Dickcissel

Coming the world over, likely from a Venezuelan wintering ground, the dickcissel marks summer on Wisconsin prairies. These dickcissels, tardy migrants, get to work immediately, barking out their songs on tall perches in the tallgrass prairie. The males will fiercely defend territory, and once their clutch has hatched, they continue to do so, with minimal input into the care of the chicks. But male dickcissels take their territory defense seriously and will chase encroaching birds to the ground. As July afternoons turn humid and hazy, dickcissels will continue singing, gracing any listeners with their frank song. “Dick dick ciss ciss ciss” goes the call, and I like to imagine the birds as little dogs, throwing their heads back and barking out into their grassy world.

Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

One of the most interesting things about dickcissels is their propensity for swings in population. Wisconsin is at the northern edge of the breeding range of this species, but in irruption years (years of high “invasion” north) dickcissels have been found in all 72 Wisconsin counties. 2012 and 2017 were notable irruption years for the species. In 2017 at Faville Grove, and in Jefferson County at large, any place with grass had a singing dickcissel. Driving along some of our prairie restorations we would see and hear dozens of dickcissels. I can recall driving south to Fort Atkinson with the windows down and hearing dozens of dickcissels in the right-of-way, a meager territory for this proud bird. The 1930’s and 40’s saw population booms in six year intervals in Wisconsin. Perhaps next year will continue a recent cycle of a spike every five years.

You can find dickcissels with regularity at Faville Grove Sanctuary. Look for expansive open grasslands down Prairie Lane or north of Buddy’s on highway 89, and you should see singing dickcissels.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Cover photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

American White Pelican

We always enjoy seeing the American white pelicans and every time we see pelicans Mark always remarks, “The pelican, his bill can hold more than his belly can, the pelican”. This is from a limerick by Dixon Lanier Merritt:

“A wonderful bird is the Pelican.

His beak can hold more than his belican,

He can take in his beak

Enough food for a week!

But I'll be darned if I know how the hellican?”

Riding the thermals. Photo by Arlene Koziol

We enjoy seeing the pelicans soar gracefully in the thermals during midday against a blue sky or when they are “fishing”. They fish in a dense flock and move fish as a group to shallow water to make them easier to catch. Pelicans like to feed on rough fish including small fish such as minnows, carp, and bullheads. At Goose Pond we have an abundance of fathead minnows for them to feast on.   

Pelicans have been around a long time and first appeared in fossil records 30 million years ago. Wildlife historian A.W. Schorger wrote in The White Pelican in Early Wisconsin, “The white pelican was first observed in Wisconsin by the famed adventurer Pierre Radisson. While in northwestern Wisconsin in about the year 1655, he observed a bird with a bill of 22 “thumbs” in length in which was held for a long time an entire salmon.”

So many “thumbs”! Photo by Richard Armstrong

Schorger examined records of wildlife observations up to 1900 including reading every paper that was published in Wisconsin and housed in the State Historical Society. For 15 years A.W. visited the Historical Society after work, and took notes of wildlife stories, eventually writing 25 articles that were published by the Wisconsin Academy of Arts, Science and Letters. UW-Stevens Point Wildlife students and staff assembled the articles in a 581 page book titled Wildlife in Early Wisconsin, Collection of Works by A.W. Schorger. Articles include Elk, Moose, Bison, Beaver, Quail, Wild Turkeys, Trumpeter Swans, Passenger Pigeons, and Rattlesnakes in Early Wisconsin.

In his article on the white pelican he found 63 references in 40 papers noting the birds during spring and fall migration. A.W. could not find any breeding records for our state. Pelican Lake in Oneida County was named for large numbers of migrating pelicans. 

A pod of pelicans. Photo by Richard Armstrong

White pelicans were very common migrants up to about the 1860s. A.W. wrote “So large a mark was irresistible to gunners and it was apparent that the number of migrants declined sharply by about 1870.”

In 1991 Sam Robbins wrote in Wisconsin Birdlife, “The pelican has remained a rare migrant and summer visitant throughout the twentieth century. Since beginning publication in 1939, The Passenger Pigeon has recorded sightings in about 8 of 10 years, with from one to four reports per year.

