A Northwoods Almanac for 10/25 – 11/ 7/24

 A Northwoods Almanac for 10/25 – 11/ 7/24  by John Bates

 

Avian Bird Flu

         Recent articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (“Bald eagle recovery a testament to wildlife protections, improvements,” Paul Smith, 8/4/2024) and The Washington Post (“In eagle nirvana, avian flu is decimating America’s national bird,” Mark Johnson, 10/5/2024) have raised concerns about the impacts of avian influenza on Wisconsin’s bald eagle population. 

         I read these avidly, because we had an active eagle nest across the river from us for decades, but we haven’t seen any nesting activity there or nearby for the last two years. So, we’re curious, too, regarding what may be going on.

         Eagles have been doing great in the seventeen years since the Fish and Wildlife Service removed them from the endangered species list, and numbers nationwide have continued to rise over that time. But avian influenza hit particularly hard in late 2021, and eagles began to die in many states. 

         In Michigan, the number of occupied eagle nests had risen from 52 in 1961, to 114 in 1984, and then to 1,000 or so by the end of 2021. Once avian influenza reached Michigan, the impact in 2022 was immediate – the number of occupied nests plunged 50 percent with tests on dead bald eagles performed by the Michigan DNR revealing that 38 percent of those that could be diagnosed had died of avian influenza.

         In Minnesota, eagles have been dying, too, but no comprehensive figures exist on the impact of the disease because the state does not collect all dead eagles for necropsy, the animal version of an autopsy.

          Eagles were dying even as far south in Florida and Georgia  where avian influenza caused an alarming rate of bald eagle deaths and nest failures. 

         How as this happening? Waterfowl were dying of “bird flu,” and the eagles were eating the waterfowl. 

         So, what’s been happening here? Wisconsin now has the third highest population of bald eagles in the nation, trailing Alaska and Minnesota, so this is a big concern. 

         The problem is it’s hard to say exactly, because the DNR no longer conducts aerial nest surveys, partly because the species is doing well and partly due to funding shortages that required its staff to focus on areas of greater need.

         To fill the void, Bald Eagle Nest Watch (BENW), a citizen science program begun in 2018 by the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance (then called Madison Audubon), started working in partnership with the WDNR. In 2022, as bird flu – more precisely Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) –  spread through the wild bird population in Wisconsin, BENW documented a sharp reduction in nesting success.

         The disease was found in dead and dying adult bald eagles and was confirmed as a source of mortality in eagle chicks when BENW volunteers in Milwaukee County recovered a very young, recently dead eagle and submitted it for testing.

         The eaglet was positive for HPAI. It helped explain the 65% failure rate among Wisconsin eagle nests in 2022, according to BENW data. The program had documented an average of 19% nest failures from 2018 to 2021. 

         That was a very serious decline. However, the good news is that last year, 2023, bald eagles appear to have recovered well with only a 15% nest failure, at least according to the limited BENW data. 

         So far in 2024, BENW volunteers have monitored 219 active nests across 40 counties (out of 72 in the state) and found 43 nests (20%) failed, but for many reasons including being toppled during severe storms this spring.

         Drew Feldkirchner, Director Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation for the WDNR, responding to a request for information from Ron Eckstein, retired eagle bander for the DNR in Rhinelander, wrote, “At this point, we have no plans to resume those [aerial] surveys. However, we are staying engaged on bald eagle work including the excellent NestWatch program led by Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance. We continue to receive those data every year and take that information into account.”

         Carly Lapin, Northcentral Region Ecologist for the DNR, wrote, “As far as I am aware, we are not seeing the bald eagle die-off that we did several years ago at the peak of avian influenza in the state. In fact, our nest success numbers appear to have returned to normal, based on observations from NestWatch.”

         With eagles now nesting in all 72 counties, it may be that the eagles have dodged this current bullet, at least in this incarnation of HPAI. However, there will likely be more variants to come.

 

Sighting – Juncos and Harris’s Sparrow

         Dark-eyed juncos arrived at our feeders in Manitowish on 10/7 and a Harris’s sparrow visited our feeders on 10/10. 

dark-eyed junco, photo by Bev Egnstrom

Harris’s sparrows are a far northern nesting sparrow that rarely visit on their spring and fall migrations, and one we haven’t seen for many years. It’s always a blessing when you look out your window and a rare bird looks back at you, isn’t it?

Range map for Harris's sparrow

Harris's sparrow

Lingering Trees

         Research into the natural genetic diversity and selective breeding of trees offers some  hope for imperiled tree species like ashes, American beech, eastern hemlock, butternut, American chestnut, and American elm. The trick is to find those very few trees that are surviving and showing resistance to these diseases, and then to crossbreed them in hopes of restoring them to some of their original abundance in our forests. 

