Spring Update 3: Everybody Hates Me

At the parking lot today (4/21/2011) there is a flock of tree swallows darting about low over the gravel, picking bugs out of the air and the ground.  They pay me little attention, but other things have changed in the marsh since my last visit.  There are still many migrants stopping over on their journey north, but there are also many animals that have set up firm territories where I am an unwelcome guest.  I spend my time in the marsh walking the dredge bank along a long narrow ditch.  It is not like a lake or pond where disturbed waterfowl can just swim away and maintain a comfortable distance.  As I walk I drive the animals forward until they have no place to go. 

Lethargic Wood Chuck

As I walk and listen to the calling leopard frogs I flush a mallard hen who I’m sure is sitting on a nest.  I look for the nest for a minute and am unable to find it.  While I walk I am also pushing a pair of mallards in front of me, until they finally take flight.  They circle and quack at me, and shortly they are joined by a Canada goose who circles and honks.  Up ahead are a half dozen blue-wing teal.  They are much quieter, but as I push them to where they can no longer swim they begin to peep-whistle to each other excitedly while spinning around in circles.  Then one decides he’s had enough, erupts from the water, and the rest instantly join him.   The goose and mallards have returned to their territories, but another goose is in the ditch and begins to signal a warning to the others in the marsh.  A pair of sandhill cranes flying overhead does the same.  With all these warning calls I barely notice the shabby looking woodchuck six feet in front of me.  It stands there on its hind legs before walking away.  The poor guy looks gaunt after a long hibernation and I have no doubt I could have caught him with my bare hands. 

DON'T LOOK AT ME! - Canada goose on nest

This chasing of wildlife repeats itself over and over.  I notice three goose nests on muskrat lodges with their dutiful parent spread completely flat, looking like a teenage girl sitting as low as possible in the backseat of her dad’s car as she gets dropped off at the mall.  These nests are in easy range of any predator, and if I spot them, any fox, raccoon, or opossum will surely find them.  Geese don’t give up their nests easily, though, and any of these predators and opportunists will have a fight on their hands should they have a hankering for goose eggs.

Eventually the ditch and bank dead end and I turn back the way I came.  I meet the same woodchuck and all the other birds who exclaim the warning “there is a stranger in our midst.”  I meet someone new just before I get to my car, a mink swimming ahead of me as fast as it can before launching out of the water and scurrying into the safety of a burrow.  The tree swallows still swoop around me.  They appreciate my scaring the midges into taking flight, but everyone else hates me.

Spring Update 1

Ash tree on stilts

Tuesday (4/5/2011) I took another little trip to the Poygan State Wildlife Area to check on the advancement of spring.  Again the morning was filled with the sounds of sandhill cranes, and many ducks and geese were flying, but not as many as a few weeks ago.  I walked along the ditches and waded a short distance into the swamp to take a picture of the flooded forest.  I set the tripod in the water and ice and headed back to high ground to grab my film and light meter.   I made my composition, tripped the shutter and headed back to dry ground.  Apparently for the whole ten minutes this took me, a barred owl was perched in a large silver maple directly above me.  I did not notice it until it silently flew off.

I continued to walk along the ditches of the wildlife area.  I saw my first frogs of the year, two leopard frogs basking in the early April sun. I saw another amphibian while heading across the sedge meadow; there was a small area of deeper water (14 inches) with a thin layer of ice on top surrounding a muskrat house.  As I broke through the ice with my big feet I frightened a tadpole under the ice and it swam away with surprising speed. 

Some of the birds along Black Hawk Road

Flooded farm fields make a good stop over for waterfowl

Tundra swan - 6

Pintail – 7

Mallard – 163

Blue-wing teal – 2

Green-wing teal – 2

Canada goose – 27

Wood duck – 2

Bald eagle – 1

Kingfisher – 1

Part of large school of carp

After that it was off to Waukau Creek to see if any fish were heading upstream to spawn, or in the case of carp, perhaps feed on eggs.  At the dam and pond there is an overflow channel that ends in a carp barrier.  At the base were a dozen northern pike on their spawning migration waiting for the right moment to try and make it over the barrier.  The biggest fish might have been 26 inches.  I walked the length of this channel and a little farther (750 ft) and counted 55 northern pike (1 every 14 ft), most of which my grandfather would have referred to as "gas pipes" (he was a master plumber).   Watching at the base of the carp barrier the water boiled and every few minutes I would see one of these little northern fight to make it upstream and get tossed back.  If the little guys are fast and lucky they might make it past the bars of the barrier, but I doubt any of the larger females will make it past to the lush spawning grounds of Rush Lake.  If you have the chance to check it out they may still be there for the next couple of days.  

Four northern pike bellow carp barrier at Waukau Creek

Waiting for Frogs

An American toad, the gardeners’ friend.

I’ve always liked frogs and toads.  They are completely unique creatures.  Salamanders look like lizards, fish look like whales, but nothing looks like a frog except a frog.  Even though populations of frogs are in retreat, they are found almost everywhere.  They are a challenge to catch with bare hands because they are slippery and fast. I can’t count how many hours I have spent searching and catching frogs, both as a kid and an adult, but it was always time well spent.

A full grown spring peeper, in the 

pretty hands of my proofreader.

Last week Mother Nature cruelly reminded us who is in charge as she always does this time of year by dumping ice and snow on us followed by an unusual cold snap that is barely breaking today.  Naturally, I’m thinking of frogs.  Our local frogs are still in hiding, but not for much longer.  Northern leopard frogs are lying on the bottom of the lake, wedged in boulders, and hiding under turtles.  Soon they’ll come out of hiding and start looking for love.  Wood frogs, spring peepers, chorus frogs, and tree frogs are toughing it out; they don’t hide below the frost line.  They are content to have much of their bodies literally turn to ice.  Soon they’ll thaw out and the wood frogs will be croaking, the spring peepers peeping, and the wester chorus frogs  chorusing before all the ice has left the ponds.  They’ll quickly breed and then head into the woods and fields for the rest of the warm months. 

The last thing many tadpoles see; a giant water bug.  They eat fish, insects, tadpoles, frogs and have even been 

known to attack ducklings. This one flew into the patio doors of my parents’ house and resides my collection.  

It measures 2 3/16 inches. 

When most frogs’ eggs hatch there is a race to metamorphose into their jumping forms as quickly as possible, but the tadpoles of our largest frogs--the bullfrog and the green frog-- are swimming under the ice munching algae and doing their best to avoid capture by giant water bugs and many other predators.  They take two frightening seasons to transform into frogs.  

For American Toads tadpoles it is a race to

transform into a toad.  These were found 

living in and on the shoulder of a 

gravel road in the Nicolet National Forest!

Frogs and Toads of the Winnebago Pool and Wetlands:

American Toad (Bufo americanus)

Cope' Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis)

Eastern Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor)

Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer)

Western Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata)

Bull Frog (Rana catesbeiana)

Green Frog (Rana clamitans)

Pickerel Frog (Rana palustris)

Northern Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens)

Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica)