A Northwoods Almanac for 1/5/18

A Northwoods Almanac for 1/5 – 18, 2018  by John Bates

Trumpeter Swan 24Y

A handful of trumpeter swans usually winter-over on the Manitowish River, and this year it appears to be a small family of four: two adults and two cygnets. During the Manitowish Waters Christmas Bird Count on 12/16, Mark Westphal took a picture of this group just below Benson Lake, and one of the adult swans was banded #24Y. I contacted the DNR to get the backstory on this bird and learned that 24Y was banded as a cygnet on 9/6/2007 in Price County, so it’s 10 years old.

photo by Mark Westphal

It’s unclear what 24Y’s gender might be – males are somewhat larger and heavier than females, but otherwise look exactly alike (the only way to be certain is to examine the bird’s vent, which is not exactly an option). It’s also unknown if 24Y has been a successful parent up to now, but trumpeters often begin breeding at the age of three, so the two cygnets could be 24Y’s seventh brood. Trumpeters usually mate for life, and they’re long-lived – 20 to 30 years in the wild. So, 24Y may have another ten or more years of parenting ahead of him or her. Currently, trumpeter swan #82K, banded in Wisconsin, is the oldest banded swan in North America, and is now 27 years old.

Trumpeters are the largest native North American waterfowl, weighing between 21 and 30 pounds and with a winspan over seven feet. Thus, they need a lot to eat during the winter, and I’m always impressed that they can find enough food on the few open sections of the Manitowish River. They eat a wide assortment of aquatic vegetation (arrowheads, pondweeds, sedges, pickerelweed, rushes, smartweed, cattails, bulrushes, milfoils, wild celery, wild rice, algae – you name it). But given that most aquatic plants die-back in the fall, the swans likely survive mostly on tubers that they dig up from the sediments.

The literature says a thick layer of down protects them in subzero temperatures, but as a human, I find it almost unimaginable that anything can stay warm swimming around in -20 degree temperatures.

Few birds exhibit the grace and beauty of a trumpeter swan, and what a gift that they share their beauty with us all winter!

Latest Update on Snowy Owl Irruption

According to Ryan Brady, bird monitoring coordinator for the DNR, as of 12/26 “approximately 202 individual snowy owls (give or take a bunch) have been detected, which far exceeds those found in 2016-17 or '15-16, but is in line with the 210 and 156 found by this date in 2014-15 and 2013-14, respectively. Only 11 of our 72 counties lack reports this year . . . the influx of incoming birds does appear to be slowing somewhat, as might be expected this time of year. Juveniles still dominate, although several apparent adult males were photographed as well in recent weeks. Finally, vehicle collisions remain a significant source of mortality, for many of these birds are inexperienced hunters and unfamiliar with a developed landscape.”

It appears it’s not hunger that produces these mega-flights, but the opposite – an amazing abundance of summer food. Large populations of lemmings, voles, ptarmigan and other prey during the summer breeding season led to large clutches of owl eggs and excellent survival of the chicks. But once winter came and prey numbers dwindled, the young had no choice but to migrate south – too many mouths for too little food.

Sightings – Pine Grosbeaks, Northern Shrikes

A few days before Christmas, Paul Strong in Hazelhurst reported seeing both a juvenile and an adult shrike chasing birds at his feeders. A week later Paul also observed a hoary redpoll in a mixed flock of common redpolls and pine siskins. 

Mary and I have 12 pine grosbeaks visiting our feeders as of 1/1/18. These exceptionally pretty and vocal birds are circumboreal, nesting and usually wintering in subarctic and boreal forests from Siberia in eastern Asia to Scandinavia and, in North America, from eastern Canada to western Alaska. They migrate south only in winters triggered by limitations in their foods. We didn’t see any the last two years at our feeders, but now every morning, we’re treated to breakfast with a flock of pine grosbeaks as companions.

pine grosbeak range map

They eat our sunflower seeds, but we’ve watched them many times eating crabapples and highbush cranberries, too. In wilder winter circumstances than our back yard, they feed primarily on a variety of buds and the seeds of mountain ash, box elder, and ash.

