is not perfect in the intact pairings either. In other studies, “extra-pair young” accounted for 9 to 17% of nestlings from monogamous couples. The researchers call this “mixed reproductive behavior.” Humans, of course, have stronger words for it.

            Still, statistically, the chickadees have us beat in their faithfulness to one another. Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from them.

 

Northern Lights

            Numerous folks reported seeing exceptional northern lights on the evening of 2/25. To our great disappointment, we failed to see them, having been engrossed in good books that night. 

            That’s not unusual for us. I admit that I often don’t take the time to look at the night sky, particularly in the winter when it’s cold out there, and I’m happy to be sitting warm in a comfortable chair. I get lazy – the stars will be there tomorrow night, right? 

            My failure to appreciate the grandeur of the night sky reminds me of a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!”

            It’s easy to become inured to that which is there every day, viewed as “common,” and to thus lose our sense of astonishment and awe because of a lack of rarity. Even though I know better, I’m still very susceptible to losing my sense of awe when in the presence of something I see every day and perceive as “normal.” I need to reawaken my mind to the night sky, and by doing so, not miss the northern lights when they next magically appear.

            BTW, Aurora Borealis was the name given to the phenomenon in 1619 by Galileo Galilei after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas. While Galileo was brilliant in so many ways, he had the misconception that the auroras he saw were due to sunlight reflecting from the atmosphere. It wasn’t until 1902-1903 that Kristian Birkeland, a Norwegian physicist, concluded from his “terrella experiment” that auroral light was caused by currents flowing through the gas of the upper atmosphere.

 

Goose Adoption by Trumpeter Swans?

            Trumpeter swans are well-known for being quite aggressive to other waterfowl that have the audacity to land in their territory. I’ve watched a trumpeter launch off the water like a giant white fighter plane and zero in on a few geese who were minding their own business on the other side of a lake, but who now took off in panic and were not to be seen again. The trumpeter with its seven-to-eight-foot wingspan is the largest waterfowl in North America, and an aggressive one presents a truly frightening spectacle to an intruder.

            Male trumpeter swans are most aggressive when their mates are incubating eggs. In one study, male trumpeters were responsible for 92% of the goose chases, while males and females chased the same number of ducks. Males also chased common ravens, ospreys, belted kingfishers, and even a bear, a beaver, and a moose.

photo by Bev Engstrom

            On the other hand, after nesting season, foraging swans are often accompanied by other waterfowl, including geese and most ducks. 

            I bring all this up because I received a call from Terri Ross on the Manitowish River who has been watching a Canada goose foraging with a flock of trumpeters both late last fall, and now this spring. Since trumpeters are just now returning to our area and are not yet on nest, I’ll be curious to see if the goose continues to be tolerated by the swans. If so, we may have a goose that was adopted by a swan family - but time will tell. 

            I’ve received several calls and emails in early March from folks informing me that trumpeters have returned to the open creeks or rivers near them. They are truly early migrants, and some even winter-over here without migrating, so it’s not surprising they are returning this early.            

            If you don’t know the inspiring restoration story of trumpeters, in 1929, the National Park Service began a survey to determine the population status of trumpeters and found 31 swans in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming, 26 on the Red Rock Lakes in the Centennial Valley of Montana, and 12 others in the surrounding region. Only 69 individuals were thus known to exist in the contiguous United States, though unrecorded flocks also inhabited parts of Alaska and Canada. Trumpeters nested in Wisconsin until the late 1880s when they were extirpated.

            That was it, and ornithologists had little hope for their continuing existence in the lower 48 states.

            In response, in 1935, Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge was created in Montana to protect the small remnant there. 

            Over decades and through an array of concerted efforts to reintroduce trumpeters into their original range, the interior population recovered, with 3,700 counted in 1968, and by 2015, more than 63,000. However, trumpeters are still missing from nearly two thirds of their original range.

            In Wisconsin, over 6,000 were counted in 2019, while Minnesota boasts over 30,000!

 

Migration Beginning!

            Mary and I were in Madison from March 8-11, and sandhill cranes were pouring in along with robins and red-winged blackbirds, as well as a host of waterfowl species. 

sandhill crane and mallards photo by Bev Engstrom

            In typically snow-covered Manitowish, on average, we see our first robins and red-wings around the spring equinox on March 21, while various species of waterfowl, in particular Canada geese, are also trickling in wherever open water presents itself.

            Of course, I need to note that I’m writing this on Sunday, March 12, while watching another 10 or more inches of snow that have fallen overnight and throughout the day. It’s been a very warm but very snowy winter, and continues to be. We should have quite a potential for flooding if a spring melt occurs rapidly. 

            It’s admittedly very hard this time of year to look out the window and perceive the snowfall as beautiful. But as the saying goes, “If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow.” So, do the best you can to find whatever pleasure you can in it. It’s always a long winter up here, and we’re called to honor it.

 

Celestial Events - Spring (or Vernal) Equinox!

            The March equinox marks the sun’s crossing above the Earth’s equator, moving from south to north. Surprisingly, the sun rises due east and sets due west at the equinox no matter where you live on Earth. But even though spring equinox shows up on our calendars on March 20, we actually experience equal times of day and night a few days earlier on March 17.

