Red Wing Nature Notes

I continued to receive reports this week of significant numbers of eagles sitting on remnant patches of ice on Lake Pepin and area backwaters.  No place were there more birds than on Mud Lake and the backwaters on the west side of Highway 63 North just before the back channel bridge.  Kathy made an early morning trip to St. Paul on Monday. 

After crossing into Wisconsin, she called me and suggested I head over to that area with my camera.  Once arriving, I counted no less than 50 eagles sitting at the edge of the ice in this small area feasting on numerous dead fish.  In addition to the birds on the ice, an equal number were sitting in trees surrounding the pond and no doubt digesting food that they had just consumed.  Why were there so many eagles in this small area?  My guess is that in periods of flooding, many fish primarily carp swim into the area.  As the water drops, many of these fish become trapped.  The water remains deep enough for them to survive the summer and fall.  However, with winter comes ice and snow cover resulting in a drop of oxygen levels.  The carp die and reappear as tasty  morsels with the spring melt.  At any rate, this provided a wonderful area for viewing and photographing the eagle migration at a very close distance.

In my last post, I commented that my syrup this spring was much darker than previous years.  I wonder if this was due to the fact that there was virtually no frost in the ground under that deep blanket of snow?  The enclosed photo shows clearly the difference in the syrup.  Last Saturday, Sunday and Monday (March 20, 21 and 22) provided me with the opportunity to salvage the 2010 maple syrup season.  With freezing nights and daytime temperatures in the 50’s, I was able to collect enough sap to have two boiling sessions this past week and make a sufficient amount of syrup to survive another year.

All the trees that I tapped (25 taps) are silver or sometimes referred to as soft maples.  There are very few hard (sugar) maples on this side of the Mississippi river.  Wisconsin has many more sugar maples and that fact is reflected by Wisconsin having many more commercial sugarbushes.  This morning I visited with Barry Stockwell from the S and S Sugarbush near Ellsworth.  He said they were on track to produce about half a crop of syrup.  Last year they produced 1000 gallons of syrup and so far this year just 400.  One disadvantage of using silver maples is that they tend to bud out earlier than do hard maples.Soft maples tend to thrive in the floodplains of local rivers.  Unfortunately this year, several people were forced out of their tapping areas by the early high-water.  Mother nature is still calling the shots.  For those who are interested, yesterday March 26th National Public Radio on “Science Friday” had a very interesting discussion on the attributes of consuming maple syrup compared to other sweeteners.

It appears that the Mississippi river has crested near 13 feet and a little below flood stage.  There certainly has been an abundance of floating debris such as huge trees that have arrived from upstream. 

As the river begins to recede down to the 7 foot stage is my favorite time of year to travel the backwaters by canoe or kayak.  Almost the entire Cannon river bottoms is reachable now by paddling.  Numerous waterfowl can be observed as well as muskrats, beaver, fox, raccoon and deer that have been stranded on higher ground.  When I took ELC participants kayaking at this time of year, I would tell them that such an experience was comparable to paddling Florida’s Everglades or the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.  One word of caution–STAY OFF THE MAIN CHANNEL OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER!  The current is still very strong and the water is cold.  Be safe and enjoy this experience the next few weeks.

After waiting two weeks for cold enough temperatures to get the maple sap flowing again, I decided to boil down what little amount of sap I had collected over the past two weeks.  Thirty five gallons of sap yielded one gallon of very dark syrup.  Normally the first syrup of the season is a very light amber color and is highly prized by maple syrup connoisseurs.

I noticed yesterday March 18th that the soft maple trees I had tapped were flowering.  It remains to be seen if that marks the end of this year’s run.  Once trees bud out, the sap stays up in the crown of the tree.

In addition to my maple syrup activities or lack there of, I will share with you some phenological observations of this past week.

March 11th – first lightning and thunder of the spring

March 12th – early morning observation of a large gray coyote running through our yard.  We have been noticing that the rabbit population in our backyard has been dwindling lately.
- observed our first flock of tundra swans migrating north to their nesting grounds in the arctic.  Every day since the 12th, we have heard and seen numerous swans passing through the area.

March 13th – observed the first arrival of turkey vultures.  Last year they arrived on March 17th.
- The Eagle Watch at Colvill  Park observed at least 75 eagles circling high overhead as they were migrating north is small groups.  Some eagles were so high that they looked like mere specks in the sky.

March 14th – heard and observed our first sand hill cranes in the area.  It is exciting to know that a healthy sized resident population of cranes is being established in the Red Wing area.

March 16 – cleaned out the bluebird nesting box in our yard.  Within 30 minutes, a brightly colored male bluebird was checking it out.
- Kathy’s yellow crocuses are blooming on the east side of the house.

March 19th – just received word from Elmer Sprick, a friend in Lake City, that this morning he observed 153 eagles sitting on the edge of the ice just off Central Point.  He also mentioned that the north wind this morning is beginning to take it’s toll on the remaining Lake Pepin ice.