            Their short and heavy conical bills allow them to nip off buds and the growing tips of conifer branches, and to crush seeds.

male pine grosbeak photo by author

female pine grosbeak photo by author

Blue Moons

This year, January offers us two full moons, one that already occurred on 1/1 and the other on 1/31. Given that full moons occur every 29.5 days, February won’t have a full moon, but will be followed in March by two full moons on the 1^st and 31^st.

The last time two blue moons happened in the same year was 1999, an event that occurs every 19 years (remember to look for them in 2037)!

January's blue moon on the 31st will also feature a total lunar eclipse, the only lunar or solar eclipse over Wisconsin this year. Northwoods viewers will be able to see it early in the morning very low in the western sky. The eclipse will start at 5:48 a.m. and totality will begin at 6:51. Unfortunately, moonset and sunrise occur only 33 minutes later, so much of the eclipse will be washed out in the morning light.

Also of note, both of the January full moons are “supermoons,” appearing about 7% bigger than normal. And because the moon will turn a reddish-orange color, a total lunar eclipse is often called a blood moon. So, it will be a full blue supermoon eclipse.

The “blue” in a blue moon comes to us from over 400 years ago when the phrase “once in a blue moon” was said to indicate how rare an event might be. But in 1883, the moon did appear blue when the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded and its dust turned sunsets green and the moon blue all around the world for nearly two years. And in 1951, huge fires in western Canada billowed out so much smoke that the moon turned bluish in northeastern America.

So, a blue moon indicates something rare in general, and something specifically rare astronomically. But it also has come to mean the second full moon in a month, the apparent result of an obscure article in Sky and Telescope magazine in 1946 and then an NPR program in 1980 where that article was read aloud. So, the term is part folklore, part historical fact, and part just something that has caught on through media use.

Radiative Balance

Why isn’t the coldest day of the year on winter solstice when we have the least amount of light? And why do average winter temperatures continue to fall until late January? Well, it’s all about the earth’s energy balance. So far this winter, the earth has been radiating more energy back into space each day than it receives from the sun, so we’re still losing heat and getting colder. This is because over the course of the year, the earth’s land surfaces, oceans, and atmosphere absorbed an immense amount of energy which is still being radiated back to space.         We’ll continue radiating out more heat than we receive until late January when the “radiative balance” will be reached, and we then begin receiving more energy than we lose. Temperatures, on average, then will slowly begin to rise.

Quaking Aspen – Winter PHS       

Quaking aspens are the most common trees in the Northern Highlands area, but they also grow out west at elevations as high as 10,000 feet and thrive in cooler climates far to our north. Like other true cold weather species, quaking aspen (or “popple”) has evolved ways to adapt to intense winter conditions, including an ability to photosynthesize through its inner bark. In winter, when other deciduous trees are mostly dormant, quaking aspens can keep producing sugars. Trees growing in more northern latitudes tend to have greener bark with higher chlorophyll levels, a character of quaking aspens, as an adaptation to cold winter temperatures.  

quaking aspen range map

            Most northern trees are conifers, holding tight onto their leaves (needles in this case) as a means of withstanding long winters and short summers. Quaking aspens are one of the very few deciduous trees to thrive in the otherwise mainly evergreen northern environment, and it’s thought that their ability to photosynthesize through their bark accounts in part for their ability to compete.

Celestial Events

            If you’re looking for planets in January, you have to get up before dawn – none are visible at the easier viewing time after sunset. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all visible in the east-southeast before first light. On 1/6, look before sunrise for Mars just below Jupiter. Before dawn on 1/11, look for both Jupiter and Mars to be four degrees south of the waning crescent moon. And also before dawn on 1/15, Saturn will be two degrees south of the crescent moon.

            On 1/8, the sun rises one minute earlier for the first time since June 10, 2017. And by 1/13, we’ll reach 9 hours of daylight – now our days are growing longer by two minutes every day. New moon on 1/16.