         And that’s where all of us come in. Researchers need help finding “lingering” trees. If any of us are aware of a tree or trees that appear to be doing well – they’re “lingering” – while others of the same species around them are dying, we are asked to download the app TreeSnap and submit our observations. 

         A caution. It’s important to not submit observations of trees like eastern hemlock where the hemlock wooly adelgid (HWA) hasn’t reached as of yet, like our area in northern Wisconsin. But if you live in North Carolina or Massachusetts or other eastern states where the HWAs have killed millions of trees, then that’s the area where the survival of hemlocks is rare and needs to be documented.

         So, if you’re in an area that has been decimated by a specific tree disease or pest, but you see an individual or more doing well, consider sending information in to TreeSnap. Follow up questions will come your way, and your observations will not be shared with anyone except certified researchers in order to protect the trees. 

 

 Always More on Wolves 

         Pat Durkin in a recent excellent “Patrick Durkin Outdoors “column notes the following statistics (https://www.patrickdurkinoutdoors.com): “From 1985 through 2023 [38 years], the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources paid $3.38 million in sundry veterinary bills and abatements [for wolf ‘depredations’] to cover 750 calves, 450 hunting dogs, 270 sheep, 235 chickens, 150 adult cattle, 150 domestic turkeys, 65 pet dogs, 25 horses or donkeys, and other livestock injured or killed by wolves.”

         Big numbers, right? Well, as Durkin points out, if you break them down in annual numbers over 38 years, those big numbers suddenly look pretty small, don’t they?

         More importantly to my mind, Durkin notes: “The DNR, however, doesn’t track or write abatement checks for cats, dogs, parakeets or other suburban pets picked off by foxes, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, hawks or bald eagles. Good thing. Imagine the drama of politicians demanding the DNR hold those evil-doers accountable, too.”

         So true. Just wolves are the evil-doers. No coyote or bobcat or other predator gets headlines in papers for killing a lamb or calf or chickens or someone’s house cat. No one gets paid for losses from other predators. 

         And if you want to take it to its furthest end, no one gets paid for the damage woodpeckers do to all of our wooden siding. Or the damage sapsuckers do to our apple trees. Or . . . 

         Maybe the DNR should be paying us for all this other stuff, too!

         No . . . they absolutely should not.

         We live in a state that has exceptional wildlife. To enjoy the remarkable benefits of having them on the landscape, sometimes there’s a cost, one everyone should be more than willing to pay for the privilege of not living in a sterile city. 

         

The Other Side of the Wolf Coin

         Durkin also points out that there are those who think if we just had more wolves, we could eliminate CWD in deer. Or if we just had more wolves, they would control the ever burgeoning deer herd.         

         Nonsense. 

         I’ve written this before, but it bears continual repeating. All the best research has said that wolves eat from 17 to 20 deer annually. Multiply that times our 1,000 wolves, and that’s a pittance of 20,000 deer. If instead we have 1,500 wolves, as so loudly proclaimed by those who always believe they know better than the DNR, that’s a larger pittance of 30,000 deer. Out of a deer herd of somewhere around 1.6 million statewide – around 400,000 in the northern counties – that still leaves an army of deer on the landscape

         Simply put, wolves will never control the deer herd in Wisconsin. Never. 

         The math doesn’t work for the wolf haters, nor does it work for the wolf lovers.

         Now, if only math mattered. 

         Durkin ends his column with a perfect quote from wolf researcher David Mech who wrote in 2012, “The wolf is neither a saint nor sinner except to those who want to make it so.”

 

Celestial Events

            Planets to watch for in November: After dusk, look for brilliant Venus very low in the south-southwest; for Jupiter rising in the east-northeast; and Saturn high in the southeast.

            At dawn, look for Mars in the south-southwest.

            New moon on 11/1.

            The peak Taurid meteor shower occurs in the predawn on 11/5.

 

Thought for the Week

         The smoke from the first meaningful fire in the wood stove, the one that just might keep going now until spring, smells sweet and crisp from the white birch that has laid silent in the pile for two years, snapping now and crackling and popping, spinning tall tales in long shadows as the sun sets, luring us to the couch to warm our feet, the air inside now pungent, too, from opening the stove door for gentle rearrangements, encouraging fire from individual logs I recognize by now as old friends from all the cutting and the splitting and the stacking and the hauling, and with the possibility of the first flakes of the season flying by morning, we are exactly where we want to be, the inside of our house reflecting the magnificent yellow of our woods outside, and time is slowing in that perfect way that only happens when you light the first purposeful fire of the year. – Bob Kovar

 

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: e-mail me at johnbates2828@gmail.com, 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 10/11 – 24/24

 A Northwoods Almanac for 10/11 – 24/24  

 

Estivant Pines

         Mary and I recently spent three days in the UP’s Keweenaw Peninsula, where the highlight of the trip was a hike in the Estivant Pines Nature Sanctuary, a site considered the largest and best stand of remnant white pines left in the Upper Midwest. Over the last 20+ years, Mary and I have scoured the region looking for the best stands of remnant old-growth forest, and we both agree with that assessment – the Estivant Pines represents the best of what few remnant pine forests we have left. 

