Ripples 4/28/22

Posted on by April 29, 2022

by Nancy Nabak, Communication Coordinator 

photo of prothonotary warbler

Prothonotary warbler

When we crave the sound of a leaf blower over the sound of kinglets and kingfishers, we might be in trouble. I don’t know how far we are from that, but I refused to let the machine get me last weekend.

Saturday was the perfect day – sunny, warm, no mosquitos, and lots of new bird activity. So, I designed my whole day around being anywhere that was wild and free.

Nature is normally a place that I can easily slide into as a party of one, compared to many social functions where an escort on the arm is preferred. But, I knew from weather forecasts that this day was predicted to be glorious and should be shared, so I asked a friend to spend an entire day doing geeky nature things.

We started with a plan to find the Spotted Towhee in Green Bay that has been seen for over 130 days. (Their range is much further west, so this bird is a stranger in town, but welcome.) After glancing with our binoculars for a little more than 10 minutes we found “Spot” scratching and kicking in the dried leaves on a bankside, dabbled in between some White- crowned and White- throated sparrows.

Before we spotted Spot; however, we noticed two other people birding in the same general area. Something very different immediately grabbed my attention… something so un-natural. Instead of camouflage, the man of the two was wearing a short-sleeved, blue and white striped button-down shirt with a PBR logo on the back. Yes, a Pabst Blue Ribbon logo on the back. When he turned to say hi, I noticed a beer convention lanyard around his neck intertwined with his binocular strap.

Now I’ve seen all kinds of things while out birding, many that shouldn’t be mentioned here, but this was a tickle and a treat. Like us, “Mr. PBR” was also getting away from the noise. He was dressed and ready for the convention, but first, he wanted to see a Yellow-headed Blackbird. Gotta’ respect that.

My friend and I scored some great finds that morning, including a Prothonotary warbler (another bird out of its range) that hadn’t been reported as seen by anyone yet. Around 4:00 we were ready for a break so we headed back home and pointed our feet to my back deck. We weren’t there for more than five minutes, tallying up our bird checklist, before man-made noises got the best of us. After discussing what Leopold would do, we loaded up my car with essentials to get us through the evening and headed back out.

photo of screech owl in wood duck box

Screech owl in Wood Duck box

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Co-worker, Wendy Lutzke, and I skywrite on the same page. A few weeks ago, she wrote about crepuscular activities (sunrise and sunset) https://www.woodlanddunes.org/tag/crepuscular/ and how much she enjoys them. I love being active during these times as well. My friend and I found a new spot and birded until we could no longer see. We also discovered a monstrous snapping turtle with dragon-like spikes on its tail, semi-stranded in a pathetic attempt of a waterway. Then, we birded some more. We positioned ourselves in a flat, open field and listened to the woodcock courtship, the winnowing of the snipe, a towhee “whipping,” and the low trill of a screech owl. It was the type of magic that only spring can convey.

My friend has lost certain ranges in his hearing due to his job as security for rock concerts in his younger age (kinda’ cool, right?), so he couldn’t hear the peenting of the woodcock while on the ground. However, he could hear it once it was “dancing” in the air and as it was performing its “sky- kiss” on the way back down. His joy was measurable. We stayed out that night until all things of man were quiet – until the day was ready to sleep.

So, bring on the kinglets and kingfishers. Let the organic value of nature take you to the magical land of Wonder. And when noises threaten your serenity, go look for the Yellow-headed Blackbird, a spiky turtle, or just a flat field where you can take in its calming effect.

Photos of Prothonotary warbler and screech owl by Nancy Nabak

Ripples 4/21/22

Posted on by April 22, 2022
Happy New Year!  Indigenous people of the north consider the onset of spring and the maple syrup season as the start of the year, which makes more sense to me than designating the coldest, darkest part of winter as such. However, spring on the lakeshore is an exercise in character building. In recent years it seems to progress excruciatingly slowly, while fall seems to be extending later into the year.  Still, spring comes and it brings welcome advances of migrating songbirds. 
 
