Winter is here!

 

    With colder temperatures and snow beginning to fall in our area comes winter activities, and Beaver Creek has plenty of fun things to do this winter! Cross-country skis and snowshoes are available to rent, but we need at least six inches of snow out at the Reserve before we can start renting. Stay updated with us on our website and social media pages to be the first to know when rentals become available! Rentals cost $3 each for members and $10 each for nonmembers. 

    We also have our Christmas Bird Count which has different location options depending on the day. The Christmas Bird Count is an annual survey where bird lovers drive around their assigned location counting as many birds as they can see. According to the National Audubon Society, the history of the count is this, "Prior to the turn of the 20th century, hunters engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas 'Side Hunt.' They would choose sides and go afield with their guns—whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won. Conservation was in its beginning stages in that era, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, an early officer in the then-nascent Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition—a 'Christmas Bird Census' that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them." Our first Christmas Bird Count is on Saturday Dec. 18th from 6:30am to noon in Holcomb, WI. Check out our events calendar on our website for more dates and registration deadlines. Other events to look out for are Snowshoe lacing where participants will learn how to make their own snowshoes, registration closes on December 23rd; as well as learning how-to cross-country ski for beginners. Make sure to check out our events calendar for more details.

    We also have virtual event options! On Monday December 20th from 10-11am, there is a presentation called "Night Lights: Bioluminescent Insects and other creatures that glow" where participants to get to "learn about the science behind bioluminescence, what insects glow and why they developed these mechanisms." Make sure to register for this event by Sunday December 19th. Another virtual event to check out is on Tuesday January 4th from 2-3pm, called "Navigating with Stars Around the World", participants learn about stargazing and navigation. Make sure to register for this event by Monday January 3rd. All registration is done on our website. Make sure to check out our events calendar for more virtual events. We hope the winter is enjoyable!

Beaver Creek 75th Anniversary Storyboard

Anniversaries are all about celebration and Beaver Creek has a lot to celebrate! We are celebrating 75 years of connecting people with nature next year. As a part of this momentous occasion, we have a few different projects in place, one of them being our Storyboard. This project is all about showcasing all the incredible people that helped make Beaver Creek the wonderful place that we all know it as today. We are looking for pictures, stories, or both, of memories made at Beaver Creek or the Eau Claire County Youth Camp, whether that was staying overnight at our youth camp, visiting on a school trip, exploring a trail or volunteering for a special event, we want to hear about it. We ask that if you send a picture you include a caption, as well as your name and date(s) that goes with the memory or memories (if you remember) with the story or stories. This is a super exciting opportunity as we will be collaborating with the Chippewa Valley Museum on the project and these memories will be donated to the museum once collected.

Now you might be asking, how do I go about submitting these memories? We have a variety of options. You can visit the Nature Center at Beaver Creek and fill out a story card. These are located in the lobby next to the front desk. The hours for the center are Mondays - Saturdays from 9:30 am - 3 pm and Sundays from 12 - 3 pm. You can also comment on this blog if you would like, email john@beavercreekreserve.org or mail your information in to: Beaver Creek Reserve at S1 County Rd K, Fall Creek, WI 54742.

This is an exciting time at the Reserve and we hope you submit your stories! Make sure to stay updated with our blog and social media pages for other exciting projects going on throughout the year!

The Fall Equinox

The Fall Equinox, or the first day of fall, or the September Equinox, or the more official Autumnal Equinox, whatever you want to call it, was on September 22nd this year. The date marks the start of fall in the Northern Hemisphere.

The term "equinox" has Latin roots of "equal" and "night", meaning that on the equinox, day and night are the same length. For this phenomenon, the Sun will cross the equator line in space or the "celestial equator". The equinox itself happens when the Sun's center passes through the line, going from north to south is the autumnal equinox and south to north is the vernal equinox. For the start of fall, days become shorter until the December solstice when days lengthen again.