         The Nature Sanctuary was originally part of a 2,400-acre tract of land owned by Edward Estivant of Paris, who sold it to Calumet and Hecla Mining Company in 1947. It was then sold in 1968 to Universal Oil, which proceeded to cut down 300 acres of nearby forest and began plans for future logging. Hearing of this, the Michigan Nature Association (MNA) led a three-year statewide fundraising campaign to purchase 200 acres of the Estivant Pines from Universal Oil in 1973 and succeeded in making the initial acquisition. Three additional acquisitions occurred between 1989 and 2019, bringing the sanctuary to 570.5 acres.

         Two loop trails totaling 2.5 miles showcase the towering pines and forest. The 1-mile Cathedral Grove loop passes some of the largest and oldest giant white pines, growing more than 125 feet tall and dating back 300 years. One pine on this loop was determined to have germinated around 1695 after a wildfire swept the ridge. 

         Much of this sanctuary sits on a high ridge of volcanic bedrock that dates back to the earliest period of Earth’s history, some 1.1 billion years ago. Multiple glaciers left behind a very thin layer of soil that can support plant life but generally is not deep enough to anchor a 100-foot-tall tree. To compensate for the lack of soil, most of the pines have grown roots deep into fractures and crevices in the bedrock. Some trees have been lost to windstorms, but remarkably few have fallen considering that the sanctuary sits at an altitude that varies between 200 and 500 feet above lake level, which leaves these trees exposed to powerful winter winds that blow across Lake Superior. In the winter, the sanctuary can get more than 275 inches of snow.

         We measured the diameter of many of the pines, the largest of which was 45” in diameter at breast height. Many were between 36” and 42”.

45" diameter white pine in the Estivant Pines

 

         Below the emergent pines at Estivant, sugar maple and balsam fir dominate with very few young white pine seedlings or saplings in the understory. This can’t be explained by a paucity of seed production, since white pines begin seeding at 20 to 30 years and typically have good seed years every 3 to 5 years.

         Most projections suggest that the white pine will decline in future decades, while sugar maple and balsam fir will increase. White pine re-establishment is usually thought to require major disturbances such as fire or windstorms for reproduction in late-successional stands like this. Other studies , however, report the ability of white pine to reproduce in canopy gaps. In an extensive survey of regional white pine forests, one researcher (Fahey 2011) found that although most pines (white and red pine) were established after large wind and fire disturbances, around 35% of pines successfully re-established after smaller gap disturbances.

         Change is always the name of the game in forest communities. Carbonized tree stumps and little bits of charcoal strewn across the Estivant landscape point to a large wildfire that swept through the area in the late 1700s and likely wiped out most of the white pines that had been standing there. Just as the towering, mature pines today prevent the young pines from growing underneath, those earlier pines likely prevented few new ones from growing beneath them. 

fire-scarred white pine, photo by John Bates

         So, who knows what the future will bring for these aging relicts? It was white pine that made Michigan the nation’s leading lumber-producing state from 1860-1910, and nearly all – 99.8%+ - were cut down. What a shame it would be if this last marvelous stand, by far the largest in Michigan, failed to sustain its community of pines.

 

Orange Peel Fungus (Aleuria aurantia)

         On a far tinier scale in the middle of a different trail near Houghton-Hancock, Mary and I came across a number of  bright orange, cup-shaped mushrooms that resemble orange peels strewn on the ground. The species name, “aurantia,”  derives from the Latin word aurantia for, you guessed it, “orange.” 

         Orange peel fungus grows throughout North America, but can also be found in Chile and in Europe fruiting mainly on bare disturbed soil.

Orange peel fungus, photo by John Bates

         The orange color is derived from a chemical similar to carotenoids found in trees like sugar maple, which causes the leaves to turn a brilliant yellow and/or orange. 

         It’s said to be edible, but not choice. We don’t collect wild mushrooms, preferring to allow them to be enjoyed by others during their brief life. But it’s important to remember that picking mushrooms doesn’t kill them – the mushroom is the fruit of the fungus, akin to an apple on an apple tree.