Thought for the Week

“Winter comes a shimmer of hoarfrost, a mist of snowflakes from a scudding cloud a roaring wind with a barbed-wire edge. It comes as a fragile film of ice needles on the pasture pond or woodland brook. It comes in the brittle cold silence of night, the sun-dazzle or sullen overcast of day, echo of those ages when ice locked up the northern hemisphere 10,000 years at a time, reminder that the long cold and the deep ice can come again . . . And yet winter blankets the tender root and bulb, relaxes the fevered urgency of growth and fruition, brings rest and renewal, provides a time for summaries. It is the essential pause in the throbbing of the great, eternal rhythms of life.” Hal Borland, Seasons

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call 715-476-2828, e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com.

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/22/17

A Northwoods Almanac for December 22 – January 4, 2018  by John Bates

Christmas Bird Counts

            The 25^th annual Manitowish Waters Christmas Bird Count took place on 12/16. Eleven volunteers fanned out over the 15-mile-wide count circle which is centered at the intersection of Hwy. 51 and County W in Manitowish Waters. The temperature at 8 a.m. was 8°; chilly but relatively calm, which made birding a lot easier.

            We totaled 30 species, well above our average of 24 species. Notable were a first ever snowy owl, wood duck, and boreal chickadee. And in the highly unusual category were two hooded mergansers, a mallard, a red-headed woodpecker, three dark-eyed juncos, a song sparrow, and a grackle.

            Red crossbills have been reported regularly this winter throughout northern Wisconsin, and we did get one flock of 20 eating sand in the middle of County K. As is normal for crossbills, they stayed put as the counters approached in their car and would have easily been run over if the counters hadn’t stopped. So, a plea to drivers this winter: Please watch for flocks of birds in the middle of roads and slow down to give them a chance to scatter. Crossbills are often oblivious to cars, and many are being hit.

red crossbills photo by Mark Westphal

The 21^st annual Minocqua Christmas Bird Count took place on 12/14 and was done by 19 volunteers from the North Lakeland Discovery Center Bird Club traveling in 6 vehicles, and by 6 volunteers who counted at their home feeders and yards in the count area. There were a few open water areas and surprises with a common merganser and pied-billed grebe. Other surprises included a lone robin, five tree sparrows, and what I consider a surprisingly high number – 19 – of red-bellied woodpeckers. Red-bellieds living in the Northwoods continue to increase in number, and this is perfect evidence.

Sightings

Wil Conway sent me a great photo on 12/10 of a male pileated woodpecker landing on his suet feeder.

male pileated woodpecker photo by Wil Conway

Jill Wilm sent a lovely photo of her bird feeder just loaded with common redpolls on 12/14. She captioned the photo: “Who needs a Christmas tree when you have these lovely ornaments? The redpolls abound in Presque Isle!”

common redpolls photo by Jill Wilm

            On 12/13, Sarah Krembs reported seeing a veery or hermit thrush hopping around the entrance to the St. Germain community building. She noted: “He hopped right up to the doors a couple times. I'm hoping he was just getting some sand/gravel for his digestion (they'd thrown some down near the doors) . . .  I tried to get closer but by the time I made it over to the door he'd disappeared. I'm hoping that means he was able to fly and he flew off, meaning he didn't have a broken wing or something.”

            Along those same lines, a caller was concerned about a hen mallard that was swimming on a little creek on 12/15 near Boulder Junction. And Mary and I have been watching for a week a female hooded merganser who is keeping open a tiny circle of water on the otherwise iced-over Manitowish River near our house. The merganser can dive, and must be catching some fish or it would have starved by now. But why it’s still here, and obviously confined to that tiny hole on the river, is unknown. Usually, it’s one of two things: illness or injury. For waterfowl, a bullet wound from a waterfowl hunter is not uncommon, nor is lead poisoning. For predators like hawks, owls, and eagles, flying into an electric line, being hit by a car, or slowly dying from rodent poison are all common, too.

