Did You Know?

by Angie Ziobro, Environmental Education Intern

I have heard numerous jokes before about penguins and the north pole. For example: what do you call fifty penguins at the North Pole? (Really lost because they only live in the southern hemisphere). Fun jokes to keep kids thinking, yes, but did you know that this was not always true?

The Great Auk was a very interesting bird that lived off the Atlantic Coast until it was hunted to extinction in the mid nineteenth century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus. It was the similar appearance that what we call penguins today shared with the great auk which earned them the name “Penguin”. Modern day “penguins” are not related to the great auk however. Black and white like what people call penguins today, the great auk was flightless and a powerful swimmer.  Their song was not nearly as musical as that of our northern bird the loon, but like them their plumage was different as juveniles and in winter and summer.

Interlopers on our wetland invaders!!!

by Anne Kretchsmann, Waters Specialist

We are starting to supplementally feed the purple loosestrife bio-control beetles being reared at the Discovery Center by adding additional loose stems to each netted plant. Thanks to the rain we have gotten, we haven’t had to add water to the kiddie pools to keep the plants’ roots wet, which decreases our work. The plants are beginning to die at the top which signals that our release date is near!

Today I went to check on the beetles and feed them as necessary. I thought a few plants looked particularly sparse of leaves so I took a closer look. 

Much to my surprise, there were 3-inch long White-lined Sphinx Moth caterpillars munching away INSIDE the nets! I’m puzzled as to how they got into the nets which are designed to keep predators such as spiders OUT! While it’s good to know that sphinx moth larvae enjoy eating purple loosestrife, I went about trying to coax them to come out of the nets without letting the beetles out. It was a three-ring purple loosestrife circus!

“Greater familiarity with marshes on the part of more people could give man a truer and more wholesome view of himself in relation to Nature. In marshes, Life’s undercurrents and unknowns and evolutionary changes are exemplified with a high degree of independence from human dominance as long as the marshes remain in marshy condition. Marshes compromise their own form of wilderness. They have their own life-rich genuineness and reflect forces that are much older, much more permanent, and much mightier than man.” ~Paul Errington

Luna Moths!

by Environmental Educator, Angela Ziobro

We were excited last week at the center to see not one, not two but three luna moths! These beautiful creatures are a rarity to behold and we were very lucky to get a chance to look at them with the Center for Conservation Leadership students that spent nearly a week here. In this region Luna moths live a maximum of seven days and only produce (at most) two generations per year up here in northern Wisconsin. The female moths lay 100-300 eggs, 4-7 at a time on the undersides of leaves. It takes between eight and thirteen days for them to incubate. Luna moths can have a wing span as large as 4.5 inches. Keep your eyes open for some of these beauties in your back yard!

(Photos (C) Katie Simonsen)

Surveyors of the Night

By Naturalist, Licia Johnson

With the threat of White-nose Syndrome knocking at our door, the latest discovery of the WNS fungus just detected at Maquoketa Caves State Park, Iowa,  just 30 miles from the SW corner of Wisconsin, it is important now more than ever to get an understanding of Wisconsin’s bat population.  

One way citizens can become involved in this effort is to monitor our local bat population with an acoustic monitoring detector. 

While we have trained over 60 volunteers in the past 3 years who conduct these night-time surveys from May-September, I rarely get a chance to take the equipment out myself to partake in this awesome experience.  Well, this past Tuesday was my chance to get out there.  I met Discovery Center member and trained bat surveyor, Ed Marshall, at his house on Squaw Lake in Lac du Flambeau. 

I arrived at 9pm (we have to start the surveys ½ hour after sunset) to get all the equipment ready and to load up in the boat, and Ed was ready to go - the sun setting and temperature at a comfortable 64 degrees.  He had his electric Duffy boat, aptly named the ‘Lac du Flambeau Queen,’ after its resemblance to a certain famous 1951 action-adventure-romance flick, charging all day, so we would have enough power to last throughout the survey.  

We settled in, put all the equipment together, shoved off from the dock….and the motor wouldn’t start.  Curious.  I quickly reached out, grabbed a half-submerged pipe to keep us from drifting too far out into the lake.  We docked the Duffy, and decided to try out the Alumacraft fishing boat.  The motor started right up and we began our survey route along the edge of Squaw Lake. 

We had only about seven minutes of no bat activity before the detector started going crazy.  We could see the bats flying over the surface of the lake-over 20 surrounded us at one point.  By looking at the sonogram that showed on the equipment, I could tell they were little brown bats.  This kind of activity continued for the next hour and a half, I believe we also had big brown and hoary bats. 

As we conducted the survey, the temperatures began to drop.  I believe that it got down into the upper 40’s, low 50’s towards the end.  The water temperature was over 71 degrees F.  This led to the occurrence of a steamy lake surface.  As we glided over the lake, my hands were so cold, but I could actually feel the warmth of the steam on my face as we cut through it.  It was such an amazing feeling, and only could have been experienced while out surveying our nocturnal flying mammals. 

The best part of doing these surveys is the results we receive.  After the survey is completed, I download all the information stored in the detector on our route and all the bats that we encountered.  DNR folks in Madison then analyze the data and send back a map of the route, along with the location and species of all the bats we encountered during the survey.  

We are anxiously awaiting our results and will share them when we get them!   

The Friendly Dragons of the Center

--by Allie Coleman, Interpretive Services Intern

This is a male Chalk-Fronted Corporal (Ladona julia) Dragonfly.  These dragonflies are members of the skimmer (or perchers) family, and is the largest dragonfly family in the world.  They are easily recognized thanks to their social nature, perching habits, and dusty body markings.  They often perch horizontally or skim over waters to snatch their prey from the air, and are social bunch, often seen in groups and around humans to feed on the mosquitoes and biting flies we humans attract.  The bars on their thorax are white in males, gray in females and tan in juveniles.

Dragonflies have been around for over 300 million years. Dragonflies will live as nymphs (aquatic larvae) for up to four years, molting their skin between 8 to 17 times depending on the species, and finally when they mature into adults, they live for only a few months.

Other names for dragonflies around the world are water dipper in England, old glassy in China, and the ancient Celts called dragonflies big needle of wings.

Lake Captain and "Deckhand" Training

- by Anne Kretschmann, Waters Specialist

"Lake Captain and Deckhand" Training
resulted in an invasive mystery snail
smashing party for this youngster!

The North Lakeland Discovery Center’s ‘Lake Captain and Deckhand’ program trains volunteers to identify aquatic plants/animals and monitor their waters for aquatic invasive species. We began the summer season with a bang and are hosting numerous training sessions throughout the summer for volunteers of all ages. Volunteers learn how to tell the difference between invasive species and common native species in our waters. We encourage everyone to keep their eyes open for aquatic invasive species while they are on the water or on their shores! Every little bit helps to protect our lakes and keep them beautiful for future generations. 

Quote:

“Civilizations began around wetlands; today’s civilization has every reason to leave them wet and wild.”  Edward Maltby