Northern Pintail

Arlie (A.W.) Schorger, 2018 inductee into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame and author of historical accounts on Wisconsin’s wildlife species, described the arrival of the pintails thus: “The sight of a flock of pintails flying low over a marsh on a March morning renders the observer oblivious to chilling winds. The long neck, long tail and white underparts of the male produce the mirage of a frigate under full sail.” Pintails were called sprigs by early hunters in the 1800s with "sprig" being short for "sprig-tail.

Northern pintail, photo by Monica Hall

Pintails, of course, are named for their elongated central tail feathers, which constitute one-fourth of the drake's body length. Pintails are a prairie species and Wisconsin is at the southeastern fringe of their breeding range. Northern pintails have the widest distribution of any waterfowl species world-wide and are also found in Europe, the Middle East, India, and Asia. They migrate long distances and there is a report of a pintail that flew nonstop for 1,800 miles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated pintail numbers in 2017 at 2,900,000 compared to a long-term average of 4,000,000.

Pintails are the earliest nesting duck in North America and nest farther from water than other ducks. The female likes to nest in an open area with short vegetation. In the Dakotas and Canada pintails like to nest in winter wheat fields.

We noticed the first pintails at Goose Pond this year on March 5 while driving along Kampen Road adjacent to our flooded food plot. As we went by hundreds of ducks near the road rose in a dense cloud. What stood out was a flock of 25-30 pintails; as usual drakes outnumbered hens. There were around 2,000 ducks, including over 1,900 mallards along with a wood ducks, black ducks, and green-winged teal in shallow water feasting on sunflower and foxtail seeds.

Photo by Monica Hall

Sam Robbins in 1991 wrote in Wisconsin Birdlife that pintails are common migrants and uncommon summer residents. “Usually sprigs reach most southern areas by March 20th…” With the rain and warm temperatures in late February and early March waterfowl returned to Goose Pond much earlier than usual. Pintails also stop at Goose Pond in fall migration. The highest number of pintails recorded at Goose Pond was our October 25, 2008 observation of 120 pintails.

In 1973, March, Martz, and Hunt estimated an annual average breeding population of 1,300 pintails in the Badger State. Their breeding numbers in Wisconsin have been on the decline since the 1970s and 1980s. The first breeding bird atlas project (1995-2000) contained only one confirmed nesting report – a brood in Burnett County. We obtained a record of a pair that probably nested near Poynette and another possible nesting occurred in Ozaukee County during the first atlas project. After the third year of Atlas II, there have been no confirmed nesting records for pintails in Wisconsin.

Photo by Richard Armstrong

The pintails are one of our favorite ducks. Sue enjoyed spending many hours carving and painting a full-sized drake pintail in breeding plumage.

This year the water levels are very high in southern Wisconsin and hopefully there will be pairs observed in May and a few broods observed in June. We hope you can visit Goose Pond in spring migration and enjoy the sprigs.  

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

Passenger Pigeon

As we celebrate the Year of the Bird, we take a look back at one of North America's extinct birds, the passenger pigeon, which vanished in 1914, four years before the safe harbor of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Much of this information on market hunting and cuisine comes from Jennifer Price's book Flight Maps, which covers in fascinating detail the passenger pigeon and the human connection to this wonderful bird.

Artwork provided by Biodiversity Heritage Library

Ask any generation about the wildlife of their time: what sticks out as memorable? For those who lived through the DDT years, the rebound of raptors may be striking—bald eagles went from the brink here in Wisconsin and continent-wide to current breeding status in almost every county in the state. For those living through lean sandhill crane decades, their noisy and soulful return to marshlands across Wisconsin this past week is a reminder of the positive implications of conservation. Each of these birds went from abundance to scarcity, and back to abundance. For those early settlers of Wisconsin who witnessed a Civil War, they not only saw a nation divided, but also a bird that never reclaimed its mythical abundance—a bird they would not forget—the passenger pigeon.

