March update & Bear in Eagle nest
It has taken me a bit to get back to this forum and was very pleased with the replies that I received. The suggestions are excellent and the intercontinental comparision interesting. I find it amazing the similar birds that are found so far apart in this world of ours.
During the month of March 2004 I have seen some new visitors to my feeding station. The red squirrel I saw probably comes more often, but so far I have seen it only once. My "big" bird sightings this month has been a common redpoll and an American tree sparrow.
In the 03/22/2004 issue of the Iron Mountain, MI's newspaper, The Daily News, was an article about an event that is taking place in the area of Hayward, Wisconsin in the Chippewa Flowage. A couple out for a walk happen to notice something in an eagle's nest at the top of a 45 foot aspen. The next day (01/01/2004) one of them returned with a camera and climbed a neighboring tree and identified the object as a hibernating bear. He return again a few weeks ago and "saw three eagles in the area, including one perched about 10 feet away from the nest." They did report this to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), who said that the reason the bear took to the tree was because it may been disturbed in the past while hibernating in normal locations. DNR wildlife biologist said that they could remember one other documented instance of a bear hibernating in a tree in Wisconsin that took place in 2002 on the St Croix Flowage near Gordon in Douglas County.
Another interesting critter event that took recently happen in lower Michigan's thumb area where a wolverine was spotted, and photographed, for the first time in around 100 years. Well, it was the first reported sighting in the time. After that report came out then a number of other people started reported their sightings over the past years. It seems that the officials some time back had declared that there were no more wolverines in Michigan and people stopped reporting their sights to avoid ridicule. I was totaly unaware of this situtation. Back around circa 1960, my brother and I saw a wolverine up in a tree near Tim's Lake, which is near Pembine, Wisconsin and is 20 -/+ miles from the Michigan border. It is a shame that there are those who are "in the know" that are so quick to ridicule the sightings of the general public, causing the public to avoid exposure to such treatment, and thus keeping facts from being shared. We had similar experience back in New Mexico with an expert in Albuquerque that would deny our sightings even if it was witnessed by several experienced birders and documented.