Birders become irrational this time of year as they tick off new species every day – adding to their list.  What a joy to hear bird song in the morning and to have an excuse to get out and roam natural areas in search of them and the first wildflowers.  As one of my favorite songs says- “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’re got til its gone”!
 
I live and work in large natural areas full of birds and other wildlife. I am lucky and thankful for that, but I didn’t realize how much until I experienced life in a bird ‘desert’.
 
Recently, I had some medical issues that required an extended stay in the middle of Milwaukee for a couple of months.  The issues were resolved thanks to incredible medical workers to whom I will always be grateful.  However, I wasn’t prepared for the drastic change in environment- I haven’t lived in a large urban setting for more than 40 years. 
 
I was in intensive care for a couple of weeks, in the center of a large hospital complex.  My room had a small window looking out at another part of the building, kind of like a canyon with an opening far above.  For 10 days I saw no birds or other living things at all, aside from people. Then I moved to another hospital floor for another week and a half. From that room I could see some trees about 1/4 mile away, but no birds except for the occasional crow or gull flying high overhead. From there I moved to a small house across the street from the hospital on a very busy street. Ambulances came roaring by every few minutes, along with helicopters and thousands of other vehicles.  Again, the only living things I could see were dormant street trees and people rushing by.  I put up two bird feeders in the small yard and after two weeks I finally attracted six house sparrows! 
 
As March progressed I began to hear robins singing and when I was walking around the block I heard a few cardinals, house finches, and saw geese flying overhead. But that was all. I didn’t even go through a pound of seed for the bird feeders.  After a couple more weeks I was able to walk in a nearby park that had a small forest and lake.  The weather was in the 50’s, and both people and birds flocked to that location. There were a couple of species of gulls, lots of geese and mallards, juncos, chickadees, and one red-winged blackbird.  It seemed like heaven, and it was nice to see so many people with children and pets walking and enjoying the little slice of nature.  It was a very happy place.
 
Finally, I could return to my home outside of Manitowoc and return to work in Two Rivers. At home I filled bird feeders that had been empty for two months and the next day the usual assortment of birds were back – looking none the worse for wear.  At Woodland Dunes, the marsh was full of geese and ducks and songbirds mobbed the many feeders. Ospreys were again on the nest platforms and tree and fox sparrows were singing from the bush.  Sandhill cranes were in the meadows and flew majestically over the center. It seemed like life was whole again.
 
My spring experience has been remarkable and humbling.  I am grateful to be alive and to be able to experience spring on our Lakeshore.  I always knew this was a special place, but I’m aware of that now more than ever.  I am also happy to be able to continue to help care for a part of it. I hope that enough people around here also care enough to care for what natural areas we have left. Together, we can do that.  As Red Green always says “we’re all in this together”.
 
Photo of Brown Creeper by Nancy Nabak

Ripples 4/14/22

Posted on by April 14, 2022
Ripples by Kennedy Zittel, Assistant Naturalist
 

photo of dogwood flowerIt is finally spring, and that means that it is almost time to start all of those yard work projects that we have been thinking about all winter long. I recently bought my first house, and I have been beyond excited to get to plant a garden and plant native flowers/shrubs in the yard.

Looking at the current landscaping certainly makes that seem quite daunting though. Invasive shrubs line the house, and though it pains me to see, I can’t overly blame the past owner. Not many people know when they put in those plants how bad they truly are. In fact, even though European barberry/common barberry (Berberis vulgaris) is listed as prohibited in the state of Wisconsin, you can still buy it at many greenhouses and landscaping companies.
 
