A Northwoods Almanac for 5/26/23

 A Northwoods Almanac for May 26 – June 8, 2023  

 

Ice-Off – It Took Awhile!
            Ice-off for the larger lakes in our area occurred well into the first week of May. Thankfully the fishing opener wasn’t until May 6, and I believe all our lakes were open by then. Judith Bloom emailed me that ice-out on Tomahawk Lake occurred on May 5^th, the “same date as last year,” she said. 

            On smaller lakes, the ice went off a few days earlier. Woody Hagge has been keeping ice-off and ice-on dates for 39-acre Foster Lake for 51 years, and noted that the ice went off Foster Lake on April 29. This was a tie for the fifth latest ice-off date in his records. 

            However, he was also added that since 2000, the ice went off the earliest in 2012, 2nd earliest in 2000, 3rd earliest in 2010, and tied for 4th earliest in 2007. So, while in the last two decades, we’d had some late springs, we’ve also had quite a number of early ones.

            His summation of what’s going on: “Clearly, climate change is causing wild swings in temperatures.” 

            

Sightings and FOY (First of Year)

5/7: We heard our FOY black-throated green warbler and Blackburnian warbler in the Van Vliet Hemlocks.

5/8: Judith Bloom on Lake Tomahawk saw her FOY rose-breasted grosbeak, the same day we saw our first one in Manitowish. That morning we also saw our FOY brown thrasher and yellow warbler, and back in the Frog Lake and Pines SNA, we found our first trailing arbutus in flower. That evening we heard our FOY leopard frogs.

rose-breasted grosbeak photo by Bev Engstrom

5/9: Judith Bloom saw her FOY ruby-throated hummingbird, as did we in Manitowish. Judith also saw her FOY common loons. She noted, “The male loon in this territory has held it from 2008 and is a great Dad.” 

            I forgot to note in my last column that Pat Schmidt on Silver Lake in Hazelhurst won the award for first loon pair sighting, at least that I heard about on a lake –  4/27.  

            Also on 5/9, we spotted our first of many hepaticas in the Frog Lake area, and in doing our first frog count of the year for the DNR, we heard our FOY American toads and several whip-poor-wills.

5/10: Jo Knapp in Presque Isle saw her FOY rose-breasted grosbeak, as well as her first ever red-headed woodpecker, a bird which remains quite uncommon up here. Mary and I saw our FOY white-crowned sparrows below our feeders, saw wild strawberries in flower, and could see the adult eagle feeding a chick in the nest across the river from us.

5/12: Judith Bloom had her FOY indigo bunting, and we had our FOY wood anemones.

Indigo bunting photo by Bev Engstrom

5/15: Callie and I came across dozens and dozens of goldthread wildflowers, and Mary and I heard our FOY northern waterthrush on the Bear River. We also had our one and only large-flower trillium on our property come into bloom, as did several patches of nodding trilliums.

nodding trillium photo by John Bates

5/16: Jennifer Heitz sent a photo of a common green darner dragonfly that she rescued from the water before a fish or bird could get it. She noted that, “it was at least 3” long with a beautiful green and blue body.” Green darners migrate by the thousands in the fall and lay their eggs where they overwinter in the southern states. Their offspring then return in the spring and are often the first dragonflies we see in the Northwoods.

common green darner photo by Jennifer Heitz

5/18: We encountered our first hatch of mosquitoes. We had two weeks of blessed hiking in snowless and bugless woods, but we were keenly aware that this would soon end, and so it has.

 

Wildflowers!

            Snow still laid in patches in most woodlands as May began, but once the weather warmed and the snow disappeared, our ephemeral wildflowers burst quickly into bloom. And not just wildflowers – many shrubs and trees, too. In our yard, many years ago we planted a pear, a plum, and several Juneberry trees, all of which came into flower on 5/15, and are already going by as of 5/19. But what a dazzle it’s been for these four days, and with our lilacs, crabapples, black and choke cherries, mountain ashes, and apple trees soon to flower, the sheer beauty of late May can easily take your breath away.

            Trees are also quickly leafing out, so the spring ephemeral wildflowers have their work cut out for them. They have to flower, be pollinated, and start going to fruit/seed while the sun still peeks through the tree branches. Once full leaf-out occurs in the hardwoods, the sunlight on the forest floor may only be an occasional dappling, cutting off the wildflowers’ source of photosynthesis. 

            So, it’s a race. If you want to see any of it, your time is short at best.

 

Goldthread (Coptis trifolia)

goldthread photo by John Bates

            These delicate May flowers thrive in cool, moist woods, particularly cedar swamps, and in bogs, but also grow under conifers, and often right in moss. Each flower grows singly on a long thin stem with 5 to 7 white petal-like sepals arranged in a star. Its evergreen leaves are divided into three fan-shaped, scalloped leaflets that look a bit like barren strawberry. If you are still in doubt about its identification, carefully expose the slender, brilliant yellow roots from which the name was derived.

            The roots branch into underground horizontal rhizomes that vegetatively reproduce by sending up shoots, often creating carpets of goldthread in deep woods.

            Goldthread was once called “canker-root” because of its use as a remedy for sore and ulcerated mouths. Most herbs were historically used in a host of different ways, but goldthread had unusual consistent use among various tribes – Mohegans and Montagnais boiled the root and used the solution for a gargle; Penobscots chewed the stems to prevent sores in the mouth; similar use was made of the root by Menominees, Potawatomis, and Pillager Ojibwas. Historical references say the root was also commonly used for lessening the pain of teething. The root contains the alkaloid berberine which exerts a mild sedative action, explaining its popularity as a pain killer. Widely used as folk remedy, goldthread roots dried for market in 1908 fetched sixty to seventy cents a pound. 

            Scrape soil away from the roots to expose the wiry rhizomes “made of gold,” then carefully replace the soil and pat it down.

 

Lake Clarity Means Higher Property Values

            (From Ted Rulseh’s highly recommended book Ripple Effects by University of Wisconsin Press):

            “For most lake residents, a direct self-interest lies in the value of their property. Study after study ties the quality of lake environments to property value, and to the vibrancy of community economies and the fiscal health of local governments. That is especially true in lake-rich tourist areas like northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. To cite just a sampling of evidence: A Bemidji State University study of 1,205 property sales on thirty-seven lakes in six regions of northern Minnesota found that water clarity was the most important factor in determining lakeshore property values. Professor Patrick Welle, one of the investigators, noted that on average, properties on all lakes in those six regions would rise in value by fifty dollars per foot of lake frontage if water clarity increased by one meter (a little more than three feet). ‘Now Realtors can talk of location, location, location and clarity, clarity, clarity,’ noted Welle.

            “A University of Wisconsin–Whitewater study, looking at 3,186 real estate sales over ten years on seven lakes in northwest Wisconsin, found that properties on lakes with good water quality had values two to three times higher than on lakes with poor-quality water.

            “A Michigan State University study examined the body of evidence on the connection between water quality and property prices. Reviewing forty-three studies, the researchers found that all but two showed a statistically significant relationship: ‘As a whole, they provide convincing evidence that clean water has a positive effect on property value.’

            “A study by the University of Wisconsin–Madison found that properties on lakes infested with Eurasian water milfoil experienced an average 7.7 percent decrease in total value.

            “A University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire study estimated gains in property value related to water clarity on sixty lakes in the state’s Vilas and Oneida counties. It concluded that a one-meter increase in clarity would boost the market price of an average lake home by $8,090 to $32,171 . . .  

            “Another study in Wisconsin’s Oneida County projected the impact on the economy and local government revenue if lake quality were to decline significantly. In that event, according to surveys cited, seasonal residents would spend less time at their properties, and up to 50 percent of visitors would find other vacation destinations. This would cost the county’s economy more than $100 million per year; the county would risk losing $2 billion in property value and $19 million per year in property tax revenue.”

            Not all lakes were created with equal water clarity – some are naturally stained. Whatever their natural coloration, however, these studies are crystal clear in linking the healthiest lakes with the healthiest monetary valuation. Famous oceanographer Sylvia Earle said in relation to the profound importance of water to all life, “No blue, no green.” We can also say something similar in relation to the importance of water clarity to economic value, “No blue, less green.”

 

Celestial Events

            June is on the horizon, and planet watching is fine this month. Look after dusk for both Venus and Mars in the southwest, with -4.5 magnitude Venus easily outshining 1.6 magnitude Mars. Remember that the scale is logarithmic – each step down of one magnitude is 2.512 times brighter than the magnitude 1 higher. Thus, a magnitude 1 star is exactly 100 times brighter than a magnitude 6 star. Venus, at almost six full magnitudes brighter than Mars, is over 200 times brighter.

            If you’re awake in the dark before dawn, look for Jupiter (-2.1 magnitude) in the east and Saturn (0.9 magnitude) in the southeast.

            June’s full moon occurs on the 3^rd. Called by many lovely names – the “Strawberry” or “Rose” or “Honey” moon – I’m particularly prone to seeing it as the “Strawberry” moon given that our first wild strawberries are usually ripe by mid-month with our first farm-grown strawberries not far behind. As Izaac Walton said, “Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.”

 

Quote for the Week

            “Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent,” Rachel Carson wrote in a letter to her closest friend Dorothy Freeman, ninety days before the release of her 1962 book Silent Spring.

 

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. 

