With the upcoming forecast of snow for tonight and Thanksgiving Day, I decided to take my canoe out yesterday afternoon for possibly the last paddle of 2009. The location of my outing was the backwaters at the Head of Lake Pepin. An advantage of quiet canoe travel is that you can approach wildlife that might not be aware of your presence. Within a hundred yards of silently slipping my craft into the calm water, I came upon a doe and her two fawns bedded down right near the shore. Instead of quickly bounding off, they simply stood up and looked at me. Eventually, they slowly walked away melting into the forest with their upright white flags the last sign of their presence.
As I paddled along, the most common wildlife observed were a couple hundred mallards, herring gulls, coot and four mature bald eagles. It is still quite apparent that the main influx of the eagle migration has not yet taken place.
The most surprising observation on my outing were the numerous muskrat houses, the most I have seen here in several years. Unlike beaver houses which are constructed of sticks and mud, muskrats use vegetation to build their homes. Their most desired plant material for food and construction material is cattails. Unfortunately because of the result of extreme siltation in recent years, cattails seldom are found anymore. Muskrats end up having to settle for using sedges which provide a much poorer quality food source. Like beaver, the entrance to their houses are underwater making predation from mink much more unlikely especially after ice forms on the water.
Near the end of my outing, I came upon an enormous feed pile situated in front of a very active beaver lodge. The feed pile consisted of numerous freshly cut willow saplings. Fresh trails, tracks and mud packed on the side of the lodge were very visible. It was quite obvious that an incredible amount of time and effort had gone into putting away their winter supply of food.
Beaver can access this supply of food from their underwater entrances that will be under the ice once winter and cold weather arrives. Because of this requirement, beaver usually select relatively deep water to be out in front of where they construct their lodge. Unfortunately all this work will be in vain if we have a normal winter.
The depth of the water at this feed pile was no more than one foot and will no doubt result in ice forming to the bottom of the backwater. In all likelihood, this family of beaver will be forced to abandon their lodge sometime this coming season. It will be most interesting to watch the outcome of their dilemma.
If you happen to drive down to Colvill Park in the near future, you will notice that the remaining boats in Bill’s Bay Marina are all put to bed under blue plastic for the winter.
You should also observe a sizeable flock of herring gulls in various forms of activity from resting on the docks to circling overhead in search of food. Incidentally there is no such bird as a seagull! These herring gulls are our most common gull in this area and are attracted to the Colvill bay for the same reason as the bald eagles during the winter months. As the water cools in the river, gizzard shad will swim into the warmer water that is discharged from the XCEL steam plant.
There is a short period of time in the spring when the ice leaves the lower bay at the Colvill marina, that the shoreline will be littered with hundreds of dead shad. As these dead fish become free from the ice, flocks of herring gulls will descend upon the area and feast upon the easy food supply. In a matter of just a few days, all these dead fish will be cleaned up from the shore.
Herring gulls are also the only gull commonly found in the BWCA of northeastern Minnesota. For many years, the U.S. Forest Service encouraged campers to place fish entrails out on an exposed rock for the gulls to come in and clean up. I can remember one day in particular in which I placed the entrails of a large lake trout out for the gulls. In less than ten minutes,a mature bald eagle landed on the rock and began taking advantage of the situation. Before I could run and get my camera, a herring gull came in and drove away the eagle. If I hadn’t observed this aggressive behavior, I would not have believed it was possible.
In recent years, The Forest Service has observed that by attracting gulls to clean up the fish remains, we are inadvertently increasing the likelihood of gulls preying upon nearby loon nests and eating the eggs. They now recommend taking the fish remains back in the woods and out of sight.
One additional observation I made today at Colvill was an eagle perching near the nest just across from the entrance to the park. It is fairly common to have the nesting pair of eagles return and visit the nest at this time of year. I have even observed them involved with carrying a few sticks into and adding to the nest. As the days become shorter and the weather colder, it won’t be long before we can enjoy the build up of wintering eagles at this wonderful observation area.
The trapper hired by the state has had trail cameras out in the suspected pig area for several weeks now and he hasn’t reported news of any pig activity. It’s not very gratifying to know the cameras are out without getting to see the results ourselves. Last week my brother put out his own trail camera and after talking to the local authorities put some corn out as well.
This produced some activity, but not from pigs. The camera registered some good shots of deer and turkey’s, but no pigs. After doing a little reading we’ve learned that while it’s interesting, having deer come to the corn is bad. For one thing they eat all of the corn intended to attract the pigs. Evidentally, “un-natural” concentrations of deer feeding in one area pose a risk of spreading disease in the deer herd.
If there are pigs out there we’d still like to catch them on film. The USDA recomended putting out sour corn to attract pigs but not deer. The method of souring corn used here is putting a couple packages of jello in the bottom of a container then adding corn and adding water until it just covers the corn. We will put the container in the sun for a week to let the corn get sour before putting it out.
The result should be smelly corn that will attract pigs, but not deer. Another method that is not being used here is mixing the corn with diesel fuel to which pigs but not other members of the animal kingdom are attracted.
With trail cameras photos like this probably aren’t all that unusual these days, but I’m still impressed. Camera technology has made it possible to learn a lot of new things like.. “Field mice and deer prey on ground nests of birds”. I found this link interesting. http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/news/press/ontape.htm
On October 25th, I took a walk down on Presbyterian Point at the Head of Lake Pepin to take a few photos of the peak color on the bluff overlooking Wacouta bay. One week later on a hike in Frontenac State Park, the only trees still retaining their leaves were the red oaks.
Despite the rapid leaf fall of the past week, there were still many interesting things to observe on my hike. While hiking, I was accompanied by a continuous parade of v-shaped flocks of tundra swans with their distinct deep and melancholy calls. Reports have it that there are hundreds of these swans in the Brownsville area as they stop to rest and refuel on their migration to the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast.
The most impressive observation on my hike was the reproductive capacity of the invasive buckthorn tree. In recent years, the park staff has expended a considerable amount of time and effort in trying to control this noxious tree. This effort involves cutting down the larger trees, treating the stumps with the herbicide garlon and concluding the project with a prescribed burn in the spring to kill the smallest of the buckthorns. Despite all this effort, I noticed as I hiked through areas of the park that the forest floor was a green carpet of new buckthorns. One begins to wonder if there is any way of combating this menace?
The morning of my hike in the park was quite windy with frequent peaks of sunlight. I encountered several small flocks of black-capped chickadees feverishly searching for seeds and calling back and forth with their familiar call chickadee dee dee dee. Nearly every flock was completely out of the wind and feeding along the thick brush where the forest meets the prairie. For a descriptive discussion on the effect of wind in the life of a chickadee, I suggest that you read Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac and in particular the chapter entitled 65290.
The rutting season of the whitetail deer has commenced by the appearance of numerous scrapes in the woods that mark their territories and rub used by the bucks for sparing.
Even though most of the color is gone from the forest, some can still be found by patient observation. There are the yellow/orange colored berries of the feverwort (Triosteum perfoliatum). I also observed the dark red berries of the hawthorn. Of all the prickly trees and shrubs in the woods, this tree has the most formidable thorns by far. Be careful!
Finally, last week I posted a photo and information on the colorful bittersweet vine. On a hike this morning in the Hay Creek area, I observed a large patch of the Oriental bittersweet vine which is invasive and considered by many an environmental menace. These bittersweet vines choke out native plants and create a monoculture. Compounding the problem is the fact that these vines are so captivating that they entice people to propagate them as a landscaping element. As if Oriental bittersweet vines needed any help in spreading.
