Last Week

I just taught my last class as a Wolf Ridge naturalist. Instead of reflecting on my last two years in my own words, I'm using excerpts of Sigurd Olson in his essay "The Singing Wilderness" and some of my favorite pictures from my time in the North Woods.

The singing wilderness has to do with the calling of the loons...

 and the great silences of a land lying northwest of Lake Superior. 

It is concerned with the simple joys...

the timelessness... 

and perspective found in a way of life that is close to the past. 

I have heard the singing in many places, but I seem to hear it best in the wilderness lake country of the Quetico-Superior. 

I have heard it on misty migration nights when the dark has been alive with the high calling of birds...

 and in rapids when the air has been full of their rushing thunder. 

I have caught it at dawn when the mists were moving out of the bays...

and on cold winter nights when stars seemed close enough to touch. 

But the music can even be heard in the soft guttering of an open fire or in the beat of rain on a tent...

 and sometimes not until long afterward when, like an echo out of the past, you know it was there in some quiet places or when you were doing some simple thing in the out-of-doors. 

I have discovered that I am not alone in my listening...

 that almost everyone is listening for something...

 and that the search for places where the singing may be heard goes on everywhere. 

May Bird Count

Spring has sprung, and with it have arrived warblers and waterfowl galore!

5/1/13
69. Hooded Merganser: Finland, MN, County Road 7, on the Baptism River
70. Ring-necked Duck (L): Finland, MN, County Road 7, on the Baptism River (I've seen a ton of ring-necked ducks this month, which I've become quite fond of. They're called "ring-necked" because of a subtle cinnamon colored ring around their neck; however, many people are calling them "ring-billed" because of the much more obvious pattern on their bills).

71. Belted Kingfisher: Finland, MN, County Road 7

5/2/13
72. Evening Grosbeak: Wolf Ridge, ED Building Bird Feeders (These awesome birds were hanging out for about a week and a half, their distinctive call heard throughout campus. I caught one in a mist net while bird banding, but it flew out before I could get to it. I was very disappointed - I'd love to see one up close. For the rest of the afternoon, they were perched in the tree, taunting me with their call...)

5/6/13
73. Bufflehead: Finland, MN, County Road 7, on the Baptism River
74. Northern Harrier: Finland, MN, County Road 7, circling overhead the Baptism River

5/7/13
75. Pine Siskin: Wolf Ridge, ED Building Bird Feeders (There were hundreds of pine siskins here all winter last year, but for some reason, we didn't see any until migration season).
76. Lesser Yellowlegs: Finland, MN, County Road 7, on the Baptism River ice

5/9/13
77. Red-necked Grebe (L): Illgen City, MN, Birch Bay on Lake Superior
78. Peregrine Falcon: Illgen City, MN, Birch Bay, circling overhead on the point
79. Cooper's Hawk: Highway 1, perched on the side of the road, en route to Finland from Illgen City

Another broad-wing seen a couple days later on County Road 7.

5/10/13
80. American Goldfinch: Wolf Ridge, ED Building bird feeders

And also at the second-year house bird feeders.

81. Winter Wren: Wolf Ridge, wetlands

5/12/13
82. Lesser Scaup: Finland, MN, County Road 7, on the Baptism River

5/14/13
83. Northern Shoveler: Two Harbors, MN, Lighthouse Bay

84. Blue-winged Teal: Two Harbors, MN, Lighthouse Bay

5/15/13: Went on a "second-years and their significant others birding safari" this evening to my favorite birding spot of the month (County Road 7). It was a great memory as we watched lots of my favorite waterfowl, saw beavers, and beautiful colors reflecting off of the water.
85. Pied-billed Grebe (L): Finland, MN, County Road 7 on the Baptism River

86. American Bittern: Finland, MN, County Road 7, reeds behind the Baptism River (and we got to hear its ridiculous call, watching its body convulse as it "gunk-ga-GUNK"ed).