A defining characteristic of fall is dropping temperatures from the summer months, 70 degrees Fahrenheit and under. Though in Wisconsin, it's always a toss-up, fall is supposed to have started and we're still having 80 degree days. You also can't have fall without the leaves changing color to various reds, oranges and yellows, eventually falling off the trees. And what's fall without Halloween and Thanksgiving where it's acceptable to stuff your face with delicious foods. There is also the end of Daylight Savings Time which will be at 2:00am on November 7th. You will set your clocks back an hour which will allow for an extra hour to get things done or sleep in. It's also the perfect opportunity for fuzzy sweaters, Friday night football games, carving pumpkins, eating pumpkin desserts and getting lost in corn mazes. The birds and butterflies start to journey south following the path of the Sun. Various plants and trees also begin to slow down to prepare for the cold months. You can expect to see aster and chrysanthemum flowers bloom. 

In different cultures, historically, there are traditions based on the equinox. For instance, in ancient Mexico, the Mayans had built a giant pyramid called Chichen Itza. On each equinox, it seemed that you could see a snake made of light slither down the pyramid’s steps. For Mache Picchu in Peru, there is an ancient stone monument called Intihuatana, "Hitching Post of the Sun", which serves as a solar clock, marking the dates of each equinox and solstice. 

Whatever your favorite autumn traditions are, fall is a time to enjoy yourself and the changing environment.

Natures Tick Controller

 

By Ruth Forsgren

Several winters ago while exploring behind the cabins at Beaver Creek Reserve I stumbled across some interesting tracks in the snow. The critter that had left these tracks had five toes on each foot; when I looked at the track of the front foot, I was transported back to high school and the coral director screaming “jazz hands people, jazz hands!” (For those of you that have never performed in a swing choir, jazz hands are when the performer ends a number and the hands are palm to the audience with the fingers straight and spread comfortably apart.) The alignment of the critter’s back toes however looked rather painful. The back foot has four of the toes that point forward, but the fifth toe looks almost dislocated. If you were to hold your hand up in front of you, fingers to the sky, then rotate your thumb to point towards the ground you would have a close approximation of the track left by the back foot of a Virginia opossum. You see, opossums are one of the few animals that have an opposable thumb or finger. This means that the thumb is opposite of the other fingers and allows those fingers to grasp things. 

Since the opposable thumb is on the back foot this makes opossums good at climbing and moving about in the branches. But the opposable thumb is not the only fascinating trait of the opossum, let’s look at what else makes these creatures unique and interesting.

First let’s get the name straight we have opossums (generally pronounced uh-paa-sum), Virginia opossums to be exact. They are often simply called possums, but keep in mind that an opossum and a possum are two different animals. Virginia opossum is one of 100 different species that are found mostly in the Americas; while possums are a very different marsupial that live in Australia and New Guinea. The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) is the only opossum native to North America, north of Mexico. The critters are technically a neotropical species or historically of the tropical regions. Opossums are not equipped to survive extreme cold temperatures, but that hasn’t stopped these critters from expanding their range from Costa Rica to southern Ontario Canada. Prior to European immigration and settlement, the northernmost limit of their range was Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana. But their tolerance of humans and ability to find shelter among human structures has allowed their range to expand northwards. They live in a wide range of habitats but do prefer areas near a water source.

The Virginia opossum is a short-legged, pointy faced, stout little animal whose body size equates to a large house cat. Their fur is typically in the gray color range with darker legs and white tipped guard hairs. The tail, feet and ears are all hairless and susceptible to frostbite in the colder climates. They are primarily nocturnal (active at night) creatures, whose sensitive, long whiskers help them feel their way through the night. Opossums also hold the record for most teeth of any North American mammal, at 50.

The opossum is North America’s only marsupial. A marsupial is an animal with a pouch where the young are raised. After a gestation of less than two weeks the female opossum, or jill give birth to underdeveloped babies referred to as joeys. 