Hooded Merganser Failed Rescue, But Also Earlier Successful Rescues

            I called Wild Instincts (715-362-9453) near Rhinelander regarding the hooded merganser mentioned above, hoping that a rescue might be possible. Mark Naniot, long-time Northwoods wildlife rehabber, answered and said he’d get someone up to us to try and capture it. Kevin and Linda Grenzer from Tomahawk arrived with a flat-bottomed, custom-made rescue boat in their truck and long-handled nets. Their concern was the merganser would jump out of the water and run away on the ice, and then they’d have a chase on their hands. It turned out to be even more difficult than that. As they approached the merganser from the shore, it flew a short distance downriver and landed on the ice. As Kevin and Linda, now aided by my wife Mary, tried to outflank it, it flew again, this time a little farther, but again landed on the ice. It appeared to all of us that while it could fly, it was struggling to stay airborne, and perhaps had an injury or was ill. It then flew a third time, this time over the shoreline shrubs and around a bend in the river.

            Well, this was good news and bad news. It could fly better than we thought, but still appeared to be compromised.

            We came inside to warm up, and 45 minutes later, the merganser had returned to the tiny opening in the ice. Kevin is an inventor and has devised a drone with a net attached that can be released and dropped on a bird from above. So, he got the drone up and headed downriver, but the wind caught the net and the drone crashed.

            Long story short, we had to give up. The merganser was still there as of dusk on 12/18, and time will tell its fate.

            The 45-minute interlude, however, gave me a chance to interview Kevin and Linda, who for the last three years have volunteered to capture an array of birds and mammals and bring them for rehabilitation to either Wild Instincts or to REGI (Raptor Education Group Inc. in Antigo – 715-623-4015), and occasionally to Northwoods Wildlife Center (715-356-7400) in Minocqua. They have stories galore, but the two most recent ones were particularly fascinating.

           

Sandhill Crane Capture

Over two weeks ago, a caller reported a sandhill crane walking along a road near the County A exit off Hwy. 51 in Tomahawk. Kevin and Linda traveled to the site, but despite its injured left wing, the bird was able to run away from them over marsh ice, and they had to give up the chase. The crane stayed in the area for a week, then was seen 5 miles south on Skanawan Road near the County S exit on Hwy. 51. The crane was coming to a woman’s feeder, and while Kevin and Linda could get somewhat close, the bird still would run away. Apparently the crane was migrating south by walking along or near Hwy. 51, but stopping along the way at feeders.

            Kevin and Linda then set up a blind near the feeder and tried to use a net gun to capture it, but missed by inches. Finally, the next day, they set the blind up with several volunteers hunched within it, and this time when the crane appeared, they were able to run it down along a marshy creek because the deep snow and marsh grass made it stumble.

            They drove the crane to REGI, where Marge Gibson examined the bird and found it to be very healthy. However, its wing had been broken a while back, perhaps from being hit by a car or from being shot, and had healed in a manner that prevented it from flying. Marge is known as a wonder woman in healing wildlife injuries, so perhaps she will find a way. If not, the crane will be released to a zoo or environmental center where it can be used for education.

sandhill crane held by Kevin Grenzer and being examined by Marge Gibson

Wood Duck Capture

            Linda and Kevin received a call to capture a wood duck that appeared unable to fly and was swimming on a little creek that was icing-up on Coffee Creek Road in New Wood. As soon as they pulled up to the creek, the wood duck ran and hid in the grass, but they were able to surround it and capture it. What they found was startling – the wood duck’s beak was completely frozen over! It couldn’t open its mouth, one of its nostrils was frozen, and its tail feathers had chunks of ice hanging from them. The ice was one-quarter inch thick on the bill. The bird was starving and suffocating, and very likely would have died within an hour or two.

wood duck with frozen bill photo by Linda Grenzer

            Linda held the wood duck in her lap and warmed its bill in her hands as they drove it to REGI. Marge examined it and found a wing injury which she is now trying to rehab.

            Linda and Kevin speculate that the wood duck was dying, and its head was dipping into the icy water, whereupon it would startle and raise back up, only to dip back down again until its bill became an icicle.

One Way to Help Wildlife

            Put the phone numbers of the three wildlife centers up on your refrigerator, so you know who to call if you see an animal that needs help. And consider donating and/or volunteering – all three run on private donations and receive no funding from federal or state agencies.

            Linda and Kevin are trying to purchase a used hovercraft with their own money to make ice rescues less dangerous and more successful – a contribution to them through REGI would help make this possible.

