CATCHING UP

Young eagle trying to perch on a
small pipe. (photo by Atlas Beneda)

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

Its been nearly one month since my last post.  The days have flown by with a variety of activities.  Island colors are now approaching the full palette of greens, reds, yellow and shades in between.  Long grasses and reeds have suddenly, it seems, taken on golden colors, although the grass along roadside and in lawns has never looked greener, given the abundance of rainfall in the past weeks.

We had over three inches last weekend in occasional downpours, before seeing glorious sunshine Sunday noon.  And its been one beautiful, week since then.

The first Washington Island Literary Festival was a tremendous success in so many ways.   We had just over 80 registrants, and what was so memorable was that each participant, whether audience member or  presenter, seemed to be filled with a highly congenial spirit.  Beginning with a reception at Red Cup Coffee Friday evening, then unexpectedly entertaining and informative presentations Saturday, and excellent dinner with poetry Saturday evening at the Island Dairy, through the trips on the Karfi in rain and heavy overcast, then coming out of that for two afternoon sessions...the weekend had more the feeling of a retreat with only positives coming from our experiences.

My only photos were taken Sunday morning, when some of us were waiting for the first trip (with extra chairs) to Rock Island.   That morning was a personal highlight, because I had the opportunity to talk about Thordarson and read a few pages from my book.  Our audience was just over 50, not a bad turnout considering how gloomy and wet the early morning had been.   But the crowd was enthusiastic,  considerate, and patient - and as it seemed from comments, highly appreciative of the setting for this event inside the Thordarson Boathouse.

Privileged to be named as presenters at Rock Island:
Poets Ralph Murre, Sharon Auberle of Baileys Harbor, who
read from their book of poetry, and Richard Purinton who
read about Thordarson.

For a turn-around in roles, imagine yourself reading to Norman Gilliland!  Norman, known for reading Chapter-A-Day on Wisconsin Public Radio, and who read from his newest book, Down East Ledge, Saturday afternoon, and Amanda Gilliland, were Festival participants, too, attending the Rock Island event.

"What a privilege to carry..." goes the church hymn, and it was this Sunday morning.  It was in a slightly different setting that we counted our blessings among those gathered on Rock Island.

Mary Beth Volmer and Sandy Peterson, among
those aboard the Karfi Sunday morning were
dressed for the weather.  By noon, rain had given
way to clear, blue skies.

There were so many highlights from that weekend, but the pleasant enthusiasm of everyone we encountered ranks at the top of my list.  There is no formula that can create such an atmosphere.  It just happened.  But, I believe it was fostered by the positive attitudes of Festival organizers Helene Meyer and Betsy Wallman, and then underscored with Jean Feraca's welcoming remarks Friday evening.  This wave of energy with upbeat tempo swept us along the next two days.

Other noted Island activities

Wednesday, October 9th, I took my final turn of the season aboard the Karfi as skipper.  It was another outstanding October day: sunny, blue, blue sky, temperature in the upper 60s, with a pleasant southerly wind.

Among our passengers headed to Rock Island on that first morning run were naturalists Melody Walsh and the Lukes, Roy and Charlotte.  Their mission:  to locate and measure a hemlock spotted in a previous visit several weeks ago, a new, possible Door County record.  (Eclipsing Plum Island's hemlock.)   Later that day when they boarded again, smiles indicated they were successful.  It takes time to collate measurements and have them accepted by the State, but it appears that within a few weeks we may hear Roy's announcement in his column about this tree.

Roy and Charlotte Lukes,  returning
from Rock Island.

In her lifetime, Charlotte has identified 596 different fungi species in Door County. At least,  and that was her count before this most recent field trip.

She had recently added 25 new fungi finds to her Rock Island list (now at 70 and still counting...) when she and Roy visited September 24 & 25.  Their mushroom hunting was aided, she said, by the extremely wet fall weather that increased the fungi production beyond anything previously witnessed.  She held a plastic bag of possible new fungi samples as she boarded the Karfi for the return trip to Jackson Harbor Wednesday.

Some day, Charlotte acknowledged, she may publish a book about her finds.  She photographs discovered specimens in place, then she brings a representative sample to her home for closer examination under a powerful microscope.  Each is cataloged by shape, color, spore patterns and so on, comparing each with previously noted species and reference book information.  As long as new species continue to present themselves for discovery, her book on Door County mushrooms will remain incomplete.

It is incredible to have two such naturalists in our midst who dedicate themselves to increasing the body of science about our surroundings, all with such little fanfare.

Such dedication to what we might term a "lifetime pastime" for the outdoors!   Their  passion for field and forest is uplifting.

A word about the eagle shown at the top of the page:  this young eagle had tried to capture one of the several brown trout seen in Detroit Harbor in recent weeks, but the fish was too big to pick up.  With a lack of grace and agility, it tried to perch on the top of a 3-inch pipe supporting our pier.  Later, it was observed to land on a lightly constructed kingfisher roost, a tall wooden post with a stick attached to the top.   Grandson Atlas took the eagle's photo, one of many taken over a period of ten minutes or so, while it appeared indifferent to its surroundings.

We've managed to fill another blog without even touching on the dredging project taking place in Detroit Harbor.  Next time!          -  Dick Purinton

A LITTLE SURPRISE

White sphinx hummingmoth feeding on
a large impatiens plant near our front door.

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

Yesterday was our grandson's 11th birthday, and as we headed outdoors so that he could try his new pellet gun, he noticed what we at first thought was a hummingbird feeding on the pink impatiens flowers.

Except, at closer examination, it was a moth and not a hummingbird.  It seemed not bothered that we were nearby, as it circled the plant for over five minutes and at one point landed on Atlas's boot.  Unlike hummingbirds I've observed, this moth had great flying skills but was not nearly so quick.  And, it came back to the same blossoms repeatedly, instinct coupled with zero memory.

I emailed Roy Lukes, sending him these same photos.  Roy's nature column for the Peninsula Pulse covers a different topic each week, and he's considered Door County's dean of observers and foremost authority on local natural history topics.  He is also an excellent nature photographer.

Roy's reply to me was as follows:

"...this is not the hummingbird clearwing moth, but rather the white-lined sphinx moth.  The clearwing hummingbird moth is also considered one of the sphinx moths.  Both the clearwing hummingbird moth and the snowberry clearwing moth are usually not seen after the first week of August, while the white-lined sphinx flies even into the first week of October, the latest of the sphinx moths.  I agree with you that its a beautiful creature, so unafraid of humans, too!

Roy continued, writing that he and Charlotte were coming to the island this weekend to study mushrooms, something they do regularly county-wide.  I believe Charlotte has identified nearly 600 different mushroom species in our county (about 60 species identified here on Washington Island), with a goal of some day publishing her findings in a book.

Because this has been a wet summer, and now a rainy fall, there might be better-than-usual mushroom hunting and identification opportunities.

 -  Dick Purinton

SUPRISE REVEALED ON PLUM ISLAND

Champion tree:  Roy Lukes, Tim Sweet and Steve Waldron

Plum Island, Wisconsin -


A group of five hiked the interior of Plum Island Monday, August 22.   Our main goal was to locate two large hemlock trees that were measured in 1981 (see blog dated 6/29/11), large specimens we thought might be worthy of champion status in the county.

Accompanying me were: Door County naturalists Roy and Charlotte Lukes; Clintonville, WI teacher, and president of the Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands, Tim Sweet; and Island Schools 7th and 8th grades science teacher, Steve Waldron.   Each also has a high degree of photographic interest and skill, and we were eager to photograph whatever we came upon as a means of helping record both human and natural history found on this Death's Door Island.

Roy and I had tramped the island looking for the large hemlocks in 1981, trees that I had observed while hunting there a previous fall.  It was still a "Coast Guard" island then, and we had permission from the Coast Guard's Station Commander to visit.  This time, reflecting the official change in island ownership from one federal agency to another in the fall of 2007, we asked permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in order to photograph and study trees there.  By "study" we meant, in the general sense of the word, observing the condition of the forest, as well as taking comparison measurements of the largest hemlock trees identified thirty years earlier.

Except for intersecting an occasional deer trail on our cross-island hike, we were, in Tim's words, "bushwhacking."  The combination of numerous windfalls, patches of waist-high raspberry plants, a variety of tall wild parsnip (which we suspected would produce skin burns) and nettles growing up to seven feet in height (which did produce stinging, burning on Charlotte's hand), made us work to find our subject hemlocks.

Having observed these two hemlocks as recently as about ten years ago, I led the way, following a route from memory, knowing we would be in the approximate vicinity.   But after we searched without results, Roy said he believed our two trees grew much closer to a low limestone ledge.  We moved that way, and his hunch proved correct.  We had been close, but I had been searching for tall, bushy hemlock crowns, not expecting to find these trees minus their tops.  Both hemlocks, as it turned out, had apparently succumbed to old age and had lost their entire upper story.  We measured one of them, anyway, just as an exercise of interest, and Roy's special tree tape indicated that this tree was in the ten-foot-circumference range with a diameter of forty-one-and-a-half inches.

