Sharp-tailed Grouse

Photo by US FWS Mountain-Prairie

A dilemma for management, the Sharp-tailed Grouse in Wisconsin has a unique history and ecology.

These grouse are a bit challenging because of their habitat requirements: reliant on the quilted communities of presettlement Wisconsin, a patchy landscape stitched together with fire. Unfortunately, for sharptails, fire suppression has had detrimental effects on the open landscapes they require.

From presettlement, the bird was abundant in savannas, pine and oak barrens, brush prairies, and shrublands throughout Wisconsin. By the 1930's, sharptails were extirpated from the southern third of the state, instead finding refuge in the clear-cut stands of central and northern Wisconsin. Their populations have contracted since, with strongholds in public wildlife areas like Crex Meadows, Namekagon Barrens, and Moquah Barrens.

Spread Eagle Barrens in northern Wisconsin, comprised of bracken grassland and scattered with jack pine, red pine, scrub oak, and quaking aspen. Photo by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

Research on Wisconsin's pine barrens suggests that this community has undergone rapid homogenization over the past 50 plus years, becoming hardly recognizable as an open barrens community with 50% canopy coverage; instead becoming a forest dominated by red pine, jack pine, and red maple, with 90% coverage. Unsurprisingly, as these barrens have declined in quality and even disappeared, populations of grouse have likewise declined and disappeared.

Photo by US FWS Mountain-Prairie

Efforts are underway to bolster the conservation of the species. Most promising is the northwest sands ecological region of Wisconsin, stretching from Crex Meadows in the southwest to Moquah Barrens in the northeast. Linking these public areas with suitable habitat on private lands will promote genetic exchange between sub-populations and bolster the health of the population.

Within the Barnes Barrens Management Area in Bayfield County forest, efforts are underway to manage for barrens habitat. In a conservation sense, this means managing for sharp-tailed grouse, but it also means managing for a suite of species that likewise rely on open landscapes and unique pine barrens. The state-threatened upland sandpiper and the state and federally-endangered Kirtland's warbler are among those possible beneficiaries. The county foresters have planned an 11,500 acre restoration of pine barrens, with a core area of open habitat surrounded by a continually shifting patchwork of clearcut, regenerating, and mature jack pine. You can view an awesome video and visualization of the restoration area below.

Another interesting aspect of the grouse's ecology is that it overwinters in Wisconsin. During this time, about the end of November, the birds will change their habitat to more forested areas where they dine on birch, aspen, and hazel buds and catkins. A completely open grassland does not satisfy their habitat requirements, nor does a closed forest, even though they use both habitats throughout the year. Shrubs like hazelnut are important for the grouse, both as a food source and as a refuge from predators and winter nights. Winter mortality can be as high as 71% in especially sever winters. In Wisconsin, sharptails were found to move more during heavy snow cover, likely in search of food.

Photo by Gerry, Flickr Creative Commons

While carving out a relatively stable range, the birds will move within that range, capable of flying up to 45 miles per hour. Young birds, especially non-breeding males, are likely to disperse and can travel up to 2 miles per day. The average range size depends upon the season and gender, with males occupying larger territories. Summer ranges are about 125 acres, while winter ranges expand to 350-650 acres. Habitat patches of about 1,300 acres are needed for the grouse to have viable populations, and ideally these larger habitat patches are strung together with smaller patches that allow for dispersal.

In spring the birds breed, and like their cousins the prairie chicken, they perform on a grassy upland site for the females, an arena called a “lek.” Females start laying eggs days after copulation, ending with 10-14 eggs that are incubated for 24 days, born precocious, flying in 10 days, and fully independent within 6-8 weeks. (Click on the photos below to advance the slideshow.)

Sharp-tailed grouse have not occupied Faville Grove for many decades, and will likely never return. It's important to cherish and conserve those remaining populations, so that a grouse is more than something hoped for, so that a child might not wonder why they were called “sharp-tailed” grouse—because of elongated central tail feathers, obvious on the lek where their splendid violet sides perfectly match the prairie violet and pasque flower.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Wisconsin Snapshot

Tundra swans and Canada geese sleep on the ice at Goose Pond (photo taken Nov. 10). Photo by Arlene Koziol

It’s not for nothing that our sanctuary is called “Goose Pond.”  We are still in the midst of the great treat that is migration season and the ponds are covered in geese, swans (a record number of them at 1,194) and ducks.  The fluttering, honking, quacking, splashing catches our attention at all times, even in the dead of night.  We love to marvel at our waterfowl, but our 660 acres serve a great diversity of less conspicuous wildlife as well.  One way to see and survey these sneakier species is to set up a trail camera.

Goose Pond Sanctuary's new camera trap, part of the Snapshot Wisconsin program. Photo by Maddie Dumas

This fall, Goose Pond Sanctuary signed up to participate in the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) “Snapshot Wisconsin” program.  Trail cameras are distributed to volunteers around the state.  The cameras are set up on on public or private land in areas where there are at least 10 contiguous acres of high-quality natural habitat.  The cameras take motion-activated photos in a series of three and can store enough data to cover three months.  Once the photos are uploaded, the volunteers monitoring the camera can go through them and classify by species (or flag blank or human photos).  As a last step, and a check to the identification skills of the camera monitors, the photos are put online where volunteers all across the world can sign up to look through the photos and identify wildlife.  All over Wisconsin, amazing photos are being taken of everything from porcupines, to bobcats, to bear, to cranes and so much more.  Thanks to this program we have been able to get a glimpse of some of our more elusive Goose Pond Sanctuary dwellers, particularly mammals.

Some of you may be surprised to know that prairie restorations are a great home for deer.  Our camera took 426 photos of deer in October and November.  At least 50 photos of bucks, including three 10-pointers that Mark refers to as “delk” (deer + elk for their massive size!), roam the sanctuary.  We estimate a population of seven or eight bucks is found around the west pond, and at least twice as many antlerless deer.  Without the common woodlots that shelter many deer in the farm country of southern Wisconsin, our deer can sometimes be seen melting into the shadows of sandbar willow clones near the pond, or hiding in plain sight in the tall prairie grasses. 

Click on the photos below to advance the slideshow.

Coyotes were the second most commonly photographed species on our trail camera with 156 photos.  A flurry of coyote activity on the night of October 19 may be related to a deer carcass about a quarter mile northeast of the camera.  At least one of the coyotes appeared to be well-fed, with a big swinging belly that reminded me of the many smaller mammals that we weren’t capturing as often on the trail camera.  Unlike deer, I rarely see a coyote out here, but I hear them yapping at night in a wonderfully wild way.

Click on the photos below to advance the slideshow.

One of our most unusual photographs was of a muskrat.  Muskrats can be seen and photographed swimming in the pond, or darting across Goose Pond Road, but they are rarely seen in the upland area.  Our trail camera is positioned a quarter mile west of the pond where three trails intersect.  The muskrat lumbered past the camera on the evening of November 1st, probably displaced from the pond by the destruction of 62 muskrat houses that were built a few weeks earlier in the open water of the west pond.  The waterfowl use muskrat houses for resting, and throughout the course of the migration season their trampling and wave action reduce the houses down to nothing.  It does not help that the houses are built with arrowhead plants that are not very durable.   This “runner rat”  may have been looking for a new home, but it might find trouble in the form of a coyote before it reaches new waters.

A muskrat looking for a pond that is less crowded. November 1 , 2017

Our favorite photo was one of those rare shots that can only come from trail cameras.  Actually part of a series of photos of a Cooper’s hawk taken on three different days, the best one of the group shows a Cooper’s hawk flying directly into the camera, followed by a series of photos of the ground as the bird perched on the camera and caused the angle of the lens to drop.  This same bird came back on two other days in October and November, flying into the camera at least once more.  Part of the mission of the Snapshot Wisconsin program is to gain deeper insight into animal behavior.  It will be interesting to know how other birds of prey responded to the trail cameras! 

Click on the photos below to advance the slideshow.

Other animals caught on the camera include striped skunks, Virginia opossums, cottontail rabbits, raccoons, and ring-necked pheasants.  We also have badgers, turtles, weasels, turkeys, and other species at Goose Pond but have not yet captured them on camera.  We do not expect to see any photos of red fox since coyotes kill them or drive them out of the area.  We are excited to see what other interesting species, behaviors and numbers we may capture next!

