July 21, 2019: The Dogs Come Early

Wow, what a weekend!  The dog days of summer started early this year in the Lakes Region.  Usually this kind of weather doesn't hit until August, but this week we had dew points into the 70s and temps well into the 90s.  The peak temperature was 95.7 on Saturday with a dew point of 72.

Hot summer nights

On a cooler morning at the boat ramp a few weeks ago I had a neat experience which got superseded by all the loon activity the past few weeks:  I got to observe the courting behavior of a pair of downy woodpeckers.

Mr. and Mrs. Downy

The pair was searching for insects on the trees right around the boat launch, probing into all the potential places for insects to hide out.

Where are you ants?

This looks like a good spot.

The male (with the bright red spot on the back of its head) seemed to be leading the way with the female following along a bit behind.

"Where are you going!" she asks.

When the male found a potential spot it worked it for a while until it pulled an insect out.

But rather than eat it, it did something rather kind.

Trying to win her over!

It brought it right to its mate and gave it to her!

This is a known behavior as part of courtship for several species of birds; perhaps the feeding helps to convince the female that he will be a good provider for a future family.  For downy woodpeckers an interesting aspect of mating is that both male and female will search for a nesting site and must agree on a suitable tree.  [Ref:  Stokes, Donald and Lillian, "A Guide to Bird Behavior" Vol II, Little, Brown and Compay, 1983.]  If they can come to terms they will both excavate a nest, but if they can't agree on a tree they most likely will not mate.  I witnessed a few more feedings before they moved beyond my line of sight, but probably not far.

If they have agreed on a nesting tree they tend to stay close by to guard their site.

A quick update on Harley and Davidson - both chicks continue to advance in size and skill.  Although they mostly stick their heads underwater and watch as their parents dive for fish, they do occasionally dive themselves.  They seem to like going in very close to shore at a shallow beach, and the parents watch them very closely there, calling them back out to deeper water at the slightest concern.  It will be interesting to see when they are able to catch their own fish.

Harley and Davidson like to go right up the shore here.  (Some will recognize that canoe!)

We also had a scare this week.  One morning the family came by with only one chick in tow.  They fished for 20 minutes without a sign of the second and they didn't show a hint of distress.  Half an hour later we had a report from someone else that they also had seen only one chick.  But then in another hour the report came in that both chicks were back with the parents.  What are those parents thinking, leaving their kids unsupervised all that time!

As expected, the second pair of loons finally gave up and abandoned their nest.  It looks like Harley and Davidson will have to carry the torch for Wicwas this summer.

The Annual Loon Census took place yesterday and though we didn't have the loon overload of last week, there were eight loons that appeared for the census.  Citizenship questions were not asked.  😉

Mom (?) and the kids during the census

Dad was probably off keeping the other loons far away.

I'll end this week with a pretty butterfly that was sucking nectar out of the black-eyed susans (which are having a banner year).

American Painted Lady (Vanessa virginiensis)

This is an American Painted Lady.  In these next two you can see its proboscis inserted deep into the flower.

The susan's must be loving all the heat this summer.  Keep cool!