Here at Faville Grove, we are lucky to have historical records and recollections of the passenger pigeon from Art Hawkins' notes from interviews he conducted for “A Wildlife History of Faville Grove,” published in 1940. These notes are striking in their treatment of the passenger pigeon. For each interviewee, Hawkins ran through the list of wildlife, from species of ducks to badgers to songbirds. His notes contain a sentence or two on each duck, hunting methods and stories for each mammal, and random musings on identifiable songbirds and their relative abundances. Yet, without fail, each early settler seems to have spoken at length about the passenger pigeon; if they themselves did not see the great flocks, they certainly had stories of relatives who had, and these paragraphs stand as the few local memories of a bird now lost.

Mr. Crump remembered the birds “forming a cloud before the sun.” To Mr. Scribner and many others, sowing the wheat seed (which boomed in Wisconsin for a time only to lead to catastrophe and eventually dairying) required two men, with one following the planter to cover the seed and save it from pigeons. These birds, according to Mr. Scribner, rolled across the wheat field like a huge ball, a smooth mass spinning forwards as birds from the rear replaced birds in the front. Mr. Cooper recalled flocks of millions of birds, and his father reportedly felled 23 birds in one shot, a hired hand dropping 18. Mr. Seaver is said to have seen pigeons land on a dead oak, only for the thousands of birds to break the limbs. Numerous others noted millions of birds that would block out the sun, and each of them would remark that a year or so later, the birds disappeared. Some heard of flocks in other parts of the state, but after nesting near London Marsh and Deerfield in 1878, the birds were never to be seen in the area again. What happened?

Smith Bennett, 1875

Of those 18th century inhabitants of North America, few east of the Mississippi could fail to recognize the passenger pigeon. For Native Americans like the Seneca, the passenger pigeons brought the tribe together during hunting—the birds provided food resources at a critical time when winter reserves dried up and spring plantings had yet to flourish. These communions allotted time to conduct tribal business, and thus the event became social, political, and economic. The indigenous inhabitants of eastern forests, from all indications, limited themselves to taking only pigeon squabs (newborn pigeons) during spring, which kept the adult breeding population intact.

Meanwhile, the mostly white inhabitants of the young nation enacted hunting that reflected their vision of the growing nation—limitless and independent. Shooting game, and especially pigeons, became a new world act. Free from the game preserves of the European elite, those members of the young republic sought to wield their autonomy, boasting to each other of the number of pigeons taken with one shot: 23, 37, 50. It would have even been difficult to know whether one had fired a rifle, for many reported that beneath the multitude of pigeons, one couldn't hear a rifle fire. Dung rained down like hail, and often thousands of people converged on a flock of birds, all with wanton aim in the sky. A pigeon storm was a crazy thing. These pigeon flights brought communities together and even kept them alive. A 1769 crop failure coincided with a pigeon flight, which kept 30,000 inhabitants fed for six weeks. 

Male passenger pigeon, on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Photo by James St. John

There were those members of the nation who were likely not embracing the nationalistic machismo of a pigeon hunt. According to some sources, over 1/3 of the immigrants to the United States before 1920 eventually returned to their homelands, and many intended to return but never did. The young nation and its resources were perhaps seen as an opportunity, something to be taken advantage of, and the passenger pigeon fit the archetype of a resource for all, seemingly inexhaustible and incomprehensible in number. Near Philadelphia's Broad Street, where this year exulting Eagles fans climbed lampposts and street lights, their ancestors climbed atop houses, buildings, and ladders, some wielding guns (problematic for downtown), but many waving brooms and knocking pigeons out of the sky. For these 18th century “pigeoners” a days-long wave of passenger pigeons was not unlike today's cultural gathering after a Super Bowl victory. 

These pigeons found themselves in pigeon pie, demonstrably so because three pigeon toes would sit square in the middle of the pie. Pigeons were smoked, cured, and stored. They were appreciated for the sustenance they provided and left behind awestruck communities witness to billions of birds.