One of two hemlocks found
that are on last legs. 

We were disappointed to find these trees were no longer vital, although each snag still had a few living branches on them.  This island was logged extensively in 1985, a combined effort of the Wisconsin DNR and the U.S. Forest Service (BLM was island owner-manager at the time), and we wondered if the opened forest might have contributed to the demise of these trees?  Or was it simply old age catching up?

Roy exclaimed he would enjoy nothing more than to measure a living tree, so we set off in the direction of yet a third hemlock, one we had observed years ago near the southern tip of the island.  My memory was that this tree, thirty years ago, was a younger brother to the other pair, and it had measured in with a nine-foot-plus circumference.  So we trekked off through the dry, brittle undergrowth with drooping leaves that showed severe lack of rainfall this summer.  Even in in shady areas, leaves drooped, stressed by the dry heat.

Finally, after pursuing a few false leads, we located our third hemlock.  This one proved to be well worth the hike.  Roy once again removed measuring instruments from his pack:  electronic stadimeter to measure height; two tape measures, one for crown spread and one for trunk circumference with sharp picks at the tape's end to hold it in place in the tree bark; and a GPS to record the location.

Within minutes we had our measurements which Charlotte recorded and plugged into a prescribed measurement formula:    average crown spread - 56 ft.;  trunk circumferenceat approximately four feet above ground - 10 ft. 10 in.    Charlotte then added 1/4 of the averaged crown distance to the circumference in inches, plus the tree height in feet (57 ft.) and ended with a descriptive number:  201.

Checking our tree list for Door County's largest recorded hemlocks, this one edged the top hemlock at Toft Point, recorded at 189.225 points.  Of course, 201 is still an unofficial number until the figures are reviewed by the State.

When not examining Plum Island's flora,
Charlotte Lukes recorded
and totaled tree measurements.

Our Plum Island experiences were well worthwhile, despite our disappointment in learning that two trees were no longer vital, and it was certainly fulfilling to find this champion tree.  We noted that a huge lower branch of this champion tree had recently fallen, likely due to storm damage, which might have reduced the point total significantly.  It took down with it a nearby maple, the leaves of which were brown but still clung to the branches.

Old lighthouse measured, too


We chose to return to our boat at the station dock by hiking past old stone ruins and through the cleared range light field.  These stone ruins, we are convinced based upon early 1900 photos of the standing foundation, belonged to the first lighthouse on Plum Island.  This lighthouse was completed in 1849, before a more substantial and better-situated lighthouse was built on neighboring Pilot Island in 1858.

Roy passed his tape measure to Tim, and we took approximate readings of the foundation dimensions,  guessing in the stone rubble corners where the building had ended.  We measured 19 ft. x 29 1/2 ft.   The recorded coordinates for this foundation:  N 45- 18.22'   W 86 - 57.247'

Small traces of mortar still can be found between the laid stones, but most of the mortar has eroded over time, one possible indicator, Steve Waldron noted, of the relatively poor construction mortar available at the time. What are essentially piles of stones could, in fact, be easily overlooked by passersby.  Charlotte noted that the upland area north of the old foundation appears relatively clear, perhaps a sign it had been cultivated at one time, and toward the beach there is a sand and gravel ramp that slopes toward the water, perfect for hauling a boat or moving supplies to and from the beach and structure.

Tim Sweet standing inside foundation rubble.

Given our rough dimensions, this foundation's location, the materials used, and the old light's context within Plum Island's recorded history, we are even more strongly convinced that this site is worthy of further historical investigation by an experienced archeologist.

Terry Pepper of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association contributed information on the earliest Death's Door lighthouse in the FOPPI Summer Newsletter 2001.  Using information gleaned from research of structures of similar U.S. light installations of the same period, Pepper came up with a rendering of what the old Plum Island light may have resembled.  (See FOPPI web pages at  www.plumandpilot.org  for further information on this lighthouse.)

Excellent weather accompanied us on our Plum Island outing, and we took a number of photos that we intend to pool with the Friends of Plum and Pilot Island.

Monday, August 22 - Tim Sweet, Roy Lukes, Chalotte Lukes, Steve Waldron.

  -  Dick Purinton