A Northwoods Almanac for Nov. 10-23, 2023

 A Northwoods Almanac for Nov. 10-23, 2023  

 

Science Research in the Northwoods – Rusty Crayfish, Eurasian Watermilfoil, Wild Rice

            I suspect most of us are unaware of the remarkably diverse array of scientific research that is ongoing in our area. To get a sense of it all, I attended a two-day conference in mid-October,  “Science in the Northwoods,” at Kemp Natural Resources Station. The conference is typically held every other year, and its format is quite unusual – each speaker is only given 5 minutes to summarize their research! These are called “lightning talks” for good reason, and it’s a tall task for most of the researchers to encapsulate what is often several years of work into such a tiny window of time.

            Fifty-three researchers presented to an engaged audience on topics ranging widely from the disturbing decline of wild rice to the encouraging decline in rusty crayfish; to synchronistic reproduction in conifers to the dynamics of pre-historic white pine sunken logs in lake zones; to weather factors on mating mice to wolf predation on CWD-infected deer; to long-term ecological research on our northern lakes to short-term fluctuations in zooplankton in those lakes.

            It was truly a potpourri of topics, and if one talk didn’t trip your trigger, you only had to wait 5 minutes for another presentation that probably would. Here are three talks that stood out for me.

            Invasive rusty crayfish first appeared in Wisconsin lakes in the 1970s and soon exploded in population. They denuded submersed aquatic vegetation, clearcutting plants rooted in the sediments, which in turn impacted fish populations. However, today, rusty crayfish are declining in many lakes in our area, and their decline is intensifying. In a 36-year study on 10 Vilas County lakes, many of those ten lakes have seen steady declines, with a handful of lakes falling to nearly zero. For instance, in Little John Lake (south of Boulder Junction), researchers only found two rusty crayfish in the whole lake. 

rusty crayfish distribution

        

Remarkably, the declines have occurred with no intervention by humans. Researchers have linked the declines in part to a fungal disease or to crayfish destroying their own habitat, but whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that native plants, snails and bluegill have recovered, helping restore the ecosystems in several lakes.

The question has now arisen if this is just a bust in a natural cycle – will the crayfish just boom again? Or will another invasive species come in to fill the empty niche? More importantly, perhaps, are there lessons here? Is our best management strategy for rusty crayfish to do nothing?

Another remarkable story involves Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM), which was first found in Wisconsin lakes in the 1960s. A study of over 1,113 lakes found EWM in over 700 lakes statewide, but in most lakes, it’s not abundant. Moreover, EWM populations have been found to vary over time. They may decrease over time, increase over time, or maintain a constant low level, and there’s typically substantial year-to-year variation. 

A more specific long-term EWM study on 12 lakes found that EWM is naturally declining on 10 of those lakes. Researchers also found that lake-wide herbicide treatments aimed at controlling EWM had a larger negative effect on native aquatic plants than the effects observed in lakes which did not actively manage EWM. Thus, in many cases, the cure was worse than the disease.

            Bottom line: EWM populations are complex! Management can and should vary, or the best management may be no management at all – should we be letting EWM run its course? 

            Lastly, a study continues on Spur Lake, a 113-acre muck-bottomed, soft-water drainage lake in Oneida County which once was a very important wild rice lake – Native Americans used this area for centuries. The lake and surrounding wetlands also provide habitat for black ducks, ring-necked ducks, osprey, and common loons, as well as migratory waterfowl.

By the 1990s, the rice began disappearing, and today the lake supports dense beds of emergent, submergent, and floating-leaved aquatic plants, but very little rice.

            It’s unclear exactly why the lake lost its rice and was overtaken by other aquatic plants, though possible causes include long-term high water, stable water levels (wild rice prefers some variation in water depths over time), reduced flows in and out of the lake, warmer air and water temperatures, and heavy precipitation events.

A restoration experiment has been underway on the lake to try and get the rice back to its historical robust abundance. Researchers have taken four areas of the lake and divided each one into four plots. On one plot, they have cut the aquatic plants and are seeding in the rice. On another, they are only cutting the aquatic plants. On another they have only seeded the plot. And on the fourth, they’ve left plot alone as a control.

It's an unfinished story. Stay tuned.

 

Winter Finch Forecast!

Those of us who feed birds eagerly await the “Winter Finch Forecast,” which originates from Ontario, Canada, and has been arriving in our emails every October since 1999. Ron Pittaway, who lived in Algonquin Park in Ontario, began the forecast, making it his mission to offer predictability to winter finch sightings by compiling data from a network of naturalists across Canada and the U.S. 

Pittaway made the connection between the summer cone crops of cedars, spruces, and pines, and the abundance – or scarcity – of siskins, crossbills, and grosbeaks in the winter. “When the conifer trees have bumper [crops] and the cones open, the birds just need to reach into them and pull the seeds out. There’s food everywhere . . . and the birds stay north,” said Pittaway. 

