NWA 11/14/14

A Northwoods Almanac for 11/14 – 27, 2014

Winter Finch Forecast

            Every autumn, Ron Pittaway, an ornithologist in Ontario, issues his “winter finch forecast,” which he bases on food availability throughout Canada. If the necessary amount and kind of foods are available in Canada for each bird species, they will most likely stay north. However, if the food supply is low, they’ll come south, and hopefully to our bird feeders!

            Pittaway says this autumn is a mixed bag because food sources are quite variable. The key trees for winter finches are both spruces (white and black), both birches (mostly white, but some yellow), and mountain ashes. Spruce cones are widely variable in Ontario this year, with good crops in western Ontario and generally poorer crops eastward. Birch seeds are poor to average, while there’s a bumper crop of mountain ash berries across most of the boreal forest of Canada, but not so in northeastern Ontario.

            Pittaway predicts the species we are unlikely to see: Pine grosbeaks should mostly stay north because the mountain ashes are so laden with berries. Pine siskins should also stay north for the most part given that they depend on spruce seeds, and the spruces had a good cone year. White-winged crossbills will likely remain north as well, since they, too, depend on spruce cones.

Species that we are likely to see: Purple finches should be coming south in large numbers because the birch seeds are so limited. Common redpolls should also be relatively common at our feeders because they, too, depend on birch seeds. Watch also for hoary redpolls that will be mixed in with the redpoll flocks. Red crossbills may come south to feed on our abundant white and red pine cones. Evening grosbeaks may make a small movement south because of poor seed crops. But their numbers are greatly reduced from the population peaks seen during the 1980s, so that even if they make a major flight south, they will still be uncommon.

One non-finch species we always look for is the bohemian waxwing. We had a flock of eight feeding on our crabapples on 11/3, but they only remained one day. Pittaway predicts they will stay north this winter because of the abundant mountain ash berry crop. If some do come our way, look for them feeding on crabapples, mountain ash, and buckthorn.

Pat Schwai on Cochran Lake is ahead of the winter finch game. She sent me a note saying she was surprised to see six pine siskins in her garden on 11/1, recalling that she didn’t see any last winter. Given Pittaway’s forecast, she may not see many more this winter. One thing to always remember, though, is how localized wildlife populations are. Pittaway is trying to predict movements for an area several thousand miles across, so his generalized thoughts must be taken with a grain of salt.

Christmas Bird Count

Speaking of seeing birds this winter, we will conduct the 22^nd annual Manitowish Waters Christmas Bird Count on Sunday, 12/14. We need people to actively help us search for birds within the count circle, or to just count birds visiting their bird feeders that day. If you live within a 7.5-mile radius of the intersection of Highways 51 and County W, and want to get involved counting your feeder, please contact me at manitowish@centurytel.net or by phone at 476-2828. Counting birds at your feeder is the simplest way to help and takes very little time or expertise. Since winter birds concentrate around feeders, we tend to get our best counts from folks just watching out their windows.

            The Christmas Bird Count for the Minocqua area, which uses the intersection of Hwy. 51 and 70 West as its center point, is organized through the North Lakeland Discovery Center, and is scheduled for Saturday, 12/20. If you want to help out on that count, please call Guy David at 715-439-0777 or email him at bgdavid@wildblue.net. They’re also in particular need of feeder counters, and since many of you watch your feeders throughout the day, why not help out if you can?

            For folks counting in Rhinelander, contact Vanessa Haese-Lehman at 715-369-3708 or markvanlehman@yahoo.com. In the Park Falls area, contact Tom Nicholls at 762-3076 or nicho002@umn.edu. In the Phelps or Three Lakes area, contact Bill Reardon at 479-8055 or breardon@nnex.net.

Juvenile Loons – Where Are They Now

Scientists from the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center captured and radiomarked 17 juvenile common loons on lakes scattered across Minnesota and Wisconsin during the last two weeks of August 2014.  Their objective is to describe the movements and wintering ground use of juvenile loons using satellite transmitter and geolocator tag technologies. 

Five of the seventeen loons radiomarked were from lakes in our area: Clear Lake, White Sand Lake, Upper Gresham Lake, Tomahawk Lake, and Butternut Lake. As of 11/10, the Tomahawk Lake juvenile was still on its natal lake, while the juvenile from Upper Gresham Lake had made its migration to the Gulf of Mexico.

The l7 loons can be followed on the UMESC website – watch for updates at: http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/terrestrial/migratory_birds/loons/migrations.html

Survival rates of loons during their first few years of life is much lower (about 50% over three years) than that of adults (about 93% annually). Surprisingly little is known about the movements, habitat use, and causes of mortality of common loons during these first few years, so hopefully this data will help clarify their story.

Sightings

I finally saw my first flock of snow buntings on 11/6 along Hwy. 47 where it bisects Powell Marsh. As seed eaters, they do best wintering on open ground with little snow. Birders in southern Wisconsin usually see them all winter, while we only get to view them in spring and fall migration.

The pair of eagles that nest across the river from our house failed to raise any chicks this summer and were seldom seen near the nest after mid-June. In the last several weeks a pair, presumably the same ones, began working on the nest. Every day now they’re in the nest, and often flying back and forth above the river. We’re not sure what they’re up to, but we’re pleased to see the nest hasn’t been abandoned.

Rusty blackbirds have been visiting our feeders in the last few weeks, but are very unlikely to remain any longer now that so much snow has arrived.

Colleen Henrich from Lake Tomahawk has a male red-bellied woodpecker coming to her suet feeder. One had visited her feeders two years ago, but hadn’t stayed around. While common to southern Wisconsin, red-bellieds are still quite uncommon in our area, and always a welcome sight.

Kay and Andy sent me photos on 11/7 of a bobcat patrolling their front yard in Natural Lakes. Kay noted, “We have seen rabbits in our yard this past summer and understand that they are the main diet for bobcats. I have seen a couple of rabbits since then, so I know he didn't get all of them.”

I’m writing this column on Monday, 11/10, and it’s snowing to beat the band. Eighteen inches or more are forecast, and the birds that have been only casual visitors at our feeders over the last month are omnipresent today. The first big snow covers up not only seeds on the ground, but many of the smaller plants that still retain their seeds. If we think the first snow is a wake-up call for us, it’s a message that portends far more for birds.

Celestial Events – Leonid Meteor Shower

The Leonid meteor shower takes place every November as the Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The peak night of the shower is expected from late evening November 17 to the morning of November 18.

The Leonids are usually a modest shower, with typical rates of about 10 to 15 meteors per hour at the peak. The Leonid shower is known, however, for producing meteor storms. In 1966, observers in the southwest United States reported seeing 40 to 50 meteors per second (that’s 2,400 to 3,000 meteors per minute!) during a span of 15 minutes on the morning of November 17.

Meteors showers are named for the point in our sky from which they appear to radiate. This shower is named for the constellation Leo the Lion. If you trace the paths of Leonid meteors backward on the sky’s dome, they do seem to stream from Leo. However, the meteors often don’t become visible until they are 30 degrees or so from their radiant point and are streaking out in all directions. Thus the Leonid meteors – like meteors in all annual showers – will appear in all parts of the sky.

November in a Nutshell

In his book Sundial of the Seasons, Hal Borland beautifully describes November:

"One thing about late Autumn, it displays the stubborn simplicity of the earth. Man may contrive himself into all kinds of human complications, but this earth which bore him and will be his home until the end of his days seems to settle back periodically into quiet contemplation. There stands the hills, rugged as time, and there lie the valleys at rest. The sun cuts its small arc in the southern sky and the long night is the counterpart of June's long day. The tree stands stark, life at rest in the root, and the meadow is sere with frost. The goldenrod is a dead stem, and a waiting seed, restless in the wind. The simplicities are everywhere. The frog has buried itself in the mud and the woodchuck sleeps only a few degrees this side of death. Leaves begin to molder in the simple economy of nature, last Summer's shade leaching back into the soil.  The urgencies are eased for another season. Only the wind hurries now. Soon even the rain will flake down, wafted crystal drifting on the brittle air.  Ice, the most stubborn of all the simplicities, will pry at the fundamental rocks. And out there in the depth of the night the entire universe will be in eternal order.”