The joeys are about the size of honeybees and must crawl into the mother's fur lined pouch and attach to a teat where they will stay and continue to grow for up to another 10 weeks. Once big enough to leave the pouch young opossums can be seen hitching a ride on mom’s back and are on their own at around five months. 

The opossums tail is another feature that makes these critters unique. While lacking fur to help keep the animal warm their tails are prehensile, which means that they can grasp and hold things with their tail.  They can use it to help support themselves as they move through the branches, but their ability to hang from their tails and sleep is just another fallacy we picked-up from fairy tales. While young opossums have been seen hanging from their tails, it can only be done for a few moments. Their body does not have the muscles that would be required to make this trick possible. 

Opossums do have a great trick to avoid being eaten though. When threatened by a predator that they cannot run away from the opossum will do a variety of generally impolite activities such as growl, belch, hiss, pee or poop to ward off the attack. If these tricks don’t work the opossum might “play dead”.  

Playing dead is an involuntary reaction, in other words they cannot control when it happens. But when it does the opossum will stiffen, fall on its side, pull the lips back to expose the sharp little teeth, foam around the mouth and secrete a foul smelling liquid from the backend. Since this is an involuntary reaction they cannot control how long the episode lasts, in young animals it can last up to six hours.

Possibly because of their scruffy, slightly rat-like appearance, their nocturnal habits and gruff behaviors, opossums are often treated as unwanted pests. In actuality they should be looked upon as welcome guests. They are quite intelligent animals, at least when it comes to finding and remembering where food is. In maze and food placement recall tests they outscored most other animals including rats, rabbits, cats and dogs. Their omnivorous diet makes them great members of nature’s clean-up crew, helping to keep the environment healthy by eating things like: carrion, garden pests including snails, slugs and beetles and the sources that can attract these pests, rotting fruits and veggies. They can lower the number of ticks that can carry Lymes disease in an area, because the opossum is such a fastidious groomer they remove and eat over 90% of the ticks that they pick up. According to the National Wildlife Federation a single opossum eats roughly 5000 ticks per season. Among North American mammals, opossums are one of the lowest risks for developing and spreading rabies. Their naturally low body temperatures make it difficult for the rabies virus to replicate. Opossums are also immune to the venom of all poisonous North American snakes except the coral snake.  Opossums produce a peptide that causes the immunity, researchers are working to replicate that peptide for an inexpensive, but universal antivenom for snakebites.

So, if you are lucky enough to have these critters living in your neighborhood don’t contact pest control, consider yourself lucky and leave them alone to do their thing. 

Young Opossum at Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge  by Ruth Forsgren

Wisconsin’s Winter Hawk

Jerry Liguori
Macaulay Library @Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Most people think about spring and fall as the time to see different and exciting birds, but what about winter?  Here in Wisconsin we have several bird visitors who travel to Wisconsin in winter.  Believe it or not, Wisconsin is their Florida.  Birds from far north in Canada and from the tundra find Wisconsin winters to be less snowy, less cold and more abundant in food.

Jerry Liguori
Macaulay Library @
Cornel Lab of Ornithology

The winter visitor that I look forward to the most is the Rough-legged Hawk.  To me, winter doesn’t start until I see that Rough-legged soaring high above.

The name “Rough-legged” refers to this bird’s legs, which are feathered all the way down to the tops of its feet.  It is believed that this is an adaptation for staying warm in the frigid arctic weather.  Feathered legs are not common in the raptor world and are only found in two other North American species, the Ferruginous Hawk and the Golden Eagle.

“Roughies” breed in the open county of the arctic. These are the most northern of all our hawk species and one of the most common arctic raptors. They are circumpolar meaning that they live in the area around one of the earth’s poles, in this case, the North Pole. They nest on cliffs or outcroppings, sometimes incorporating caribou bones into their nests. Roughies are choosy about their neighbors.  They will share a cliff with a Gyrfalcon or a Peregrine Falcon, but not another Rough-legged Hawk. In the winter they are found in open country including fields, prairies, and marshes. 