Bettie Harriman wrote the account of the American white pelican in the first breeding bird atlas. She wrote, “Sightings began to increase in 1990, and Tom Erdman reported in 1994 the first documented nests for Wisconsin (and the Great Lakes) in the Green Bay area (Soulen 1995), unfortunately both nests failed.”

In the first Breeding Bird Atlas (1995 - 2000), 35 pelicans were found in 1995 along with nine nests in near Green Bay. Aaron Stutz entered the first pelican observations at Goose Pond when he found five birds on April 30, 1998. By 2000 they were found nesting at Horicon Marsh. In the second Breeding Bird Atlas (2015-2019) pelicans were confirmed nesting in 13 areas ranging from Door County to Marquette and Dodge County.  

Breeding pelicans with their oh-so-attractive lobe or horn. Photo by Richard Armstrong

This spring has been a record year for pelicans in Columbia County. At Goose Pond we found a record-breaking 41 pelicans on May 29th and two days later Mark broke even that record with counting 59 pelicans. What a treat to see them soaring over the Kampen Road residence.  

Pelicans nest on islands to avoid predators. It is interesting that both adults take turns incubating. Eggs are incubated under the foot webs of the parents. Two eggs are laid and usually only one chick survives. 

The white pelicans main nesting area is on islands in large prairie lakes in North Dakota. The largest nesting location is at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge. In 1908 there were 50 pelicans in the area when President Teddy Roosevelt protected the area. In 2018 there were up to 40,000 pelicans in the area with most nesting on a 14-acre island.  

Pelicans head south to the Gulf Coast for the winters. Young birds do not migrate north until they are two and females begin breeding at three years old. Some pelicans that we are seeing this spring may begin breeding next year.  

At this time there are no nesting areas in Columbia County. The closest nesting island with a large population is High Island in Beaver Dam Lake in Dodge County. High Island is owned by Madison Audubon board member Pat Clark and his wife Angel. Last year we joined Pat, Dory Owen, and Dory’s husband Phillip to count 450 young pelicans that could swim but not fly. A group of young pelicans are called a pod creche. It was impressive to see a “creche” of pelicans, some of which may soar over Goose Pond in another year. Thanks to the Clarks for providing a great nesting place for an interesting bird.

A creche of pelicans at Clark's High Island in Beaver Dam Lake. Photo by Mark Martin

Many people reported high numbers of pelicans this spring in Columbia County at many wetlands including Schoeneberg Marsh Waterfowl Production Area/Erstad Prairie, Madison Audubon’s Otsego Marsh, Mud Lake and Grassy Lake State Wildlife Areas, and a flooded area at Harvey, Wangsness and DM. Another place to visit is Patrick Marsh/Brazee Lake on the northeast side of Sun Prairie. Goundswell Conservancy and DNR are protecting land around the lake. There is a trail system and observation area for pelican watchers.

We hope you can visit prairie wetlands and find these fascinating birds.

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

Cover photo by Arlene Koziol

Marsh Wren

Marsh wren by Mick Thompson

The marsh wren is histrionic, bouncing from one cattail to another, calling out with its trill and rattling voice.  A whirring vector of motion and sound, the marsh wren frenetically builds anywhere from 5 to 22 nests per year.  The male is tasked with building these nests, showing the female around each cattail-down lined nest.  However, the female often builds the nest that will become occupied.  She steals materials from nearby nesting marsh wrens further along in the nest cycle.

Expending such energy to construct nests likely has the benefit of deception.  Marsh wrens will destroy the eggs of other marsh wrens and red-winged blackbirds, while the blackbirds will return the favor.  These dummy nests serve as decoys for predators, structure for fledgling young, and mark the male’s territory.  

Marsh wren by Arlene Koziol

The marsh wren loves marshes.  The first Breeding Bird Atlas in Wisconsin found 79% of marsh wren records in open lowland marsh.  An excellent place to find the marsh wren this summer is the Snake Marsh at Faville Grove Sanctuary. The intern crew has discovered numerous nests throughout the Snake Marsh, seeing up-close the wren-crafted nests and wren wrought chattering.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward

Pied-billed Grebe

The pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) is a small, stocky, grayish brown grebe with a stout chicken-like bill. The sexes appear similar, although females are slightly smaller than the males. The name “pied-billed” describes the bird during the breeding season when it sports a white bill with a vertical black stripe (i.e. “pied”). It is also called: dabchick, hell-diver, and water witch. It is rarely seen flying, as it prefers to escape danger by diving, and migrates at night. Only once have I seen one fly.

A breeding pair of pied-billed grebes on Goose Pond. Photo by James Otto

Young grebes feasting on fathead minnows. Photo by Richard Armstrong

It feeds on aquatic organisms including insects, small fish including fathead minnows, tadpoles, and crustaceans. The pied-billed grebe is the most wide-spread of the American grebes, occurring throughout much of North, Central and South America. In 1991 Samuel Robbins wrote that in Wisconsin it is a rare winter resident, a common migrant, and a common summer resident. It nests in Wisconsin wetlands having both emergent vegetation and open water areas. During the second Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas project pied-billed grebes were recorded as possible+ nesters in 293 (23%) of the 1283 priority blocks of the study. They were confirmed to nest in 150 (12%) of the state-wide priority blocks. Columbia County is a pied-billed grebe hotspot with 50% of the 18 priority blocks having nesting confirmations of pied-bills.

Recently hatched pied-billed grebe chick. Photo by James Otto

The pied-billed grebe is my favorite species of bird. Although not colorful like wood ducks, orioles, or the wood warblers, they are just as fascinating. During the summers of 1979 and 1980 I studied nesting pied-billed grebes on Rush Lake, Winnebago County, under the direction of UW-Oshkosh Professor David Strohmeyer. What follows is based in great part on my Rush Lake study.

Rush Lake is a 3,070-acre prairie pothole wetland. At the time of my study, Rush Lake had excellent habitat for nesting pied-billed grebes. There were extensive beds of hardstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus); areas of cattail, particularly along the shores; plus, much open water. At that time, I estimated that there were at least 200 pairs of pied-billed grebes nesting at Rush Lake. Unfortunately, the wetland habitat at Rush Lake has deteriorated over the years, but hopefully the ongoing restoration project will soon return this lake to its historic status as prime wildlife habitat.

Winter plumage pied-billed grebe. Photo by Richard Armstrong

Although a few pied-billed grebes overwinter in Wisconsin, most return in March or early April, as soon as the ice leaves the rivers, lakes and wetlands. In Wisconsin, pied-billed grebes nest from late April until early August. Their nests consist of a floating layer of vegetation onto which a mass of partly decomposed vegetation has been added. Coming upon such a nest one might easily mistake it for the remnants of a muskrat’s lunch.

The nest is usually located in a bed of emergent vegetation. One egg is laid per day, although a day is often skipped before the final egg is laid. The total number of eggs laid varies from three to ten, but the typical clutch contains from six to eight eggs. When the adults are away from the nest, the eggs are covered with material from the nest, thus hiding the eggs, and keeping them warm and moist.  The average incubation period is twenty-two days, after which the eggs hatch over a period of several days. Within hours of hatching the young are off the nest swimming. In contrast to the rather muted plumage of the adults, the downy young have black and white stripes, a red eye ring, and a white, black and red bill. The youngsters often ride on their parent’s back, where they stay warm, dry and safe.

Pied-billed grebe nest with eggs covered. Photo by James Otto

Pied-billed grebe nest with clutch of 10 eggs uncovered. Photo by James Otto

I found and followed a total of 150 pied-billed grebe nests on Rush Lake. Of these, 115 were successful in that one or more of the eggs hatched. The two greatest causes of nest failure were foul weather (13 nests) and egg predators (13 nests).

Pied-billed grebe on nest, Goose Pond east. Photo by James Otto

Today, one of my favorite places to observe pied-billed grebes during late spring and summer is Schoeneberg Marsh Waterfowl Production Area, which is located about three miles NE of Goose Pond. While this wetland is well known to southern Wisconsin birders as the summer home of a handful of the state-endangered red-necked grebes, it is also home to dozens of pairs of pied-billed grebes. Hike out to the observation deck at the end of the trail north of the Priem Road parking lot or walk to the north end of the Harvey Road remnant that begins at the parking area for Madison Audubon’s Erstad Prairie. When you arrive, stop, watch and listen. Chances are, you will hear pied-billed grebes before you spot one. They make several different calls, but the most commonly heard are the cuckoo-like “caow, caow, caow, caow, …” and the odd laugh-like rattily call.

Interesting tidbits:

The pied-billed grebe is the only extant member of the genus Podilymbus. The flightless Atitlán grebe (Podilymbus gigas) of Lake Atitlán in Guatemala was declared extinct around 1990. 

A nesting pied-billed grebe that I banded at Rush Lake on June 6, 1980 was recovered April 1, 1981 at Seabury Creek, Alabama. The recovery site, located near Mobile Bay, is 906 miles south of Rush Lake. This bird probably spent the winter there.

Another Rush Lake pied-billed grebe, which I captured July 7, 1980 on a nest containing six eggs, was undergoing a complete wing molt. All old primaries and secondaries (i.e. the flight feathers) had been shed, and there was 10 cm of new feather growth of the outermost primary feathers. (Multi-tasking, I guess!)

 Written by James Otto, Madison Audubon Goose Pond Sanctuary volunteer

Baltimore Oriole

Orange meets orange. Photo by Phil Brown

Spellbound weaving of dried grasses, strings, wool, thistle, and thimbleweed initiates an enchanted nest, high in a cottonwood, where the Baltimore oriole raises its young during the summer months. The magic of the oriole might be best understood in its plumage. An orange, sliced in half and stuck on a feeder, soon becomes the second most vibrant object in the yard once the Baltimore oriole finds it.

The characteristic male oriole is hard to miss, but the juvenile males and females—often a lighter orange or yellow—are sometimes overlooked or misidentified. I remember a few years back I had a juvenile in the oak near my house that gave me fits identifying it.

The awkward look of the juvenile Baltimore oriole, photo by Kelly Colgan Azar

Some orioles in Canada have undergone a serious change, a sorcerous shift that had many people misidentifying the birds as tanagers. They were red orioles. Researchers soon ran experiments to determine what was happening to paint the orioles red. In birds, the carotenoid pigments are obtained externally, through diet, and produce pigments like red, orange, and yellow.

In humans, the consumption of beta-carotene (occurring in carrots, bell peppers, and squash) can cause hypercarotenaemia, where feet, hands, and even the skin overall can take on an orange appearance. Likewise, in orioles, the consumption of invasive honeysuckle berries, which are rich in rhodaxanthin, can turn the pigment of the feathers red and orange. A similar process has occurred in some cedar waxwings that have a diet relying on the honeysuckle berries.

This odd bird raises even more questions. Cedar waxwings were documented to have their pigment changed as early as the 1960’s in response to consuming honeysuckle. Why did it take orioles so long to start appearing a different color? Also, why were these birds consuming honeysuckle berries in the first place? In the heat of the summer, orioles typically consume an insect heavy diet, though fruits remain a part of their diet throughout the year. For these birds to eat enough honeysuckle berries to become red, they must have eaten a large quantity of berries. It’s possible that the invasion of honeysuckle into forested areas caused a crash in the food web, and one of the only diet staples available was the honeysuckle. It would be interesting to follow the health of these red birds, and their potential young, to see if any adverse effects emerge.

Baltimore oriole nestling and its nest, photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

You can see Baltimore orioles right now at Faville Grove Sanctuary, where the birds are setting up a home territory and starting to weave those intricate nests. Scattered groups of oaks, or big trees near water are potential spots you could find a nest. If you see a red bird that you determine to be an oriole in August, perhaps it’s a sign that we need to increase our control of the invasive honeysuckle.

Written by Drew Harry, Faville Grove Sanctuary land steward