The Rhinelander Daily News - Online news and information for the Rhinelander, Wisconsin region

They’re here! Welcome! Sunday, Diane Selke, 7100 Fire Tower Road, reported a first oriole. Redwings are back in the cattails. The ospreys have returned to their nest off Highway 8 near Manson Lake. Look for orioles, Rose-breasted grosbeaks and indigo buntings this week, possibly a hummingbird.

Trees in blossoms

The juneberry trees are sharing their beautiful and dainty white flowers in the forests and roadsides this week. They are among the first wild trees to blossom in the spring. Cherry trees will blossom later.

In June the juneberry tree will be covered with small apple-like fruit: hence, the name juneberry. Tasty, the berries are eaten by a variety of wildlife species, including songbirds, mourning doves, wild turkeys, skunks, raccoons, fox, squirrels and black bears. Many people also enjoy eating the berries, using them to makes jams, jellies, and pies.

DNR news

Bird watchers will flock to Horicon Marsh the weekend of May 11-14 for the annual Horicon Marsh Bird Festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Eurasian watermilfoil is the most common aquatic plant and has been documented in 474 of Wisconsin’s 15,000 lakes - or in about three percent of lakes.

This marks the season that stocking of trout has resumed to normal levels after three years in which reduced budgets meant some streams received fewer fish or no fish at all.

A total of 88,185 brook trout, 127,481 brown trout and 171,780 rainbow trout are expected to be stocked in the so-called put and take waters. The trout stocked are between 16 and 18 months old and they’re typically at least nine inches in length.

Purple loosestrife is an invasive, hardy wetland perennial plant from Europe and Asia that was introduced into Wisconsin around 1900, probably through shipping and by gardeners and bee keepers. By the 1980s, purple loosestrife was thought to infest more than 40,000 acres of wetlands. The plant grows faster, taller and produces more seed than most native wetland plants, so it often shades out and replaces them along with many of the native insects and other animals that depend on them.

Free field trips during May allow people to see wetlands recovering from purple loosestrife, an invasive plant, with help from a special beetle that targets only the purple loosestrife. A field trip, sponsored by the Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin, will be held June 2 in Minocqua at the “Save More Grocery” parking lot on U.S. Highway 51.

Bird stuff

Question: How do birds know when to migrate?

Answer: Based on the latest research, it is thought that the birds have some type of a built-in alarm clock that develops “a migratory restlessness” that sends them flying. The old theory that it was the length of the daylight that determined the date of migration is not true.

They’re here! The hardy woodcocks - the feathered Barney Googles. They’re one of the earliest spring arrivals. The males are scheduled to put on their spectacular aerial courtship dances, which lasts an hour at dusk and again at sunrise. Woodcocks spend the winter in the Gulf States, particularly in Louisiana. They are thought to be polygamous.

Mourning doves stay all winter

We have a group of 12 mourning doves that eat and drink water in our backyard. As I watch their activities, they trigger thoughts of the passenger pigeons that once inhabited central North America. In the early days there were so many passenger pigeons that no one ever dreamed that their numbers would be dissipated. In 1870, 10 million passenger pigeons were shipped to market from one nesting colony alone. In the 1870s biologists estimated that in one aggregation of pigeons that nested in 850 square miles of Wisconsin forest land there were 136 million passenger pigeons. The last known passenger pigeon in the wild was shot in Pennsylvania in 1902. There is no known passenger pigeon in the world today.

Animal Crackers

Not all wolves mate. Only the dominant pair has the opportunity to mate in a wolf pack, and they will harass any of the younger pack members who attempt to participate in this activity. Wolves have litters of five or six pups, and all members of the pack care for them. Like domestic dogs, wolves have gestation period of about two months, and birth generally occurs during late April.

Squirrels use their tails for many purposes — communication, a fifth leg, parachute, a blanket or muffler to stay warm, a sunshade to stay cool and an umbrella to stay dry. It is also the proof that they are not a skinny, bald-tailed rat, but a sophisticated rodent with his tail hair ratted.

A squirrel around a bird feeder is much like Wisconsin in winter — you might as well learn to enjoy it. Squirrels can brighten many a dreary day with their antics and gravity-defying feats to get at your precious bird seed. Won’t you share a little seed and the joy that these creatures can bring?

Skunks get along quite well with each other. A skunk reserves its spray for larger predators. Only a confused, very rattled skunk would pull the trigger on one of its own kind. There may be times when the males skirmish with one another and let go with a few stinkers.

Bear families emerge

Many Wisconsin bears emerge from their dens now. The sow and her cubs are generally the last to come out. Because the cubs are not very mobile, they need frequent rest stops. Therefore, the family does not move too far from the den. At first there is little food. For several weeks, the adult bears may depend on the remaining fat that is stored in their bodies. Researches have found that in the spring bears eat willow and aspen catkins and ants found in rotten stumps and logs.

Time for a chuckle

The reason the ram ran over the cliff is that he didn’t see the ewe turn. — E.S. May

Did you know that frogs are lucky? They can eat what bugs them. — Albert W. Balko

Basking in the sun

The garter snake that spent last summer slithering around the shack is possibly sunning himself on the spot where he hibernated — a rock pile, a building foundation or an abandoned anthill.

During May, garter snakes breed, providing they didn’t in October. Mating takes place at the den site. Upon leaving the den sites in late May, they will disperse to various spots in the marshes, forests and fields. Toward the end of the summer the females will give birth to live little snakelets.

After the first hard frost in September, the snakes will travel back to the dens where they spent last winter. The red-sided garter snakes in the Northwest Territories survive the severe winter by hibernating in close-packed masses of dozens, hundreds and even thousands. In one pit north of Winnipeg, a Canadian zoologist observed 10,000 to 15,000 red-sided garter snakes emerging from hibernation.

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day! It’s a great day!

Eagle eggs laid in early April have hatched and are being fed by their parents.

Loons have returned and are nesting on same lake as they did last summer!

Tell us what you think...

Comments »

Kris wrote on May 18, 2007 11:57 AM:

" My sister lives near Squash Lake and when I visited last week she already had humming birds at her feeder. How fun to watch. Also - saw a bear lumbering across Hwy 51 while returning from Merrill. That was a first for me! "

Robert Putnam Florida wrote on May 13, 2007 2:16 PM:

" Sounds like we should come to Rhinelander this summer I know it's beautiful in the north woods this time of year as I am orginally from Rhinelander but have been in Florida now for 43 years, haven't been back to your city in 16 years. Mr. Vig you do a great job. "

The comments above are from readers. In no way do they represent the views of the Rhinelander Daily News.