Market hunting complicated human's relationships with the pigeons into the 19th century. Railroad line expansions throughout the country allowed market hunters to quickly, relative to other methods, seek out pigeon flocks. These same lines, with ice-packed rail cars, allowed the fresh shipment of thousands of birds. The shipment of pigeons did something remarkable; it commodified the bird and allowed the passenger pigeon to become any number of things in a quickly industrializing economy toward the end of the century. And with that exchange of money, it was easy for a bird to become something that was not a pigeon. It should be said that most all market hunters did not strike it rich by killing the passenger pigeon, rather the hunting supplemented their income, and they worked as laborers or farmhands at other times of the year.

Where did these slain birds end up? Many were shipped to fine dining establishments throughout the country where pigeons became “ballontine of squab a la Madison,” and on the table the pigeon was difficult to uncover as it was dressed with sweetbreads, glazes, sauces, creams, pastes, and jellies, stuffed with other meats, or stuffed inside other meats. Again the pigeon had lost part of its identity, no longer three toes practically squawking at the consumer, now complicit in the onslaught against the pigeons.

Other pigeons ended up stocking the yards of trap shooters. Market shooters shipped tens of thousands of birds to trap shooting events while thousands would die en route, and most would be shot upon release. These real pigeons preceded the “clay pigeon,” which was a necessary innovation since the real pigeons were extinct. Trap shooters lost track of pigeon natural history as well, as shooting the birds one by one was a sandwich at a picnic compared to the food fight anarchy of a regular pigeon flight. Trap shooters would also deny that they had even played a role in the extinction of the passenger pigeon; they weren't the ones killing the birds on breeding grounds.

This would not be the last time the pigeons became unmoored from their ecology. At the end, in the Cincinnati Zoo the last captive passenger pigeons were named. Never before could any one or any thing focus on a single passenger pigeon named Martha, for the enormity of the flock prevented it. Only once a hunter had one in the hand could he or she reckon with the individual bird, but even then, the sight of hundreds of millions of birds must have been gripping, staying with the witness as some of Hawkins' first-hand accounts can attest. Indeed these pigeons lived on as hope for decades after extinction, hope that a flock remained in northern Canada, Argentina, or even remained genetically in street pigeons, hidden in plain sight. None would prove true.

Rounds at the National Museum of Natural History. Photo by Darren & Brad

The ecology of the passenger pigeon stands just as remarkable as the human stories surrounding the bird. Huge flocks, while not only visually stunning, would also create their own wind currents and change the earth's temperature as they blotted out the sun. While these were birds of surplus and a blessing for the early pioneers, their ecological footprint was one of catastrophe. Dung, inches thick would splatter leaves and defoliate entire forests. Excess excrement upon the forest floor would wipe out the underbrush and herb layer. It's not known what effect these roostings had upon the forest, but it's fascinating to speculate. A local farmer at Faville Grove during the time of nesting in the area hypothesized that the guano of the pigeons enriched the soil and stimulated the herb layer. He based his claim partly on the fact that after pigeon years he found great densities of ginseng which he collected. The mere presence of pigeons in an area could entirely alter its ecology, and the pigeons must have been key cogs in maintaining open woodlands and early successional shrubland habitat that favors a suite of species like brown thrashers, cuckoos, and golden-winged warblers.

The passenger pigeon's story proves a complicated lesson for conservation. While the bird was hyper-abundant in its North American home, it was, importantly, not overabundant. The birds relied on these huge flocks for survival, and hunting—both subsistence and market hunting—contributed greatly to their decline. These hunts proved to have many reasons, but as these reasons became more and more removed from the pigeon itself, the decline of this bird was magnified. Habitat loss in the form of deforestation extremely exacerbated the situation in addition to disease outbreaks. A bird of huge proportions, the passenger pigeon persists, despite its extinction, as a lesson for humankind, though those lessons turn out to be more complicated than mere axioms.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Header image: Earliest published illustration of the species (a male), Mark Catesby, 1731

2018 Great Backyard Bird Count

This year marks the 20th Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), coordinated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon, Bird Studies Canada, and eBird. Over 160,000 people across the globe spend a chilly February weekend (this year: Feb. 16-19) simultaneously taking a snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds by counting and submitting online the number of species and individual birds they find in their yards. It’s a fun and comfortable way to participate in citizen science, especially during 2018 -- the Year of the Bird!

