The land of shallow waters

By Al Batt, Nature's World

Published Saturday, May 30, 2009

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

“How are you doing?” I ask.

“Everything is nearly copacetic. I’m five years into my two-year plan to lose weight.”

“Your blood type is lutefisk butter,” I say.

“Are you always this stupid or is today special?”

“You were never as smart as you used to be. You were the teacher’s pet peeve,” I opine.

“You think you’re so smart just because you know which fork to use to scratch your ear. Next to you, I’m a genius. I never squeaked by with anything less than a D-. I was just reading an article in the newspaper about distracted drivers. It was so interesting, I read it twice. The second time, I pulled over to the side of the road to finish it.”

With that said, Crandall made a grab at the air.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“I’m using my lightning-quick reflexes to snatch mosquitoes out of the air. I pull out their drillers and then I set them free.”

“Why are you doing that?” I question.

“I figure if I pull out enough drillers out of enough skeeters, sooner or later, two mosquitoes that are lacking drillers will fall in love, get married, have pups, and be a family of drillerless mosquitoes. Those pups will do the same thing and produce another generation of mosquitoes lacking drillers. Soon, there will be no chance of a man like me being bitten by a single mosquito.”

Chequamegon Bay Birding & Nature Festival

It was my great pleasure to speak at a wonderful event — the Chequamegon Bay Birding & Nature Festival. Chequamegon (pronounced something like “Schwaum-a-gun”) Bay is an inlet of Lake Superior in the extreme northern part of Wisconsin. It is believed to have been the site of the first dwelling occupied by white men in what is now Wisconsin. The word, “Chequamegon,” is an Ojibwa word meaning, “land of shallow waters.”

The area is home to the Apostle Islands, remnants of sedimentary rocks deposited in Lake Superior. The islands have survived the crushing actions of four glaciers. There are 22 Apostle Islands (the smallest, Gull, is only three acres) and they were dominated by hemlock, white pine, yellow birch, and white cedar trees. Early Jesuits dubbed them the Apostle Islands.

A 2.5-mile ice road (an extension of Wisconsin County Highway H) runs over Lake Superior from Bayfield, Wisconsin on the mainland to La Pointe on Madeline Island. A ferry runs between the two — the last ferry ran on Jan. 1 this year. On Jan. 16, the ice was thick enough so that the ice road opened. The road is monitored several times a day and is marked with Christmas trees. People travel the ice road with seatbelts unbelted and doors unlocked in case they need to get out of the car in the water. The ferries resumed operation on April 3. The ice road was open from Jan. 16 to March 18. Windsleds (large airboats) fill the transportation needs between the road and the ferries. The ice road was uninterrupted for 61 days this year, the longest ice road since 1997 (67 days). The average is 50 days, but the years of 1998 and 2002 had no ice road at all. Lake Superior is 30 to 95 percent covered by ice in late winter.

The crew on a ferry saw a young black bear on the ice on April 12. The bear floated from Madeline Island to the mainland. Bears are good swimmers, but this one floated for 11 hours.

The city of LaPointe on Madeline Island was once the county seat of Ashland County. The County seat was moved to Ashland with the increase of population in Ashland and with weather conditions making trips in the bay sometimes difficult.

Some of the historical records from 1852 into the 1880s were lost in a storm when the ship transporting them sunk. Madeline Island’s population ranges from 2,500 in the summer to 220 during the winter. It is about the size of Manhattan. It was named after Madeleine Cadotte, the daughter of Chief White Crane and she married a French fur trader named Michael Cadotte.

I walked around Stockton Island, a 10,054-acre island featuring sand beaches. It is the second largest (next to Madeline) of the Apostle Islands. Sand is a major component of the till left behind when the glaciers melted. It was there where I found the singing sands of Julian Bay. The sand squeaks underfoot. I rubbed my hands over the sand and listened to it sing. I wanted to walk on it while wearing corduroy pants and be a one-man band. Stockton Island has the most bears of any of the islands. I saw no bears on the island, but I did see their tracks.  

Stumped

I used to sit on a stump. I turned over rocks and logs, hovered like a moth around a light over what was found in such places, and then I sat on a stump.

For me, it was the golden age of stump-sitting.

It was a place to assemble the Tinker Toys of thoughts that thumped around in my mind. It was a place where I found answers.

Whenever I was stumped, I’d sit on a stump.

Q and A

“Do those ultrasonic devices repel rats, mice, squirrels, insects, or bats?” There are a number of university studies that have shown that ultrasonic devices don’t work. Here are a few quotes from them. Colorado State University Cooperative Extension said, “Ultrasonic devices have not been proven to control mice.” University of Nebraska, “Considering ultrasonic pest control devices? Save your money.” Ohio State University Extension, “Ultrasonic pest repellers are not effective in controlling flies and other insects.” University of Florida, “Ultrasonic pest repelling devices have repeatedly been shown to be completely useless.” University of North Dakota stated, “Ultrasonic treatment devices (such as ultrasonic flea collars) claimed to rid homes of pests are completely ineffective.” University of Maryland found, “Ultrasonic devices do not meet advertisers’ claims for their products.”

Thanks for stopping by

“If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” — Rabbi Harold Kushner

“Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.” — William Feather

DO GOOD.

Al Batt of Hartland is a member of the Albert Lea Audubon Society. E-mail him at SnoEowl@aol.com.

---

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?

---