SUDDENLY SPRING ON LAKE ONALASKA

     Through a live camera and our home computer screen, I saw that Lake Onalaska, a large, shallow lake off the Mississippi River in northwest Wisconsin was frozen, wall to wall, through January and February of 2022.  Then I mostly saw scavenging and predatory coyotes and bald eagles on the lake.  

     But on March 14, I noticed leads of open water in the ice, and many birds of several kinds on or around, that water.  Those birds seemed to have arrived overnight, and some of them probably did.  They arrived as the ice melted because now they could find food in the water, and/or rest on it in relative safety.       

     Lake Onalaska has many wooded and tall-grass islands, mud flats, shallow channels and broad expanses of water that attract several species of migrating, water-loving birds in spring.  The lake, and the adjoining Mississippi, are rimmed by steep, wooded hills.  The whole area is picturesque, much the way Indians of long ago saw it. 

     I daily watched Onalaska open quickly after the fourteenth of the month.  And it was amazing how quickly Canada geese, tundra swans, mallard, northern pintail and American wigeon ducks, sandhill cranes, ring-billed gulls and bald eagles found the rapidly expanding open water.  Do these birds, in flight, scout around for open water each day through winter?  Or were they pushing north anyway, because of the lengthening daylight each successive day?  

     Flocks of handsome geese, swans, ducks and cranes rest on the water and flats, and eat aquatic vegetation in the shallows.  They also fly out to nearby harvested grain fields to feed on grain and seeds, when those fields are snow-free.  The geese and wigeons also graze on grass and rye shoots through winter, and into early spring.

     It's intriguing to watch the lovely pintails engage in courtship flights.  Three to five male pintails gather around a female of their kind to strut their stuff.  Suddenly the female takes off in rapid flight, with the drakes quickly following her.  The little flock of courting pintails races across the sky, circling here and there.  And it's said that the drake that stays with her, wins her as his mate.  

     Three kinds of migrant river ducks, American goldeneyes, buffleheads and common mergansers, are on Lake Onalaska early in spring.  Drakes of these species have similar black and white feather patterns on top.  But their respective mates are brown, which camouflages them when rearing ducklings.  

     The closely related goldeneyes and buffleheads dive underwater from the surface to consume aquatic plants, insects, crustaceans and mollusks on the bottom of the lake.  It's interesting to watch male goldeneyes and buffleheads courting females of their respective kinds on the water's surface.

     The striking mergansers dive underwater from the surface to snare and ingest small fish.  These ducks have thin, serrated beaks to grip their slippery prey.

     Three kinds of migrating bay ducks, ring-necks, scaups and canvasbacks, also land on Lake Onalaska for varying lengths of time, depending on the weather.  These handsome ducks also slip underwater from the surface to feed on aquatic plants and animals on the bottom of the lake.

     The many adult and immature bald eagles and ring-billed gulls scavenge dead fish and other creatures.  And they catch living fish, the majestic eagles taking larger ones than the gulls can handle.  The eagles also capture and ingest ducks and scavenge geese.  Some of the eagles and gulls will push farther north to raise youngsters.  

     Some pairs of bald eagles nest along Onalaska.  One can see their huge cradles with a white head of an occupying parent poking out of some of them.    

     Small flocks of stately white pelicans arrived on Onalaska on March 17, 2022.  They came here to catch fish and rest on the flats until ready to migrate farther north to Canada's large lakes where they will raise young.

     Striking male red-winged blackbirds sway on tall grass stems on the islands and sing their "kon-ga-reee" songs to establish territory and attract mates for nesting.  I can hear their singing, and the calls of Canada geese, tundra swans and sandhill cranes through the live camera and our computer.

     Groups of tree swallows sweep rapidly back and forth low over the lake to snare flying insects in their bills.  Some of these beautiful birds will stay at Onalaska to nest in tree hollows, while others move farther north.

     I stopped watching for migrant birds on Lake Onalaska by computer on March 26th.  But I will resume watching around the middle of April when the bird community should be different, and new for this year there.  There always is something new in nature to experience, every day, everywhere. 

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