Northwoods Frog Call Phenology

Check out these frog calls over the course of Spring and Summer. We love capturing audio of frogs in the woods and at the pond, and this chart and audio will help us identify the frogs we hear.

"The Wood Shed" a poem by Mary Oliver

"For weeks, the center of the Universe is the woodshed, which I keep filling,

which I keep emptying and filling, working every morning.

in the light-soaked yard among the heaps of pink oak, yellow birch, red pine.

Sometimes, I rest a little.

Then, I gaze out from the yard into the world, or I gaze into myself.

But mostly I give attention to what I am doing...

cutting, chopping, stacking. I have a good time.

This is how it is, year after year... everything put by, nothing kept,

everything used up.

And that, as much as anything, is the wonder of it, I say philosophically...

how it all gathers and vanishes,

how it all goes up into smoke."

Homemade Wood Rack

New wood rack ready to be filled

Our old pallets are getting weaker with age, so Drew crafted a new wood rack out of 26 year old pressure-treated lumber that came off of our front deck when it was replaced in 2012. 

Bricks and pressure treated cross pieces

Waste not, want not, is his motto. Never throw anything that could be useful away (as far as building materials are concerned.) 

A separate cross piece was later also screwed above the lumber in the center for more stabiity.

The first new wood rack is filled. It is a somewhat low stack for stability purposes

Drew was wondering when that wood would become useful. He has just enough to construct two more racks to stack the wood.

And, here is Drew's trusty foreman keeping track of the building of his new home! He is waiting for the add-on stack to make a longhouse. He gave the rack a bushy tail's up of approval!

Barred Owl calling...

 A Cutie Hootie Owl was calling in the woods next to the pond during this calm, early morning hour.

The loons were calling this morning

 Lovely loon calls this morning. 4am seems to be the bewitching hour! There is nothing like it...so soul soothing when they are just calling calmly;-)

Did you know that the different loon vocalizations have different meanings?  Loon.org is a great loon conservation website for information and audio clips (with their meanings.) I also really liked this quote from the blog of the Cable Natural History Museum in Michigan.

"Loon Language: The mournful wail of a common loon echoes across the glassy water. From a neighboring lake, another loon replies with the same smooth cry. The loons are keeping track of one another, maybe as neighbors, maybe as mates, maybe as rivals.   Sometimes the still night air is pierced by the maniacal laughing yodels of two male loons. This signifies a battle over territory. Home territory means a lot to loons. The longer a male resides in the same territory, the greater his chance of raising chicks to adulthood. The resident male will fight to the death if necessary to defend his island, lake or bay. Even if the invading male wins, the resident female will stay on the territory with the new male.   An invading loon, looking for his own place to raise a family, will fly over an occupied territory and first give the wavering tremolo flight call. If the resident male is willing to fight for the prime real estate, he will reply with a yodel. The invading loon can tell by the lowest note in the tremolo approximately how big the defender is, and use this information to decide whether a fight is in his favor or not. If he chooses to fight, the invader replies with his own unique yodel. Loons can tell each other apart by their calls, and even third-graders can tell loons apart by looking at sonograms of their yodels!"

Stone, Emily M. “Natural Connections: Exploring North Woods Nature Through Science and Your Senses-Loon Language.” http://cablemuseumnaturalconnections.blogspot.com/2012/06/loon-Language.html, 26 June 2012.

Early morning cacophony on Caesar Pond

Crrrraaaaazzzyyy early morning on Caesar Pond. At 4am, two loons started calling in a wild way, which set off a barred owl to hooting. This set off some coyotes to howling and yipping, which scared up some mallards that started quacking, all accompanied by the spring peeper choir. This lasted for about 10 minutes and then all went still again...

We need to get the sound recorder over to the pond by 3:30am, on calm mornings, because we missed recording all of this. Drew was on the porch listening while I was fumbling and bumbling and practically falling out of bed in my haste to hear it all...

Hummingbird and Jelly feeders are waiting for customers!

Drew put out the hummingbird feeders and the grape jelly feeder. 

Now, all we need are the birds.

There is grape jelly for the fruit eaters, like Baltimore Orioles, sapsuckers, and catbirds, and sugar nectar for the hummingbirds.

I also saw the first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the season today.

Northern Forest Atlas

The Northern Forest Atlas is done and free for download. It is an amazing piece of work that has taken many years to produce.

Besides woody plants, they have also cataloged mosses.

And sedges. You can use the atlas for online referencing as well as for download.

Bird Watcher's Bingo Cards

Here is ours for the Northeast!

'Tis the season for so many birds to arrive and/or migrate through. Why not be ready to keep track of them by filling out a Bird Watcher's Bingo card for your area of the country! I wish I had a color printer!

I have seen the following birds from this list, this week. What birds have you seen?

Blue Jay

American Crow

Canada Goose

Downy Woodpecker

Mourning Dove

Red-winged Blackbird

White-breasted Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee

Hairy Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker

Common Grackle

American Robin

American Goldfinch

Yellow-rumped Warblers have arrived for the spring/summer season!

We love the little Yellow-rumped Warblers. They arrive this time of year and spend the entire summer at our suet feeding station and among the trees along the Caesar Pond shoreline. 

They are voracious insect eaters and we appreciate them for that!