Snapshot Wisconsin is one of the largest citizen scientist project in the state with 792 volunteers, 980 cameras, and over 16.5 million photos already!  Anyone can get involved, either by signing up to monitor a camera (currently they are only looking for volunteers for specific counties), or by going online to view and identify wildlife in trail camera photos that have already been uploaded.  Go to the DNR website here for more information:  dnr.wi.gov/topic/research/projects/snapshot

Meanwhile, next time you’re out at Goose Pond, enjoy the waterfowl, and keep your eyes peeled for some of our furrier and quieter residents!

Written by Maddie Dumas, Goose Pond Sanctuary land steward

Tundra Swan

Tundra swans arriving at Goose Pond, photo by Linda Pils

Late fall of 2017 is turning out to be an excellent time to visit Goose Pond Sanctuary. The tundra swan migration is well underway and at the posting of this article, about 800 tundra swans are present with their numbers on the rise. These Holartic swans are on a 1,800 -mile fall migration route that began in the high arctic with major stops in North Dakota and the Mississippi River before reaching their eastern destination of Chesapeake Bay. Tundra swans are long-lived birds with a migration route and feeding preferences that match up perfectly with what Goose Pond provides.

Goose Pond covered in arrowheads and muskrat houses, photo by Mark Martin

This summer, the pond’s surface was covered with arrowhead plants, and bird watchers wondered: where is the water? The vegetative surge that obscured the view of the water is an annual and important occurrence during summer months for the plant's utility in fall. In October the clone-forming arrowhead plants die back and are harvested by muskrats that pile them into muskrat houses dotting the west pond -- this year, 65 houses in total. The houses provide ideal resting mounds for geese and mallards, and through constant use the birds destroy most of the houses. In this second week of November, only four muskrat houses remain and we expect these to disappear quickly with wave action and waterfowl use. (The homeless muskrats will have to move into bank dens -- but that is a story for another day!)

Now the swans are feasting on an abundance of arrowhead tubers rooted in the sediment at the bottom of the pond. Ideal swan feeding habitat is a shallow prairie wetland covered with arrowheads (sound familiar?). All the swans have to do is to tip over, neck down to harvest tubers. Frequently canvasbacks and redheads are close to the feeding swans, optimistically looking for dislodged tubers to eat. Mallards also like to feed on arrowhead tubers, which gives arrowheads their nickname: duck potatoes.

A "dirty" looking tundra swan, photo by Arlene Koziol

Some visitors comment on why some swans are gray or “dirty” looking. These grayish birds are young swans and contrast greatly with the white adults. The young swans comprise 5% of this year’s flock, compared to 6% in 2014 and 11% in 2015. The “Class of 2017” is learning the migration route and in a few years they will be able to lead the flock to Goose Pond. It would be interesting to be able to experience the first fall migration as a young swan on a 1,800 mile long journey with their family. We assume some of these adults have visited Goose Pond for many years.

Goose Pond filled with waterfowl, photo by Mark Martin

Usually the swans remain as long as there is open water. The 2,000 Canada geese and 2,000 plus mallards pack together with the swans and help keep a small area of open water. There has also been a good diversity of ducks including late migrants such as buffleheads. Other migrating and winter birds seen included two peregrine falcons at one time (one swooped on a duck but did not kill it), a rough-legged hawk, northern shrike, and snow buntings. Sandhill cranes number around 50 and we anticipate that their numbers will increase as well.

We invite you to visit Goose Pond sooner rather than later to see these magnificent birds.   

Written by Mark Martin and Sue Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary Resident Managers

Banner photo by Linda Pils

White-crowned Sparrow

The Dictionary of American Regional English closed its doors this year, more than five decades and six volumes after the zealous undertaking began. Documenting words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary across the United States, the Dictionary retains those roots and customs with a unique heritage. Researchers with DARE have documented complex linguistic evolution and severing through time.

Studying thousands of cities in the US, the team discovered and mapped incredibly localized phenomena. However, they didn't study sparrows. They studied sparrowgrass—or asparagus—in some areas, but they failed to study sparrow language.

