Natural Connections

Brown-headed cowbirds and bison

NATURAL CONNECTIONS by EMILY STONE

Prairie dogs shouted their alarm calls at me across the windswept prairie. Photos by Emily Stone.

(I recently received a photo a of cowbird egg in a red-eyed vireo nest, so I’m re-sharing this article from 2018—written when I was on my way to Alaska!)

My hike on the Centennial Trail in Wind Cave National Park in western South Dakota had been wonderful. I felt like Laura Ingalls Wilder as I strolled over the rolling prairie hills, dodged buffalo chips on the trail, and photographed wildflowers taking advantage of spring. Thankfully, the hot sun was offset by a cooling breeze.

Twice the trail ran right through the center of prairie dog towns. Their alarm calls were incessant and pushed before me in a wave, with the closest little rodents chattering from out of sight inside the entrance to their burrow. The bell-like tones of meadowlark calls rang out across the prairie, and repeatedly I searched for the vocalists who sounded much closer than their actual perch. The volume of their songs was impressive.

The prairie’s wide open horizon seems to encourage restlessness. Back at my car, I quickly settled in for an afternoon of driving west. Pa Ingalls would have understood the feeling.

I didn’t get very far, though. Where the park road met the highway, a pair of bison grazed on the shoulder. If it was just those two great, shaggy beasts, I might not have stopped, but around their heads fluttered personal flocks of brown-headed cowbirds. The shiny black birds, with namesake brown heads, pecked at the ground right in front of the bisons’ giant heads, played leapfrog over their humped backs, and generally acted just like brown-headed cowbirds are supposed to act. Glad that no one was with me to roll their eyes at my excitement, I swung onto the shoulder, rolled down a window, and picked up my camera from the passenger seat.

Now, brown-headed cowbirds are not my favorite animals. My parents and naturalist friends have always given them the evil eye. Arthur Cleveland Bent (an acclaimed ornithologist of the early 1900s) called the cowbird a “shiftless vagabond and imposter.” Its scientific name, Moluthrus ater, means “dark greedy beggar.” While they are native to the Great Plains, they have a bad reputation as lazy villains who parasitize the nests of more praiseworthy songbirds.

Female brown-headed cowbirds lay their eggs in the nests of smaller birds and let other parents do the hard work of feeding their hungry chicks. Cowbird eggs hatch first, and their chicks grow faster than the others. By virtue of being the tallest mouth in the nest, the cowbird babies get more food. Their gain is another’s loss, and their success comes at the expense of one or more of the host mother’s own young.

While most birds don’t seem to recognize the cowbird eggs or chicks as alien invaders, some do. House wrens puncture cowbird eggs. Yellow warblers build a new nest right on top of the invaded one – smothering their own eggs as well. Robins, catbirds, and a few other birds with big beaks toss out the strange eggs. I feel like giving them all a high-five for not being duped.

But on a birding walk last spring Brown-headed cowbirds feed on insects that bison stir up as they graze, as well as seeds turned up by the bison’ heavy hooves.

with Laura Erickson – a wonderful Duluth-based birder, author, educator and scientist – I gained a whole new perspective on the cowbirds’ predicament.

These maligned birds once depended on the bison’s feeding to flush tasty insects, and on their heavy hooves to break up tough prairie sod, which made seeds available despite the birds’ scrawny feet. The problem was that bison herds moved regularly, and the birds had to follow. That transient lifestyle wasn’t conducive to settling down and raising a family. The cowbirds’ only option was to deposit their eggs in the nests of birds who could find food even without the bison, and hope for the best.

Hope isn’t their only strategy. A female cowbird lays about one thickshelled egg each morning, and can lay forty or even sixty eggs in a season. Using radio-tagged birds, scientists discovered that females will spend the morning in nest-rich habitats like forests and edges. They may silently observe potential hosts in preparation for a “mission impossible”-style egg laying operation; walk around in dense ground cover looking for nests; or fly noisily through the shrubs hoping to flush a mother and home in on a target. They spend their afternoons foraging in more open habitats. Sometimes they’ll even return to a parasitized nest to check on and feed their own young. Once fledged, the young cowbirds instinctively seek flocks of their own kind.

This worked out pretty well when there were still plenty of bison moving freely across the plains. Nomadic cowbirds rarely parasitized the same nest repeatedly, so their songbird hosts recovered easily from the reproductive setback. The problems came when pioneers settled the plains and replaced nomadic bison with fenced cattle, tilled farmland, and backyard feeders. The birds adapted well to the new scheme, which allowed them to spread east into new territory, where songbirds weren’t used to their skullduggery – which could now be concentrated instead of scattered. Their success came at the expense of their reputation, though, and cowbirds are now an unwelcome visitor in backyards from California to Maine.

