A Northwoods Almanac for 7/4-17, 2025 by John Bates
Raptor Attack
I received the following email from a friend on 6/24: “I'm emailing to tell you of an incident on Saturday [6/21] when a friend [Zoe] was harassed by some sort of raptor while she was hiking.
“It happened on a hiking trail . . . [near Hidden Lakes Trail east of Eagle River]. The bird first hit her in the head from behind as she was walking on the trail, almost knocking her down and leaving a big bruise. It then kept swooping down at her and wouldn't let up. She started running, and says the bird kept attacking her for almost a mile before it finally left her alone . . .
“Based on the location indicated in the picture and your knowledge of that habitat, do you have a guess as to what species was harassing her? Have you ever heard of something like this happening before?”
Yes, I have heard of this happening before, and I would bet the farm it was a female northern goshawk.
Twenty years ago I wrote about a man being attacked at night in February by what turned out to be a barred owl, and in trying to figure out what the bird was I received this note from Tom Erdman, an expert bird researcher with lots of experience banding raptors: “Goshawks typically make flying passes at an intruder, usually only using the hallux to rip. I've lost several hats, part of an ear . . . and a little blood to them over the years. Typically you can just face them and wave them off.”
Cornell’s “Birds of the World” says about northern goshawks (now called “American” goshawk as of 2024): “Can strike and draw blood from persons approaching nests: attacks on a single person are usually more severe than those on two or more persons.”
In a 1991 study (Speiser, Robert and Bosakowski, Thomas (2024) “Nesting Phenology, Site Fidelity, and Defense Behavior of Northern Goshawks in New York and New Jersey,” Journal of Raptor Research: Vol. 25), “Aggression to a single human intruder was ranked at 16 different nest sites . . . The most aggressive aerial attacks were initiated by the female if an intruder came within about 100 m of the nest during the early nestling stage. Furthermore, attacks became more vigorous if an observer moved in the direction of the nest . . . Stopping and watching the nest from the same trail was not tolerated and usually provoked aggressive attacks.
“We also observed a direct relation between the magnitude of aggressive encounters and the number of observers in the party. Goshawks were noticeably less bold and aggressive when more than one observer was present. Visits to active nest sites have shown at least 15 extreme aggressive attacks during at least 80 single observer visits in comparison to no aggressive attacks during some 30 multiple observer visits . . .
“During the early brood period (nestlings less than two weeks in age) the female became most aggressive and was occasionally supported by protesting vocalizations of the male
who only participated in 18% of cases of nest defense . . . Nest defense usually began with protracted "cackle" alarm calls described as "cac, cac, cac" in Bent (1937). These calls were uttered by both adults if present. The cackling was quickly followed by repeated flyovers, then direct diving at the intruder primarily by the female. When young were more than three weeks old, adults rarely attacked an observer.”
So, to summarize: When their chicks are less than two weeks old, female goshawks are known to attack solitary individuals who may be inadvertently walking by their nest site. After that, attacks are rare.
And that seems like a reasonable hypothesis for what happened to Zoe on her walk.
Please note: American goshawks are a very uncommon species, very secretive, and listed of “special concern” in Wisconsin, most often nesting in older, mature forests. The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest conducts surveys for goshawk active nests prior to timber harvest projects, and where nests are known, maintains and protects areas of mature hardwood, hemlock, and white pine forests.
Goshawk attacks are quite rare – lightning strikes to people probably occur on a comparable frequency. Like any wildlife species, they protect their young if one gets too close to them. I’ve only seen a few goshawks over all my years of birding, and I consider it a privilege when I do.
American goshawk |
Some Thoughts on the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program
The Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program is up for renewal once again, and every time it needs reauthorization, there’s been a political fight to fund it despite longstanding bipartisan support as well as 9 out of 10 voters backing it.
Nearly 700,000 acres have been protected over the three decades of the program, and as of 2020, more than nine out of ten Wisconsin residents live within 1 mile of a property that has received a Knowles-Nelson Stewardship investment. Over 4,200 grants have been awarded to local governments and non-profits to support protecting land, clean water, and outdoor recreation opportunities including hunting and fishing.
One concern of those who wish to cut it is that it costs money. Well, true, but everything costs money that’s worthwhile. The real question is whether it’s a good investment of money. The weekly debt service for Knowles-Nelson is significant – about $1.23 million. That is a lot of money. But break down the cost per person in the state and the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program costs each Wisconsin resident less than $11 per year (far less than a fishing/hunting license or a state park’s pass). Or about 84 cents per person per month. This modest investment that we all make each year has yielded extraordinary returns. It costs money to build and maintain local parks, trails, playgrounds, campgrounds, boat launches, shorelines, et al.