This winter visitor often starts showing up in Wisconsin in November. Here, on their wintering grounds, Roughies search out small rodents, such as mice, voles and shrews.  They hunt on the wing (flying) and pursue their prey or hover into the wind and drop down on their prey.  It is also common to see them hunting from a perch on a utility pole, fence post, or from a tiny little branch at the very edge of a tree.

Jerry Liguori
Macaulay Library @ Cornell Lab of Ornithology

These arctic hawks are close in size to our more common and larger Red-tailed Hawk.  Their average weight is two pounds and their wingspan is 54 inches.  For their size, Rough-leggeds have fairly small feet and beaks; it is believed this is another adaptation for dealing with arctic temperatures.  They also have distinct markings making them fairly recognizable.  These boldly patterned hawks have a dark brown belly and perfect dark brown squares can be seen at their wing wrist when in flight. Their tail is my favorite part, it looks silvery white with a broad, dark trailing edge.  From the top of the tail the dark brown band bleeds into the white which reminds me of the colors on burnt paper. I think they have the most beautiful tail of all the hawks. Take note: these birds can come in multiple color phases or morphs.  

Jerry Liguori
Macaulay Library
@ Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Consider the different shades of brown in human hair. Rough-legged hawks can be seen in both the typical light morph but also a dark morph. I once witnessed a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk that was so dark I thought it was a Common Raven. Upon closer inspection I could see the distinct tail with the dark band at the end, letting me know it was a Rough-legged Hawk.

Jerry Liguori
Macaulay Library 
@ Cornell Lab of Ornithology

I encourage you to take a trip over to a nearby prairie or field this winter.  This stunning winter visitor will make your chilly trip worth it.

 

The Ladies of Santa’s Team

 

 Despite what the holiday TV specials; like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, lead us to believe, the reindeer that pull Santa’s sleigh are female. You see, reindeer are members of the Cervidae or deer family which also includes: deer, moose and elk. Like the other members of the family the male reindeer grow antlers; but, unlike the rest of the Cervids so do the female reindeer. Since they are antlers, not horns, that means that they are shed and re-grown each year. Male reindeer shed their antlers in November at the end of the breeding season, while the females will keep their antlers through winter until early spring. So, since Santa flies at the end of December, Santa’s reindeer team must be female.

Rangifer tarandus is the scientific name for reindeer or caribou. Some people will use the names interchangeably, while others will say that the animals found in Alaska, Canada and Greenland are caribou, and those that live in northern Asia and Europe are reindeer. And then there are another group of people that say that the name reindeer refers to the domesticated (raised or tended by humans or Santa’s elves) herds of northern Scandinavia and Russia and that caribou are the wild animals in North America. Whatever name you want to use is fine, but what you need to know is that these are some pretty cool animals, that are designed to live in some pretty harsh environments.

Let’s start with a general overall description, since once again if you watch the holiday specials on TV, they will have you believe that reindeer are thin variations based on the more familiar white-tailed deer. Reindeer are rather stout animals with long legs. They have dense chocolate brown fur with a white neck and flank (that’s the last part of the animal to leave the roof).  The fur grows in two layers. A curly, dense under layer for warmth and the hollow guard hairs that help trap warm air near the body. The hollow hairs also float and this helps give the large animals buoyancy when they have to swim, which they do very well. The hair is such an efficient insulator that snow landing on the reindeer’s back will not melt. This efficiency can actually cause them to overheat, even in sub-zero temperatures.   

The males tend to be larger (and with 14 sub-species the range in sizes is huge) averaging between three and five feet in height, 5.9 to 6.8 feet in length and weighing from 140 to 530 pounds. The male antlers are also larger and can reach up to 55 inches in length and may have as many as 44 points. 