Snowy owl, photo by Monica Hall

Mark Martin and Sue Foote-Martin, who are year-round residents and managers at Goose Pond Sanctuary, have participated in the GBBC since 2001. Maddie Dumas, Goose Pond land steward, is in her second year of GBBC. Birds can also be counted and reported from anywhere, not just backyards. For example, Mark and Curt Caslavka, longtime friend and volunteer at Goose Pond Sanctuary, reported a snowy owl on Feb.16, seen across Highway County I directly west of Jill’s Prairie.

Each year brings the regular characters to the count: blue jays, black-capped chickadees, tree sparrows. Some years bring unusual faces, like ring-necked pheasants, and some years bring bumper crops of other species. This year, thanks to the GBBC, we have a new record of 110 common redpolls for Goose Pond Sanctuary, surpassing the record of 50 birds seen by Aaron Stutz in 1997. The high count in Wisconsin for common redpolls was a flock of 150 in Langlade County.  

House finches (with the red faces and breasts) and common redpoll (with the red cap) feasting during the GBBC. Photo by Maddie Dumas

We kept close watch of the bird feeders at both Goose Pond residences on Monday, February 19, the last day of the four-day Great Backyard Bird Count. Mark and Sue were surprised to see a large flock of winter finches flying back and forth from the spruce windbreak to the ash trees in the Kampen Road residence and identified them as common redpolls. The flock stayed high up in the spruce and only one redpoll was seen at the sunflower fine feeders.

The Martins also checked their feeders at their cabin (Wildland) north of Rio in Columbia County. The habitat around the cabin consists of restored prairie, oak savanna and wetland. This setting provided the greatest diversity of bird species (see spreadsheet), totaling 19 as compared to 6 species at the Kampen Road residence and 9 species at the Prairie Lane residence.

Goldfinch (top left), common redpoll (bottom center), and pine siskins (all the rest) converge on one feeder at Wildland. Photo by Mark Martin

The Goose Pond residences are in an open landscape with few trees and restored prairie within one half mile of a wildlife food plot of sunflowers and sorghum.  The food plot helps attract birds to the area.  Mourning doves, American tree sparrows, common redpolls, and American goldfinches have been in the food plot since December and move back and forth to the residences.

Ring-necked pheasants are uncommon in the GBBC and Maddie found a pair feeding at her feeders. Good numbers of mourning doves and American tree sparrows were found at all three residences. Pine siskins are also more common in Wisconsin this winter and have been feeding in high numbers at the Wildland feeders for many weeks.

Factors contributing to the higher species count and higher number of individuals included more diverse habitat, the number and types of feeders, and the variety of seeds present. We find that the best seeds for us are black-oil sunflowers, sunflower fines, white millet, and suet. Nine of the 20 species observed at three feeders were in the top 10 species recorded world-wide in 2017 (see spreadsheet).

On Thursday afternoon, February 22 GBBC reports were still being entered.  Thursday totals included 160,000 checklists, 6,031 species and 25,300,000 birds counted. This is an impressive number that reflects on the number of people interested in birds. In Wisconsin, birdwatchers submitted 2,400 checklists and reported 121 species.

Downy woodpeckers munching on suet. Photo by Mark Martin

We really enjoy counting birds and participating in the GBBC that gives us a snapshot of bird usage at our feeder in late winter. Thanks to everyone that feeds the birds, and if you live in suitable habitat we encourage you to begin feeding the birds. Winter feeding, in particular, can make the difference in helping some species make it through cold and snowy weather. The color and variety of species brighten our winter days and make us feel good knowing that we can provide them with quality habitats and nutritious food.  