NWA 10/31/14

A Northwoods Almanac for 10/31 – 11/13/14

Halloween – A Cross-Quarter Day

Despite the current-day emphasis on costumes and candy, Halloween is really an astronomical holiday, a “cross-quarter” day. A cross-quarter day is a day more or less midway between an equinox and a solstice. In modern times, the four cross-quarter days have morphed into Groundhog Day (February 2), May Day (May 1), Lammas (August 1) and Halloween (October 31).

While we say that winter begins on winter solstice around December 21, the Celts used cross-quarter days to mark the beginnings of their seasons, in this case, the beginning of winter. Halloween is approximately the midway point between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, though the true cross-quarter day falls on November 7, a discrepancy of about one week.

Far from the ghoulish connotation given it today, the word Halloween actually means “hallowed evening” or “holy evening”. It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows Day). All Hallow’s Day (also known as All Saints' or Hallowmas) came on November 1, with All Souls’ Day following on November 2. These three days are collectively referred to as Allhallowtide and are a time for honoring the saints and praying for the recently departed souls who have yet to reach Heaven.

Halloween also marked the end of the harvest season, the transition from light to dark, and for some, a time when the space between life and death blurred. The Celts called it “Samhain,” and it was seen as a liminal time, when the spirits or fairies could more easily come into our world. To appease them, offerings of food and drink, or portions of the crops, were left outside.

If trick or treaters take the time to look up rather than into their shopping bags of candy, they will notice Mars shining in the southwest at sunset along with a half-moon.

Sightings – Trumpeter Swans

From Arlene Bozicnik: “This afternoon (10/18) I got a call from a friend that lives on Big Muskellunge Lake Rd here in Boulder Junction: “Swans are back.” I drove out and met her at the rustic boat landing, and there they were. We counted 24 trumpeter swans. They were big and noisy. They were like kids having a good time at the lake floating around, and you could here them splash and talk to each other. They started to swim in formation in a line and then they took off! What a sight: 24 of the big white swans up in the air, talking amongst themselves. We saw them go down the lake and they came over us just above the tree tops and you could hear the swish of their wings . . . They only thing they left behind were feathers floating on the lake.”

Since tundra swans are migrating through at this time of the year and are nearly impossible to tell apart visually from trumpeter swans, Arlene took the perfect action to determine what species they were – she listened for their call. Trumpeters, as one might suspect, sound like a gentle trumpet, albeit like a kid taking his first lesson on one. Tundras sound like bugling, or like dogs barking or geese honking in the distance.

As usual, words do a poor job of describing sounds, so go to this website to hear the difference: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/tundra_swan/sounds

Science in the Northwoods

            I attended the “3^rd Science in the Northwoods Conference” held on 10/16-17 at Camp Manitowish, a rapid-fire two days of five-minute-long presentations by scientists, managers, and educators doing research in our region. Ninety-three presenters did their best to summarize what for some was years of research, and I walked out at the end of it all rather dizzy with the flood of scientific lingo. It was an intellectual challenge to keep pace with the remarkable breadth, diversity and scope of studies being done in the Northern Highlands. I honestly wonder if there is any other geographical area in Wisconsin receiving this much scientific attention.

It was a scientific blizzard of info, from studies on walleyes, smelt, beavers, wild turkeys, songbirds, dragonflies, crayfish, wood turtles, and wolves, to plant research on mosses, aquatic invasives (Eurasian water-milfoil), wildflowers, algal blooms, black ash wetlands, and hardwood forests, to topics like “Bridging spatial scales and clarifying atmosphere-biosphere interactions with high-resolution tree phenological data.”

One highlight was a study on the Kirtland’s warblers and the effect of climate change on jack pine, the bird’s required habitat. The great news was that the Kirtland’s warbler has recovered sufficiently that it is being considered for removal from the endangered species list! The other side of the coin was that its wintering ground in the Bahamas is being affected both by drought and by sea level rise.

Other highlights included the ban on lead tackle this spring on the Northern Highlands Fishery Research Area, an area that encompasses only three lakes (Escanaba, Pallette, and Nebish), but which has very high importance for its long-term research on fish populations. Perhaps their research will help anglers and legislators to find the simple resolve to ban lead tackle statewide.

One other encouraging study looked at populations of the invasive rusty crayfish on 17 lakes in our area, nine of which have gone from boom to bust. Why the rusties have diminished so dramatically on these lakes remains unclear. Is it due to drought, parasites, disease, change in habitat, management efforts, or combinations thereof?

If you’d like to look at summaries of all of the sessions, go to http://scienceinthenorthwoods.org, and click on “Presentations and Abstracts.” All the presentations were recorded and will eventually be available on the Trout Lake Station’s website: http://limnology.wisc.edu/Trout_Lake_Station.php

North American Loon Symposium

            I also attended the North American Loon Symposium held at Northland College on 10/25-26. This conference brought together top researchers from Alaska to California, and from Nova Scotia to Florida and all the states and provinces in between, to share their findings. Those of us living in the Northern Highlands were perhaps best represented of all, because there’s more research being done on common loons in our area than anywhere else in the world. Between studies conducted for over two decades by Dr. Mike Meyer, Dr. Walter Piper and others, over 3,500 individual loons have been captured and color banded in our area, a prodigious effort that makes objective insights possible on reproduction, territoriality, migration, nesting, dispersal, mercury impacts, function of various calls, et al.

            The researchers have dispelled an array of myths, showing, for instance, that loons do not mate for life, that territorial takeover by usurping males and females is very common, and that loons have temporary vocal dialects that change if they move to another lake – in other words, they can change how their yodel sounds to better “fit” the new lake they are on and the neighboring loons that surround them.

            Dr. Piper found that on average, loons delay settling on territories until they are older. Males, for instance, on average delay 2.5 years, thus waiting until they are larger and stronger at age 6 or so to forge their own territory. Dr. Piper’s blog, loonproject.org, provides a great deal of information on his findings. If you’d like to watch some vicious battles between loons for ownership of a territory, go to “Findings,” then “How does a loon acquire a territory?”

            Loons from the Upper Midwest are migrating right now, most of whom will first stopover in northern Lake Michigan, rest and feed awhile, then move to southern Lake Michigan. They eventually then take off for their wintering sites, which are primarily on the Gulf of Mexico from Gulf Shores, Alabama, to Tampa Bay, Florida.

Comings and Goings

            Coming soon in November or just now arriving: snow buntings, some waterfowl, deer into full rut, muskrats building huts, amphibians/reptiles/insects nearly all dead/migrated/hibernating/pupating/wintering over as adults, snowshoe hares and weasels turning white, Canadian birds like bohemian waxwings/pine siskins/redpolls/ pine grosbeaks/rough-legged hawks/snowy owls, wind rustling through dead vegetation, snow, ice, and a white canvas.

            Leaving soon or already departing: last of songbird migration south like tree sparrows/white-throated sparrows/red-winged blackbirds/grackles, black bears into dens, loons, cranes, some eagles (some stay), some trumpeter swans (some stay), crows (some stay), tamarack needles and all other deciduous leaves (except oaks and ironwoods which hang on).

Robin Kimmerer

            Callie, Mary and I traveled to Northland College on Monday night to hear Dr. Robin Kimmerer talk about her book Braiding Sweetgrass, which won the prestigious Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. I couldn’t be more impressed with her person or her writing – she’s a treasure as both a PhD botanist (expert on mosses) and a Potawatomi elder.

            Here’s a quote: “I sat once in a graduate writing workshop on relationships to the land. The students . . . professed without reservation that they loved the earth. And then I asked them, ‘Do you think the earth loves you back?’ No one was willing to answer that . . . So I made it hypothetical and asked, ‘What do you suppose would happen if people believed this crazy notion that the earth loved them back?’ The floodgates opened. They all wanted to talk at once . . . One student summed it up: ‘You wouldn’t harm what gives you love.’