Caribou have feet that are designed for life on the tundra. They have four “toes” that can spread wide and work like snowshoes by spreading the weight out over the snow. Being able to spread the toes also helps them to paddle when the animal needs to swim. The caribou is one of the few hoofed animals that have hooves that are covered with hair, even on the bottom. The hair between the toes not only provides traction it also helps to prevent snow from building up between the toes. During the summer, when the ground in the tundra can be soggy and slippery the foot pads will swell and the foot becomes spongey, giving caribou traction on the slick terrain. As winter approaches the foot pad shrinks, exposing the sharp edges of the hoof. These sharp edges help cut into the icy ground giving them a more secure footing. The shrinking of the foot pad also forms a hollow on the bottom of the foot that they can use like a scoop to dig through the snow to get to the lichens.

Reindeer are one of the few large animals that can metabolize and actually survive on lichens. During the warmer months the animals feed on mosses, ferns, mushrooms and other tundra plants, but during the colder winter months, lichens are what is available. Reindeer can eat between 8 and 15 pounds of lichens a day, but since lichen have no proteins the reindeer will still lose weight.

Rudolph may have the only known nose that actually glows red, but reindeer have some serious cold weather noses. They are the only member of the Cervidae family that has hair completely covering the nose. That seems to come in very handy when pushing snow aside to get to the lichens. Reindeer also have increased number of blood vessels in the nose that helps to circulate warm blood through the nose and heat up the arctic air that they are breathing in.  

Living in habitat that has such extreme differences in day length and available light, the caribou or reindeer have eyes that change with the season. The tapetum is a reflective membrane (which is what causes “eye shine” in many animals) located behind the iris that changes from golden in the summer to blue in the winter. When the tapetum changes color it reflects different wavelengths of light. In the summer when there is 24 hours of light the golden color pushes most of the light back out of the eye. In the never-ending darkness of winter, the dark blue scatters the light inside the eye where it has a better chance of being absorbed by the light sensitive cells within the eye. Reindeer or caribou are also one of the few large mammals that have ultraviolet (UV) vision. This ability helps the animals as their snow/ ice covered habitat reflects UV light, while predators, urine and lichen all absorb UV light and would strongly stand out against the reflective ground. 

Caribou are social animals living in herds from ten individuals to fifty-thousand, during migration these herds can join other herds to form what is known as a super-herd that can reach numbers of 500,000 animals.

Not all caribou migrate, but those that do can travel some pretty impressive distances. They are considered to have the longest migration of any land mammal traveling up to 3000 miles in a year. Please note that this is not a straight line measurement but includes all travel in a given year; the distance to and from summer to wintering grounds and the wandering they do enroute.

Whether you will be looking for Santa’s reindeer or not, I think most people would agree caribou (or reindeer) are pretty awesome critters.

Best Camouflaged Bird in the Woods - Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus)

Ruffed Grouse 
image by Ruth Forsgren

 by Ruth Forsgren 

Ruffed (not ruffled) Grouse belong to the order Galliformes, which refers to most of the chicken-like birds and includes birds like; chickens, turkeys, quail, grouse, pheasants, etc. When I moved to this part of Wisconsin I was confused by people saying that they were going partridge hunting in the woods. I grew up with Hungarian Partridge and these birds are not forest birds. They could usually be found in the fencerows around farm fields. The other naturalist explained to me that it was one of those local common names that are mistakenly used sometimes.  Ruffed Grouse are one of ten species of grouse found in North America and have the most widespread range. Ruffed Grouse stand about 17 inches in height and look like small chickens roaming about in the woods. Unlike other gallinaceous birds that form coveys (a group of birds that live together), Ruffed Grouse tend to be solitary birds.