P.S.  This time of year is a good time to start thinking about planting native shrubs and plants for wildlife habitat in your yard! Check out this list of nurseries that sell Wisconsin native plants and offer lots of resources like catalogs, planting recommendations, and more. Dream big and make your yard a little haven for birds (you’ll be making it a haven for lots of other great wildlife as a byproduct, too!).

Written by Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary resident managers, and Maddie Dumas, land steward

Header photo: Common redpoll, by Emily Meier

Mourning Dove

Continent-wide, the mourning dove is one of the most common birds around, though it's often overlooked. Even so, over 20 million individuals are sighted and dropped in the US by hunters each year—the most of any game bird in the US—but the population sits at a stable estimate of 350 million birds.

Photo by Monoc' Paul

Understated plumage, a calm song, and ubiquity conspire to veil this bird in plain secrecy, yet there was a time when the mourning dove was a species of conservation concern in Wisconsin. In 1951 a study was conducted where rural mail carriers listened on their routes for five months for mourning doves. An average of 6 doves were found per 100 miles. Compare that to today, when one might see 6 doves just at one feeder! Intensive hunting in the early part of the century which gave way to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (for which we celebrate 2018 as Year of the Bird), and allowed the population to rebound. By the mid-1900's, mourning doves had recovered to a point where some scientists in Wisconsin felt comfortable with a hunting season. However, it was not until 2003 that a hunting season opened in Wisconsin, the first since 1918. The bird was named the state symbol of peace in 1971, and was removed as a game species at that time.

Mourning doves in Wisconsin will often migrate south to the Gulf states. Some will spend the winter, but many of our Wisconsin resident winter doves come from Minnesota, Michigan, and Canada.

Photo by Boris Grozev

Vigorous breeders, mourning doves can lay two to five clutches per year, with two eggs per clutch. The mourning dove's young are called squabs, the same name given to young of the closely related but now extinct passenger pigeon. Those squabs are altricial when they're born, meaning they are born featherless and stay in the nest while they rapidly build body mass. In 15 days, squabs will put on 14 times their weight at birth, and they may fledge up to 4 days before that, just 11 days out of the egg.

Mourning doves are incredible habitat generalists, and have adapted well to human expansion across the continent. They can be found in woodlots, fencerows, old fields, prairies, suburban and urban areas... really almost anywhere in the state except heavily forested areas in northern Wisconsin.

Photo by Eric Begin

With a strong, whistling flight clocked at 55mph, mourning doves can travel exceedingly fast, especially when hunted. However, their migration plans turn out to be a little more relaxed. Often the birds won't fly more than twenty miles in a day, and won't reach speeds over 35mph. The birds rely almost exclusively on seeds and grains for their diet, and likely find plenty of sustenance on their way south, enough sustenance to distract the birds and turn what could be a straight-line flight into a weeks- long extravaganza.

You can find mourning doves at Faville Grove this winter in sheltered shrubby areas, in the ledge savanna, and along Faville Woods. Spring birds will return in early April, and their reproductive cycle begins in late April and early May.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Short-eared Owl

The short-eared owl is one of our favorite grassland birds.  In addition to the numerous snowy owl sightings this winter we have also enjoyed seeing short-eared owls on a number of days.

The short-eared owl and the Northern harrier occupy the same habitat, preferring large grasslands, especially habitat with short grass or alfalfa.  Both are ground nesters and concentrate their hunting on areas with large numbers of small mammals, especially meadow voles.

Photo by Jim Stewart

In 1991 Sam Robbins wrote in Wisconsin Birdlife that short-eared owls are uncommon migrants and rare summer residents.   Sam could only find 10 nesting records before 1972 when Fran Hamerstrom and her assistants (playfully called “gaboons” by Fran) located 17 nests on the Buena Vista State Wildlife Area north of Wisconsin Rapids.  