How does that investment stack up against other investments the state makes? Knowles-Nelson costs pale in comparison to other debts the state carries. For example, Wisconsin's debt service for transportation infrastructure costs about $8.5 million per week, or nearly seven times more than our weekly investment in conservation through the Stewardship Fund.
The program has been funded through bonding, which is how governments finance long-term purchases, just like when one of us buys a house. If an investment has a high upfront cost but provides benefits for a long time (think paving roads, building schools, or purchasing land), then it makes sense to spread the cost out over the life of the investment. That’s what bonding does.
But some ask can we afford it? In my opinion, we can. Wisconsin is in excellent financial condition, carrying less debt than at any time in the past 25 years. Wisconsin ended its 2024 fiscal year in June with a $4.6 billion state budget surplus. Really, there are no legitimate concerns about our state's debt load that would justify scaling back this exceptionally successful program.
If you want to see how the KNSP has been utilized over the years in your specific township or county, I encourage you to pull up this interactive map and read the many, many stories: https://knowlesnelson.org/an-interactive-map-of-knowles-nelson-grants/.
Mosquito Buckets
“Mosquito buckets” are a simple, effective alternative to toxic spraying to kill mosquitoes. The buckets protect pollinators, pets, and people by safely targeting mosquito larvae. Spraying kills adult mosquitoes (and all other adult insects in the area like butterflies, moths, dragonflies, fireflies, and various other pollinators), but not larvae, so you have to keep spraying throughout the summer.
Mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water, so that’s what we all need to target.
This super inexpensive method kills the aquatic larvae by adding a natural soil bacterium called Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis found in mosquito “dunks”).
It’s easy-peasy. Get a five gallon bucket, fill it two-thirds full, add a handful of grassy vegetation to help the water stew a little, and then add one-quarter of a mosquito dunk, readily available at most hardware stores, to the bucket.
Put some screen over the bucket to keep other critters out, and place the bucket in a shady area. Use several buckets if you have a large yard. Drill a hole in the bucket at the desired water line so rainwater doesn’t make it overflow.
That’s it.
Dunks begin killing mosquito larva within hours; you should start to notice a difference in about 48 hours. Will they kill every mosquito? No, but they will help a lot.
BTW, you also need to remove all other sources of standing water in your yard; otherwise, you’re just providing other areas for mosquitoes to lay their eggs.
Give the bucket(s) a try and see what you think.
Summer Bounty
It’s late June as I write this, and everywhere wild plants are growing like crazy, as is our garden. While we clearly don’t spend enough time weeding, nevertheless, we’ve harvested asparagus and some spinach from the vegetable garden so far, and we have more rhubarb than the law should allow, allowing us to freeze numerous quarts without making much of a dent in it.
I made rhubarb-cherry jam last week (we had been in Door County and bought frozen cherries), and soon we’ll be putting up rhubarb-strawberry jam.
We canned a crate of peaches from Georgia on 6/24.
Our Juneberry trees, too, have lots of ripening fruit on them, but the birds always beat us to them. Hopefully they’ll leave us a few cups to put on some pancakes in July.
A few of our apple trees look loaded, so we’ll be canning many quarts of applesauce in August.
And our bees appear abundant (as long as they aren’t killed by someone spraying pesticides for mosquitoes), so about the time we’re harvesting apples, we should get very sticky spinning out our honey frames and storing the liquid gold in quart jar.
Hopefully you’re taking advantage of our lush summer, too, and harvesting from your property.
Sightings: July’s Roadside Flowers
The weather in late June and into July brings flowers galore along our roadsides. Some are show-offs while others prefer humility. Most belong in other countries, but a few belong here. Some want to take over the planet, and others just want to live a small life in a small landscape.
Here’s a sampler of what you are likely seeing everywhere (nn for non-native): Hoary alyssum (nn), fireweed, bird’s-foot trefoil (nn), bush clover (nn), red clover (nn), golden clover or yellow hop (nn), bladder-campion (nn), wild roses, spreading dogbane, goat’s-beard (nn), yellow and orange hawkweed (nn), ox-eye daisy (nn), and yarrow.
yellow hawkweed, photo by John Bates |
fireweed, photo by John Bates |
yellow hop, photo by John Bates |
goatsbeard, photo by John Bates |
Celestial Events
Planets to view in July: After dusk, the only planet to look for is Mars very low in the west. But prior to sunrise (I know, it’s really early!), look for Venus brilliant in the northeast, Jupiter bright in the east, and Saturn high in the south.
Full moon on 7/10 – the “Buck in velvet” moon, “Half way through the summer” moon, or “Thunder” moon.
Thought for the Week
“I used to think that the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change . . . I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation.”
James Gustave Speth, former U.S. Advisor on climate change
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