             

Freeze Dates

            The Manitowish River iced-up at our home in Manitowish on 12/12, though a tiny hole was being kept open by the lone female merganser discussed above through 12/18. Our average ice-up date for the Manitowish is late November.

As for regional ice-up on our northern lakes, I always look to Woody Hagge’s data on Foster Lake in Hazelhurst to give me the best picture. At 39 acres with a maximum depth of 38 feet, Foster Lake is broadly representative of many of the modest-sized lakes in our area, though there are many other factors influencing ice-up beyond the size and depth of a lake.

Last year, Foster Lake froze on 12/10, the 4th latest freeze in the last 42 years. This year, Foster iced-up a day earlier on 12/9. The average ice-up date for Foster is now 11/28.

Ice-up was certainly an on-again-off-again process this year with many lakes skimming over in mid-November, but then opening up with warmer weather. December has given us average winter weather, which is cold enough that all lakes should now be ice-covered.

West Nile Found in Michigan Ruffed Grouse

Five ruffed grouse collected in Michigan from August through October, including two found dead and three shot by hunters, were recently determined to have West Nile Virus. Three of the WNV-positive grouse were from the Upper Peninsula.

Although Michigan has had West Nile Virus since 2002, this is the first year it’s been seen it in grouse. This is important news because grouse numbers were up this spring in Wisconsin – drumming counts were up 17% and summer brood observations were up 18%. Nevertheless, relatively few grouse were seen this fall in Wisconsin.

Grouse were supposed to be up this year based on their traditional cycle, not down. Chick survival likely was hampered due to the heavy rains and cool temperatures we had in late spring and early summer, but whether there’s also a connection to WNV is unknown. At least now it’s on researchers’ radars, assuming there’s money allocated for the research.

See Paul Smith’s article in the 12/6 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online for more information.

Snowy Owl Update

From Ryan Brady, research scientist and bird monitoring coordinator for WDNR: “As of December 13, an estimated 173 Snowy Owls have been tallied across 57 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties . . . Harbors along the Great Lakes shorelines remain hotspots but many owls are widespread across interior grasslands, wetlands, agricultural fields, and even urban areas as well. The total of 173 owls compares to only 13 as of the same date in 2016-17, 102 in 2015-16, 161 in 2014-15, and 91 in 2013-14, although many birds arrived later during the big irruption year of 2013-14. This year’s flight continues to be dominated by juvenile birds hatched in the Arctic last summer. Unfortunately, their inexperience has led to small but significant numbers falling victim to vehicle collisions or starvation.” 

Celestial Events

Our days begin to grow longer on 12/23 for the first time since June 20. From 12/27 to 1/7, the sunrise stalls at its latest time in the morning – 7:40 a.m. On 1/8, the sun will rise one minute earlier at 7:39.

Thought for Christmas

      No, it is not because I am filled with obscure guilt that I step gently over, and not upon, an autumn cricket. It is not because of guilt that I refuse to shoot the last osprey from her nest in the tide marsh. I possess empathy . . . I share that sympathy and compassion which extends beyond the barriers of class and race and form until it partakes of the universal whole. – Loren Eiseley

Please share your outdoor sightings and thoughts: call 715-476-2828, e-mail at manitowish@centurytel.net, snail-mail at 4245N State Highway 47, Mercer, WI, or see my blog at www.manitowishriver.blogspot.com

A Northwoods Almanac for 12/8/17

A Northwoods Almanac for Dec. 8 – 21, 2017  

Latest Numbers on Snowy Owls

As of 11/29, approximately 105 individual snowy owls have been reported in 44 Wisconsin counties. This is the largest total of snowy owls as of this date in the last eight years.   To see where the birds have been sighted in Wisconsin, go to Wisconsin eBird at http://ebird.org/content/wi/, click “explore data,” click “species maps,” enter “snowy owl,” and then enter the date range (Oct. to Dec. 2017).

snowy owl photo by Dick Lemanski

Northern Highlands Citizen Science Network

            In this momentary time bubble of anti-science, a group of citizens who believe wholeheartedly in science has arisen to try to fill the void left by unfilled state position vacancies, position cuts, and reduced funding. Dr. Mike Meyer, retired research scientist for the WDNR, convened a meeting of area citizens last week to share current opportunities for citizens to be engaged in scientific research, and then to facilitate discussion of what a Northern Highlands Citizen Science Network could become.

            Nearly 100 people attended, including many leaders of ongoing citizen monitoring projects. Data from over 20 monitoring programs were shared, along with the myriad of ways to get involved.

            We heard about water-based projects like the Citizen Lake Monitoring Network which began in 1986 and which now has over 1,000 volunteers who measure water clarity, water chemistry, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and duration of ice cover, as well as mapping aquatic invasive species and native plants on lakes all around the state. The data is used to show trends in water quality and biological communities, and thus understand and better manage individual lakes. Nearly 150 lakes in Vilas County have been monitored, and the data for each lake over all these years is available online.

            We heard from the Wisconsin Action Volunteers who take many of the same measures on the 32,000 miles of Wisconsin’s perennial rivers and streams. Given the legal requirements of the WDNR to report the environmental status of all of our streams and rivers, citizen monitoring help in obtaining the data is essential.

            We heard about Loon Watch Monitoring, Mussel Monitoring, the Wisconsin Turtle Survey, and the Wisconsin Frog and Toad Survey which began in 1981 and is the longest running frog survey in the nation.

And we heard from the Wisconsin Healthy Lakes Project which analyzes all the monitoring data and helps individual lakeshore owners, lake associations, and public agencies apply the science on their properties.

            On the land-based side of things, we heard from the Iron County Citizen Science Project which includes an American marten study that was undertaken by Mercer and Hurley high school students. We heard from the Volunteer Carnivore Tracking Program, the Wisconsin Odonata (dragonfly/damselfly) Survey, the Wisconsin Bat Monitoring Program, the Hunter Wildlife Survey, the Wisconsin Master Naturalist Program, the Wisconsin Rare Plant Monitoring Program, the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas, and more.

Of the 20+ programs that were shared, many are coordinated through the Wisconsin Citizen-based Monitoring Network. The WCBM Network brings together citizens and professional scientists to work together in monitoring and evaluating Wisconsin’s natural resources, and helps to provide technical and financial support.

I was surprised when a friend from Michigan who was also attending the meeting said she was doing online searches for equivalent programs in Michigan and found few to none. Apparently, citizens in Wisconsin are still doing a lot of important work compared to other states.

            The good news behind the data collection is we require long-term data that can inform long-term decision-making. We’re all in this for the long haul. When the political pendulum swings back to respecting science, as it must, then with the help of citizen monitoring we’ll have the data necessary to honestly confront future issues.

New Loon Insights

Dr. Walter Piper in a 12/4/17 online post (see www.loonproject.org) reports that he’s discovered two new predictors for why loons may abandon their nests: lake size and the age of the nesting female. Dr. Piper just finished submitting a paper presenting evidence that large black fly hatches and their subsequent harassment of nesting loons can cause nest abandonment. 

loon covered with black flies, photo by Bob Kovar

However, in looking at all his data, he also found two unexpected factors: “First, pairs on large lakes are less prone to nest abandonment than pairs on small lakes. Second, pairs containing an old female are far more likely to abandon a nest owing to black flies than are pairs containing young females.”

            Why? Piper speculates that it’s all about energetics. Regarding lake size, he notes, “Large lakes provide more food than small lakes, so loon pairs on large lakes should be in better health and condition than those on small lakes. Well-fed, healthy adults with strong immune systems should be better able to cope with the blood loss and exposure to blood-borne pathogens.”

As for why older females are more likely to abandon their nests, he conjectures, “Old females senesce . . . it stands to reason that old females are in poorer body condition and are more likely to abandon nests when attacked viciously by black flies. Reproductive decline among old females is widespread in animals, and the tendency of old female loons to abandon nests more readily seems consistent with that pattern.”

Dr. Piper has studied loons on nearly 200 lakes in Oneida County since 1993. He along with Dr. Mike Meyer, retired wildlife toxicologist for the WDNR, lead the way nationally with their research on loon behavior, reproduction, habitat selection, migration, and the impacts of mercury and various diseases. Their exceptional scientific work has placed northcentral Wisconsin at the epicenter of loon research.

