A
Northwoods Almanac for May 25 – June 7, 2018 by John Bates
Sightings
5/8: Mary Jenks counted 24 bald eagles on Mann Lake south
of Boulder Junction. She speculated that the eagles were feeding on a fish kill
that occurred on the lake this winter despite the lake having an aerator.
5/8: Baltimore orioles appeared at Bob Kovar’s feeders in
Manitowish Waters.
5/8: We had our FOY brown thrasher arrive beneath one of
our feeders in Manitowish.
5/9: Indigo buntings came to Dan Carney’s feeders in
Hazelhurst.
5/9: Don and Carol Hiller had a summer tanager visit
their feeders for several days on Snipe Lake about 8 miles west of Eagle River.
Summer tanagers are rare visitors this far north.
5/9: Bev Engstrom shared a beautiful photograph of a
lesser yellowlegs.
 |
| photo by Bev Engstrom |
5/9: Sharon Lintereur sent a photo of two barred owlets
that are now “branching” near her home in Lake Tomahawk.
5/9: Judith Bloom sent a note saying the “Ice officially went out of Lake Tomahawk today. I’ve kept
track since 1997, and this ties with the ice-out date of 2013. In the 22
years I’ve kept track, we’ve had ice out in May four times, in April 17 times,
and in March 1 time (2012 was March 21st).
5/12: A snowy owl spent two days on one of the dikes of
Tom Folsom’s cranberry marsh in Manitowish Waters. The timing was perfect for a
group of birders from the North Lakeland Discovery Center’s BirdFest to see it.
The BirdFest tallied 88 species for the day in our area.
 |
| photo by Bob Kovar |
5/15: We picked our first wild leeks of the year, but so
far have failed to make the required potato-leek soup with them.
5/15: Howard P. in Minocqua has a piebald robin feeding
in his yard. In
medieval English, 'pied' indicated
alternating contrasting colors making up a costume. Court jesters were
sometimes depicted in pied costume. The word itself derives from the late 16th century: from “pie” (because of the magpie's
black-and-white plumage) + “bald” (marked with white).
 |
| photo by Sarah Krembs |
5/15: Dan Carney reported his FOY Nashville
warbler in Hazelhurst.
White Pelicans
Mary and
I visited Appleton last weekend and were very impressed with the number of
white pelicans that now commonly fish on the Fox River. The islands of the
lower Bay of Green Bay currently support over 2,000 nesting pairs of white
pelicans, which is rather astonishing given that 24 years ago, white pelicans
where unknown to the area. Seven
other nesting colonies of white pelicans exist now in Wisconsin, a remarkable
comeback story for a species that just began nesting again in Wisconsin in
1994.
Amelanchier (Juneberries) in Flower
Juneberries are in flower now, as well as pin cherries and choke
cherries. Mary and I have planted several Juneberries in our yard, ostensibly
so we can eat the berries, but the birds always beat us to them. If you wish to
maximize the wildlife potential of your property, plant your property borders
with native trees such as oaks, maples, ashes, and birches, and then under-plant them with small
trees like serviceberry (Juneberry), arrowwood, hazelnut and blueberries. Studies
have shown that even modest increases in the native plant cover on properties
significantly increases the number and species of breeding birds.
The Plusses and Minuses of a Dry Spring
This spring was so late, and the weather
thereafter has been so dry that wildflowers have been hard to come by in the
sandy soils of Oneida and Vilas counties. Last week, Mary and I taught a 3-day
wildflower class, and a walk on the sandier soils of the Raven Nature Trail
near Woodruff on 5/14 yielded only two species of blooming wildflowers. We had
to travel well west and south to better soils and where there was enough
moisture to find any spring ephemerals. In that area, we found nearly all of
the bloodroots had already gone by. This wasn’t surprising given that bloodroot
flowers usually only last two days. As John Eastman writes in his excellent
book Forest and Thicket, “The
bisexual flower of this spring ephemeral is usually gone by the time seasonal
warmth convinces us that spring is not just another winter thaw.”
The most prodigious flower we found
was cut-leaved toothwort. Their flowers last all of four days and at the base
of each petal is a spot that reflects ultraviolet light making the flower more
enticing to early spring bees actively seeking pollen. We use hand lenses now
that have an ultraviolet light, so we can see what the bees are seeing.
The bottom line relative to
wildflowers – we need rain!
On the other hand, the dry weather
has postponed the mosquito hatch which has been exceptionally delightful!
And then again, the lack of insects
has been very hard on our returning insectivorous warblers, vireos, thrushes,
flycatchers, and other birds.
Conservation Congress Results on
Environmental Topics
The annual Wisconsin Conservation
Congress typically discusses and votes on wide ranging hunting and fishing
regulations, but occasionally takes up larger environmental issues. This spring
the Congress supported with large voting majorities the following issues:
1. WCC
to support legislation to reduce the risk of climate change through increased
use of renewable resources.
2. Support
water basin management plans to reduce/control runoff that has or will be
caused by climate change.
3. Ban
the use of neonicotinoid insecticides on state owned agriculture and forest
land (requires legislation).
4. Conduct
hydrogeological surveys in counties lacking them (requires legislation).
5. Penalties
for tilling land within 5 feet of channel or surface water (requires
legislation).
To
see all the results from the spring hearings, go to https://dnr.wi.gov/about/wcc/Documents/spring_hearing/2018/2018StatewideResults.pdf
Rodenticides
Diane Steele sent me an
article regarding how rodenticide poisons placed around homes kill owls and
other predators that eat the dying rodents. The poisons are usually blood
anticoagulants that gradually kill the rodent, and as one would expect, when
the rodent is then eaten, the anticoagulants perform the same task on the
predators. It takes several days for the rodents to die, and in the interim,
they are easy prey for birds as well as domestic dogs and cats.
The alternative? If you
feel you must trap rodents, live trap them, and then release them elsewhere or euthanize
them. Mary and I trap mice if they get in our house using snap traps.
But outdoors? We’ve taken the
attitude of live and let live.
Celestial
Events
The full moon, called the “Flower Moon” or the
“Planting Moon,” officially occurs on 5/29, but will be fully illuminated on
5/28, too.
On 5/31, look
before dawn for Saturn 1.6 degrees below the waning gibbous moon.
We receive 15
hours and 30 minutes of daylight as of 6/1 – our days are now 2/3 daylight.
On 6/3, look
before dawn for Mars three degrees south of the waning moon.
Thought
for the Week
“We think of this as the time of spring flowers,
fruit blossoms, lilacs. Actually it is the time of leaves, the time of the
countless greens which have not yet settled and matured into the standard green
of summer.” Hal Borland, Sundial of the
Seasons