 

A Northwoods Almanac for May 12

A Northwoods Almanac for May 12 – 25, 2023  by John Bates

 

            To my mind, these two weeks are the richest, most exciting weeks of the year. It’s been a very long winter, and now, FINALLY, it’s the height of spring when everything is greening up and flowering out, birds are returning from all corners of the Americas, frogs are in tumult, it’s warm enough to sit on the deck and bask in the sun, and the mosquitoes have yet to hatch and achieve battalion status. So, let’s look at a sample of spring’s burgeoning life. 

Sightings – Waterfowl, Frogs, Bitterns, Warblers, Pelicans, Snipe, and More!

            As of this writing, here are some of the first-of-the-years (FOYs) I’m aware of that have occurred from April 21 to May 5:

            Frogs! We heard our FOY wood frogs on 4/26, and FOY spring peepers and chorus frogs on 4/28. Then it started to snow – again – and it wasn’t until May 3 that the frogs warmed up enough to restart their joyous pandemonium. Calling is associated with water temperatures – chorus frogs start calling at 36°F and start getting really worked up once the water reaches 40°. Spring peepers are known to begin calling even when the ice is still only half-off an ephemeral pond, but they really start chorusing once water temperatures reach at least 41°F.

            Brrrr!

wood frog photo by Dan Lucas

            Catch the wood frogs while you can. The males call only for about two weeks in a flurry of mating activity, then go silent until next spring. The peepers and chorus frogs hang in there much longer with peepers calling in most wetland habitats and ephemeral ponds, while chorus frogs seem to prefer grassy, fishless wetlands. Mary and I run a frog count in western Vilas for the WDNR, and at the 10 sites we visit, we rarely encounter chorus frogs, even though they’re common throughout most of Wisconsin. It’s all about habitat, and these sites just don’t seem to have the right stuff.

            Trees and shrubs have been wisely biding their time coming into flower. Aspens, willows, alders, and hazelnuts, all have been in flower. But wildflowers? There had been lots of snow still in most shaded woods until May 2. So, as of this morning, May 5, there’s been no flowering. But it just started really warming up yesterday, and by the time you read this, the woods should be dancing with an array of ephemeral spring wildflowers. 

            Relative to birds, we had our FOY northern shovelers and American wigeons on Powell Marsh on 4/24, along with redheads on 4/26. Then on 4/29, again on Powell, we had our FOY American bitterns and a flock of 10 white pelicans.

            Our first palm warbler arrived on 5/2, but the big sighting that day was five Wilson’s snipes right below our house in the flooded wetlands. One was obviously a male, because he had his tail thrust up in the air and fanned out, and was aggressively stalking the others, who did a fine job of staying a short distance in front of him. 

            We’d hoped to actually see them mate, but no such luck. The literature says the male struts around the female with drooping wings, fanning his erect tail, while the female remains in one spot spasmodically drooping her wings and fanning her tail, whereupon the female abruptly squats and the male flutters onto her back and copulates with slowly beating wings. One researcher described an incident in which a pair was joined by a second male, and both males copulated with the female and then tried to copulate with each other. 

            Wowee! Exciting stuff in the wetlands!

            Once bred, the female will make a shallow scrape for her eggs, usually on a wet hummock or on the edge of a marsh or swamp, and line it with grasses.

            And if you’re wondering who “Wilson” was and why he got the species named after him, Scotsman Alexander Wilson (1766-1813) dropped out of the sixth grade, apprenticed as a weaver and aspired to be a poet. But he quickly learned these were the fast lane into poverty, so he emigrated to Philadelphia. Here he met the naturalist William Bartram, who inspired him so much that he set off to publish a collection of illustrations of all the birds of North America, no mean feat in the late 1700s. He eventually published the greatest natural history work of the time, the nine-volume American Ornithology illustrating 320 bird species, of which 26 had never been described before. He was known then as the “Father of American Ornithology,” and apparently inspired John James Audubon enough that Audubon was later accused of plagiarizing his work.

            Thus, in honor of Wilson’s work, he had at least seven bird species named after him, one of which is the snipe. He died in 1813 of “dysentery, overwork, and chronic poverty,” aptly describing the rewards of working in field ornithology at the time.

            

Coming Now or Soon!

            If you don’t have your hummingbirds feeders out, get on it! Hummers typically appear in our area right around Mother’s Day, so the time is now. Baltimore orioles also arrive now, so get oranges out for them. And rose-breasted grosbeaks should come on the same or near the same day, so be sure to have sunflower seeds available for them.

            Our neotropical migrants – most warblers, vireos, thrushes, et al – arrive a few days later, usually beginning around May 15.

 

Red-backed Voles

            Have you noticed all the gnawed and bare stems of various shrubs and saplings in our area, nearly all of which are several feet above the ground? This work is attributed to red-backed voles, a species which I admit to knowing very little about, but which has certainly tweaked my interest with its hard work over the winter. In autumn, these voles are said to cache seeds, nuts, and roots near their nests for winter consumption, but if the need arises, the bark of deciduous trees and shrubs becomes an important winter food. The need must have arisen, because there are hundreds of gnawed shrubs and saplings all around, particularly in wetter areas.

            A whole host of predators consume this rodent, including coyotes, short-tailed shrews, fishers, martens, weasels, foxes, all owls, most hawks, and even great blue herons and northern pike. These species should be delighted with so many voles to choose from.

            

Results from the Wisconsin Conservation Congress Spring Hearings 

            The annual Wisconsin Conservation Congress Spring Hearings have historically asked participants to discuss and vote on wide ranging hunting and fishing regulations. But more and more, the spring hearings take up larger environmental issues that matter to everyone in the state, which is exactly as it should be. This spring the Congress overwhelmingly supported the following five issues which I find of particular local importance: 

            1) Wake boarding: Six questions were presented to regulate this boating activity, which utilizes a specialized powerboat outfitted with ballast tanks and a huge engine to create massive waves for “surfers” behind the boat. Those waves can, of course, damage shorelines and lake bottoms, as well as destroy bird nests along shorelines, including those of common loons. 

            For example, here was question 64: “Do you support prohibiting wake boats from causing hazardous wakes on lakes less than 1500 acres?” 6292 said yes, 2879 said no, 553 said they had no opinion. 

            Question 66 asked, “Would you support the WCC and legislature creating a new state Statute that prohibits operation of a boat that intentionally creates a hazardous wake on lakes of a specific physical characteristics defined by size, depth, length and width?” Again, 6179 voters said yes, more than double those saying no.

            Bottom line: All six questions restricting or prohibiting wake boats were supported by a landslide.

            2) Ban of lead tackle in fishing to help prevent wildlife poisonings: Question 54 asked, “Do you support the WCC working with the DNR, the Natural Resources Board and our state legislature to implement a statewide ban on lead jigs and sinkers weighing 1 ounce or less?” The vote was 4727 yes, 2960 no and 2172 had no opinion. One of many reasons to do this? A recent study showed 30% of dead loons in Wisconsin were lead-poisoned. The cost to replace lead jigs and sinkers? Next to nothing.

            3) End lead poisoning of eagles: Question 55 discussed how wildlife rehabilitators in Wisconsin treat a couple hundred eagles and other raptors annually for lead poisoning after the birds ingest lead while scavenging in fall and early winter. Voters were asked if Wisconsin should have a statewide outreach program to increase the use of non-lead ammunition, and 5649 said yes, 2330 no, with 1868 folks remarkably having no opinion. 

            The issue is endlessly debated, but I think it’s relatively simple. Copper bullets have been proven to work overall just as well as lead bullets, though they’re a little bit more expensive 

            For me, this question didn’t go far enough. Why don’t we take the moral high ground and actually legislate lead out of all hunting? Given what’s at stake here – inadvertent poisoning of so much wildlife – there’s not a single excuse, other than the slightly increased cost, for not banning all lead.

            4) Reinstate the “Prove it First Mining Law-1997 Act 171”: 6106 said yes, 1069 said no, and 2692 had no opinion. What is the issue here? Act 171was passed in 1997-98, with overwhelming bipartisan support (29-3 in the Senate and 91-6 in the Assembly and signed by Gov. Thompson) as a reaction to high-profile cases of pollution from sulfide mines.

            The “Prove It First” law requires independent scientific proof that a copper-sulfide mine has operated elsewhere in the United States for at least ten years without causing pollution and that the mine has been closed for at least ten years without causing pollution. In 2017, Act 171 was repealed. Because metallic mining continues to pollute where it is done, it’s common sense to reinstate the Prove It First Act 171, and nearly 6 to 1 of the voters in the spring hearings saw it that way.

            5) PFAS and other forever chemicals: Question 52 asked, “Does the public support more testing and stricter standards for PFAS levels including in biosolids and groundwater?” 6579 said yes, 1069 said no, and 2499 failed to have an opinion.

            To see all the results from other important questions during the spring hearings, go to: https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/About/WCC/2023/SpringHearing/2023_StatewideResults.pdf

 

Celestial Events

            On 5/17, look before dawn for Jupiter just below the waning crescent moon. We’re up to 15 hours of sunlight on this day!

            The new moon occurs on 5/19. 

            On 5/23, look for Venus two degrees below the waxing crescent moon.

            And as we grow closer to summer solstice, the days are now growing longer by less than two minutes a day. As late as this spring has been, summer solstice is not far off.

 

Quote for the Week

            “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke