NWA 10/12/12

A Northwoods Almanac for 10/12 – 25/2012 by John Bates

Freshwater Jellyfish

            On 9/29, Cindy Carpenter reported seeing lots of freshwater jellyfish on 214-acre South Two Lake near Lake Tomahawk, a relatively deep lake for our area with correspondingly clear water. These quarter-sized jellyfish typically hover in the water column from several inches deep to as far down as one can see, and are translucent with a cross shape on their back.

            It’s thought that the jellyfish are one of two species native to China, both of which (Craspedacusta sowerbii and C. sinensis) live in the Yangtze River. Freshwater jellyfish were unknown outside of China until 1880 when the jellyfish were found swimming in a large, water-lily tank at the Royal Botanic Gardens outside London, England. Four years later in 1884, immature jellyfish polyps were found in a stream in Pennsylvania.            

            The jellyfish eventually found their way to Wisconsin and were first reported from a farm pond near Baraboo in Sauk County where wood ducks are speculated to have carried them to the pond. By October 2006, jellyfish had been reported from 40 water basins in Wisconsin, and as of 2012, in 89 Wisconsin lakes.

            The literature on the jellyfish’s natural history in Wisconsin says to look for jellyfish during dry and hot summers, and while this wasn’t officially a drought year for us, it’s certainly been dry. When lake shallows warm rapidly during spring, the jellyfish emerge in mid-June and swim toward the water surface. Only when they are full-grown and densely “bloomed” near the water surface do they draw attention.  And that typically doesn’t happen in Wisconsin until August to mid-September.

            The jellyfish are restricted to a narrow band of water temperature between 65 to 75 degrees. If the water surface of a lake becomes warmer than 75°, as some of our lakes do during hot summer afternoons, the jellyfish congregate in deeper water where they can find their preferred temperature range.

            The jellyfish feed on zooplankton, using their tentacles to sting these critters and capture even larger prey, such as water mites and insect midge larvae. These tiny jellyfish are not considered dangerous to humans. The mature jellyfish live a few weeks, release eggs, and die.

            Their impact, if any, is unclear. While their preference for large, predatory zooplankton could influence zooplankton species structure, no one knows if this is an issue.

Sightings

            A bull moose was photographed swimming across Rest Lake in Manitowish Waters, but other moose were also reported in a number of locations. Usually these are young bulls out for a walk-about, perhaps looking for a female, but who really knows?

            On 9/28, Sharon Lintereur spotted a white-crowned sparrow at her feeders. Tree, Harris, fox, white-throated, and white-crowned sparrows are all migrating through now.

            We’ve had a bevy of American robins, house finches, and yellow-rumped warblers around our house eating our abundant crabapples. One usually doesn’t think of warblers as fruit eaters, but the yellow-rumps have the most diverse diet of our warblers. Hopefully there will be a few crabapples left for the pine grosbeaks and Bohemian waxwings to feed on this winter.

Dark-eyed Juncos

On 9/29, Jane Gau near Boulder Junction reported seeing about a half dozen dark-eyed juncos under her feeder, the earliest she can ever recall seeing them. We’re at the southernmost edge of their nesting range, so we do have local birds that are seen throughout the summer, but it’s usually October that brings large flocks of juncos down out of Canada on their way to their wintering grounds.

Juncos are familiar to nearly everyone because of their ubiquity, abundance, tameness, and conspicuous ground-foraging winter flocks. Audubon (1831) stated that “there is not an individual in the Union who does not know the little Snow-bird,” a reference to its plumage which is characterized by white outer tail-feathers that flash when the bird takes flight and by a gray or blackish hood and back that contrasts with its whitish breast and belly. A recent estimate set the junco’s total population at approximately 630 million, so plenty to go around!

All juncos breeding in the North migrate, because as seed eaters, they need open ground in the winter upon which to forage. East of Mississippi River, females tend to migrate farther south than males, and adults migrate farther than hatching-year birds, a process called “differential migration.” Northern-breeding birds typically begin migrating in September, and are on their wintering grounds by early December.

Juncos commonly migrate at night and some are killed every year in collisions with human-made structures like television towers, indicating that many juncos migrate below tower heights.

In fall and spring, migrant juncos forage almost entirely on the ground and are common on lawns and along roadsides. Their winter food is almost entirely seeds from plants like chickweed, crabgrass, pigweed, knotweed, and sorrel. Analysis of their stomachs have also shown 0–66% sand and gravel, and gravel has even been found in the stomach of their nestlings, therefore being brought by adults. Because they lack teeth, seed-eating birds need to eat grit to help them digest their food. The grit grinds the seeds they eat in the gizzard, while the grit itself is slowly ground down and dissolved allowing the minerals to enter the bloodstream.

Fall Colors

            Autumn colors have peaked and many leaves have dropped, but what a glorious array of colors we were blessed with! Look now for the smoky gold of the tamaracks around our bog lakes – the color usually peaks around 10/15.

           

More Gleanings from the Rest Lake Dam Environmental Analysis

To understand how much water to hold back behind a dam, and how much to equitably disperse over a dam, you have to know how much is coming in. So, the water entering the Manitowish Chain comes from three sources:

1-    Precipitation: we average 34 inches of annual precipitation, which includes our 85 inches of annual snowfall in the watershed.

2-    River flow: the five major river/creek contributors to the Manitowish Chain are: Manitowish River – 48%

            Trout River – 28%

            Rice Creek – 15%

            Papoose Creek – 7%

            Gresham Creek – 2%

3-    Groundwater: groundwater contributes to the system, but the amount of water is difficult to study and poorly understood. During the summer, evaporation rates can be as high as 4 to 6 inches of water surface elevation loss per month; however, summer evaporation loss and groundwater inputs were estimated by the USGS to essentially cancel one another out.

When the Chain is drained 3.5 feet in elevation in late September, nearly 660 million cubic feet of water are released (at 5’0” elevation, the Chain holds 350 million cubic feet, and at 8’6”, the Chain holds 1,010 million cubic feet). Downstream, the narrow river basin typically floods in a few days, and the Turtle Flambeau Flowage is raised about 11 inches during the drawdown.                       

There are about 656 acres of surface water dewatered when the Chain is lowered 3.5 feet, most of which is the littoral zone where aquatic plants grow. The wetlands of the Chain provide important habitat for foraging, nursery, spawning, and cover for a diverse assemblage of fish, wildlife, and other aquatic organisms. They also provide important ecological function such as flood storage retention, water quality protections, scenic beauty, and shoreline protection.

The natural annual flow pattern of northern Wisconsin rivers is characterized by high flows in the spring when rain combines with snowmelt, and low flows in autumn. March 25^th is the average date for spring runoff in the Northwoods, and 75% or more of the spring runoff has passed by April 15^th, the average date when the refill of the Chain is begun. When the process of refilling the Chain begins, the flow in the river below the dam is instantaneously reduced from around 250 cubic feet per second (depending on the year) to 50 to 75 cfs, quickly ending the spring high flows. From the EA: “Many of the backwater and oxbow areas become dewatered and disconnected from the main river channel within 24 to 48 hours. These quickly changing water levels would continue to result in fish standing as well as having direct impacts to other organisms dependent on these habitats.” (See the photos to compare the differences in water depth at these different flow rates).

More from the EA: “Eliminating or reducing the 3.5 foot winter . . . would greatly reduce the frequency of low water conditions in the wetlands and shallow water areas on the Chain. This would increase the wetland functionality, habitat availability, and plant and animal diversity in these areas. In many of the shallow wetlands and bays, there would be sufficient water early in the spring which would restore habitat during critical periods for fish and wildlife reproduction needs.” It would also increase earlier recreational opportunities, and protect against low water levels during drought years.

What about piers and boathouses? There would be need for some landowners to do a one-time fix. “To reduce or eliminate the potential impact of ice, more landowners would likely remove their piers at the end of the summer. For structures that cannot be move, aeration systems and other methods to minimize ice damage would need to be installed by landowners. These methods are commonly employed on thousands of other lakes and impoundments that have a minimal winter drawdown or no drawdown. Other lakes chains in Northern Wisconsin also have numerous permanent structures at or below the ordinary high water mark such as the Eagle River Chain and the Minocqua Chain of Lakes. The Eagle River Chain is usually operated with only a 0.3 foot water level difference year round. The Minocqua Chain has a 1.05 foot difference between summer and winter water levels.”

 The draft environmental analysis (EA) of the Rest Lake Dam is available for public review. See http://dnr.wi.gov/water/basin/upwis/restlakedam/ea.html

Celestial Events

            10/14: We’re down to only 11 hours of daylight.

            10/15: New moon occurs.

10/18: Look at dusk for Mars two degrees south of the crescent moon.

10/20: The peak of the Orionid meteor shower occurs. It’s best viewed predawn                                     on the 20^th and 21^st. Look toward Orion for the best viewing. The Orionids                         average 15 to 25 meteors per hour.

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.

NWA 9/28/12

A Northwoods Almanac for 9/28 – 10/11/12   by John Bates 

Sightings

9/13: Rick and Pat Schwai visited Hawk Ridge and were treated to both a glorious day and the second largest count number so far (6600+) this month.  Pat noted, “I didn't expect the hawks to be flying so high that they were invisible to the naked eye and still tiny with my 8x32 binoculars.”

9/16: Jim Ferguson went out on Lake Tomahawk for a last day of summer pontooning and was surprised to come across two red-necked grebes. He observed, “The two birds stayed close together all the time. We also counted 39 loons. All the birds were on the western end of Tomahawk Lake.”

9/17 Sharon Lintereur in Lake Tomahawk watched a barred owl hunting in her woods and was able to get some fine pictures (see photo).

9/19: Ellen and Kit Deubler had a rare visitor, a bull moose, at their home on Elsie Lake in the Township of Lac du Flambeau (see photo).

9/23: Mary, Callie, and I were very lucky to come across three migrating Lapland longspurs on one of the dikes in Powell Marsh.

Bumper Crop of Acorns

            Our native red oaks have outdone themselves this fall in their production of acorns. There are so many underfoot in places it’s hard to walk! Productive red oak trees can produce over 1,000 acorns in a banner year – some white oaks are known produce over 10,000 acorns with yields reaching as high as 6,000 pounds per acre. However, white oaks are quite uncommon in the Northwoods, attaining their northern range boundary usually a few counties south of us.

I’m sure a host of wildlife species have also taken note of the acorn bounty. Among birds, ruffed grouse, wild turkey, red-headed woodpeckers, blue jays, crows, white-breasted nuthatches , brown thrashers, rufous-sided towhees, and common grackles are heavy consumers of acorns. And though red oak acorns are more bitter due to their high tannic acid content than white oak acorns, many mammals consume them, chief among them being rodents and squirrels, as well as black bears and white-tailed deer. For deer, acorns are preferred above all other food items whenever and wherever they are available.

But wildlife are not the only consumers of acorns; people have consumed acorns for thousands of years. In fact, acorns are still a commercial food crop in China and Korea, and are harvested to a lesser degree in Mexico and Japan. You can buy acorn flour online right now from www.acornflour.org. Acorns were particularly important to certain tribes in California, comprising half of their diet! There, oaks were planted, transplanted, and intensively managed in “orchard-like” settings.

But what about Native American use of acorns in northern Wisconsin? The Woodland tribes of the Upper Great Lakes Region relied on seasonally abundant plant and animal resources, chief among them in the autumn being fall-spawning fish and wild rice. But archaeological evidence indicates that acorn use was also widespread, though the sweeter acorns (white and bur oak) were preferred over red oaks. Red oak acorns require leaching of their tannic acid to be edible, but the practice was common, as described in the Menominees by Huron Smith in 1923: “The acorn was boiled till almost cooked. The water was then thrown away. Then to water, two cups of wood ash were added. The acorns were put into a net and were pulled out of the water after boiling in this. The third time, they were simmered to clear them of lye water.” Smith added, “Because the red oak was so abundant in Ojibwe territory, the acorns were one of their most important starchy foods.” 

Environmental Analysis of the Rest Lake Dam

            On 9/15, the WDNR released an Environmental Analysis (EA) related to the eventual new operating order it will issue on the Rest Lake Dam. The purpose of the EA is to provide a factual disclosure of the levels and flows of the river and how the large community of species are impacted, the management alternatives considered, and their anticipated environmental impacts. Here is a beginning attempt at summarizing this complex document:

Summary of the Issue

            The Rest Lake Dam, located on the Manitowish River in Manitowish Waters and incorporated into the County ‘W’ bridge, creates an upstream reservoir that controls the water level on a chain of ten natural lakes and river channels known as the Manitowish Chain of Lakes. Elevations upstream of the dam are raised between 9.2 and 13.5 feet.

            Downstream of the dam, the Manitowish River flows through three small lakes and then travels another 15 miles until the Manitowish and Bear Rivers combine to form the North Fork of the Flambeau River, eventually flowing into the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage.

            The chain of lakes is drawn down about 3.5 feet every fall to protect piers and boat houses on the Chain. The drawdown results in significant autumn flooding downstream. The Chain is then refilled every spring after most of the ice is off Rest Lake, which unfortunately is after nearly all of the snowmelt has already gone downstream. Based on USGS estimates, to raise or lower the Chain 1 inch takes 14.8 million cubic feet of water. This amount of water translates to a daily flow of 171 cubic feet per second that is either taken from, or added to river flows downstream of the dam. The natural streamflow below the dam is thus profoundly altered in order to empty or fill the Chain – photographs throughout the EA dramatically illustrate this.

            The current owner of the Rest Lake Dam is Xcel Energy. The hydropower generated downstream resulting from the fall drawdown of the Chain was evaluated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which in 2001 concluded that the management of water levels and flows was “neither used and useful nor necessary or appropriate to maintain or operate” hydropower generation. 

            Thus, given that the dam has no functional value to Xcel, its current operation is summarized by the EA as “focused primarily on upstream water interests including minimizing possible ice damage to piers and shoreline structures, as well as keeping water levels above the dam in a narrow operating range near the maximum water level from June through October.” 

             According to the EA, the problem with this management strategy is that at any time of year, the minimum river flow required at a dam stems from Chapter 31.34 Wisconsin Statutes, which states that a dam must, at the minimum, discharge at least 25% of the stream’s natural low flow. This is calculated by estimating the “Q7-10 flow” which is defined as the lowest average flow for a consecutive seven-day period with an average recurrence interval of ten years. The Q7-10 is mainly used for the permitting of wastewater discharges, and, importantly, these flows are not considered protective of aquatic life and habitat. The USGS has since estimated the Q7-10 for the Manitowish River to be 40 cubic feet per second (cfs).

            The downstream flows of the Manitowish, however, have often been lower than 40 cfs, sometimes for months at a time, and thus of very significant ecological concern. So, the DNR began meetings in 2002 to re-evaluate the 1937 operating order that today still acts as the legal directive for the management of the dam.

            The other statutory issue surrounding the management of the Rest Lake Dam stems from Wisconsin’s Public Trust Doctrine (Wisconsin Constitution: Article IX, Section 1), which establishes public water rights and the State’s obligation to protect those rights in navigable bodies of water. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has declared that the State holds navigable waters in trust for all citizens, and that public water rights such as water quality, quantity, scenic beauty, and recreational use need to be protected for the benefit of current and future generations.

            In response to these statutory directives, intensive data-collecting studies were eventually undertaken by the DNR, and in November of 2009, the USGS placed gaging stations to record the river flow on the three largest inflows to the Chain (the Manitowish River, Rice Creek, and Trout River), the water level elevation at the dam, and the river flows downstream of the dam. This information, along with historical dam operating records and nearby long term gaging stations on the Bear and Trout Rivers were used by USGS to develop inflow models for the Manitowish River at the Rest Lake Dam.

            Other information gathered in the EA addressed the major sources of water loss from the Chain and the rivers, which include water withdrawals for cranberry operations, private irrigation, evaporation, and plant transpiration. It also evaluated other issues such as water quality, aquatic habitat with discussion of the functions and values of wetlands, fisheries populations and habitats, wildlife populations including birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles, and mussels, wild rice habitat, and cultural values such as local economics, land values, recreational uses, and shoreline structures.

Cranberry Growers Water Withdrawals

            The entire EA is thorough, essential reading and quite revealing. For instance, the EA quantifies what the actual water withdrawals are from the three cranberry operations around the Manitowish and Trout Rivers.

             Cranberry production uses water to irrigate cranberries during the growing season, to flood beds for harvest in August, to flood beds in winter to protect the vines from freezing/drying, and to either flood beds or irrigate to protect the plants from frost in the spring.

            Approximately 960 acres of cranberry production is located downstream of Wild Rice Lake where pumps keep water levels high on Little Trout Lake, from which water is then pumped or flowed to individual cranberry beds. Water diverted to these cranberry beds is likely not returned to the Manitowish Chain because it is located in the Bear River sub-watershed. 

            The pumping station is only operated when water levels on Little Trout Lake are low during dry years. In 2007, a drought year, operating records indicate that pumping occurred 24 hours a day from June to October. Given the 10-14 cfs pumping rate from this operation, the USGS estimated the amount of water withdrawn from the Chain and diverted to Little Trout Lake ranged from 11 to 27% of the natural inflow of the river.

            Another cranberry pumping station located upstream of Wild Rice Lake is used to keep water levels high on Great and Little Corn Lakes. Approximately 177 acres of cranberry production occurs in this location. This cranberry operation diverts from 2 to 100 percent of the flow of the Trout River when the pumps are turned on. For example, on December 11, 2009, USGS measured 2.41 cfs below the pumps and 25.0 cfs upstream (a diversion of 22 cfs). This means that under low flow conditions, the pumping rates can and were measured by the USGS gage to temporarily reverse the direction of flow on the Trout River.

            The third cranberry pumping location has approximately 41 acres of cranberry beds and takes water out of Alder Lake, recycling it directly back to where it was withdrawn minus losses due to evaporation and evapotranspiration. 

            A fourth operation is currently under construction in the watershed that will have approximately 20 acres of cranberry beds, and which will divert water from Lower Gresham Lake. The outlet of this lake is Gresham Creek, which is a tributary to the Trout River upstream of Wild Rice Lake.

Operating Order Yet to Come

            The draft EA is available for public review and can be downloaded at: http://dnr.wi.gov/water/basin/upwis/restlakedam.

            Comments on the draft EA need to be received by the DNR by 10/31/12. An updated Rest Lake Dam operating order will be drafted after the certification of the EA.

            I highly recommend reading the EA. It’s a lesson in the complexity of natural systems and our relationships to them. My hope is that objective and bighearted discussion will follow, the sustainable management of the rivers and the Chain will ensue, and people will come together to work with the DNR to optimize the health and integrity of the rivers and lakes throughout this watershed.

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.

NWA 9/14/12

A Northwoods Almanac for 9/14 – 27, 2012 by John Bates

Hummingbird Migration

We still had female and juvenile ruby-throated hummingbirds coming to our feeders as of Saturday morning, 9/8, but given the strong northwest winds over the weekend, I suspect most of our local nesting hummers have now hit the migratorial road.                         Males precede the females in spring and fall migration, with the juveniles of both sexes lagging somewhat behind the adult females in the fall. The male’s earlier departure in the spring gives them time to establish territories so they can successfully court arriving females at the beginning of the breeding season, and they follow the same pattern for fall migration in order to establish their winter territories. If you have hummingbird feeders, you know how extraordinarily territorial the males can be during the breeding season, an obsession they apparently continue with throughout the winter.

Ruby-throated hummers winter throughout Central America, with a few stopping short to winter along the western Gulf Coast. Many fly across the Gulf of Mexico, but many also follow the coastal route around the Gulf. Large numbers are often observed flying low over wave tops to make landfall during spring migration; however, I’m unable to find any information as to whether they fly this low during fall migration.

On average, adult ruby-throated hummingbirds have a mass of only 1/10^th of an ounce (3.5 grams.) Despite their almost indiscernible weight, many of these birds fly nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico during fall and spring migration, a one-way trip of more than 500 miles. To reach the Gulf, the hummers migrate by day, but to cross the Gulf, they typically leave at dusk and fly for 18-22 hours to reach landfall.  

To accomplish this flight, individuals will double their body mass to 6 grams by fattening on nectar and insects prior to departure. When they reach landfall, however, they typically weigh only 2.5 grams, having lost more than their entire normal body weight. While this may sound like a lot to us, losing only a tenth of an ounce while flying 500 miles non-stop is pretty amazing fuel efficiency – Prius owners take note!

Given their near weightlessness, it only makes sense that wind direction and velocity would strongly influence their migration. One study conducted along the ridges at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Kempton, PA, found that migrants were most numerous after the passage of strong cold fronts and northwest winds.

The ruby-throats’ overland fall migration occurs nearly synchronously with the peak flowering of jewelweed (also known as spotted touch-me-not or Impatiens biflora), an important nectar source, suggesting that jewelweed may influence the timing of migration.

For a hummer that just hatched, there's no memory of past migrations, only an instinctive urge to put on a lot of weight and fly in a particular direction for a certain amount of time, then look for a good place to spend the winter. Once it learns a route, the hummer will likely retrace it every year as long as it lives.

The initial migratorial urge is triggered by the shortening length of daylight as autumn approaches, and has nothing to do with temperature or the availability of food; in fact, hummingbirds migrate south at the time of greatest food abundance. When the bird has put on enough fat, it migrates.

Although hummingbirds may fly over water in company of mixed flocks of other bird species, they do not fly in flocks with other hummers. Individual birds may spend the winter anywhere in Central America where the habitat is favorable (most ruby-throats only migrate as far as Panama), and most very likely return to the same location each winter, though banding data is limited.

To go from Wisconsin down to the Gulf coast would take a hummer about 4 or 5 days, assuming the hummer did not spend more than one day resting at any one place. It would then take a day to cross the Gulf, and another couple of days to reach its destination in Central America. But with big rest stops to wait for good weather and to build back up fat reserves, it probably takes about two weeks for “our” hummers to reach their winter homes. One study found that they usually arrive in Costa Rica by late September to early October.

Some amazing hummer factoids:

They beat their wings about 60-80 times per second in normal flight.

Their hearts beat about 250 times per minute while at rest, and about 1,220 per minute while flying. Their hearts are about 2.5% of their total body weight.

They take about 250 breaths per minute while at rest.

To follow the hummers in migration go to: www.learner.org/jnorth/humm/

Autumn Equinox

Autumn equinox is right around the corner, occurring this year on 9/22 at 9:49 a.m. CST. The word "equinox" derives from Latin term "æquinoctium" which, in turn, came from "æquus" (equal), and "nox" (night). It, of course, refers to the moment that occurs twice a year when the nighttime is equal to the daytime.           

The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5º tilt of the earth's axis. We Northern Hemisphere inhabitants are slanted furthest away from the sun during winter solstice, and slanted most toward the sun during summer solstice.

Autumn equinox is noteworthy because it marks our transition into days that have more darkness than daylight. Combined with killing frosts, the departure of most of our birds, and the rattle of brittle leaves in strong autumn winds, it can be a difficult emotional adjustment. But it’s also the time of many harvests, brilliant leaf-changing colors, and a crispness in the air that makes you just want to walk and explore as much of this world as you can. As always, the perception of outer landscapes depends wholly on one’s inner landscape. Bringing an energetic, joyful countenance to a morning makes all the difference.

Hawk Ridge in Duluth

            Hawk migration is now hitting its peak. What makes a good migration day at Hawk Ridge? Birds and the weather are both unpredictable (note this disclaimer!!), but northwest or west winds are best, and the more days in a row, the better. North and southwest winds are okay. South, southeast, and east winds are not good. The day before, or a couple of days after a strong front, usually produces more birds, and the flight essentially shuts down in the rain and fog.

So, while on average this weekend usually produces the biggest flights of the year, Mother Nature always bats last. Keep an eye on the weather forecast for Duluth, and head for the ridge when peak conditions appear to maximize your chances for a truly big day. And by “big,” I mean BIG – the record day at Duluth was on 9/15/2003 when over 102,000 hawks flew over the ridge. They already had a pretty big day this year on 9/9 when 16,135 hawks were counted, so the flight is on! 

It’s not just all about hawks either. On 9/9, they also counted 2291 migrating non-raptors, including among others 603 Canada geese, 35 American white pelicans, 40 sandhill cranes, 752 blue jays, 234 cedar waxwings, 76 warblers (only 3 species identified), 63 red-winged blackbirds, 9 red crossbills, 15 pine siskins, and 277 American goldfinches. 

Celestial Events

            New moon occurs on 9/15. On 9/18, look at dusk for Saturn 5 degrees north of the crescent moon. On 9/19, look for Mars almost on top of the crescent moon.

Armageddon

         As of 9/10, we’ve yet to experience our first frost, an event so destructive that author Diane Kappel-Smith writes: “Winter is a predictable kind of Armageddon, a calamity calmly weathered, an end of a world that they [wildlife] understand and are preparing for . . .”

         The first frost marks the end of the growing season for hundreds of species of plants and the end of life for literally millions of insects. While gardeners and farmers pay attention to it, for wildlife, there may not be a more important event than this in the entire natural year.  

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.

NWA 8/31/12

A Northwoods Almanac for 8/31 – 9/13/12

by John Bates

Nighthawk Migration

Common nighthawks are now migrating south, and birders from all around the state have been reporting seeing them in large flocks up to 1,000. Mary and I were in Mercer on Saturday, 8/25, eating dinner outside with friends when a flock of 18 came overhead, followed by irregular groups of two to six over the following several hours.

In the nightjar family (so-called for the "jarring" sounds made by the male when “booming” at night), or what is also called the goatsucker family (so-called from the notion that the birds suckled goats (what were those ancients drinking?!)), the common nighthawk is most often observed on the wing, hawking insects at dusk and dawn in both urban and rural areas. It’s unique for its loud, nasal peent calls, spectacular booming courtship dives, and erratic, almost bat-like flight. The name “nighthawk” is a complete misnomer because it is actually most active at dawn and dusk, not night, and like other members of its family, is not related whatsoever to the hawks.

Nighthawks nest most often on open ground, gravel beaches, rocky outcrops, and burned-over woodlands, but are also well known for nesting on flat gravel roofs in cities. They make no nest, but simply lay their eggs directly on the ground, depending on their cryptic plumage to make them difficult to see.

Nighthawks migrate both day and night, but most flights are observed during early evening in late summer. They fly a great distance between their breeding range and their winter range, traveling one of the longest migration routes of any North American bird. Their fall departures begin as early as late July in both northern and southern portions of the breeding range in the U.S. and Canada, and individuals become quite gregarious during fall migration, sometimes gathering in flocks of thousands.

They’re heading south so early because they require a constant supply of insects, and historically, we would commonly have frosts in late August which would wipe out the insect population.

They forage under low light conditions at dusk and dawn, and it’s thought that their vision may be aided by presence of a tapeta lucidum, a reflective structure within the choroid of the eye which improves night vision by reflecting light back to the retina.

They’re “good” guys, eating more than 50 insect species, the majority of which are queen ants, beetles, caddisflies, and moths. An analysis of one nighthawk’s stomach found 2,175 ants and another 500 mosquitoes.

Lack of Mosquitoes This Summer?

            Numerous people have questioned why there has been a lack of mosquitoes this summer. My best thought is that it has simply been a relatively dry year, particularly this early spring. In walking some forest trails recently, I noticed that most small woodland ponds are little more than mud holes. And while many of these ponds are ephemeral and are meant to dry up as the summer progresses, others are also usually “permanent,” and their lack of water is a good indicator to me of how relatively dry it’s been.

Hummers Leaving

            The first weeks of September are a farewell to many beloved bird species, and none more so than ruby-throated hummingbirds. Typically, they’ve departed by 9/10, and often earlier. Please leave your feeders up for another two weeks, however, in order to provide food for those hummers that will still be migrating south through our area.

            Speaking of hummingbirds, John Reichling in Winchester has had a downy woodpecker drinking from his hummingbird feeder all summer. It drinks for 5 to 10 minutes, and comes every day. Woodpeckers have an extendable tongue like hummingbirds, so that must be how it is getting fluid from the rather small holes of the feeder.

Hawks Leaving, Too

            The Northwoods’ most common hawk, the broad-winged hawk, peaks in migration in mid-September. Most migrate during a narrow two-week window lasting from about 9/10 – 9/23 when they come through in massive numbers. And there’s no better place in the Midwest to see them than in Duluth. I highly recommend visiting Duluth’s Hawk Ridge over the weekend of 9/15-16 when they hold their annual Hawk Weekend festival. If the weather is right, many thousands of broad-wingeds are likely to pass overhead. See www.hawkridge.org for more details.

Gluttony

Mary Madsen on Twin Island Lake in Presque Isle sent me a photo of a chipmunk stuffing its cheeks with dogwood berries and noted: “Not only the birds were enjoying the berries of our Pagoda Dogwood! The tree was picked bare in just a couple of days by a variety of birds.”

            Mary and I have made some pretty good elderberry jam the last two Augusts from our elderberry bushes, but this year the birds devoured nearly all of our elderberries in just a few days. Most surprising to me were the many white-throated sparrows that were part of the horde – I wasn’t aware that sparrows ate that many fruits!

            Our mountain ash tree is also loaded this year, and many robins and cedar waxwings have been gradually stripping it. One morning I watched a juvenile robin land right next to an adult cedar waxwing and open its mouth like it expected to be fed by the waxwing! The waxwing looked at it, then turned away, and I suspect if I was able to detect disgust in a bird, I would have seen it then.

            This is the time for many birds to build up fat for migration, so while we humans look forward to the autumn harvest, it’s clearly not just a human event.

Mushroom Time!

The 2nd edition of Fascinating Fungi of the Northwoods by Cora Mollen and Larry Weber was recently released with 38 additional species descriptions and accompanying images. Cora’s book includes notations regarding edibility of many of the featured mushrooms and is an excellent introduction to the mushroom world. Mary and I use Cora’s book as our identification guide to the most common mushrooms in the Northwoods, and we only wish we were one-tenth as expert on mushrooms as Cora.

Cora lives in St. Germain and helped organize a mushroom club there many years ago, which has now expanded to 60 members. If you’ve ever had an interest in learning more about mushrooms, I highly recommend joining the club, or at least participating in some of their events. See www.northstatemycologicalclub.org for more information.

Hemp Nettle

            In hiking the beautiful trails at Van Vliet Hemlocks last week, Mary and I discovered a new wildflower for us – hemp nettle. The plant was very common throughout the stand, which made us wonder rather uneasily about its origins. Unfortunately, our concerns turned out to be justified – hemp nettle is yet another exotic and invasive species that should be removed when found.

Hemp nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit), one of many species in the mint family, has simple, toothed, and opposite leaves, with a bristly stem. Introduced as early as the 1940s, it was thought to be a disturbed soil, roadside/field/yard kind of a plant. However, in recent years it has begun to spread from forest roadsides into adjacent forests along roads and trails, and is now clearly a serious invasive. It also is found very widely in hemlock-hardwood forests of northern Wisconsin, which is the exact habitat-type of the Van Vliet Hemlocks.

An annual, hemp nettle depends completely on seed production to increase on a site – there’s no evidence of vegetative reproduction. It is likely that machinery operation in the forest exposes mineral soil, aiding the spread of this species. Forest soils that have been cleared of the layer of decomposing leaves by alien earthworms also appear more favorable to the spread of hemp nettle.

Celestial Events

            Full moon tonight, 8/31. For planet-watching in September, look after dusk for both Saturn and Mars low in the southwest. Before dawn, look for Venus brilliant and low in the east, and Jupiter almost as bright rising in the northeast.

            On 9/8, look for Jupiter just above the last quarter moon. On 9/12, look for Venus four degrees north of the crescent moon.

            We’re heading at high speed for the autumn equinox – enjoy the longer daylight hours while you can!

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.

8/17/12

A Northwoods Almanac for August 17 – 30, 2012 by John Bates

Sightings – Broad-winged Hawks

Jeanne Milewski in Boulder Junction sent me photos of a juvenile broad-winged hawk and wrote: “I saw this hawk in my backyard on Sunday, July 29th. I had heard a screeching noise during the morning, but didn't really pay much attention to it until early afternoon when it sounded like it was right at the backdoor. I looked out the door to see it fly into a tree near our back deck. It appears to have been ‘kicked’ out of the nest. As it screeched, I heard another responding to its cry; maybe a nest-mate? I observed it regularly during the week. Also, I had seen it under our empty deer feeder and it appeared to be feeding on, perhaps, a small animal.”

Our most common woodland hawk, broad-wingeds spend most of their time below the forest canopy, perch-hunting for insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Small mammals and amphibians are their most frequent prey, but their diet depends entirely on the local availability of prey. Short-tailed shrews, eastern chipmunks, and American toads were the most frequent prey in a study of western New York breeding sites, with the proportions of prey types: 46% mammals, 26% birds, 14% amphibians, 14% reptiles. Another study in Alberta, Canada, found that the nestlings were fed mostly mammals with red-backed voles and meadow voles the most numerous items taken, with ruffed grouse chicks forming the largest component of their avian prey.

Insects and other invertebrates are also reported to occur heavily in stomach analyses.

The territorial adults can easily be located by their plaintive peee-uurr whistle, given during flights above the canopy and while perched.

Broad-wingeds migrate en masse in mid-September. You can celebrate their fall migration with the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory during their annual Hawk Weekend Festival in Duluth starting on Friday, 9/14, and going through Sunday, 9/16. Registration and event details can be found online at www.hawkridge.org

Sightings – Adult Loon in Juvenile Plumage

Mary Rysz on Razorback Lake has been observing an adult loon since late April that is all brownish/gray. She noted that the loon never makes any noise and always stays in one bay. Her sighting didn’t make sense since loons migrate south in their first autumn and don’t return until their third year of life when they are in full adult plumage. However, never say always. In speaking with a loon researcher, I found out that about 5% of the immature birds come back early as two year-olds every year, and thus would not have adult plumage, so that's very likely the situation with Mary’s loon on Razorback.

Sightings – Fruiting Plants

            August means a host of plants are now fruiting, one of which is bunchberry, our smallest native dogwood. Barb Whenal sent me a photo of a bunchberry with its customary cluster, or bunch, of red berries conspicuously displayed above its leaves. The berries are edible, but I use the word unenthusiastically. The berry has a large pit, is rather slimy, and all but tasteless. Other than that, hey, it’s great! Bunchberries can be extremely plentiful, so if you’re willing to harvest them and pit them, they can, with ample sugar or honey, be made into a sauce or jam.

Archeological Sites: Archibald Lake and Butternut Lake

Last weekend, Mary and I co-led two hikes with Mark Bruhy, the recently retired archaeologist from the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, and his wife Katie Egan-Bruhy, an archaeologist with the Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group in Milwaukee. Both express their knowledge of our area with a passion and wisdom that brings thousands of years of history to light.

On Friday, we visited Cathedral Pines State Natural Area, which is over 1,800 acres in area and considered one of the finest old growth forest communities in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. It also is a site where late prehistoric Native peoples were drawn long before Europeans entered the area. Called the Archibald Lake Mounds and Village site, the site was occupied by A.D. 1000 with people growing crops such as corn and squash, which had become an important part of Native subsistence in the western Great Lakes region. It had, however, been generally assumed that northern Wisconsin’s short growing season and sandy soils prevented crop production in this area, but this site has proven that to be untrue. 

The Archibald Lake Mounds site was first located by archaeologists in the late 1980s, and continued visits to this location revealed remarkable evidence of crop production, processing and storage. The location includes remnant garden beds, dozens of storage pits, and a small number of large conical and horizontal mounds (burial structures). The site’s significance was formally recognized in 2011 through placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

Close to 300 agricultural or garden bed sites have been reported in Wisconsin. Information concerning these garden beds or ridged fields is extremely limited, however, as many have been destroyed by historic agricultural and logging activities. What is known is that garden beds or ridged fields were used for crop production and that corn was one of the primary crops.

Several hypotheses have been proposed to account for the function of the ridged configuration of field systems such as that represented at Archibald Lake Mound Group. Proposed functions include improved drainage and water retention; increased fertility; pest, disease, and weed control; temperature control (funnel cold air away from crops and thus lengthen the growing season); and erosion control.

The period of significance for the Archibald Lake Mound Group is defined as extending from around AD 1000 to 1500. This period is inclusive of the period of occupation, based on two radiocarbon dates (AD 1210 to 1290 and AD 1290 to 1420).

The Archibald Lake Mound Group has excellent archaeological integrity, and thus may provide data about the lifeways of the prehistoric occupants of the site and the relationship between the Late Woodland and Oneota populations in this region.

On Saturday, we visited the Franklin Lake Nature Trail, a segment of the 13-mile-long Hidden Lakes Trail east of Eagle River, which encircles Butternut Lake and threads through many of the 20 archaeological sites that are part of the Butternut-Franklin Lakes archaeological district. Seventeen of the contributing resources are located on National Forest System land, one is on State land, and two are on land privately owned. All of the sites are situated near lakeshores, and none extend further inland than 200 meters (656 feet). The 20 sites are estimated to be approximately 57 acres in area, though it is likely that future research will find many to be larger than currently estimated. 

The sites vary in function, age and season of occupation. Further, though they range from 7,000 B.C through A.D. 1600, there is a cultural continuity and association among them that is clear. 

Examples of the sites include the Butternut Lake village site, which was seasonally occupied between around A.D. 700 and 1600 and extends almost a mile along the lake’s east bay. 

The Isthmus site, while not used as a village, was used for processing and storing food.  Radiocarbon dates place Native occupation there between A.D. 800 to1200 with the remnants of numerous storage pits still visible along the surface.

The Hemlock Cathedral site is situated along a rocky terrace on Butternut Lake, the location marked by an ancient stand of hemlock. Used seasonally as a fishing station from A.D. 500 to 1300, archaeological excavation recovered evidence of fish processing with tools such as copper harpoons and knives, and stone net sinkers.

The Butternut Lake Inlet site was first occupied around 1500 B.C. Excavations revealed the foundation of the oldest dwelling thus far recorded in northern Wisconsin, along with evidence of hunting, fishing and gathering, domestication of dogs and other interesting aspects of the daily lives of the ancient residents.  

The twenty archaeological properties situated along the shores of the Butternut-Franklin lakes area were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. 

Bird Migration

            Shorebird migration is on, with warbler migration kicking into heavy gear. Insect-eating birds have to stay ahead of the first killing frost, so they’re already on the move south. Keep an eye out for mixed flocks of songbirds that will be both relatively quiet and difficult to identify due to many birds having molted into their winter plumage.

Celestial Events

Today, 8/17, our daylight now totals 14 hours, but our daylight is going fast – we’re losing about 3 minutes every day. It’s only a little over a month until autumn equinox, so get outside and enjoy the light while we have it.

 The new moon also occurs tonight, while our second full moon of the month will grace us on 8/31 (the first full moon occurred on 8/2). Full moons occur every 29.5 days, so every month but February has a chance to have two full moons, or what is called by some a blue moon.

            Why a blue moon and not a green or purple one? Folklorist Philip Hiscock traces the usage of the color back to the 16^th century when folks used the phrase, “He would argue the moon is blue,” as a way of showing the person would say just about anything no matter the truth of it. Over time, the definition evolved from meaning something absurd to meaning something quite rare or impossible. Then there are historical examples of the moon actually appearing blue due to dust particles in the air from volcanoes or intense droughts. These were rare events, so the observations added weight to the use of the phrase a “blue moon” which came to denote something very uncommon.

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.

NWA 8/3/12

A Northwoods Almanac for August 3 – 16, 2012 by John Bates

Conservation is Patriotic and Has Bipartisan Support

In the highly partisan atmosphere of a presidential election year, The Nature Conservancy recently released a bipartisan national poll showing that at least one issue is widely supported by Americans across the political spectrum: the conservation of our nation’s land and water. Conducted by the bipartisan research team of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (D) and Public Opinion Strategies (R) from June 16-19, the pollsters noted, from “Tea Party Republicans to liberal Democrats, more than four-in-five American voters say that conserving our country's natural resources - our land, air and water - is patriotic.”

In addition, three-quarters of the American electorate said that “one of the things our government does best” is protecting its “history and natural beauty through national parks, forests and other public lands.”  Not surprisingly, then, three-fourths of voters say they would prefer to go on vacation this summer in a national park or other public lands.

Voters also voiced overwhelming support for a number of specific federal policies to support conservation. Three-quarters (74 percent) of American voters say that even with federal budget problems, funding for conservation should not be cut. Many voters are even willing to reach into their own pockets to fund conservation, with 83 percent overall willing to pay more in taxes to fund protection of land, water and wildlife habitat in their area. This includes 72 percent of Tea Party Republicans, 73 percent of self-described conservatives, 88 percent of moderates, and 94 percent of self-described liberals. 

In fact, the overwhelming majority of American voters reject the notion that protecting our environment is at odds with a strong economy even when they believe the state of the economy is an extremely serious problem. More than three-quarters of voters (79 percent) said they believe we can protect land and water and have a strong economy at the same time. In fact, voters were twice as likely to say that protections for land, air, water and wildlife have a positive impact on jobs (41 percent), than a negative impact (17 percent), or little impact one way or the other (33 percent).

This poll confirms what I personally have experienced for many years: that conservation is an issue which more often unites than divides. Clearly there’s far more in common among Americans’ views on conservation than we’re often led to believe, and the false dichotomy that we have to choose between jobs and the environment doesn’t play with most Americans.

As a sidenote, I’m often skeptical of polls, and of a host of other “facts,” particularly if I don’t know their source. One non-partisan insight into sources of information is SourceWatch at www.sourcewatch.org.  To try to get objective reviews of various other rumors dressed up as facts, try www.snopes.com or www.urbanmyths.com.

Sightings – Trains of Merganser Chicks and Northern Lights

Carol Pfister recently watched a female common merganser lead a train of 21 offspring behind her on Big Crooked Lake. She opined that the female was a likely recipient of egg dumping, a phenomenon where females lay eggs in other individual’s nests. The fancy term for this is “intraspecific brood parasitism” and is common among ducks. However, it may also be that this particular female adopted another female’s brood when she died or abandoned her chicks, a not uncommon occurrence, and a process with another fancy name – “post-hatch brood amalgamation.”

On July 14, the northern lights were dancing a bit, and Dave Eitel on Fence Lake wrote this very nice piece: “2:30 a.m. A waning orange crescent rises above the eastern horizon and glimmers on the glassy black surface of the lake. Jupiter, centered perfectly on the moon's concavity, rises with it. After a few minutes Venus silently edges above the horizon directly beneath the crescent.

“Four loons converse hauntingly across the water as bullfrogs gossip on the shore.

“Pale green light arcs across the northern sky. Heavenly spears of it thrust upward, slowly transform into cascading sheets, then become a playful Wurlitzer-like display of waves moving rapidly upward and fading into the Milky Way.”

Sphinx Moths

Barb and Barry Whenal in Lake Tomahawk sent me this note and an accompanying picture on 7/16: “We were taking a walk with our friends, John and Sandy Anspach, on the Nicolet Forest trail beside Shelp Lake in Forest County . . . Sandy noticed what she thought was  “a pretty flower” on one of the branches beside the boardwalk.  I said “that’s not normal for this plant.”  So we took a closer look only to find it wasn’t a flower after all but a large caterpillar with a host of what looks like eggs on its back . . . We are wondering what kind of moth or butterfly could this be and what is on its back?”

I’m no expert on caterpillars, so I sent the photo to the “Butterflies and Moths of North America” database, and they identified it as Sphinx luscitiosa, or Canadian sphinx moth. You can see pictures of the adults and caterpillar stages at www.silkmoths.bizland.com/slusciti.htm.

Some of the largest moths in the world belong to the sphinx moth family (also known as hawk moths or hummingbird moths) within the order Lepidoptera, the animal order that includes butterflies and moths. With long narrow wings and thick bodies, they are fast, acrobatic flyers that can hover in place, briefly fly backwards or dart away. Hawk moths are experts at finding sweet-smelling flowers after dark. They unfurl their exceptionally long tongues like party favors to explore flowers with long floral tubes that conceal pools of nectar.

Orb Weavers

Cindy Schreuder in Presque Isle sent me a photo of an orb weaver spider that was on her dock. Orb weavers make the circular webs that one commonly sees shimmering with dew in the early morning. Some 200 species are found in North America, and many have an impressively large, rounded abdomen with spots or lines, along with eight small eyes in two rows.

Nearly blind even with all those eyes, the orb weavers must sit in or near their web in order to feel the vibration of their captives as they struggle to escape. Threads called spokes, or radii, lead from the outside edge to the center. The non-sticky spokes allow the orb weaver to travel along the web to reach its prey – all the circular threads leading to the center of the web are sticky.

These webs can be 20 to 30 inches in diameter with15 to 35 radii, and typically a new web is spun every evening – quite a nightly architectural accomplishment when you think about it!

Identifying orb weavers within the Araneus genus, the most common orb weavers, is quite complex given their dramatically varying colorations and patterns. Check http://bugguide.net/node/view/11644 for great photos of all the variations of just one common orb weaver, the shamrock spider.

Mayhem in the Marsh

Mary, Callie, and I regularly walk in Powell Marsh, and this year we’ve been hearing the songs of a colony of marsh wrens on one of the pools. These tiny wrens are hard to see, but they make up for their lack of size with a pugnaciousness pretty much unequaled in other bird species. Marsh wrens, whatever the gender or age, peck at and destroy eggs and young nestlings of their own species as well as those of other species. They’ve been documented destroying least bittern eggs and destroying and partly drinking the contents of red-winged blackbird eggs. In one study, 14 of 51 blackbird nests showed evidence of wren destruction. Another study concluded that wrens destroyed up to 52% of red-winged blackbird nests in a British Columbia marsh. The male wrens also destroy both eggs and young nestlings of yellow-headed blackbirds.

Wrens also destroy the eggs and nestlings of other wrens. One observer reported watching a banded female repeatedly flying long distances outside her territory to find food for her nestlings. After several such trips, she flew directly to the opening of a neighbor’s nest and, in rapid succession, pecked each nestling in the head until it was dead, and then dropped it to marsh floor beneath nest.

In fairness, the wrens are also commonly attacked. Yellow-headed blackbirds are aggressive toward marsh wrens and appear to limit their nesting area. They are known to perch on or in front of wren brood nests, thus blocking the female’s return to incubate. They have also been observed chasing marsh wren males and hopping up and down on their nests, compressing them. Both male and female red-winged blackbirds also often attack singing marsh wrens, forcing them to escape by dropping into dense vegetation. Song sparrows and swamp sparrows on occasion also attack marsh wrens.

Like the proverbial playground clash, the question is: Who started it? Researchers lay the blame at the wren’s feet, saying these aggressive interactions are probably a consequence of the nest-destroying habits of the wrens.

Mammatus Clouds

            On 7/29, a thunderstorm was brewing over Manitowish, and as the clouds blew in, they formed a series of rounded, pouch-shaped forms that hung downward from the middle cloud layer (see photo). These very odd clouds often indicate severe weather, but on this early evening, they simply drifted by with some rumbling thunder as background percussion.

Old Columns

            I’ve written this column now for 22 years (since 1990), and I’m often asked where one can read my old columns. I wrote two books in 1997 – A Northwoods Companion Spring and Summer, and A Northwoods Companion Fall and Winter – that drew heavily from those early columns. A decade later in 2006 and 2008, I wrote another two books – Graced by the Seasons Spring and Summer, and Graced by the Seasons Fall and Winter – that utilized the new columns I wrote between 1997 and 2008, and which are completely different from the Companion books. It’s unlikely that I’ll do another set of books from my columns from 2008 onward, so most of those columns can be found on my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com. 

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call me at 715-476-2828, drop me an e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, or snail-mail me at 4245N Hwy. 47, Mercer, WI 54547.