Loons, Bears, Fishing and Instinct
6-21-2012
On occasion during my years as an outdoor writer, the beauty and equally present cruelty of nature makes me question things. Take “instinct”. When writing a column for example on the steelhead released on Lake Michigan tributaries as immature “smolts”, we discover that the young fish return over and over again in spring on spawning runs to the exact same “Mother” streams of their release after spending a summer roaming the big water. The trout do the same thing on the streams of the Pacific or elsewhere where natural reproduction does occur. Imprinting on the stream and “instinct” allows that to happen.
“Instinct”, I think, is the unexplainable. I prefer to use the word, “miracle”. Nature so often makes it easy for me to reinforce my faith in a grand designer; in God. I remember one column I wrote that was inspired by the cruelty of nature that included one of those incredible, unexplainable introductions to instinct.
In June of 2003, I watched a loon track down and kill a duckling due to territorial instinct while the hen mallard instinctively tried to protect her offspring and fend off the predator over several minutes. Her efforts were all in vain, and all caught on film and posted now on this website under “Waterfowl”. My research after the mauling revealed that the beautiful loon is also often a nasty neighbor, often a killer.
But I was also intrigued again by something else. In late fall, usually beginning in October, adult loons group up and migrate before the chicks from Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota to territory ranging from the Gulf of Florida to the coast of Carolina according to banding studies and satellite surveys. Depending on individual development, the chicks follow sometime prior to ice-up, although it is uncertain how they find their way without adult guidance.
“Nobody knows how they do it,” said my source of expertise who you will meet in the column. “It’s kind of a miracle. But it’s a miracle that any loons survive, given the threats.”
That journey through the OWO archives and talk of threats in nature also led to another column we're posting so appropriate to June with photos under “Upland Game” entitled “Out of the Frying Pan…Into the Fire”. After we all pursue the spring turkey and listen to the spring crowing of wild pheasants, we hope during these spring and summer months that the upland birds experience warm, dry nesting periods. If they do, they will produce better numbers and we will have better hunting the following year. Wisconsin has been hard on upland game more often than not in recent years. While you’re reading, we also post under “Upland Game” a DNR Release sent to On Wisconsin Outdoors this week on the importance of leash laws for our dogs during nesting periods on state wildlife properties to the success of the hatch.
DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp also sends us more information on the challenges of developing Wisconsin’s first wolf hunt that we’re posting under “Outdoor News” “Deer Hunting” and “Trapping”. “Wisconsin DNR’s task is to develop -- before fall -- an interim hunting season framework that considers the needs and desires of diverse interest groups,” Stepp writes. “Our proposal must satisfy the legislative directive; must be conservative enough to protect wolves—which only this year were removed from the federal Endangered Species List in Wisconsin and our neighboring states; must respect the reverence Native American Tribes have for wolves; must meet the expectations of hunters and the needs of farmers, who have been suffering from long unchecked wolf depredation on their livestock; and the season must be logical and balanced for the general population which often sees wolves as symbolic of the wild and healthy ecosystems they value.” Read it all.
In addition to the weekly, comprehensive Outdoor Report that we post under “Outdoor News” DNR also sent us notice posted under “Deer Hunting” that they are offering a “Learn to Hunt Deer” program at Buckhorn State Park. The course, open to persons under 10 including adults that do not hunt, concludes with an actual hunt.
We post fishing columns by Gary Engberg, Darrell Pendergrass and John Luthens under “Inland Fishing”. Engberg shows you how to target suspended walleyes on Lake Winnebago. You might call the Pendergrass piece a non-fishing column since his son; Jack steals the writer’s best, longtime fishing buddy and does go trout fishing near Washburn while Darrell stays home again to do the chores designated by his wife, whom Darrell bravely nicknames, “Queenie”. Luthens takes his equally great writing, and fishing, to Lake Winnebago and introduces us to some Big Magic on Indian Mound Trail at High Cliff State Park. I highly recommend a good dose of these writers once a week to allow you to escape to the field…even if you’re stuck behind a desk.
I also recommend that you wallow in our Wisconsin guide’s writing and photos submitted weekly and posted under “Inland fishing” and “Fishing Reports”. They come in daily. Where is your report, Wisconsin guides? It’s no-cost promotion for you. In addition to these experts’ tips and tactics, this week Guide Kenny Wallock shows us wedding photos from one of those Stevens Point Flowage nuts who elected to get married on the guide’s pontoon boat, the groom loves that fishery so much. You’ll see tuxes, dresses, chicks….walleyes, pike, and sturgeon. Also under “Great Lakes Fishing” and “Outdoor News” Wisconsin Outdoor Writer and friend Kevin Naze who served as my great guide on the big pond once or twice, sends entry forms and rules for the Algoma “1-2-3…Go Fish” tournament for trout and salmon July 7.
Look for more new material and photos under “Firearms”. The National Shooting Sports Foundation sent us three news items this week including how to “keep it fun and social when introducing newcomers to the hunting and shooting sports”. I guess they know how to do that in Burlington, where the Demons continue to dominate in high school competition. Pretty awesome photo of the whole Burlington gang that they sent this week too. The July-August print version of “On Wisconsin Outdoors” lands at 700 locations early next week. Look for a piece on introducing young people to the shooting sports by Tom Carpenter. The issue will also be posted on our homepage, probably tomorrow (Friday) for those of you who prefer online reading.
We bring this paper and website to you at no-cost due to the support of great sponsors and advertisers. On our website homepage, welcome this week “The Cap Connection” in Waukesha by clicking on their banner ad and visiting their website for all the accessories you’ll need for your truck. I’ve purchased caps for two trucks from the Cap Connection and Gregg Borneman and crew have protected my gear and “On Wisconsin Outdoors” as we deliver to those 700 locations. Bear hunters, while you’re on the homepage click on the newly posted banner ad for “Bob’s Bear Bait” in Appleton. Bob Spierings will take care of all your baiting needs if you drew a tag for the fast approaching September hunt. Speaking of bears, also in the July-August issue read Wisconsin Bear Guide turned Canadian bear hunter Mike Foss’s story of a successful quest for Honey Bear in the Saskatchewan wilderness. It snowed three inches in May and Mike’s fabulous Wisconsin baiting techniques were humbled north of the border.
This week on “Dick’s Trips”, we post a 2003 journey to Oconomowoc Lake for a nocturnal hunt for muskies with Wisconsin top guide and my friend Dennis Radloff of Sterling Guide Service. The trip offers some really good advice from Radloff on fishing muskies and ends with a 42 inch fish caught and released in the black of night by my brother-in-law, John Kubiak. I said this last week, but you also do not want to miss Radloff’s account of the biggest musky he has ever seen, also in the July-August issue online and on stands. It’s close up and personal on the waters of Green Bay, and it’s literally hair-raising.
Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. We appreciate it. Watch us grow.
Dick Ellis