Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Of smelt and wood ducks First, the smelt. Years ago, when I lived in Bayfield County, son Jon and I would dip smelt off the beaches on Lake Superior every spring. If you timed it right, you could fill a garbage can with one pull of a seine. We did that a couple times, then I'd spend the rest of the night cleaning the dang things. One year we got smart and bought dip nets and left our seine at home. We dipped in Whittlesey Creek (named after Asaph Whittlesey, who snowshoed halfway to Madison to take his seat in the state legislature) or the Onion River. One or two dips and you had enough for a week-long smelt fry. Truth is, I'm not that fond of smelt. If you freeze them, they get mushy. Even fresh, they're a little too soft in my book, and not much more than a vehicle for beer batter. Perch are way better, but then you can't dip perch in April (or any time, legally), so smelt it was. Anyway, the smelt runs have diminished in Lake Superior and especially in Lake Michigan to the point where few people go any more. That's why I was delighted to get an e-mail this morning from my friend John Walker, a retired game warden from Manistique, Mich. John is a true Yooper, and his stories bring back memories of Buffalo plaid wool shirts, Ballard Cloth wool pants, Sorel boots and of course, Stormy Kromer hats. I'll be offering John's books in Dan's Mall sometime later this spring, I hope in time for Fathers Day. In the meantime, I posted his Great Smelt Caper fish report on the stories page of my weblog, so go read it. If it doesn't make you laugh, then save your money on his books. If it does, then dig out your Yoopers CD collection, fire up the sauna (pronounced SOW na, in true Finn-Yooperese) and live it up. And now, about them woodies... Got a note from Jerry Solsrud, founder of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association, sharing his wood duck nest box report from last fall. Seems dump nesting is fairly common in these parts. Could be that means there's a shortage of suitable nest cavities, natural and man-made. Anyway, back in September (which is when I should have checked my box), Jerry checked his four boxes and found: #1 Lots of down. Lots of shell fragments. One dead WD chick. Eight unhatched eggs. #2 Rancid. 20+ unhatched duck eggs. Starling (?) nest on top of it all. #3 Lots of down. Some shell fragments and two membranes. Two unhatched eggs. #4 Lots of down. Maybe shell fragments from two eggs. One dead WD chick. Two unhatched eggs. Nests with a lot of down were probably active and successful, judging from the shell fragments. No. 2 was probably a dump nest that no hen tried to hatch. Rick Stel reported seeing a starling chase a wood duck hen off a nest box. Rick neutralized the starling. Thanks for the report, Jerry! Anyone else out there have a wood duck story? Next time, maybe a report on the bear hibernating in an eagle's nest on the Chippewa Flowage. Later... 10:06:56 PM    comment []