Bird Fest for the Non-Believer

Bird Fest for the Non-Believer

 --From Guest Blogger, Kate Waring, Undergraduate Student from Michigan Tech University

I’ve got to say right off the bat: my knowledge of birds on the trip down to the Discovery Center’s 8^th Annual Bird Festival didn’t extend past what had stuck with me since 2^nd grade; i.e. how they all have feathers and a penchant for sunflower seeds. You know, the basics. Fortunately there was no bouncer at the Discovery Center door to cast out the bird-ignorant. What I found instead was a welcoming bunch of bird lovers that were eager to share their vast cumulative knowledge with me and their peers at the festival. While a lot of great things went down during the weekend, I’d like to share with you five specific highlights that particularly stuck with me.

1.   I got to spend some quality time with Bruce Bacon helping to set-up several mistnets around the Discovery Center, and in the process learned he’s netted and banded some 30,000+ birds in his lifetime. This would be equivalent to a bird a day for an 82 year lifespan. Thus, I was not surprised when one of the first birds we caught, a chickadee, turned out to be a recapture of his from a past year. What did surprise me was the unbridled ferocity with which the 10 gram bird bit my finger when Bruce let me try to remove it from the net.
2. Mariette Nowak, author of Birdscaping in the Midwest, shattered my all-birds-eat-sunflower-seeds misconception by informing the reception night audience that only 11% of the approximately 900 North American bird species come to feeders. And that’s not just counting sunflower seed feeders! Despite this statistic, by employing the techniques described in her book, Ms. Nowak reports that she was able to attract over 80 species of birds to her ¼ acre yard. Truly impressive. While she covered actual habitat features and plants that should one may use to maximize bird traffic during her talk, her most adamant advice was simply to use plants native to one’s area.
3. While I was not able to attend Azael Meza’s photography session, my bird expert/photographer friend Natasha came back from it as excited as I’d seen her all weekend. She said Mr. Meza emphasized the importance of not just the equipment one has, but also how to present oneself to the bird subject. The photographer needs to consider how the target species reacts to human presence, and adjust behavior accordingly. In fact, one’s car was suggested as an ideal blind for shy bird photography.
4. My fourth highlight was participating in one of the several available birding field trips, “Bogs and Backwoods of the Discovery Center.” While listening to people discuss birds and even seeing them up close during mistnetting was great, hearing and spotting the birds out in action while being lead by knowledgeable guides Donna Roche and Ben Betterly was fascinating. The trip even included an expedition into a bog, during which everyone switched to rubber boots and followed a winding deer trail through the bizarre and beautiful habitat.
5. The keynote speaker, Bill Volkert, recounted Horicon Marsh’s tumultuous history with development and human intervention. The 32,000 acre site located in southern Wisconsin is now a designated Ramsar Wetland of International Importance and major birding hotspot, home to a huge variety and number of avian friends. Mr. Volkert also gave an informational talk on differentiating warbler species, which to the untrained eye (mine) can all appear as the same little yellow bird. Apparently this is a problem across the board, as Jim Krakowski gave a comparable talk focusing on distinguishing Northern WI sparrows, aka “little brown jockeys.”

Two other interesting and educational talks were given during the day, including Colleen Matula’s alarming and highly informational discussion of “Lyme Disease: What Every Birder Should Know,” and Troy Walters’ “Owls-Adaptations, Biology and Ecology,” which featured a visit from Orion, a great horned owl.

I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend with Amber Roth, a PhD student focusing on birds for her dissertation and regular at the Discovery Center’s Bird Festival, and Natasha Fetzer, a fellow student at Michigan Tech and bird guru. From listening to birdcall CDs during car rides, mistnetting golden wing warblers, and discussing bird antics in general with these two, as well as from the festival activities, I’ve developed a serious respect for ornithology that I expect will extend well beyond Bird Festival weekend.

The great thing about this annual event is that it will be happening again next year! Be sure to check it out, along with the Discovery Center’s variety of additional outdoor programs. 

Salamander Survey

With this warm weather, our forests are quickly losing their snow and ice cover.  What remains are hundreds of ephemeral ponds.  Ephemeral ponds are temporary water structures that exist in depressions areas on the forest floor that are filled with the spring melting of snow.  They don’t last long, but perform a very important role to some of our woodland critters.  In particular I am talking about our salamander populations.  They will migrate to these pools to lay their eggs-this usually happens once the ponds are formed and we receive a nice rain.  It tends to be a mass migration and in some cities they are reported to be converging on these ponds by the hundreds!