 

Other Celestial Events

            The new moon occurs on 3/21. Look after dusk on 3/22 for Jupiter just above the waxing sliver of a moon. And then on 3/24, look after dusk for Venus just above the moon.

            We hit nearly 12½ hours of sunlight as of 3/26.

 

Thought for the Week

            “Watch birds for a while, and you see that different species do even the most mundane things in radically different ways. We give a nod to this variety in expressions we use to describe our own extreme behaviors. We are owls or larks, swans or ugly ducklings, hawks or doves, good eggs or bad eggs. We snipe and grouse and cajole, a word that comes from the French root meaning “chatter like a jay.” We are dodos or chickens or popinjays or proud as peacocks. We are stool pigeons and sitting ducks. Culture vultures. Vulture capitalists. Lovebirds. An albatross around the neck. Off on a wild goose chase. Cuckoo. We are naked as a jaybird or in full feather. Fully fledged, empty nesters, no spring chicken. We are early birds, jailbirds, rare birds, odd birds.” – Jennifer Ackerman in The Bird Way

 

 

A Northwooods Almanac for March 3, 2023

 A Northwoods Almanac for March 3-16, 2023    

Migratory Chickadees?

            Bruce Bacon, retired DNR wildlife manager and a master bird bander from Mercer, is a wealth of information. I speak with Bruce frequently about what birds he’s catching, or not catching as the case may be, and I’m always plying him for ecological insights on “our” birds. This winter he’s broken his own record, by far, for banding black-capped chickadees – 151 separate individuals since October 1! This doesn’t include recaptures of the same chickadees, which occurs with regularity as well. 

            This is significant because on a daily basis, Bruce has perhaps10 chickadees coming to his feeders, and black-capped chickadees are not a migratory bird. So, what this says is that black-capped chickadees do what Bruce calls “a winter shuffle.” They move from place to place seeking the best food or greatest safety, but they stay within a relatively small area. Bruce’s record for the distance between where a chickadee was banded and where he caught the same one is 50 miles, but that’s a rarity. Most recaptures are within a much smaller distance.

            So, chickadees wander, but don’t migrate. In doing some further research, I found one study that tallied 60,000 Canadian banding records collected from 1921 to 1995 which showed that 90% of recaptured black-capped chickadees showed no movement at all. 

            But, there are always exceptions in the natural world, and several other studies have shown that occasionally long-distance movements do occur, but almost always by young birds after fledging, though these are considered “irruptions,” not migratory movements. Again, these are mostly young birds, not adults.

            So, what to make of Bruce’s record 151 chickadees? Well, neither of us have answers, but we’re speculating that nearly all are doing the “winter shuffle,” and not irrupting given the time of year. 

             Bruce also noted that over this winter, he has recaptured two chickadees that are over seven years old, two that are over eight years old, and two that are over nine years old. These are birds that he had previously banded, so he knows for sure that they are at least these ages. The record oldest chickadee recaptured in North America is over 12 years old. In a previous winter, Bruce recaptured the third oldest on record at 11 years and 4 months, but unfortunately he hasn’t seen this one since. 

            Bruce also banded 99 evening grosbeaks this winter, an exceptional number given how few evening grosbeaks we have seen in our area over the last three decades. He noted that he hasn’t recaptured any of them – “they’re too smart.” They, too, do the winter shuffle, but are considered both migratory and irruptive. We still have 30 or so “regulars” at our feeders (out of the 60 or more we had in December), but we have no idea whether they are some of the same ones we’ve had all along, or if they’re shufflers.

            And then there’s red-breasted nuthatches. This is a low year for red-breasted nuthatches, at least at Bruce’s feeders. This winter he’s only caught 6 – his best year was 29. Red-breasted nuthatches are true migrants, but clearly some are residents, too, as well as some do the shuffle. The literature says this about them, “[They are a] partial migrant. Northernmost populations appear to migrate south annually; remaining populations are resident during most years but exhibit irruptive movements in some years.”

            Bottom line? While we can identify birds by species at our feeders, it’s very hard to know just who it is that is at our feeders – a bird that’s been a resident in our yard or woods for years, or one that is passing through as part of a short shuffle or a long migration. Thank goodness for bird banders, or we’d know even less about their movements.

White-throated sparrow in Bruce Bacon's hand

Great Lakes Ice or Lack Thereof

            As of Feb. 15, the Great Lakes overall had just over 6.5 percent ice cover − the lowest for this date since scientists began recording ice cover more than 50 years ago. At this time of year, ice cover should be roughly 40 percent.

            Ice cover currently ranges from 0.7% on Lake Erie to just above 11% on Lake Huron. Lake Michigan has just under 8%, most of which is in the bay of Green Bay. Lakes Superior and Ontario have 4.9% and 1.5%, respectively.

            What’s the larger picture? A recent study found a 70% decline in overall Great Lakes’ ice cover between 1973 and 2017.

            Among many concerns, declining ice cover leads to warmer lakes, increasing prime conditions for algae blooms. These blooms appear every summer in Lake Erie and the bay of Green Bay in Lake Michigan. But now, these blooms are showing up in Lake Superior – blooms have been reported in the lake every year since 2018. 