            “Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship for a one-way street into a sacred bond.”

NWA 10/17/14

A Northwoods Almanac for 10/17 – 30, 2014   

Autumn Colors Waning

            Autumn is a smorgasbord of cool temperatures, brilliant colors, powerful winds, and pungent smells, all combining to make any hike a glorious opportunity. While the winds propel literally millions of birds southward for the winter, they also are workmanlike in their stripping of leaves so that any walk presents a kaleidoscope of colors underfoot. If you focus too much on the ground at this time of year, you can get dizzy!

            The last two weeks of October are a celebration of yellows and golds, with the preeminent painter being any bog encircled by tamaracks. Just as spring is a dazzle of seemingly endless shades of green, so autumn is its equal in yellows.

            The white canvas of winter awaits us not too far down the line, but its beauty arises from a far more austere series of painters than those who seem to splash color everywhere in in October. So, enjoy this last profusion, as well as the last of our open water, which will be turning to ice in a month or so. Though 50 degrees for a high feels cool now, it will seem like a heat wave in March. Breathe it all in while you can.

“For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad." Edwin Way Teal                  

            “Delicious autumn !  My soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns."  George Eliot

            "Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all."  Stanley Horowitz

Sightings: A Standoff Between Blue Jays and a Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Rolf Ethun on Papoose Lake sent this email on 10/9: “This morning I had an interesting encounter between a sharp-shinned hawk and half a dozen blue jays at my feeder. The jays were totally oblivious to the hawk and even appeared to be taunting it. The hawk would dive on them at the feeder, and they would scatter to the nearest balsam branches. The hawk would land on an adjoining branch where they would sit looking at each other as though taking time-out in a game. Almost immediately the jays would go back to the feeder, and then the hawk would dive on them, which went on over and over again. The jays seemed completely unperturbed and the hawk would occasionally take out its frustration going after a red squirrel with similar results.  

“I was secretly rooting for the hawk to get a squirrel and give up on the jays. After nearly an hour of watching this on-going game I had to leave while it appeared to continue . . . The jays had half emptied the feeder and I was entertained on a cool and gray morning.”

Rolf’s sighting illustrates how similar in size a sharp-shinned hawk is to a blue jay. Blue jays average 11” long, with a 16” wingspan, and weigh 3 ounces. A sharp-shinned hawk averages 11” long, but has a wider wingspan of 23” and weighs 5 ounces. Males are much smaller than females, and may only weigh 3.5 ounces, so I’ll bet Rolf had a young male who thought he should be able to handle those blue jays but forgot to look in the mirror and see that he was no bigger than they were.

Sharp-shins are known for hunting songbirds – they’re experts – but these jays apparently were much more experienced at the importance of size than the sharpie was.

Sightings: Snapper Hatchlings

Bob Kovar in Manitowish Waters sent me a photo of 11 snapping turtle hatchlings that he and his daughter Addy found in the parking lot of Aurora Borealis restaurant on 10/3. He noted, “The parking lot there was littered with baby snapping turtles. Half of them were run over by people eating breakfast. We rescued these 11 and put them back in the river below the dam.”

It’s pretty late for snappers to be hatching, but cool, wet summers slow down the incubation process, and we certainly had a cool, wet summer.

Science in the Northwoods and the North American Loon Symposium

This will be a remarkable week for awareness of all the scientific research that’s being done in our area. The third annual Science in the Northwoods Conference began yesterday and ends today at Camp Manitowish with 93 different presenters describing the ecological research they are doing in the Northern Highlands region of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. Sponsored by the Trout Lake Station Center for Limnology, the Kemp Natural Resources Station, the US Forest Service, the US Geological Service, and the Lac du Flambeau Tribe, this conference brings together scientists in a vast array of fields. See www.scienceinthenorthwoods.org for abstracts of all the presentations.

A week later from 10/25 – 26, the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute is hosting the North American Loon Symposium, convening researchers, wildlife experts, state and non-profit agencies, and loon enthusiasts at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. A loon symposium of this size and scope has not taken place in North America in more than a decade.

The nation’s premier wilderness researchers will be presenting, including scientists who have done extensive loon research in our area like Dr. Michael Meyer, Dr. Kevin Kenow, and Dr. Walter Piper. Topics ranging from mercury and lead toxicology, migration, behavior, loon banding, impacts of climate change, habitat management, wintering habitat, citizen science, and many other critical topics will be discussed by North America’s premier experts. This is the first time a Loon Symposium of this magnitude has been held in this region.

Yellow-rumped Warblers and Juncos

Flocks of both yellow-rumped warblers and dark-eyed juncos are coming through our area on their way south. Yellow-rumps are perhaps the latest migrating warbler, in large part because of their very diverse diet that allows them to winter inland as far north as Indiana and Ohio, though many will travel as far south as Mexico and the Caribbean (and who wouldn’t?). The yellow rump’s ability to digest the waxes in bayberries (Myrica spp.) make it unique among warblers, and allows populations to winter in coastal areas as far north as Nova Scotia.

As of 10/13, we still have them foraging in many of our trees, not only fly-catching insects, but also eating various fruits.

If you’ve been driving along the last few weeks and kicking up flocks of dark-colored birds by the roadsides, you’ve probably been seeing juncos. As seed-eaters, they can migrate later in the autumn than insect-eating birds, so we’ll still be seeing them well into November. A junco’s plumage is characterized by white outer tail-feathers that flash when the bird takes flight and by a gray or blackish “hood” and dark back that contrasts with its whitish breast and belly. A recent estimate set the junco’s total population in North America at approximately 630 million, so it’s common to see lots of them!

Juncos utilize “differential migration,” meaning females tend to migrate farther south than males, while adults migrate farther south than hatching-year birds. The sex and age classes that travel the farthest migrate the earliest. So, the first flocks coming though are likely females, both juveniles and adults.

Juncos can remain as far north as central Wisconsin – they’re hearty birds. On rare occasions, a few are even seen on Christmas bird counts in the Northwoods.

Electrically-charged Spider Webs

            From the file titled “What I love about studying the natural world is the improbable things one learns all the time,” comes this research on spider webs. It sounds impossible that the threads of a spider web could actively reach out for prey, yet recent studies show that it is yet another ingenious spider strategy for capturing insects on the fly. How do webs do this? Static electricity. Flying insects build up a static electrical charge on their bodies from the friction of passing through the air the same way a person can pick up a charge by shuffling in fuzzy socks along a carpet. Bees are known to pick up a charge of as much as 200 volts!

As these insects fly through a normally safe space in a spider's web, the threads of the web react to the insect's static electrical charge and snap shut (as much as two millimeters) due to a phenomenon known as static induction. This is the same effect that we've all experienced by rubbing a balloon on our heads and sticking it to a wall.

Orb webs are particularly adapted to use electrostatic charges. The silk is coated in a glue that tends to hold water droplets, which can build up a lot of static charge. The silk in the webs is also especially stretchy, and thus perfect for reacting to a passing insect.

Remarkably, pollen can also be positively charged and be caught in their webs. Orb web spiders are especially fond of pollen, which can make up as much as a quarter of their diet.

Celestial Events - Orionid Meteor Shower

The Orionids meteor shower will peak during the evening of 10/20 and into the morning of the 21st. The shower usually produces about 20 fast moving meteors per hour and occasionally produces fireballs. Look near the star Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. The meteors are debris from the orbit of Halley’s comet.

Mushroom of the Week – Bear’s Head Tooth

            Last week, Mary and I found a large bear’s head tooth fungi on the Lauterman National Recreation Trail near Florence. The fungi looks like a cascade of little white icicles to me, though some either very creative, or delusional, folks think it looks like a shaggy bear’s head. The books say it’s delectable, but I would hate to cut it off and deprive someone else from seeing this really remarkable mushroom.

NWA 10/3/14

A Northwoods Almanac for 10/3 – 10/16/14 

Pillaging Robins

            In mid-September, our largest mountain ash tree was laden with orange-red berries, the key word in this sentence being “was.” A flock of robins arrived on 9/15 and, in just one day, stripped the tree bare.

Mary and I were both distressed by this and actually tried to shoo them away numerous times, not because we don’t like robins, but because our mountain ashes provide a great lure for winter birds visiting from Canada. Pine grosbeaks, evening grosbeaks, bohemian waxwings and others love the fruits, and in turn, we love to see them. Now the mountain ash won’t look any more appetizing than any other bare-limbed tree on our property.

I have to laugh at myself for not wanting the robins to eat the fruits prior to their migration – after all, they need to eat, too. Who am I to value a winter pine grosbeak over an autumn robin? But since robins are perhaps the most versatile foraging bird in North America, I’d like them to eat something less necessary for our wintering birds. After all, one study of their stomach contents found fruits of 50 genera and invertebrates from more than 100 families, illustrating how robins can live just about everywhere, and can eat just about everything, from worms in summer suburban lawns to seeds from trees on mountain peaks. They forage in the air snatching insects, grab fruits off vines, lift leaves on the forest floor to find invertebrates, and even partake of an occasional frog or fish or snake.

It would be one thing if they had no choice but to eat the mountain ash berries in order to migrate. Their theft is like someone eating all the canned goods that you put up for the winter, when they could have eaten the fresh greens in the garden.

Enough whining on my part. Robins are on the move south, as evidenced by the huge numbers that have already been counted at Hawk Ridge in Duluth. They only go as far south as necessary to get beyond the heavy snows, so they are a common wintering species in states like Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, forming large roosting flocks from which they track sources of berries. They move throughout the winter after they’ve decimated nearby food resources, thus their Latin species name migratorius means “wandering” as well as “migratory,” a highly appropriate description for their winter behavior.

Hawk Ridge Visits

Last week, Mary and I, along with a group from Nicolet College, traveled up the North Shore of Minnesota, stopping at Duluth’s Hawk Ridge on the way there and back. On 9/17, we arrived at the ridge at 12:30, but cloud cover and a strong easterly wind whipped up just as we got there. As the hawk counters noted on their website, “Clear and calm early this morning with mild temperatures. A pretty good flight before the wind shift killed it.”

Still, they counted 2,451 broad-winged hawks among the total of 2,941 raptors! While we missed the big numbers, we got numerous good views of sharp-shinned hawks. An additional 8,222 migrating non-raptors flew over the ridge that day, including 5,835 blue jays.

We came back through Duluth on 9/20 and had what appeared to be the perfect conditions for a great flight. The previous two days had easterly winds, resulting in miserly counts of 39 and 80 total birds. So the birds were stacked up and waiting to go when the wind shifted to the west-northwest. We got up on the ridge by 10:30 and stayed until 1:00. We were treated to excellent and frequent views of low-flying sharp-shinned hawks, as well as numerous eagles, turkey vultures, northern harriers, broad-winged hawks, and kestrels, and one each of a peregrine falcon, a red-tailed hawk, and a Cooper’s hawk. But we had to leave by 1:00 to make it home. And that was too bad, because as the counters noted on the website, “A wonderful flight really ramped up in the last few hours of the day. Excellent diversity. Great looks at multiple low broad-winged hawk kettles in addition to a couple of adult Swainson's hawks and a subadult golden eagle.” The total for the day was 2,783 broad-winged hawks along with 934 sharp-shinned hawks. They also counted 5,095 migrating non-raptors, including 3,331 blue jays and 747 American robins.

The next day took the cake, however, with perfect northwest winds producing a huge flight of 7,219 broad-winged hawks. The counters described it as an “overwhelming flight of birds. For a while in late morning, thousands of non-raptors mixed with thousands of raptors, a counter’s worst nightmare.” They also counted 17,633 migrating non-raptors, including 5,259 unidentified warblers and 2,166 white-throated sparrows (record high count).

