A Northwoods Almanac for June 9, 2023

 

A Northwoods Almanac for June 9 – 22, 2023  

 

Sturgeon Spawning on the Manitowish River

            On May 20, Mary and I watched sturgeon spawning on the Manitowish River, the first time in the 39 years we’ve lived in Manitowish that we finally got the timing right to see this event! The sturgeon were spawning on the other side of the river, so we weren’t able to stand on the bank right next to them, but with our binoculars, we got a good eyeful. We weren’t disappointed – we saw lots of big fins arching out of the water with occasional excited splashing by the males, and now and again a sturgeon surfaced to give us a true sense of their size.

            Spawning usually begins when the water temperature reaches 53°F in high water, and 58°F in low water. Groups of males arrive ahead of the females, frequently cruising so close to the surface that their tails, backs, and snouts are out of the water. When a ripe female enters the group, spawning begins. As she drops her eggs, the males swim alongside her and thrash their tails as they release milt (sperm). The one-eighth inch diameter fertilized eggs are sticky, and cling to the rocks until they hatch some 8 to 10 days later.  

            Even though one female may produce from 50,000 to 700,000 eggs, sturgeon remain rare because the eggs are eaten by crayfish, redhorse, carp, and even the adult sturgeon. Or the eggs are lost to dropping water levels, like the extreme lows the river is currently suffering, or to a fungus that can grow on the masses of eggs. Less than one in a thousand will typically survive to the one-third inch long larval stage.

            I spoke with Zach Lawson, fisheries biologist for the WDNR in Iron and Ashland counties, regarding the current status of sturgeon in the Manitowish River. For over 30 years, fisheries biologists have been working to restore sturgeon populations on the Manitowish and Bear rivers, as well as the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage. They’ve stocked tens of thousands of fry in four or five stocking events, with 2015 the most recent year. They’ve also been tagging sturgeon for the last 20 years, and are now analyzing their data to evaluate whether their efforts have created a self-sustaining population. 

            One of the problems in determining success is that so far they haven’t been able to say whether natural recruitment is happening – females don’t reach sexual maturity until they are around 25 years old and are 55 inches long, and then they only spawn every four to six years. So, there’s a wait involved from when a released fry matures into sexual maturity. Still, some should have spawned by now, but how to determine this?

            A proposed study will hopefully be funded this year that will use a spectrometer to look at cells from the sturgeon’s pectoral fins to find the microchemistry signature of the water the sturgeon have lived in. A hatchery-raised fish will show a different signature than a fish raised solely in one of the rivers or the TFF, so they’ll know if any young are being produced through natural reproduction.

            The larger question is when a population can be considered fully “restored.” How many individual fish are needed, where should they be spawning, and how much natural recruitment must be taking place first before the “all clear” signal can be given?

            As the biologists learn more, I’ll pass their findings along. 

            Greg Holt who lives on Benson Lake just downstream from the spawning site, is part of a volunteer “ sturgeon watch” group. He was on patrol in his canoe when he came upon some sturgeon thrashing about in the rapids and took pictures, one of which I’ve attached to this article.

photo by Greg Holt

 

Mosquitoes!

            Holy smokes! Battalions of the little beasts hatched out in in the last week of May and have driven quite a few folks indoors, or into wearing a head net wherever they go. 

            While this seems like a particularly intense hatch, the last week of May and the first few weeks of June are always notorious for producing swarms of mosquitoes. Some folks, however, seem to fair better than others in this battle, mostly depending on the habitat in which they live and the care in which they eliminate standing water around their home.

            The good news is that significant dragonfly hatches began around us on June 1, and will continue to increase. While they’ll never create a mosquito-less Northwoods, they do make a difference. 

            Mosquito populations also generally decline as the summer progresses – July is much better than June, and August is way better than July.  

            So, hang in there. The hordes will gradually diminish. No need to spray everything with chemicals that not only kill the skeeters, but also kill all the dragonflies, butterflies, moths, and other insects on your property, and often also kill the birds who eat the dying insects. 

            Use your repellants. Wear a head net. Grit your teeth for the next couple weeks, and this too shall pass, or at least become tolerable. 

 

Nesting Time

            In mid-June, nearly every bird species that resides in the Northwoods is either sitting on a nest and incubating eggs, or feeding their nestlings. The only exception I’m aware of is the American goldfinch, which nests in July. 

            It’s a critical time period, and one where we should all want to do what we can to not disturb them.

            Most songbird nestlings grow at an astonishingly fast rate. The young of smaller songbirds like most of the warblers, sparrows, vireos, and wrens, begin life naked and blind, but become fully feathered and fledge within 10 to 12 days of their hatching. That’s amazing! Even some of the larger songbirds like Baltimore orioles, scarlet tanagers, and red-winged blackbirds fledge their young at 11 to 14 days.

            It takes a lot of protein to accomplish this growth in such a short timeframe, and it’s all provided by the parents flying back and forth endlessly to feed the gaping mouths of their chicks. For intsance, according to entomologist Doug Tallamy, it takes between 6,000 and 9,000 caterpillars to rear one family of young chickadees. These chicks do not eat seeds; they can only eat insects. Both chickadee parents feed the hungry chicks, carrying a caterpillar (or two or three) to the nest about once every three minutes, 14 hours or more per day for two weeks or more. That’s more than 300 caterpillars per day. 

            Birds not only eat enormous numbers of insects, they help control insect populations. Edward Howe Forbush, an ornithologist who lived from 1858 to 1929, wrote this regarding the value of chickadees: 

            “In 1894, my small orchard became very seriously infested with canker-worms, tent-caterpillars, codling-moths and gypsy moths. No attempt was made to protect the trees from their enemies until the fall, when numbers of birds were attracted to the orchard. Immense numbers of the eggs of the fall canker-worm moth and the tent-caterpillar moth were already deposited upon the trees, and toward spring large numbers of spring canker-worm moths began to ascend the trees and lay their eggs. So many chickadees and nuthatches were attracted to the orchard during the winter that they destroyed nearly all the insects and their eggs, and during the next season, which proved to be one of great insect multiplication, my orchard was the only one in the neighborhood which produced a good crop of fruit, while most of those in town produced little or no fruit.”

            So, figure out what birds are nesting on your property, and read-up on how they raise their young. You may look at your property and bird life very differently after that. 

 

Sightings (FOY – First of Year)

            5/23: I heard my FOY Eastern gray tree frogs. And we had a yellow-headed blackbird visit our feeders, who stayed then for four days.

photo by John Bates

            5/24: Cedar waxwings returned right on cue with the flowering of our crabapple trees. Every year they arrive within a day or two of the trees coming into flower, and they eat the flower petals. In addition to cedar waxwings, the list of birds that eat flowers includes the northern cardinal, house and purple finches, northern mockingbirds, blue jays, evening grosbeaks, American goldfinches, and ruffed grouse. 

cedar waxwing eating serviceberries, photo by Bev Engstrom

            Some eat the flowers, some eat the buds. I read of an account in the 1870s where several towns in Massachusetts paid a 25-cent bounty on ruffed grouse. These bounties were established because apple farmers believed the grouse’s habit of eating buds reduced their fruit crops. As late as 1922, New Hampshire paid farmers $70,000 for alleged grouse damage to fruit trees.

            Every bud, of course, contains the leaves, the flower and ultimately the fruit, so eating buds is a real issue. I’m not so sure, however, that eating the flower petals harms the fruit. The petals serve to attract pollinators to the center of the flower where the male anthers provide the pollen and the female ovary resides. If the birds are only eating the petals, they’re diminishing the advertising value of the flower to insects, but not necessarily doing any damage to the ovary, which once pollinated, becomes the fruit. 

            5/27: I saw my FOY fawn.

            5/28: Saw my FOY Canada Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.

And in rapid succession, a number of trees and shrubs have come into bloom on our property from 5/28 to 6/1: Nannyberry, high-bush cranberry, pagoda dogwood, black cherry, currants, and mountain ash. Concurrently, a number have already bloomed and gone by: apple, crabapple, pear, plum, and rhododendron. We also saw our FOY wild roses on Powell Marsh on 6/1, and the calla lilies there are blooming in profusion. In the sandy woods around us, starflower, blueberries, barren strawberry, bunchberry, and Canada mayflower are also blooming lavishly.

 

Iron County Bird Count 

            Earlier this spring, Bruce Bacon, retired DNR wildlife manager, and I came up with the idea that Iron County should have its own bird count in order to document what species reside here, and by doing so, set a baseline for comparative counts into the future. We contacted folks we know who love to bird, and 16 of us ventured out early on the morning of 5/24 to survey four general areas we thought would offer us the best opportunities to find birds. 

            We weren’t counting total numbers of individual birds, but rather just totaling the number of species. We had a good morning – 124 species graced us with either songs, their physical presence, or both!

            Highlights included finding 22 species of warblers and five species of thrushes, but one of our groups missed some species we might have seen at Saxon Harbor if it wasn’t for a strong and cold wind coming in off the lake.

            We birded from 6 a.m. to noon in five separate groups, and though many of us thought it was a relatively quiet morning, we still found a very good representation of the birds that nest in our area.

            

Celestial Events

            The year’s earliest sunrises commence today, June 9 at 5:08 a.m., and continue until June 22, when the sun will begin rising one minute later.

            On 6/14, look before dawn for Jupiter 1.5 degrees below the waning sliver moon. 

            On 6/16/1963, a Soviet woman, Valentina Tereshkova, became the first woman to fly in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times. She flew for three days, and is the only woman to have flown solo in space. She is also the youngest woman to have been in space at 26 years old.

            Twenty years later on 6/18/83, Sally Ride became the first American woman to go into space. 

            On 6/19, the year’s northernmost sunrise occurs, and then the sun begins to shift ever southward in our sky. On 6/20, the year’s northernmost sunset occurs.

            Summer solstice takes place on 6/21, giving us our longest day – 15 hours and 44 minutes. Now summer “officially” begins, lasting supposedly 93 days – but we all know better.

 

Quote for the Week

            “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau

 

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.