Is it really their fault? Like so many animals, they evolved to live in a world that we have changed almost beyond recognition. But there, on the side of the road surrounded by vast prairies and restored herds, they were behaving exactly like they should. They still aren’t my favorite birds, but for just a moment I could really appreciate the cowbirds’ place in the world.

Then – restless as ever – the two bison moved on. I put down my camera, rolled up the window, and continued west.

Emily’s second book, Natural Connections: Dreaming of an Elfin Skimmer, is now available to purchase at cablemuseum.org/books. For more than 50 years, the Cable Natural History Museum has served to connect you to the Northwoods. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and cablemuseum.org to see what we are up to.

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Tribal casinos start to reopen with caution

By Danielle Kaeding

Many Wisconsin tribes have been reopening their casinos as they lift or ease stay-at-home restrictions that were put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

Many tribes maintained or extended stay-at-home, travel and curfew restrictions following the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down the state’s “Safer at Home” order. Now, some are beginning to reopen businesses, campgrounds and gaming facilities.

Tribes primarily use gaming revenues WISC from their casinos to support NEWS essential government services and programs, by WPR including health care, education and law enforcement. The National Indian Gaming Commission projects 241 tribes nationwide, including Wisconsin’s 11 tribes, could see a loss of $22.4 billion in gaming revenues, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

As of June 15, the commission reported 322 of the roughly 520 gaming operations they oversee nationwide had resumed operations with 63 additional facilities expected to reopen.

In Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk Nation opened casinos in Madison on June 3 and in Nekoosa on Tuesday. The tribe also announced plans to open three more sites in Wisconsin Dells, Black River Falls and Wittenberg on June 29.

Ryan Greendeer, public relations officer for the Ho-Chunk Nation, said the tribe is still taking precautions to protect members during the coronavirus pandemic through travel restrictions and social distancing. At its casinos, he said they’re following many of the same standards as other businesses that have reopened since the state’s stay-at-home order was lifted.

“We’re requiring masks of everybody, and, if people are not going to wear a mask in our facilities, we’re going to ask them to leave. And if they don’t, then we’re going to escort them to the door,” said Greendeer. “That’s just for everybody’s safety.”

Greendeer said employees, visitors

An email this week from Colleen Goetsch of Bad River Casino said the venue will not be open in June.

and guests will undergo temperature screenings when they enter their gaming facilities. In addition, he said they’re changing floor plans, installing plastic partitions to protect patrons, and limiting capacity between 25 to 35 percent of normal operations.

“We’ve done that to create some mandatory social distancing and try to help some of our guests to maintain adequate distance using the space that we provide,” he said.

Similar steps are being taken by the Forest County Potawatomi, which began a phased reopening at its Potawatomi Hotel & Casino in Milwaukee last week. Chairman Ned Daniels Jr. said in a community update on Wednesday that no issues have been reported so far, prompting a planned reopening of its Potawatomi Carter Casino in northern Wisconsin on Monday, June 22.

“Our casino management has done an excellent job putting together plans for a safe reopening, implementing these important safeguards, so we could protect the health and safety of everyone at our facilities,” said Daniels.

The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa suspended its shelter-at-home order and curfew restrictions Wednesday and reopened its Lake of the Torches Resort and Casino under restrictions that barred smoking, required masks and social distancing. The tribe’s government buildings are set to reopen Thursday.

“People may be asked to follow certain safety measures upon entering or using one of our facilities,” said Lac du Flambeau Tribal President Joseph Wildcat Sr. in a statement. “We’re asking everyone to please respect those around you and follow safety measures designed to keep everyone as safe as possible. Many unknowns remain about COVID-19. To keep the reservation open, we all need to do things somewhat differently for now.”

Other tribes have also reopened casinos under safety precautions this month. Some are encouraging, but not requiring, people to wear masks, including the St. Croix Chippewa Indians and Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The Oneida Nation, Stockbridge-Munsee Community and Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin also reopened gaming facilities at the end of May.

Yet, some tribes have not yet fully reopened their casinos despite allowing their stay-at-home orders to end or expire, including the Bad River and Red Cliff Bands of Lake Superior Chippewa. The Red Cliff tribe’s stay-at-home resolution ended last Friday while Bad River’s expired on Monday.

Red Cliff Tribal Chairman Rick Peterson said they’re not reopening the facility for gaming until they’re comfortable that patrons and employees can safely return.

“It’s going to be social distancing. There’s some rearranging on the floor. It’s going to be opened in phases,” said Peterson. “Not every component of the facility is going to open up on day one.”

As they reopen, tribes say they’re continuing to monitor the prevalence of coronavirus in the community and may re-issue restrictions if necessary to protect public health. The CARES Act allocated $8 billion in direct assistance for tribes, but the funding can only be used to pay for extra expenses incurred from the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal assistance can’t be used to replace lost gaming revenues.