            Lake Superior is the northernmost and coldest of the Great Lakes, with average summer surface temperatures around 60 degrees compared with 75 degrees for Lake Erie. Scientists are unclear why the warming is happening given that Lake Superior’s shoreline is not as developed as the others, nor is there a heavy agricultural presence nearby. 

            What does it means for the lake? Also unclear.

            However, ice cover is a dynamic process that can change quickly. Whether March temperatures will be low enough to create more ice is an unknown, but it’s unlikely that more ice will form given that spring equinox is not far off.

 

CWD Continues to Spread

            Wisconsin found chronic wasting disease in a record 31 counties during 2022’s deer seasons, including three new counties – Buffalo, Langlade and Waupaca. But in 2017, CWD was found in only 20 counties, so it’s clearly spreading.  Locally, five cases have been found in Oneida County, and one in Vilas. 

            The Department of Natural Resources has now found CWD in free-ranging deer in 41 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties (57%). Ten counties that previously found CWD did not find additional cases in 2022, which would be promising if it weren’t for the facts that testing is voluntary and 70% of Wisconsin hunters have never submitted a deer for testing. (For a more thorough analysis, see an article by Pat Durkin at https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com/post/cwd-found-in-record-31-counties-during-2022-deer-hunts.)

 

Snowshoeing and Cross-Country Skiing Every Day

            In the winter, Mary and I make a point of getting out every day to snowshoe or ski. Since we live in snow country, and the winter is long, we’ve committed ourselves to enjoying the winter as long as our bodies will allow. If one wants to fight off cabin fever, the best way is to enjoy the winter, not begrudge it; embrace it, not shrink from it.

            Over the last months, we’ve snowshoed or skied in the Frog Lake and Pines SNA, Doering Woods SNA, DuPage Lake Peatlands SNA, Flambeau River Wetlands SNA, “Mercer Pines” area, Powell Marsh State Wildlife Area, Mecca ski trails, WinMan trails, North Lakeland Discovery Center trails, and Powell Marsh ski trail, and we have many other sites in mind to explore yet this winter. 

            What helps is having the right gear. We have three different sets of skis: our regular skis for use on tracked trails, our backcountry skis for use after heavy snows or in icier conditions, and our short, fat skis with integrated skins, called “Hok” skis, for getting off trail or for staying more stable on top of crusty ice. Hok skis serve as a middle-ground between snowshoes and skis.

            We also have three sizes of Iverson wooden snowshoes, saved from the days a few decades back when we used to sell Iversons out of our shop. We have short ones (30”) for packed trails, mid-sized ones (36”) for breaking trails in lighter snow, and long ones (46” or 56”) for breaking trail after heavy snows. We prefer wooden shoes to aluminum because of the noise factor – metal shoes are really loud, particularly on packed trails. Having said that, I did break a pair of my wooden shoes in two places on a recent hike into a state natural area, but was lucky enough to have remembered to bring along a small roll of duct tape for just such an emergency. I was able to patch the shoe together enough so I didn’t have to posthole a mile back to the road.

            In defense of the shoes, they were 25 years old, so they served me well for a very long time. They’ll now go on the wall next to the truly old wooden snowshoes worn by Mary’s grandparents and parents whose house we live in now.

            

Celestial Events

            For planet-watching in March, look after dusk for Jupiter and Venus in the west-southwest – both set before midnight. Look also after dusk high in the south for Mars. For early risers, look before dawn for Saturn rising in the east-southeast.

            The full moon occurs on March 7. Variously known as the “Worm/Crow/Sap/Crust on Snow” moon, this could be our last full moon whose brilliant light is reflected off a snow cover, so get out and enjoy it if you can.

            We hit 11 hours and 30 minutes of sunlight as of March 8 as we head for the magic day of March 17 when we will have equal portions of sunlight and nighttime. Every day now our sunlight is growing longer by 3 minutes and 15 seconds, and even if winter lingers as it surely will, you can tell by the amount of light that we’re heading fast toward spring. 

 

Canoecopia 

            On March 10 and 11, I will be in Madison at Canoecopia, the largest paddlesports consumer event in the world. It takes place in the Alliant Energy Center Exposition Hall where 500 exhibiters will be displaying kayaks, canoes, stand up paddleboards, outdoor equipment and clothing. If you’re a gearhead, this is nirvana for you.
            The event also showcases over 100 presentations and clinics where you can learn about specific gear, develop skills, and discover some of the many places to paddle, both near and far. 

            I’ll be speaking on two topics, but I’d be going anyway to be a part of the 20,000 people that typically attend. It’s often barely spring in Madison, but the place will be rocking with the enthusiasm of Midwesterners who all have a little, or a lot, of cabin fever, and are ready to see open water. Hope to see you there!

 

Thought for the Week

            “When somebody would be walking out of a cancer ward, they would ring the bell to signify they had finished the treatment, and if they went outside and it was raining, they would say it’s the nicest rain they’d ever felt.” – Gary McKee when he was asked what inspired him to run a marathon every day for one year straight no matter the weather or how he felt.