Many invasive plants become a problem due to how pretty they look. Plants like barberry, buckthorn, and honeysuckle were all brought here and used in landscaping, and now, are listed as invasive. What started out innocently enough, just bringing them here because they are pretty, goes downhill quite quickly. First, birds will eat the berries off of the plants and spread those seeds whenever they go to the bathroom. Because no local wildlife is used to these new plants, there will be little to no predators to eat the young plants. Since there are no predators, those plants will all grow to be full-sized. Then, because the native plants aren’t used to the competition from those new plants, the native ones end up dying because they don’t get enough sunlight or space to grow. Now that the native plants are all gone, the new plants will spread and spread, taking over huge areas of land and killing and crowding out more native plants as they go. This is why they are then deemed invasive.
 
We at Woodland Dunes spend a lot of time removing invasive plants like barberry, buckthorn, and honeysuckle from our preserve to help the native plants and wildlife. Luckily, as more people learn about the issues of planting invasive plants in their landscaping, fewer will end up escaping and getting into the forests. Also, as more people hear about the issues of invasives, more and more people have been removing those plants from their yards, which helps stop the spread of new invasives.
 
But this doesn’t mean that your yard has to look ugly. We have plenty of beautiful native plants in Wisconsin that could take the place of the bad ones. In fact, some of these native ones are even prettier than the invasive ones and have a ton of awesome wildlife benefits too! For example, common ninebark, elderberry, and the native dogwood species all have beautiful flowers in the spring, nice full leaves in the summer, berries that the birds will love, and leaves that turn colors in the fall! And, some even have colorful branches in the winter like the red-osier dogwood! These plants look nice and birds love to nest, shelter in, and eat the berries too. Pollinators will also be super happy with those choices, as they love the flowers!
 
We also have a ton of native wildflowers that could add a ton of color to your yard! Reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples, pinks, whatever color you want, there is a native wildflower that fits it! Cardinal flowers, scarlet beebalm, and royal catchfly add some red, butterfly weed adds a bright pop of orange, black-eyed Susans, lance-leaf coreopsis, yellow coneflower, add happy yellow colors, many plants come in green like the leaves of mountain mint, great blue lobelia adds an unusual pop of blue, purple coneflower, blazing star, and wild bergamot all add purple that is a welcomed sight to both people and pollinators alike!
 
Pollinators will all love those plants too, and some of those plants attract birds with their seeds in the fall. Planting native plants in your yard can not only make your yard pleasing to look at, but can also help the wildlife and environment too!
 
photo from US Fish & Wildlife Digital Library 

Ripples 4/7/22

Posted on by April 7, 2022

By Nancy Nabak, Communication Coordinator

The sunflower – nature’s ultimate happy accessory and a symbol of loyalty and adoration. When sunflowers hit the farmer’s photo of sunflower face market in July, I have bouquets of their bright yellow manes in my arms. This brilliant, tall, and strong flower is currently getting worldwide attention because it is also a national symbol and major crop for the Ukraine.

Not until recently did I learn that Russia and the Ukraine together produce about 60% of the world’s sunflower oil. According to the trade group Fediol, the European Union buys around 200,000 tons of sunflower oil from the Ukraine every month. That’s a big market with big economic implications. Because of the continuing conflict in the Ukraine, some stores in Spain are already putting limits on how many bottles of oil can be purchased daily. If the conflict continues, it’s very conceivable that more sunflower crop concerns will follow.

We, the United States, are the world’s 10th largest producer of sunflowers, with most being grown in South and North Dakota. In contrast to the EU, in 2020, our country consumed about 229 metrics tons of sunflower seed oil. This is decidedly a smaller consumption, but certainly more than a drop in the bucket.

It’s true that we enjoy the sunflower for its cooking oil, but we also enjoy the flower because of the bird species it attracts. And just like people, they enjoy eating the tasty and nutritious seeds. Finches, chickadees, nuthatches, grosbeaks, cardinals, jays and even some species of woodpeckers dine on them.

Backyard birding has grown as a hobby in the last couple of years because of larger numbers of people working from home due to the pandemic. As the pandemic has progressed, so has bird feeding and sunflower demand. In fact, according to Packaged Facts, the annual US sales in wild bird food and feeders in 2021 was estimated at a whopping $2.2 billion dollars.