 

Hawk Ridge

            As of 9/29, six weeks into the fall migration count at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, the professional counters have tallied over 40,000 raptors! If non-raptors (like waterfowl and songbirds) are included as well, they have counted over 170,000 total birds, of 148 different species!

            The biggest raptor day for 2024 was on 9/20 – here’s what their write-up said: 

            “The raptor flight began early, and Sharp-shinned Hawk (SS) and Kestrel movements built to a steady flow all day. Shortly after 0900, the first Broad-winged Hawk (BW) kettle appeared on the western horizon. The BW flight slowly built into larger and larger kettles, mostly overhead, until groups reached a maximum size of 800-1000 birds! . . . Low and slow Sharp-shinned Hawk and kestrels delighted onlookers hundreds of feet below the massive kettles. By days end, nearly 900 SS and over 15,000 BW had passed by the overlook!”

            A few days later on 9/22, yellow-rumped warblers took the stage, with 5,794 passing over the ridge.

            The bird of choice in the first week of October was the American robin – 7,160 cruised past the ridge on northwest winds on 10/3. 

 

Baby Snapper Survival

            Jeff Kenkel wrote on 10/1: “We have a long, shared,  gravel road to our eastern Presque Isle place. At two locations it crosses the creek which emanates from the lake we are on. We frequently see turtles here in the spring looking to and laying eggs.  We always wonder if/ how many will survive. 

            “Rather suddenly, about a week ago, several holes were dug roadside in both crossing locations by what I presume was a racoon . . . How sad, I thought, to have made it this long and perhaps only days away from hatching, only to be devoured by a predator.”

            I have written in the past about the very long odds of success that our native turtles have of making it to adulthood. Here’s the best summary I’ve seen in the literature (from Susanne Kynast):

            “Reproductive success is highly variable due to the unpredictable environment. The weather during the incubation period plays an important role since embryos develop only at temperatures above 20°C (68°F) . . . 

            “In northern populations, short cool summers with high amounts of precipitation cause frequent years with complete reproductive failures. However, because survival from year to year is naturally so high for adults, reproductive failures in one year have normally little impact on lifetime reproductive success and population stability . . . 

            “Predation on nests is also extremely high. [Up to] 94 % of nests are annually destroyed by mammalian predators (skunks, raccoons, mink, red foxes), but yearly variation is high . . . Only about 14% of all clutches emerge annually. 

            “However, the lucky undisturbed nests in good years can produce up to 50 hatchlings. Still only about 15 hatchlings will leave a successful nest . . . 

            “If the air and surface temperature is too low, hatchlings attempt to overwinter in the nest, a strategy which is successful in the south, [but] in the north this strategy is fatal, and the hatchlings freeze to death . . . 

            “All those factors together cause huge fluctuations in reproductive success from year to year. It is possible that only one year of ideal climatic conditions for nesting and hatching out of 5 to 10 may be enough to maintain or increase the population, but only if nest predation is also low in that year. Predation on hatchlings and juveniles is still heavy especially during the first year, and only slightly lower during the 2nd and 3rd year. They get eaten by raccoons, mink, weasel, skunks, herons, and large fish while they are still under three inches (7.6 cm) in length.             “The probability of survival from egg to adulthood is 1 in 1445 individuals, the probability of survival from hatching to adulthood 1 in 133. This results for female snappers in a probability of death between hatching and breeding age of 99.17%. Annual recruitment into the breeding population (the number of juveniles reaching maturity in any given year) is only 1 to 1.8%.”

 

Fall Colors? And First Frost

            As of 10/4, our autumn colors have been relatively drab and dull, with occasional exceptions of brilliant red maples and sumac. My best guess is that our very dry weather over the last two months has conspired to reduce the vibrancy of color. But, I’ve been fooled many times before trying to project the scope and reasons for our autumn display, so time will tell.

            Our first frost finally occurred on the morning of 10/4, which might hasten the colors.

 

Celestial Events

         As of 10/14, we’re down to 10 hours and 59 minutes of sunlight. Look this night after dusk for Saturn just below the waxing gibbous moon.

         Look on 10/17 for the full moon – the “Hunter’s Moon” or “Falling Leaves Moon” – which will be this year’s closest, and therefore largest, full moon. 

         Our average low temperature drops to 32° as of 10/17, this for the first time since April 26. We now begin (for Minocqua) a string of 194 days on average that will be at or below 32°.

         Look for the peak Orionid meteor shower during the predawn of 10/21. 

 

Thought for the Week

            If the only prayer you said was “thank you,” that would be enough. – Eckhart von Hochheim