5/16/13
87. Black-throated Green Warbler: Wolf Ridge, Trees and Keys start

5/17/13
88. Common Yellowthroat: Finland, MN, County Road 7

5/22/13
89. Nashville Warbler: Wolf Ridge, Wolf Lake, near Voyageur Campsite
90. Wild Turkey: Highway 53, north of Eau Claire, WI

5/23/13
91. Barn Swallow: Lacon, IL, Augustyn/Sloan Family Barn
92. Eastern Meadowlark (L): Lacon, IL, Prairie patch near Augustyn/Sloan home

5/28/13
93. Ruby-throated Hummingbird: Wolf Ridge, First large platform on North Stairs
94. Chestnut-sided Warbler: Wolf Ridge, fishing bridge
95. Bay-breasted Warbler (L): Finland, MN, Dubbins Pit Road pond
96. Golden-winged Warbler: Wolf Ridge, just uphill of Beavers/Stream Study intersection

5/29/13
97. Ovenbird: Wolf Ridge, Ridgetop Ropes Course

5/31/13
98. Red-eyed Vireo: Wolf Ridge, outside second year office window
99. American Redstart: Tofte, MN, trees above Tofte Cemetary
100! Olive-sided Flycatcher: Tofte, MN, perched across from beaver pond

Exactly 100 birds at the end of May. It will be interesting to see what happens with my lists in the upcoming months with the adventures that lay ahead. I expect to see more (L)'s as I begin to explore uncharted territories.

Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project

Peregrine falcons almost went extinct, but they didn't. DDT bioaccumlated in their bloodstream, reducing calcium and weakening egg shells. Mama peregrines would crush their eggs and so babies couldn't be born. (For more details, read "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. But don't actually ... it's pretty dry). I've told the story to countless groups of students during our weekly raptor presentation. The story is made more powerful because there's a live peregrine falcon in front of the students. Additionally, the North Shore played a huge role in the recovery of the peregrine falcons and continues to do so today.

Chup, Wolf Ridge's resident peregrine falcon (first four photos by Sara Sloan)

The North Shore is ideal habitat for nesting peregrine falcons because they like to nest on cliff faces, something we have an abundance of along Lake Superior. The Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project is a research project that monitors peregrine falcon populations along the North Shore. Initially, they were involved with releasing captive peregrines into the wild to help re-establish the population. Now, the population is stable and so the main objective is to monitor the nesting pairs along the shore and band the chicks.

A couple weeks back, Joe (who is a volunteer for the project) took us out to check a common nesting site at Pallisade Head, part of Tettegouche State Park. He had seen a female peregrine on a nest earlier that week, so we were all quite excited as we walked out along the cliff face. However, when a few of the naturalists got a good look at the bird sitting at the nest site, it was clear that there was some sort of mistake because sitting on the nest was not a peregrine falcon, but rather a Canada goose.

Goose butt.

Monitoring the cliff faces.

Having only gotten a quick glimpse, Joe just assumed the gray bird butt he'd seen belonged to the raptors in question. Luckily, the peregrine falcons found a different place to nest a little further along the cliff and we all got a good look at the female, sitting on her nest. (The Canada goose raises a number of questions. Why is a goose nesting on such a precarious cliff? I suspect it has something to do with the lack of unfrozen lakes, which I wrote about in the previous blog entry. More importantly, what will happen when the goose's eggs hatch? There will be some baby geese taking a very dangerous dive to get into the water......)

Looking down on a female peregrine on a nest.

Given my interest in avian research, I decided I wanted to get involved if I could. Joe sent me out to a couple sites to see if I could establish whether or not nesting pairs were present. Sara and I spent an afternoon investigating Crystal Cove and Kennedy Creek (two other cliff faces on Lake Superior) but to no avail. The next week, Peter and I searched the cliffs in his back yard and had a little bit more luck.

Birch Bay cliffs.

First, we watched the cliff from a distance. Not five minutes after getting our binoculars out, we saw a peregrine falcon fly to the cliff face. Based on where it landed, we were able to guess where the nest might be at, so our next step was to get a closer look. As we hiked along the cliff face, we noticed a ton of signs of peregrine falcon activity.