Those are the days one dreams of observing, and we missed it by one day! Still, we saw more hawks on our two visits than most people see in a lifetime. The days were lovely, the camaraderie excellent, and the birds beautiful in flight – what better way to spend autumn afternoons!

North Shore Shorebirds – Pipits and Sanderlings

            The highlight of our birding along the North Shore of Minnesota was our time in and around Grand Marais. We stayed at the incredible Naniboujou hotel, which was worth the trip alone, but which also sits right on Lake Superior adjoining the Brule River where it empties into the lake. Here we had good views of a semi-palmated plover and a black-bellied plover, and incredible views of sanderlings, which one morning walked within a few feet of where we were standing, apparently unfazed by our presence.

Sanderlings, a small, plump sandpiper, breed on the high-arctic tundra, their circumpolar breeding range extending from the Canadian Arctic to Greenland and arctic Siberia. In North America, it winters in relatively small numbers along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, but most winter in Central and South America. They typically forage on sandy beaches, running quickly ahead of incoming waves and chasing after receding ones, probing the sand for food. Their average migration distance covers 77° of latitude with some flying more than 6,000 miles to reach temperate South America!

We also had close-up and lengthy views of American pipits, a species Mary and I had never seen before. A small flock foraged continuously on the shoreline rocks, and it took us over an hour to finally figure out what they were – so much for any pretense of expertise in birding!

Pipits are one of a very few species of ground-inhabiting songbirds that breed at high altitudes in alpine meadows and on the arctic tundra. They winter in the southern U.S. and down into Central America, so we see them only briefly in spring and fall migration.

Sightings – Spotted Salamander

Ron and Pam Ahles on the Pike-Round Lake Chain sent me a photo on 9/22 of a spotted salamander that was crossing their driveway. They noted that it was the first one they had ever seen.

            Salamanders are a secretive group, so it’s not surprising Ron and Pam have never seen one – we rarely see them as well.

            The spotted salamander spends most of its time underground, under logs, or in heavy groundcover vegetation, but warm, rainy nights often encourage them to move overground. Given the time of year, this one may have been heading for its hibernation site, but it’s a bit early – the literature says they go underground later in October. They appear to not be freeze tolerant, so they don’t really "hibernate," but rather find somewhere to spend the winter that doesn't freeze, perhaps in abandoned small mammal burrows or other soil openings below the frost line.

            The females mate in ephemeral woodland ponds very shortly after the ice goes off in a “mass nuptial orgy” and lay their eggs. After about 60 days, perhaps around the end of June, the larvae hatch and then metamorphose typically in mid-August.

            We should be thankful for salamander populations, because in their aquatic larval stage, they consume vast quantities of mosquito larvae and other small invertebrates. “So what,” some might say – there can’t be enough of them to matter since very few people ever see them. But researchers say they have a very high density in deciduous forests – over 1,000 per acre – which far exceeds the biomass of breeding birds, and equals that of small mammals.

Wisconsin Conservationist of the Year – Matt Dallman

            Matt Dallman, The Nature Conservancy’s Director of Conservation for Northern Wisconsin, was named Conservationist of the Year by the Gathering Waters Conservancy. Matt’s office is in Minocqua, where he has worked for many years helping to protect northern forests and waters. He’s negotiated some very challenging land deals, earning a trusted reputation with diverse interest groups and individuals. This is a prestigious award and well deserved – kudos to Matt.

Mushroom of the Week – Barometer Earthstar

            Our most interesting recent mushroom find was a barometer earthstar on the Cascade River State Park hiking trail near Lutsen, Minnesota. The outer layer of the mushroom splits into rays like a star and is topped by a small, whitish globe-like structure which contains the spores. What’s amazing about this mushroom is that it responds to changes in the weather, much like a barometer. In dry weather, the rays close tightly, while in wet weather, the rays open, bend back, and raise up the spore sac so the rain can help disperse the spores.

Celestial Events – Lunar Eclipse!

            A total lunar eclipse will occur during the full moon on 10/8, beginning at 3:27 AM and reaching full eclipse from 5:27 to 6:22 AM at which point the moon will be close to the horizon and soon to set at 7 AM.