White-crowned sparrow, photo by Eric Begin

As it turns out, white-crowned sparrows have their own dialects, their own dictionary of regional sparrow, if you will. In the 1960's, researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area discovered differences in the songs of white-crowned sparrows. Based on neighborhood, the sparrows had markedly different songs, and held a fidelity to those areas with their dialect. Young white-crowned sparrows do not learn directly from parents but rather from the general acoustic environment where they are raised, the researchers later proved. Thus, because the sparrows learn from their surroundings and because they have a restricted geographic range within the city, dialects form.

The content of the white-crowned sparrow's song carries with it other messages beyond the varying spectograms (pictures of sound) of the San Francisco Bay Area. In Colorado, researchers found that white crowned males that are infected with blood parasites will have different songs with fewer trill notes than uninfected males. These parasites can reduce brood success by 15-20%, and thus females can determine which mates will be successful based on the fitness of their song.

Back in San Francisco, researchers have followed up studies from the 1960's with current data on song dialects in white-crowned sparrows, with surprising results. One of the dialects has vanished. Even more surprising was the likely reason: traffic. The San Francisco dialect, with its highest minimum frequency, was able to out-compete other dialects. Those birds with the San Fran dialect were singing their high pitched song over the bustle of a growing city with ever-increasing traffic loads, and successfully attracting a mate because of it.

White-crowned sparrow, photo by USFWS Midwest

Yet, this adaptation may come at a cost. Females seem to prefer the low pitch song, but that's a dialect fast becoming threatened and already hard to hear. This research into sparrow language has proven a complexity of adaptation and choice for females. The extinction and malleability of song also suggests a possible rapid evolutionary pathway—beyond song, those California city birds average smaller territories and blacker wings. The territories are thought to be collapsing because males cannot hear their aggressive competition over the noise of the city. It's also possible that the darker wings help concentrate metals and toxins outside of the body.

White-crowned sparrow, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

These white-crowned sparrows are some of the most studied birds in terms of song and the evolution of song. What breakthroughs could be achieved studying the other 913 birds species of North America? How many volumes would the dictionary of regional bird have?

Here at Faville Grove, it's hard to miss the white-crowned sparrows. Down Prairie Lane or North Shore Road, you'll see flocks of the birds flitting through the prairies as they're on their way south for the winter. Some will overwinter. The white-crowned sparrows don't breed in Wisconsin, instead preferring the high arctic in summer, but their white crowns en masse bookend the winter each year.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Banner photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Water Birds and Wingspan

Fall is always an exciting season for bird-watching at Goose Pond. Waterfowl are the most abundant birds on the pond -- both in number of species and overall number of birds, though  you may also sight birds of prey and other water birds.

In the past month, avian visitors to Goose Pond have included a pair of bald eagles, a banded peregrine falcon, and a white-faced ibis. In mid-September we were pleased to spot a merlin in our yard and it was later seen on the causeway.

Click on the photo below to see more!

Bald eagle, photo by Monica Hall

White-faced ibis, photo by Mark Martin

Merlin, photo by Monica Hall

Peregrine falcon, photo by Monica Hall

Northwest winds and cold weather are helping increase the waterfowl diversity. A count on October 27 found 4 snow geese, 2,000 Canada geese, 5 tundra swans, 2 gadwalls, 2 American black ducks, 1,500 plus mallards, 100 northern shovelers, 190 northern pintails, 130 green-winged teal, 20 canvasbacks, 35 ring-necked ducks, 2 lesser scaup, and 41 ruddy ducks.  Also present were 6 American coots and 8 sandhill cranes.

Goose Pond royalty of the muskrat mounds, photo by Mark Martin

The arrowhead vegetation covering the pond this summer has died back and the tubers will provide ideal feeding for tundra swans. The best time to view the tundra swans that can number in the hundreds is from late October until freeze up.

The newly completed Wingspan pavilion overlooking Goose Pond. MAS Photo

We are very pleased to have the Wingspan viewing pavilion project completed which will provide visitors with a birds-eye view of Goose Pond. Thanks to John and Marlen Kaiser for providing matching funds, donors, and to architect Jim Gempler for the beautiful design, metal artist Don Schmidt for creating the pavilion, and Louie Meister of LMS Construction that provided the oak benches and did the earth work including the disabled access trail, parking area, and turn-around.

Scopes will be set up for an open house at Wingspan on Sunday, October 29 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. We hope you visit Goose Pond to check out the birds and the new viewing pavilion.

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers