April Showers bring May flowers, and at Crossroads at Big Creek, April showers bring fish! and the final session of the 2024 FISH TALES LECTURE SERIES…Presenting the Science of Great Lakes Fisheries.

We’ve already seen a few pike in Big Creek, but the Sucker Run! Long before there was a Crossroads, the Big Creek Sucker Run was a thing. Generations have stood on the shore…or right in the creek…. to marvel as these fish make their annual pilgrimage up Big Creek to spawn.

The suckers are here. Staging…waiting for the right conditions to move upstream.  We know this because of Dr. Karen Murchie, Research Director at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. Dr. Murchie works with community scientists to aid in data collection for a multiyear research effort at 17 sites in three states (including one at Crossroads) to study sucker movement.  According to Murchie, “Suckers have an important ecological role to play because they’re making these early-spring mass migrations into the tributaries and contributing nutrients that kick-start the food web.”

Dr. Murchie will present the lecture; “Suckers on the Move – what we’ve learned from tagging and tracking” describing the latest results on the movement of white suckers from their spawning stream in Door County into Green Bay using acoustic telemetry tags. She will have a lot of new information to share.

Not surprisingly, at our 2:00 pm Science Saturday program, learners of all ages will explore  “Pike and Suckers,” beginning with indoor lessons followed, weather permitting, with a hike to the sucker monitoring station at Big Creek. All are welcome at this free educational program.

Because we never know quite when (or even if)  a run will start, scheduling is impossible. Instead, we will offer after-school naturalist-led “pop-up” hikes to the creek. Follow Crossroads on Facebook or check the Crossroads website for “day-of announcements” of these Sucker Viewing hikes.

Crossroads visitors are excited when our otherwise placid Big Creek is transformed by melting snow and spring rains into a rushing, babbling brook, and hundreds, probably thousands, of suckers swim upstream to spawn.

Suckers seem to travel in loose groups, so one minute it can be quiet; then suddenly, the water is churning with fish.  The name sucker is given to this type of fish because its downward-facing mouth, in form and function, resembles the hose attachment of a vacuum cleaner.

Suckers are bottom feeders, omnivorous bottom feeders. They suck up anything they can find----small insects, crayfish, algae, and plant matter. They eat anything, and just about everything eats them when they are small. Prey fish species …walleye, trout northern pike…. eat young suckers, and so do turtles, birds, and mammals. Young suckers are an important link in the food chain.

But April is not ALL about fish.  We also care ( a lot)  about frog choruses, dancing woodcocks, and pollinating insects and flowers.

Door County Library, in collaboration with The Door County Master Gardeners, Door County Seed Library, and Crossroads, will offer a three-part series of webinars by nationally known and Wisconsin-based horticulturist Melinda Myers. The free webinar, “Container Gardening Throughout the Year," will be screened at Crossroads on April 10 at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

On April 16 at 6:30 pm, the Door County Beekeeper Club plans a special meeting for the purpose of helping new beekeepers. Speakers Len Arsenault, Max Martin, and Mark Lentz will explain beekeeping equipment and recommend the supplies needed to get started, locate and set up your apiary, and install the bees in a hive. For beekeepers that lost a hive over the winter, they will cover cleaning the boxes and preparing to re-populate the hive. A variety of equipment will be available for people to examine.

Wednesday, April 10

6:30 Live-screening of “Container Gardening Throughout the Year”

Gardening expert and author Melinda Myers will present the first of a series of webinars. The Door County Library, in collaboration with The Door County Master Gardeners and Door County Seed Library, invites the community to Crossroads to view this live-streamed webinar in the lecture hall to learn how to use container gardens to boost the color and seasonal interest in any size landscape, garden, balcony, or deck. With your budget in mind, Myers will explore attractive combinations of trees, shrubs, flowers, edible plants, and those that attract pollinators. Plus, you’ll learn strategies for extending your enjoyment year-round by transforming all or a portion of the container planting with the changing seasons. Meet at the Collins Learning Center, Crossroads, 2041 Michigan, Sturgeon Bay.

Thursday, April 11

7:00 pm Fish Tales Lecture: “Suckers on the move, what we’ve learned from tagging and tracking”

Dr. Karen Murchie, Director of Freshwater Research at the Shedd Aquarium,  will describe how she, using acoustic telemetry tags, can now track the fish that visit Door County tributaries when they are out in the bays and Lake Michigan. Fish Tales lectures are free and open to the public. Meet at the Collins Learning Center, Crossroads 2041 Michigan, Sturgeon Bay. To participate via ZOOM or Facebook Live, go to https://doorcountylibrary.org/event 

Saturday. April 13

2:00 pm Family Program: Science Saturdays – “Pike and Suckers”

Big Creek is locally famous as a spawning stream for northern pike and suckers. Learners of all ages will learn a little about the natural history of these fishes and, weather permitting, will hike to the creek to make on-site observations. Dress for the weather. Free and open to the public.

Meet at the Collins Learning Center, Crossroads, 2041 Michigan, Sturgeon Bay

Tuesday, April 16

6:30 pm Door County Beekeepers Club “Bee Installation and Equipment"

Door County Beekeeper Club plans a special meeting each spring for the purpose of helping new beekeepers. Speakers Len Arsenault, Max Martin and Mark Lentz will explain beekeeping equipment and recommend the supplies needed to get started, locate and set up your apiary, and install the bees in a hive. For beekeepers that lost a hive over the winter, they will cover cleaning the boxes and preparing to re-populate the hive. A variety of equipment will be available for people to examine. Free and open to the public. Meet at the Collins Learning Center, 2041 Michigan, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.