Eastern white pine, for example, produces a bumper crop every three to five years, but rarely has two good years in a row. Eastern hemlock, on the other hand, furnishes a good crop every couple of years. Because of the astonishing synchronicity of trees over long distances, the quality of the crop is usually stretched out over hundreds or even thousands of miles of forest, forcing the birds to travel long distances in response to the boom–bust cycle of their specific wintering food.

Weather conditions factor in as well. If there’s a drought, or a frost in June, or any other disruption that interferes with seed production, the seed crops fall below normal, and tens of thousands of finches flee the boreal forest and move south into the U.S. to search for food. 

The hard part is knowing which seed crops throughout all of Canada are in a boom or bust year in any given fall. But now dozens of scientists across North America send in their data, and the forecast is usually quite accurate based on the analysis of their combined seed observations.

The biggest finch story so far this year is the movement of pine siskins south out of the boreal forest dur to a poor white spruce cone crop. Migration monitoring stations at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth, Whitefish Point Bird Observatory in the UP of Michigan, and Observatoire d’oiseaux de Tadoussac, Quebec, combined as of October 21 for over 115,000 pine siskins counted. Peak days included 19,260 on October 21 at Whitefish Point! So far at Whitefish Point, almost 50,000 pine siskins have moved through, comprising nearly 41% of all the birds to have migrated through Whitefish Point this fall. 

At Hawk Ridge in Duluth this fall, 10,311 pine siskins migrated over the ridge, certainly less than Whitefish Point, but still a very large number.

Bottom line on pine siskins – it should be a banner year with “armies” of them eventually around our feeders.

pine siskin, photo by Bev Engstrom

The purple finch movement has continued to be strong in the Midwest States. Northeast of Duluth on Lake Superior, an impressive 3,750 passed by Stoney Point MN on October 2nd. Individuals have already reached as far south as North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas. Don’t be surprised if, as winter progresses, a late movement in January-February occurs into the Carolinas as eastern crops are depleted.

As for red crossbills (there are 10 “types” of red crossbills based on their calls), “Type 2 and 4 continue to occur in the northeast in their best numbers in years, even decades for type 4. Check areas with bumper eastern white pine cone crops for crossbills this winter.” 

For pine grosbeaks, there is a widespread crop of mountain ash berries from Lake Superior eastward. So, most pine grosbeaks should remain “home” in the eastern boreal forest. However, west of Lake Superior, the mountain ash crop generally appears below average. Thus, areas in the upper Midwest states and cities in Western Canada may see flocks of hungry grosbeaks searching for fruiting ornamental trees and well-stocked feeders with black oil sunflower seeds.

Common redpoll numbers should be modest, says the forecast. “Across the whole boreal forest, a good alder crop has been reported. However, in the same areas, the spruce and birch crops are poor to below average. Expect a moderate flight south out of the boreal forest.”

            Evening grosbeaks have declined 92% since 1970, but we had a bumper year of them last winter, the first such winter in nearly 30 years! For this winter, however, things don’t look as bright. The finch forecast says, “Eastward from Lake Superior is a bumper crop of chokecherries, and above-average berry and deciduous seed crop . .  Expect most birds to remain in the boreal forest and adjacent areas of Central Ontario Southern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and New England states.”

However, it adds, “Evening grosbeaks in northwestern Ontario westward should move out of the boreal forest, looking for feeders in towns or suitable food sources further south.” So, we may get some dropping down our way from those in NW Ontario – we’ll see!

Finally, for bohemian waxwings, perhaps the most beautiful of all our winter visitors, “Most Bohemians will likely stay in the north because native mountain ash berry crops are good, and other berry crops range from fair to good across the eastern boreal forest.”

 

More on Wake Boats and Proposed Legislation

Lakes at Stake Wisconsin (LASW) is a Wisconsin based organization concerned about the outsized impacts of wake sports on our inland lakes (https://www.lakesatstake.org). On October 19, 2023, a bill (LRB 3518/1) was introduced into the Wisconsin legislature that would prevent wake sports from operating within 200 feet from shore, which is still far too close – it needs to be 500 feet from shore. 

This bill doesn’t go far enough to protect our lakeshores, our lake sediments and aquatic plants, and our lake water quality. Check their website for further information.

 

Celestial Events

            Look for the peak North Taurid meteor shower before dawn on 11/12. This is a modest event – expect around 10 meteors per hour.

            The new moon appears on 11/13. 

The peak Leonid meteor shower occurs before dawn on 11/18 – look for an average of 15 per hour.

 

Thought for the Week

“The open fire is a thing of beauty, and as profligate, in its small way, as the coloring of the leaves. But there it is, and we cherish it and dream peaceful drama in its glow. The acrid

fragrance of its spiraling smoke is an evening symbol of home and hearthside. Its outdoor

counterpart is the curb fire of fallen leaves. But when . . . the maples have shivered in the frost and wind and bare branches lift against the stars . . . for another season, the bright flame of the woodland leaps and gladdens only on the hearth.” – Hal Borland, Sundial of the Seasons

 

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.