However, there is not much known about the population of Wisconsin’s salamanders.  Where are they?  How many are there?  What species live where?  Are their numbers declining?  There is an attempt to answer these questions on the part of the Wisconsin Salamander Survey.  Started by Randy Korb in 2008, I have been involved for the past four years, collecting information on our salamander population by setting up traps in nearby ephemeral ponds.  This survey is set up as a trap-checking survey.  Five salamander traps are placed throughout an ephemeral pond, half submerged (see photo of trap).  The traps are checked daily, for five days straight for collected salamanders-once they crawl in, they can’t crawl out.  Information is taken and then they are released.  We also record information on weather conditions, water temperature, when we had the last rain, and any other amphibian species we might encounter at the site. 

The most common salamander species we have seen during our surveys here at the Discovery Center is the Blue-spotted Salamander.  In the Northwoods we also have the following species: Spotted Salamander, Central Newt, Four-toed Salamander (rare), Red-backed Salamander and the Mudpuppy (an exclusively aquatic salamander).  I put the traps out on Monday, March 19^th and will conclude the study on Saturday, March 24^th. 

If you are interested in becoming a part of the statewide salamander survey, please visit Randy Korb on Facebook by typing in “Wisconsin Salamander Survey” or his website at http://www.rkthefrogguy.com/salamander.htm where you can also find information and the results of the study from 2008-2011.

I also have a bit of sad news to report.  Whilst I was putting out my traps, I of course donned my favorite rubber boots-I’ve had them for about 7 years.  I took one step into that cold woodland pond and my right boot immediately started to fill with chilly water.  Bummer.  Maybe I can use them as planters. J

Unusual Creature Feature

Unusual Creature Feature

Being a naturalist, you never know when you will come upon a teachable moment.  A simple trip this morning to the Community Center to renew a license led to a very interesting discovery and yet another opportunity to research and learn.  I was in the office, and Beth (our bookkeeper) was outside.  She ran in and told me to come and check something out she found- sitting in the sand of the ashtray outside the community center door was a HUGE black beetle with beefy legs.  What in the world??  I thought right away of a predacious diving beetle, but they live in the water, right?  Not amongst cigarette butts in the sand…hmmmm.  Naturally I had to take it back to work with me to find out what we had.  I quickly threw some leaves into an ice cream bucket I had in the car (never leave home without all sizes and shapes of collection containers!) and carefully scooped it inside. 

Once we got back to the Center, it was investigation time.  I grabbed all our insect books and Katie (our Assistant Director) hopped online and we started our search.  It didn’t take long to find out what we had- a Giant Water Bug.  I didn’t know much about these critters, let alone what it was doing in the ashtray, so here are some interesting facts about the Giant Water Bug:

·       They are excellent flyers and are strongly attracted to bright lights in parking lots (which explains why it was there)

·       If handled they may squeak and give off an apple-like scent

·       They are aggressive predators who can attack and eat animals three times larger than itself; including tadpoles, fish, frogs, very young ducks and other insects. (YIKES!)

·       They hang head down on aquatic plants, close enough to the surface so that they can reach it with the short, retractable breathing tubes that protrude from the tip of their abdomen. (how cool is that?!)

·       they grab their prey, stab it with a short, sharp beak, and inject poisonous enzymes that immobilize it and then liquefy its innards so it can be slurped out (YUM!)

From the UW Milwaukee Field Station page, I found out these interesting stories about the GWB:

·       They have been known to bite and then “ride” larger prey until the prey succumbed to the effects of the poison

·       a captive GWB ate more than 2 dozen tadpoles in 24 hours

·       another captive GWB ate a 3 inch trout, several young frogs, tadpoles, snails and various fish fry in an unspecified period

·       a GWB was found struggling on the ground with a woodpecker, its legs wrapped around the bird’s bill and its beak sunk into the bird’s head (A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America by J. Reese Voshell, Jr.)

So interesting, what a crazy critter.  Well it’s off to release him into the lake, where he will be happy.

Anybody up for a swim?? J