Last week ,March 1st thru the 6th, provided some beautiful spring weather in our area which was the result of a strong high pressure system.  This nice sunny weather contributed to three things happening on Wednesday March 3rd.

 Early in the morning I observed a striped skunk wandering around through the snow in the field next to our house.  With camera in hand, I approached the skunk as close as I dared without severe repercussions.  It demonstrated no attempt to flee or avoid me.  Instead, it stood it’s ground with the well known spray as it’s main line of defense.  As I was photographing the skunk, it lifted it’s tail but no spray resulted.  Eventually it merely walked away heading for the nearby woods.  Skunks like raccoons are not true hibernators, but sleep only during extremely cold weather.  When spells of warm temperatures return, they will get out of their dens and actively hunt for food.

 Later in the day I started tapping maple trees for the much anticipated syrup season.  Kathy always gives me a hard time on jumping the gun with tapping my trees.  I have always wanted to be ready to take advantage of the first run of sap in the spring as that has the highest sugar concentration.  Out of the seven trees that I tapped, five were slowly dripping sap.  However, that has been the only day that there has been any sign of sap flow.  Unfortunately we have not had freezing temperatures at night which is necessary for good syruping.  Kathy was right again!  The long range forecast for next week looks more favorable.

The third thing that happened on March 3rd was our first sighting of  the chipmunk that we watched hanging around our bird feeders as late as this past December 12th.  As I was sitting in our sun porch observing the bird activity in our yard, I notice a slight movement in the landscaping rock next to the house.  The chipmunk was testing the area by merely sticking it’s nose above ground.  By the time I had fetched my camera, it had come completely out and was sitting next to the hole admiring the change in scenery.  It would be four more days before we observed it eating sunflower seeds below the feeders. 

This past weekend my cousin and his wife came from Grand Rapids, Michigan to observe our renowned population of wintering bald eagles along the Mississippi river.  Unfortunately as I mentioned in my most recent post, the number of eagles being observed in this area is much lower that normal for this time of year.  We learned on Monday from Scott Mehus the education director for the National Eagle Center that most of the adult eagles have already headed north to their nesting territories.  Evidently around the 8th of February large numbers of mature eagles were sighted in the Reads Landing area and subsequently continued north to their nests.  If we see any significant influx of eagles the next couple weeks, it will be primarily the immature birds that migrate later.

Finally, this morning as I looked out our kitchen window, I observed a large flock of migratory robins.  Migratory robins are much more vocal than robins that have spent the winter in this area.  These robins were feeding on the ground as well as taking advantage of the remain fruit in our crab apple tree.

Since returning home a month AWOL from Red Wing Nature Notes, I have received numerous questions regarding the lack of eagles at Colvill Park this winter.  I also observed low numbers of eagle in both December and January at Colvill.  My theory is that as the eagles were migrating south the first part of December, conditions weren’t to their liking at this perennial winter feeding ground.  Either there was too much ice cover on the bay or the gizzard shad hadn’t moved in from the river yet.  At any rate, most eagles blew right past Red Wing to the next downriver open water feeding opportunity at the lower end of Lake Pepin.  They must have found this area to their liking because these birds have stayed there all winter.  Weekly eagle counts provided to the National Eagle Center supports this observation with the following numbers from last week.

Reads Landing 99

Wabasha 125

Alma 47

In addition a population of around 25 trumpeter swans have spent the winter in the open water at Reads Landing.

Red Wing Eagle Watch weekends have been very well attended with counts around a dozen birds.  This past weekend that count included two pairs of eagles.  One pair was observed adding sticks to their nest directly across from the Colvill viewing area.  Every spring pairs of eagles add to their nests as a part of the courtship ritual.  As I was setting up the spotting scopes an eagle was perched on a large limb just above the nest.  A few minutes later, it’s mate landed just two feet away.

As approximately 30 eagle watch visitors were observing the action with cameras and binoculars, the newly arriving eagle mounted it’s mate and began copulation.  Needless to say, this performance was the topic of conversation for the next few minutes.  Egg laying should take place in a couple days.

Early this morning, I put on my cross country skis to travel up on Wacouta bay and check on the two nearby eagle nests.  One nest had activity nearby while the second nest showed no sign of eagles yet.  As I skied along the river, I approached the area where the beaver lodge that was featured in an earlier post was located. 

As I mentioned in that post, I was concerned that the beaver had built their feed pile in very shallow water last fall.  This left them vulnerable to having ice block off access to their winter food supply. 

Sure enough, there was evidence where they had to chew through the ice to free themselves from impending starvation.  In fact,, there were fresh chewings on top off their lodge as well as several fresh trails leading into nearby willow thickets.  The highlight of my morning ski tour was having six trumpeter swans fly by no more than 150 feet away.  Flying upstream, their low pitched gentle nasal honking echoed through the valley as they passed by me.  It was definitely a morning to remember!

 On a concluding note, eagle watchers be patient.  The northward migration is about to commence.  Within a week to ten days, I believe hundreds of eagles will be visible from numerous locations along the Red Wing riverfront