Ruffed Grouse on forest floor 
image by Ruth Forsgren

Ruffed Grouse have two predominate color phases, grey or reddish-brown. Studies show that grouse that live in harsher winter climates tend to the grey color phase, while those found where winters are milder are more often the reddish color. Males have dark feathers around the neck that stand up during courtship or mating displays. The dark feathers are called the ruff and are what give the bird its name. Both males and females have feathers on the head that form a crest when raised, males also show a dark color band near the end of the tail feathers. Ruffed grouse have excellent camouflage for their life on the forest floor. They are known for their habit of sitting still and often will not flush (fly up) until almost stepped on. These birds have given the proverbial heart attack to this author and many other woods people.

 

WI DNR Image

Ruffed Grouse are well known for their drumming.   The male Ruffed Grouse will drum from a log or   stone that is raised about eight to twelve inches off   the forest floor. This stage is known as a drumming   log. The birds do not physically beat on anything to   produce the noise, rather they rotate their curved   wings back and forth causing air to rush beneath the   wings and form a vacuum that causes the deep   thumping sound. People often describe the   drumming is something they almost feel more than   hear as the sound waves travel out. The sound can   be heard up to one quarter of a mile away when conditions are favorable. The drumming is mostly heard in spring and is an announcement to other males of territory ownership and it is also a way to impress and attract the ladies.  

The habitat they need  is early to mid-successional, dense, mixed hardwood and coniferous forest. They nest on the ground, relying on camouflage to keep them hidden from predators. The average clutch size is eleven eggs. The chicks are born precocial, which means that they are able to move within hours of hatching and can feed themselves within a day. The Ruffed Grouse population is cyclic, or follows predictable rises and declines in population numbers. In northern areas the cycle is tied to the snowshoe hare cycle, as snowshoe hare numbers increase the predator numbers increase. Given the choice, the predators seem to opt for the hares leaving the grouse numbers to increase. But when hare populations decline the high predator population shifts to hunting the smaller prey like the Ruffed Grouse. The smaller prey animals lead to a decline in predators which allows the snowshoe hare populations to rise and start the cycle over again.

Ruffed Grouse have several adaptations that allow them to survive harsh winters far into northern Canada. The first is that Ruffed Grouse have extra tube like areas in the intestines that help the bird digest cellulose. The grouse can also digest bitter and toxic plants that other birds cannot. This means that Ruffed Grouse can remain in an area during the winter months when acorns, seeds and fruits are not available. The preferred winter food are the buds of the aspen family. They also feed on the catkins and twigs of these trees.

As winter approaches the Ruffed Grouse grow additional feathers to cover the tarsus (the part of the bird’s foot that goes between the “knee” and the toes). The toes themselves develop pectinations. These are extensions of the foot scales and the growth resembles a comb.

Grouse foot with pectinations
image by Ruth Forsgren

The pectinations are believed to act like snowshoes in deep snow, spreading the weight out to keep the bird from sinking. It is thought that they also aid the bird in gripping icy branches when feeding.  

If snow depths reach eight inches or more of fluffy snow, Ruffed Grouse are able to snow roost. They dive head first into the snowbank and burrow into the snow.  Some snow roosts have been recorded at depths of eight to ten feet. The snow is an excellent insulator and there can be a thirty-degree difference between the roost and outside air temperature. If snow depths to conditions do not allow for snow roosting they will seek shelter from wind and cold temperatures in conifer trees.

Ruffed Grouse are a favorite bird among hunters, in fact it is one of the first managed game birds in North America. In 1708 New York state created a non-open season on the birds to help insure their continued presence in the state.  Wisconsin used the Ruffed Grouse as bartering tool, in 1976 the WI Dept. of Natural Resources traded with Missouri.  We gave them Ruffed Grouse and they gave us Wild Turkeys to help us re-establish them in the state after an almost 100-year absence. 

So when you are exploring wooded areas be on the lookout for these little woodland chickens. In spring listen for the deep telltale thumping sound of a drumming male. And watch where you step, don’t let them startle you!  

WI DNR image - Paul Carson