Alan Haney - Science on Tap

Speaking of loons, Alan Haney, Emeritus Professor of Forestry at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and an ecologist with over 40 years of field experience spoke at November’s Science on Tap in Minocqua. When asked about which local bird species may be extirpated from our area due to climate change, he noted that common loons are very likely to be extirpated from Wisconsin by 2050. This brought an audible gasp from the audience who I suspect hadn’t fully considered the impact of warming temperatures on our northern lakes.

Audubon’s Birds and Climate Change Report in 2014 noted that the common loon breeding range is likely to shrink 56% by 2080, shifting well north of Wisconsin. Loons are also projected to lose 75% of their current winter range with warming waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Nest cameras have shown that incubating loons start to pant at 75°F, which is their normal response to warmer temperatures. As temperatures rise, adults spend more time off the nest to cool off, leaving the eggs prone to predators. In addition, preliminary research indicates that the porosity of egg shells changes at high temperatures, which can negatively affect the developing egg. Climate models also predict an increase in large rain events, something we’ve already seen in the Northwoods and around the country, which can lead to more flooded nests.

A loon stressed by heat, high parasite loads, mercury, and changes in food resources will likely be more vulnerable to infection and less resistant to the effects of stress. In addition, diseases may be introduced from further south, exposing loons and other wildlife to new pathogens to which they have no resistance. In 2015, for instance, a common loon in New England was found dead from avian malaria, the first known case of a loon dying of the tropical disease.

It’s all about location, location, location – or habitat, habitat, habitat. As habitats change, birds have to move to another place with the right conditions for them. As waters continue to warm, loons will have little choice but to move further north.

Winter Solstice

Winter solstice occurs on 12/21 this year, and it means different things to different people. It marks the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night, but it also marks the beginning of lengthening days and shortening nights. It’s considered the official start of winter, though in the Northwoods, we all know winter started quite a while ago.

It also signals a rebirth, a reawakening, a cause for celebration. Many Neolithic archaeological sites such as Stonehenge in England and Newgrange in Ireland were aligned to capture the sun perfectly on the winter and summer solstice, indicating how profoundly significant those astronomical events were to them. The reversal of the sun’s ebbing offered promise ahead. The year was considered completed, and a rebirth was now at hand even though they knew January and February would still bring tremendous hardships.

Latitude determines just how dark your winter solstice will be. The length of the day in Minocqua will be 8 hours and 39 minutes. But further north in Fairbanks, Alaska, they’ll only see 3 hours and 41 minutes. However, in Honolulu, where they’ll experience 10 hours and 50 minutes of daylight, they could be sun-bathing!

Below the equator, the opposite is true, of course – it’s summer solstice. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, they’ll feel the sun’s warmth for 14 hours and 28 minutes. In Melbourne, Australia, they’ll see even more sunshine – 14 hours and 47 minutes worth.

The short days may influence some to seek airfare to the southern hemisphere, but remember, this is the rebirth. The sun will slowly rise earlier and set later, and there’s definitely promise in that.

Christmas Bird Counts

            The 25^th annual Manitowish Waters Christmas Bird Count takes place on 12/16, while the 21^st annual Minocqua Christmas Bird Count takes place on 12/14. If on those days you see suspicious looking people eyeballing your bird feeders with binoculars, this will be the reason.

Celestial Events

            From 12/5 to 12/14, the year’s earliest sunsets will occur at 4:14 On 12/15, the sun will finally begin setting one minute later every day.

            Look before dawn for Mars and Jupiter bright in the east.

            In the late evening of 12/13 and early morning of 12/14, look for the peak Geminid meteor shower. This shower can reach 120 meteors per hour, so this is worth bundling up for.

Quote for the Week

“The solstice once was an occasion for awe, when the ancient pleaded with the sun to refrain from vanishing into outer darkness. Year after year the prayers were answered. The sun did turn back form the abyss . . . [Today] we are confident that the sun will turn back from the abyss, but we aren’t at all sure what man will do next.” Hal Borland