Natural Connections

This week we’ll spy on a bunny.

As a campfire-poking kid, I love the idea that setting fires has a scientific and ecological purpose. Fire clears out the thick thatch that can smother new sprouts. Black ashes absorb sunshine, warm the soil, and provide prairie plants with an extra boost. Fire is a form of decomposer, and makes nutrients from dead vegetation available for new growth. Deep below the blackened soil, a web of roots, burrows, insects and more bide their time. The fire’s destruction would soon become renewal.

In addition to antibacterial behaviors, turkey vultures have developed excellent immune systems that can ward off and even destroy the microbes that cause botulism, anthrax, cholera, and salmonella. Their stomachs, gross as they may seem, help purify our world. Can you imagine a world in which dead things all rotted slowly in place? Turkey vultures embody the fact that “the secret name of every death is life again.” (Mary Oliver, Skunk Cabbage)

The story of the vultures—of winter’s rotting wounds transformed and purified, of the purifier rising up into the sky, of it returning to cleanse the world again and again—sounds a lot like another story I often hear this time of year.

Spring is coming, albeit slowly, to the Northwoods. Now is the time to finish up work in the woods that could potentially damage oak trees and allow for infection by oak wilt. Now is not the time to clean out your gardens, though, since pollinators and other beneficial insects need longer stretches of warmth in order to emerge from hibernation safely.

Eastern chipmunks hibernate in underground burrows throughout the winter, but pop out at the first sign of spring. Learn more about their little lives!

When Ryan Brady initiated a spring raptor count at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center (NGLVC) while a student at Northland College in 1999, his ornithology professor, Dick Verch, had never documented a golden eagle near Ashland, WI. 

The first bird Ryan spotted, on the very first day, showed the slightly V-shaped silhouette, small dark head, and dark tail of a migrating golden eagle. Both birders were thrilled! Recently in Duluth, 41 golden eagles flew over in a single day!

This week, I talked to Ryan Brady to get all the details on when to see golden eagles in Wisconsin, and how to identify them when you do. 

The recent storm encased twigs and buds in ice. But destruction could have been worse. A cold winter meant that plants were still dormant. A late spring ice storm would be much more destructive to tender new growth. As it turns out, winter dormancy may have saved some dinosaurs when the asteroid hit, while spring activity played a role in the others’ demise. Learn more about this recent scientific study and its connections to the Northwoods.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” I exclaimed over and over this past week as sunlight glinted off the ice-covered trees. After a weekend storm, up to half-an-inch of ice now coats everything.

Of course, it’s a terrible beauty that has wrought destruction on our forests, created deadly challenges for wildlife, and become a headache for the people who manage, maintain, and use our many roads and trails.

“A mark of true intelligence is the ability to hold competing thoughts or ideas while striving to better understand both,” wrote my philosophical friend. It felt especially appropriate as my mind swirled trying to imagine all the impacts of this storm. Clearly, it’s beautiful. Clearly, it’s destructive. What are the positive and negative impacts, both now and into the future?

Three-year-olds say poop a lot because they have it on their minds. Well, naturalists are no different. Poop is an essential part of food chains, animal tracks, and even scientific research! This week I spotted bird poop doing something funny, and in the course of researching it discovered that the conventional wisdom about bird poop is wrong!

Adaptations are key to any animals’ survival, and each species is adapted to its own habitat. This is readily apparent in the fates of two different birds spotted in the Northwoods this winter. An out-of-place yellow-rumped warbler was impressive because of how long she survived in the cold against all odds, without the right adaptations to get her through. Redpolls are equally impressive because their adaptations are built to help them thrive in those same, challenging conditions. They are all tough little birds.