In the first breeding bird atlas from 1995 – 2000 there were 14 nest records in six counties in central and northern Wisconsin including Crex Meadows in Burnett County.  At the end of the third year (2017) of the WI Breeding Bird Atlas II there are only five confirmed nesting records, all at Buena Vista Marsh.  Last year we had a short-eared owl hunting Browne and Jill’s Prairie in early May.  Randy Hoffman also found a short-ear at Mud Lake State Wildlife Area east of Poynette last May.  Unfortunately they did not stay in the area and nest.

With an increase in habitat we are seeing more short-eared owls in migration and in winter.  This winter we have been seeing up to four short-eared owls, south of the intersection of Goose Pond Road and Highway K, hunting the pastures and alfalfa fields at the UW Agricultural Research Station.  We also saw one on Badger Lane east of the UW Research Station headquarters, and  three owls were found a number of days on Harvey Road south of Highway DM and one mile east of Highway 51.

Photo by Monica Hall

The best time of the day to find these owls is the “blue hour” when the animals of the night replace the animals of the day.  However, on some days short-ears were seen hunting around mid afternoon.   Wildlife photographer Monica Hall spends a lot of time searching for owls and has been rewarded in finding short-ears hunting with good light conditions.  She uses her car as a blind and sometimes the owls have flown close to her or perched nearby.

Our best sighting this winter was on February 6th.  In late afternoon we spotted a snowy owl on a utility pole on the west side of Highway I along the Wood Family Prairie.  We then headed to the UW Farms looking for “Arlington” our snowy owl with a transmitter.  While heading to Arlington’s usual roosting areas we were treated to two short-ears flying with their characteristic moth-like flight over the UW pasture and alfalfa fields south of Highway K.  

Photo by Jim Stewart

We were unsuccessful in locating any more snowy owls and headed back to check on the snowy owl along Highway I.  We drove past the Browne Prairie and were very surprised to see a short-eared owl in the parking lot sitting on the mailbox that holds a guest book for visitors.  We had our camera ready and slowly backed up.  Seconds before we were ready to take a photo, a snowy owl flew by and the short-ear flew toward the snowy owl.  The snowy made a loop and landed on a pole across from the parking lot.  Moments later the short-ear made a pass on the snowy; the snowy then flew away.

In early February, Spence Stehno was searching for owls at Buena Vista Marsh and reported to ebird “I saw one (short-ear) fluttering over the field, and then up it flew directly into the face of a snowy owl sitting on a telephone pole and started to dive-bomb the snowy.  A few seconds later a second SEO joined the first and was doing the same thing to the snowy who at that point, other than flying off to a farther pole and landing, did not appear to offer any defense from the two SEO's.  When flying the much larger size of the snowy to the SEO was obvious.  SEO's 3 & 4 were now in the area, making the sweet sound of their bark and screech as they were flutter-flying around. There was definitely a different sound being made by the SEO's when they were coming near the snowy on the pole.”  Our guess is that snowy owls may prey on short-eared owls if they are found sitting and not paying attention.  So maybe short-eared owls will harass snowy owls to force them to move on from the area.  In the air the short-ears probably can outmaneuver the snowies.

Photo of Mark with the short-eared owl we rescued. Photo by Sue Foote-Martin

In the past, we’ve had wonderful short-eared owl sightings in central South Dakota in mid-October.  In some years we have seen 50 short eared owls in the Fort Pierre Grasslands and Conservation Reserve Program fields.  Usually the short-ears are in groups and our record was flushing 10 at one time!  One day we were driving around with Curt Caslavka and Chuck Pils when we found a short-eared owl caught on a barbed-wire fence.  Lucky for the owl we came by.  He was quickly released and flew off unphased.

We always wonder how these uncommon birds find the areas with large small mammal populations for nesting or hunting in migration.  Owl searching requires luck.  We recently went owl prowling with Jeff and Arlene Koziol.  We knew of five snowy owls in the area and did not expect to see any short-ears since they have not been seen for 10 days.  We ended up finding two short-ears and no snowy owls.  Hopefully the snow will not get too deep for the short-eared owls to feed.

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