Left-over feathers from a Northern flicker, a common peregrine snack.

A peregrine falcon pellet and a Northern flicker feather.

After searching the area for awhile, the peregrines started to circle over us, crying out their alarm call ("get away from our nest!") and we were able to ID the spot where we think the nest is.

We think the nest is behind the aspen tree on the cliff here.

Now that we've identified a potential nest site, I'm somehow supposed to see if these peregrines are banded and then figure out what the band numbers are. I've spent a good four+ hours at the site stalking these guys, trying to get a close enough look, but I still can't even identify if they're banded or not, much less what number bands they're wearing... 

Wandering Waterfowl

Last week, Erin, being the local animal expert, got a phone call about a "duck" that was stuck in a puddle by the fire-house. She went to check it out and found a pied-billed grebe, unable to walk out of the puddle onto the land and unable to take off into flight. Erin rescued it, let it swim around in her bath-tub for a couple hours (to assess whether it was ready to be released or if it required further care) and then decided it was fine to be released back into the waters of Lake Superior.

Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) (Photo from: www.allaboutbirds.org)

This is not an uncommon situation this spring. The wildlife rehabilitation center in Duluth has seen a huge increase in the number of grebes admitted and it all has to do with our terrible weather. It has been unusually cold and snowy this "spring", even for the North Shore. Thus, when the migratory waterfowl have returned north, they have found their typical inland lake and stream habitats completely frozen over. In the case of this grebe (and apparently many others) it mistook a puddle for a body of water in its search for suitable habitat.

Raven Lake: Still Frozen

Wolf Lake: Still Frozen

Grebes are a family of waterfowl, related to ducks only in that they both spend time on the water. Pied-billed grebes are built with their legs so far back on their bodies that if they attempt to walk on land, they fall over, top-heavy. A grebe in a puddle is an unfortunate situation because it can't walk onto the land and doesn't have enough water to properly take off, so it is stuck. Grebes are incredibly well adapted to life on the water: in fact, their toes are all individually webbed (as opposed to ducks, which have toes webbed together) providing extra surface area and increasing the efficiency of the paddling. Furthermore, they are great divers, earning the colloquial nickname "Hell-diver" because of the amount of time spent underwater. When underwater, the grebe can compress its feathers to force the air out, causing it to become denser and sink further and faster. Pied-billed grebes even build their nests on floating vegetation in the water!

A pied-billed grebe nest (Photo courtesy of: the internet somewhere)

With no inland lakes to land on, the migratory waterfowl has resorted to hanging out on Lake Superior. Our executive director noted 17 different waterfowl species on the lake during a recent visit. At Palisade Head on Monday, I was able to see at least 15 distinct groups of waterfowl on the lake, some so far away I had no way of identifying species, even with my binoculars. In the past week, much of the Baptism River and Sawmill Creek have become unfrozen, so it is not uncommon to see the summer residents hanging out on these rushing water sources as well.

A trio of hooded mergansers on the Baptism River (5/1)

A pair of ring-necked ducks on the Baptism River (5/1)

Today, atop Marshall Mountain, I saw multiple loons flying by, calling as they searched for open water. Unfortunately, they'll have to continue to be patient, at least for another week or two, before their ideal habitat has melted and is accessible to begin nesting once more.

April Bird Count

April started out slow, mostly due to the fact that we were still getting regular blizzards three weeks in. However, thanks in large part to a Tour de Raptor road-trip to the Twin Cities, and the amazing 60-degree weather we finally got last weekend, the spring birds are starting to add up quickly. Here are my April sightings.

4/13/13
42. American Robin: Wolf Ridge, outside of the West Dorm side entrance

"I though I was supposed to be a sign of spring!"

4/14/13

43. Canada Goose: Highway 61, south of Temperance River State Park, flying over Lake Superior

4/19/13

44. Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored): Wolf Ridge, outside of the West Dorm

45. Snow Bunting: Finland, MN, flying over-head highway 6

46. House Finch: Coon Rapids, MN, Manning household backyard

4/20/13

47. Brown-headed Cowbird: St. Paul, MN, outside the Raptor Center

48. Great Horned Owl: Minnesota Zoo, above the tiger enclosure (This was a pretty crazy thing to see. A fledgling great horned owl was perched on a branch, just above what appeared to be a nest, in a tree in the tiger enclosure. No sign of a mother or father anywhere. The fledgling was wobbling around, clearly unstable on its feet. We watched it for awhile, feeling truly nervous. Then it tried flying. It flew up to the next branch, grabbed on with its feet, fell almost all the way upside down, flapping crazily, before righting itself back up. We couldn't watch anymore after that. We're going to pretend that the owl is fine and that the tigers did not end up with a tasty treat.)

49. Trumpeter Swan: Minnesota Zoo, flying over-head and then swimming in the large pond

50. Great Blue Heron: Minnesota Zoo, parking lot

A great blue heron that I spotted earlier today, flying away from me across the Baptism River.

51. Red-tailed Hawk: Minneapolis, MN, perched over the interstate

4/21/13

52. Sandhill Crane: North of the Twin Cities, standing alone in a wetland/field

4/24/13

53. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: Wolf Ridge, behind the West Dorm

4/26/13

54. Rusty Blackbird (L): Gooseberry Falls State Park, tree outside the visitor center (I was unsure about this one at first, but it was way too small to be a grackle. Rusty blackbirds are listed as "vulnerable" because their population has dropped 85% since 1966!)

4/27/13

To enjoy the beautiful weather, I went for a hike with a large group of naturalists (also in honor of Tom's birthday). The trail we wanted to hike still had snow up to our waists, though, so most of us opted to walk along county road 7 instead. A good choice, as it was our first chance to see so many of the birds that were finally coming north. We dawdled as we identified spring migrant after spring migrant and listened to all of their beautiful songs.

55. Merlin: Finland, MN, top of a tree across from Zion Lutheran Church

56. Osprey: Finland, MN, flying overhead the Finland Recreation Center

57. Song Sparrow: County Road 7 between Finland and Crosby-Manitou State Park

58. White-throated Sparrow: County Road 7 between Finland and Crosby-Manitou State Park (And they've been singing outside of my window every morning this week, along with a very persistent Eastern phoebe..."PHOEBEEE!")

59. Fox Sparrow (Sooty): County Road 7 between Finland and Crosby-Manitou State Park

60. American Woodcock: County Road 7 between Finland and Crosby-Manitou State Park (I want to go back sometime soon at night and listen/watch for the woodcocks' annual "peenting" display, an interesting and kind of humorous attempt to attract a mate.)

61. Hermit Thrush: County Road 7 between Finland and Crosby-Manitou State Park

4/28/13

62. Northern Flicker: Highway 1, en route to Wolf Ridge from Finland

4/29/13

63. Ruby-crowned Kinglet: Tettegouch State Park, Palisade Head

I wasn't familiar with the song of the ruby-crowned kinglet and was surprised by how complex it was. I've started recording the "sounds of spring" (more on this later, I'm sure) and this is one example that I'm proud of.

64. Horned Grebe (L): Highway 61, Crystal Cove point, on Lake Superior (A truly funny looking bird - look them up!)

65. Common Merganser: Highway 61, Crystal Cove point, on Lake Superior

66. Common Loon: Highway 61, Kennedy Creek outflow, on Lake Superior

67. American Tree Sparrow: Tofte, MN, Oberg Mountain Overlook #3

4/30/13

68. Purple Finch: Wolf Ridge, Education Building bird feeders

MJ and I banded 12 purple finches yesterday, in addition to some black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, slate-colored juncos, and common redpolls.

Scorpius Redeemed

With the winter constellations setting, Orion is disappearing over the western horizon. Appearing on the eastern side is one of the most prominent summer constellations, his mortal enemy Scorpius. I shared one story of Orion and Scorpius in an earlier post (http://miskwaadesi.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-orion.html), but it turns out that Scorpius isn't necessarily the bad guy he's painted to be in that story.

Scorpius is one of the twelve zodiac constellations. Scorpios are born in late October and November, when the sun is shining through the constellation (which is why you can't see a zodiac constellation in the night sky during its reigning month). Scorpios are said to have some similar qualities to scorpions,  namely that they can be fairly reclusive, but also passionate and emotional. The sign of Scorpio is correlated with the time that farmers are putting their crops into storage (after weighing and distributing the grains in October, under Libra, the scales). The dark cellars, silos and barns are the ideal habitat of a scorpion.

In fact, on very clear nights, you can see that Scorpio appears to be crawling out of a dark spot in the Milky Way. Some believed that this dark spot was actually a portal to the Underworld, from which the scorpions emerged.

It is easy to see this reclusive, vermin-like creature that lives in dark holes and crevices as a villain, and the Orion story we tell children in the star lab perpetuates that image. However, other versions of the story paint Orion as the true villain, a boastful hunter, famous for bragging that he would one day kill every creature on the Earth. Hera, watching Orion from Mount Olympus, was a fan of neither his boasting nor his claims, and so sent Scorpius on a mission to humble him. While Scorpius did manage to sting the hunter, he was mortally wounded by Orion's club in doing so. Hera placed the scorpion in the stars in honor of his service to the gods of Mount Olympus and as a reminder of the cost of being too boastful.

An addendum to the story brings a few more constellations into the plot. Ophiucus, the great physician, apparently brought Orion back to life with a scorpion antidote, which is why the doctor is seen standing above the scorpion as it sets in the west, simultaneous with Orion's recovery and reappearance in the east. Zeus, disapproving of Ophiucus' interference with the work of the gods, sent Aquila the eagle with a lightning bolt to kill the physician. Look to see the eagle, poised in a threatening posture above Ophiucus, as the physician disappears below the horizon, mortally wounded.

Depending on how the story is told, Scorpius is either the hero or the villain. Either way, the constellation will be appearing low on the horizon as the night continue to get warmer.

Tour de Raptor

Last weekend, four wildlife-focused naturalists hopped into a minivan with Erin, our onsite animal care coordinator, for a whirlwind weekend tour of different places in Minnesota that use live animals (specifically raptors) for environmental education purposes. Here's a super-brief summary of our four stops:

Lake Superior Zoo: Duluth, MN

An Eastern screech owl, one of the Lake Superior Zoo's education animals

The Lake Superior Zoo is a relatively small zoo that recently re-obtained its AZA accreditation  a testament to the dedication of the current staff to providing top-notch care for their animals, educational programming to the public, and commitment to conservation work and research. In addition to the usual crew of zoo charismatic megafauna (including bears, lynx, tigers, and lions), the zoo has a number of education animals. The three educators on staff teach programs on-site and also travel off-site for various outreach programs. The education animals include trained birds: an Eastern screech owl, a peregrine falcon, a red-tailed hawk, and five different parrots. In addition to the birds, the educators will use live mammalian, reptilian, and amphibian ambassadors, with education animals ranging from snakes to rabbits. While the zoo-keepers maintain clean enclosures and provide daily diet, the training of the animals for educational programs is a responsibility that falls strictly to the education staff.

The Raptor Center: St. Paul, MN

Pi, an immature bald eagle on the Raptor Center's education team

I visited the raptor center for three days in November, so I already had a pretty good idea of what their operation looks like. The raptor center includes both an education department and a rehabilitation center. The education department houses more than 40 captive raptors (all permanently disabled - Wolf Ridge's three captive raptors came from the Raptor Center) and has "cornered the market for Twin Cities metropolitan area off-site raptor education programs." During our visit, we took a quick tour, chatted with Mike, the on-site caretaker for the morning, and sat in on a birthday party raptor program for a three-year old.

Mike teaches a group of very small children and their parents about great horned owls.

The Raptor Center operates in a similar way to Wolf Ridge in the care and management of the raptors, but it's interesting to observe because they are caring for 40+ birds compared to our three. It's a large-scale operation that relies on great organization and communication amongst the five education staff members, as well as more than 60 weekly volunteers.

Minnesota Zoo: Apple Valley, MN

So, first of all, I have to brag about the fact that I got to go to the zoo for free (usually $18 for adults). We made sure to walk around the various exhibits and Erin reminisced about her former days as an intern on the tropics trail. However, the purpose of our trip was to see the World of Birds Show, which started with a backstage tour with the head bird trainer, Dave. This was the last weekend of their "winter show" (indoor venue). Behind the main stage was where about 20 education birds were kept. The zoo does two or three shows a day, utilizing about ten birds per show, so each show has a varying cast of characters to prevent from overworking the birds. The zoo uses a wide variety of birds for the show, including owls, hawks, parrots, macaws, cockatoos, and toucans.

A World of Birds Show toucan.

A World of Birds Show snowy owl.

Watching the show itself was a really interesting experience. The zoo takes a vastly different approach to live animal education than Wolf Ridge. While we spend a good deal of time talking about each bird, expecting our students to sit quietly and listen, the zoo's program was fast-paced and chaotic, introducing ten different birds in just under a half-hour. Dave said that their main goal is not passing knowledge onto the audience, but rather creating an experience full of "wow" moments that will stick in the minds and memories of kids and adults alike. They are trying to create awareness and stewardship by tugging at the heart-strings of their audience (ultimately, that is what we are trying to do as well, but in a different setting and a different way). Due to the chaotic nature of the audience, the birds have to be incredibly well-trained - I was totally impressed by the behavior of these birds. Part of the difference here is that many of their birds were born in captivity, whereas our birds are wild birds with permanent disabilities. This was probably the highlight of the weekend for me, to see a place that has the exact same goals as us in mind with regards to live animal education, but accomplishes it in such a vastly different (and, admittedly, much showier) way.

Dave introduces the crowd to Coconut, a somewhat famous sulfur-crested cockatoo. You can see the stage they use - the bird show is like a theatrical performance, complete with light cues, videos, and timed bird entrances and exits.

The Eurasian eagle owl is the largest species of owl in the world (this is a male - the females are even bigger).

After the show, Dave let us personally meet one of the stars, a conure parrot.

After the show, Dave gave us a quick tour of their summer-show arena, including some of the summer-show birds hanging out backstage.

This may be the strangest species of bird I have ever seen in my life - it's a vulture species from Africa.

Audubon Center of the North Woods: Sandstone, MN

Of all the places we visited, Audubon was the most similar to Wolf Ridge - a residential environmental learning center in Minnesota. The main difference is that each of the wildlife interns is assigned to one or two of their birds and they are responsible for all of their care and training, whereas at Wolf Ridge, we all work with all of the birds, even though some of us may tend to spend more time working with certain birds (Korppi the raven and Hunter the great horned owl, in my case). The Audubon Center has a barn where all of the animals live, as well as the rock wall. In addition to seven raptors, the center has a raven and a crow. It was great to see them doing enrichment with their birds and compare notes. I also got a ton of new, great ideas to introduce to Korppi in the coming months. The Audubon Center also houses a number of amphibians and reptiles, again giving me lots of ideas for the curriculum I'm currently working on for Wolf Ridge. Lastly, for mammalian representatives, the center has a rabbit and a porcupine. A lot of time was spent comparing the general cuteness between their porcupine, Spike, and ours, Thistle (with the overwhelming opinion that Thistle is cuter, but of course, we are terribly biased).

The resident barred owl at the Audubon Center.

In addition to all of these visits, we had a chance to have dinner with Emily (WR naturalist from last year), eat ice-cream with our recently re-located education director, and spend two lovely evenings with Erin's parents. It was a great weekend both in giving us some new ideas to try at Wolf Ridge, as well as getting me to think more about the bigger picture of my life. I never really took the idea of working at a zoo seriously, for example, but I have an entirely different perspective on what that career might actually look like. Either way, working with our education animals has been totally rewarding and I hope Wolf Ridge isn't the last place that I get to form those kinds of relationships.