It’s hard to imagine topping a statistic like that, but there’s even more to this economically powerful and bird-friendly flower. There’s something so magnetic, something so special about sunflowers – they’ve been captivating us for centuries. And as a storyteller species, we like to explain our behaviors, questions, and curiosities through, well, stories.

The sunflower, as told in Greek mythology, relates to the water nymph, Clytie, who fell in love with the Sun God, Apollo. At first, Apollo loved her back, but then he fell in love with Leucothoe. Clytie became jealous and told Leucothoe’s father of their relationship. In true mythology form, he punished his daughter by burying her alive. This angered Apollo whom then turned Clytie into a flower, one that resembled the sun. Even as a flower; however, Clytie still loved Apollo and spent all of her days watching him move the sun across the sky in his chariot. This broken love story explained why sunflowers move to face the sun.

Or do they? Myth busting alert – in reality, sunflowers do follow the sun, but it’s only the buds and leaves of the sunflower which display sun- turning behavior throughout the day (called heliotropism).  Once a head of the plant has flowered though, it’s no longer heliotropic. It then remains fixed facing the east where the sun rises. 

The sunflower gives us many gifts to be grateful for, but there’s one more gift that I haven’t touched on yet. The sunflower makes you feel like a hippie – a free spirit and full of joy. I was born generationally too late to be part of the original hippie culture, but I say we’re never too late to feel free and joyful.

To our friends in the Ukraine, continue to embrace your sunflower.  Stand tall, stay strong, and channel your inner freedom. Just as the sunflower, you shine brightly in our hearts.

photo of sunflower by Nancy Nabak

 

 

 

Ripples 3/31/22

Posted on by March 31, 2022

By Wendy Lutzke, Environmental Educator & Butterfly Garden Coordinator 

photo of sunrise over lakeWith lots of talk about the change to Daylight Savings Time recently, my mind has focused on the joys of sunlight and specifically, its “coming up” and “going down.” You see, I’m crepuscular, and after reading this, you may realize that you are as well.

Crepuscular (derived from the Latin word for “twilight”) creatures are most active at sunrise and sunset. Those that prefer dawn are matutinal. Dusk lovers are vespertine. I am bimodal, enjoying both times of twilight equally. I share my crepuscularity with many wonderful creatures including deer, skunks, wild rabbits, ferrets, squirrels, possums, moose, and some bats.  Moths and beetles like activity at twilight, and don’t forget the flies that join you on your crepuscular bike ride along Lake Michigan! Those of you with house cats or pet hamsters may even notice that they are crepuscular, too.

In other parts of the world you may spend your twilight hours with spotted hyenas, wombats, wallabies, and gliders. But let’s get back to our home turf. At Woodland Dunes, find a quiet spot for observation at dawn or dusk. You may be fortunate enough to see an American woodcock in spring along a woodland trail or chimney swifts in late summer by the nature center.

 Why are some animals most active at twilight? One main reason is to avoid predators. Many creatures are nocturnal or diurnal, being most active at night or in daytime. Crepuscular creatures don’t have to compete for food with those animals and are also less likely to be preyed upon as food for something else, since they are harder to see in the waxing and waning hours of the day. For animals in warmer climates, the cooler temperatures at dawn and dusk also allow for comfortable movement.

And then there are the aesthetic reasons for being crepuscular. On countless mornings I’ve taken advantage of a beautiful sunrise over the calm, quiet waters of Lake Michigan or sat in the woods to allow my eyes the experience of naturally adjusting from dark to light. During a walk at dusk, have you ever been awed by crepuscular rays of sunlight beaming from behind a low cloud as the sun sets in the west? If you’ve never experienced moments like this, I highly recommend it. Join us, the crepuscular creatures, for the best time of the day. Like the rabbits, the deer, the squirrels, and many more animals, you will reap the benefits of life at twilight. 

Photo by Wendy Lutzke