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A brief history of the Twins

The Minnesota Twins – the first franchise from Minnesota to compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) – made their debut in the 1961 season.

They have appeared in three World Series (1965, 1987 and 1991) and won two World Series titles (1987 and 1991).

Calvin Griffith, the owner of the Washington (DC) Senators, received permission to move his baseball franchise to the Twin Cities on Oct. 26, 1960.

The relocated ballclub was named the Minnesota Twins in honor of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), and the team competed in its inaugural MLB season in 1961 as a member of MINN the American League. HISTORY The team’s first logo featured by MINNESOTA two figures, christened “Minnie” HISTORICAL SOCIETY and “Paul,” shaking hands across the Mississippi River. In a nod to Min-nesota’s Minor League teams, Minnie sported a jersey with the Minneapolis Millers’ “M,” while Paul wore a jersey featuring the “STP” of the St. Paul Saints.

Though they finished seventh out of 10 American League teams in the 1961 season, the Twins improved as the decade progressed. Led by manager Sam Mele, they finished first in the American League in 1965 with a record of 102-60 and squared off in the World Series against the National League champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The series went to a deciding Game Seven, played at Metropolitan Stadium, which featured the Twins’ Jim Kaat dueling with Dodgers pitcher and future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. The Twins fell to the Dodgers by a final score of 2-0 and would have to wait for more than two decades for their next World Series appearance.

In the next two decades, despite the efforts of Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva and a young Bert Blyleven, the Twins reached the postseason only twice, in 1969 and 1970. In the 1980s the team cultivated promising young talents, like Bloomington native Kent Hrbek, Frank Viola, Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky, Kirby Puckett and Greg Gagne.

The organization changed ownership Minnesota Twins World Series victory parade in Minneapolis, Oct. 28, 1987.

Harmon Killebrew of the Minnesota Twins hitting his 500th home run during a game against the Baltimore Orioles at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, August 10, 1971.

for the first time in 1984, when businessman Carl Pohlad purchased the Twins baseball club from Calvin Griffth for close to $44 million.

The 1987 season saw the Twins, led by 36-year-old manager Tom Kelly, finish with an AL West record of 85-77 behind their young core of homegrown talent and a recently returned Bert Blyleven.

Having won their first pennant, they advanced to the World Series, where they faced the St. Louis Cardinals. The Twins seized their first World Series title in a decisive 4-2 Game Seven victory on Oct. 25, 1987, in front of 55,376 spectators at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.

The Twins returned to the World Series in 1991 in improbable fashion after finishing dead last in the American League in the 1990 season. They found success by way of dominant starting pitching from the trio of Kevin Tapani, Scott Erickson and St. Paul native Jack Morris; offense was provided by free agent signee Chili Davis along with Shane Mack, Kirby Puckett, and 1991 Rookie of the Year Chuck Knoblauch.

In what is considered by many to be one of the all-time-greatest World Series, the Twins defeated the Atlanta Braves in a best-of-seven series, in Minnesota Twins “Worst to First” sticker recognizing the team’s unanticipated 1991 World Series victory. which three games were decided in extra innings.

Game Seven featured a pitching contest between two Hall of Famers, the Braves’ John Smoltz and the Twins’ Jack Morris, and Minnesota won 1-0 in the tenth inning on Gene Larkin’s walk-off single.

The Twins’ success in the early 1990s was followed by eight consecutive losing seasons, and by 2001, rumors swirled that the club would be contracted (dissolved). Despite the uncertainty of their future, the 2001 Twins managed a winning record in Tom Kelly’s last season as manager, and then made their first postseason appearance since 1991 during the 2002 season.

From 2002 to 2004, under a new manager (Rod Gardenhire) and a core of players including Brad Radke, Torii Hunter, Johan Santana, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Corey Koskie, the Twins won back-to-back-to-back American League Central titles. They failed, however, to advance past the American League Championship Series.

The winning streak of the early 2000s helped the club to avoid contraction, and the Twins continued to succeed throughout the decade – thanks in large part to the efforts of 2009 MVP (and St. Paul native) Joe Mauer and 2006 MVP Justin Morneau. They reached the postseason in the 2006, 2009, and 2010 seasons, and moved into their third home, Target Field in Minneapolis, at the start of the 2010 season.

They struggled after 2011, losing more than 100 games in the 2016 season.

In 2019, however, the team hired Rocco Baldelli as manager, finished with an AL Central record of 101-61, and reached the postseason.

Editor’s note: This article focuses on the Minnesota Twins iteration of the franchise (1961–present), and does not reflect the pre-Twins statistics and accomplishments of the Washington Senators (1901–1961).