June 21, 2026: We have Chicks!

We have our first loon chick of 2026, earlier than anticipated. Eagle-eye loon-watcher Amy saw it on the morning of June 17 with both adults tending to it, far away from the nest.  Which raised the question, was there a second egg?  With the three loons well away from the nest, Amy checked the nest and found an unattended egg just sitting there.  So we called the Loon Preservation Committee and they said the parents may return to it, but we should mark it and check again in 12 hours to see if it had been turned. If not, it would be an inviable egg.  So following the described procedures, I went to mark it.  When I got close, I could see it was damaged - there was a crack in the shell.

But then I thought I saw the crack move.  And then I heard a peep!

The crack was the chick inside starting to peck its way out!  I couldn't resist taking some pictures before I got out of there, hoping the parents would hear it calling and return.

When I checked again in early evening, one loon was back on sentry near the nest, and the other was on the nest, and the next morning - there were two chicks!

Riding on mom's back.

Two chicks safely tucked up under dad's strong wing.

So now the addictive draw of watching baby chicks being raised has begun. One parent dives constantly to find tiny minnows for the chicks. Sometimes it takes a bit for the small fluff balls to build up the confidence to swallow what must appear huge to them. But when they're hungry enough, they do it.

Mom takes a well deserved nap.

While dad quietly brings in dinner.

Junior takes over.

It's a big bite.

Going down.

And dad's already searching the next fish.

Unfortunately, the good news didn't last long. The very next night there was a lot of loud ruckus on the lake, and the next morning, only one chick was to be seen.  The pair has been fending off a rogue loon the past few days, and that may be culprit of the chick's demise.  It was hard to watch the adults floating in the lake for hours that morning, scanning the water and cooing gently in hopes of locating their lost chick.  Contrary to the tranquil appearance, being a loon is not an easy life.

We assume the surviving chick is the older, larger, stronger of the two.  The tradition on Wicwas is that a chick is named by the first person to see it.  Amy named our little one "Northern Pip".  

Meanwhile, the southern pair has taken up residence on their nest, and because it's in a more travelled part of the lake, signs have been placed to alert boaters.   Please encourage anyone you see too close to back off a bit.

Southern nest.  Photo by Dave Thorpe.

Earlier in the week I saw a different bird collecting food for its young chicks. 

A Tree Swallow with a beak full of damselflies.

There have been a lot of tree swallows zooming all over the lake this spring, feasting on the plentiful insect population that thrives near water.

On land, the mammals are raising their young as well.  I came across a doe that was nursing a tiny, tiny, fawn right along the edge of the road beside the Hamlin Town Forest.  I was on my bike and I stopped. Mom stared at me for a moment, then walked calmly off, dissolving into the forest. The fawn, confused, stood there for a second or two before wobbling off on its spindly little legs to find its mother.  A second four legged animal we're not quite sure we're happy about is a skunk family that has taken up residence behind the house. So far we haven't seen anything more than a few little black and white fur balls scurrying around in the trees as mom shoes them back into the den.

The skunk family residence in the rocky hill behind the house.

Soon enough they'll be out exploring their neighborhood, and though skunks are mostly nocturnal, juveniles will often sneak out during nap time when mom is sleeping.  Fortunately, young skunks don't develop the ability to spray for about three months, and by that time we hope they have learned to sleep whenever we might be out and about!

We'll be in loon overload for next couple of months, so I'll end with another of nature's summer light show.

The crescent moon was back to join Venus and Jupiter in the western sky.

June 14, 2026: Pollen Aplenty

Before we look at pollen, a disclaimer is in order:  When we get to the loon update, this post will get a little racy, so be warned. 

If you're in the Lakes Region, you know that the white pine trees released their copious load of pollen this week. 

Lakes were yellow, cars were yellow, even indoor surfaces near open windows were coated with a thin layer of yellow dust.  Pine marks the end of tree pollen season and the good news is that the large yellow particles, which are so visible, are too large for your immune system to interpret as a virus, so they don't trigger your immune system.  But they sure do make a gunky mess in the lake.

I mentioned on May 24th that Jupiter and Venus were visible in the western sky shortly after sunset.  Since then they have been on a course for a close encounter, with their closest alignment occurring on June 9th. 

Jupiter and Venus shine in the evening sky over Lake Wicwas

Venus is the brighter of the two, about seven times brighter than Jupiter.  The hot weather this week - it hit 93.4 degrees on Friday - made for pleasant nighttime sky-gazing.  The frogs and toads loved it too.  On the night of the conjunction, the Gray Tree Frogs celebrated the event by serenading me with musical accompaniment as I enjoyed the celestial light show. 

In daylight hours it was the Green Frogs that were providing the background music.

If you turn the volume up you'll hear some mosquitoes buzzing in addition to the frogs and the blue jays.

Last week I noted a painted turtle nest that had been raided for the eggs.  This week it was a snapping turtle nest.  

The consumed eggs of the nest (the hole on the left) were spread out on the ground.

This nest was very near where I saw the snapping turtle I mentioned last week laying eggs beside Chemung Rd.  There are a lot more eggs in a snapping turtle nest than in a painted turtle nest.

And snapper turtle eggs are rounder, whiter, and a little harder - not as leathery - as painted turtle eggs.

We didn't get up to Sugar Hill this year to see the lupines, but I'm guessing there's a good showing based on how many we have blooming in our yard.  The bumblebees been out doing their part to make sure there will be another good crop next year too.

A bumblebee comes in to add more pollen to the bundle on its leg.

Now to the loons. The northern pair is still tending their eggs, though sitting on the nest in 90 degree heat must be excruciating.  We can only hope they're able to keep the eggs from overheating.  As for the southern pair, Deb Crowley saw them starting to build a nest in the same spot they successfully fledged a chick in 2022. 

Photos by Deb Crowley

They got right down to the business of making a family after they started nest construction.  Guy Sanderson caught the southern pair in the act of copulation (this is where things get R-rated).

Video by Guy Sanderson

It may not be very graceful, but it appears to be effective! 

A female will develop and lay her first egg three to five days after successful fertilization, and a second egg, if laid, will follow one or two days later.  By Friday the pair was on the nest so we assume there's at least one egg present.  It was a little later start than typical due to the heavy rain, but at this point we're in good shape for two potential nests.  We'll keep an eye on things and provide an update next week.

On the way out this week, I'll note it also seems to an especially favorable year for the Larger Blue Flag.

Keep an eye out for these beautiful native lilies as you paddle around any lake in New Hampshire.

June 7, 2026: Turtle Time

Like many animals at this time of year, the turtles are active and are getting busy reproducing.  I saw this Painted Turtle sunning on a log in a quiet corner of Lake Wicwas. 

Turtles don't soak in the sun just to feel good; there is important physiological value to their sessions in the sun.  Jen Esten and Jon Waage, authors of  The Nature of Pleasant Lake newsletter, wrote about turtles recently:

Being cold blooded, turtles need to sunbathe to elevate body temperature which in turn raises metabolic rate.  Sunbathing also periodically dries their shells, helping control mold. Rocks and logs are safe places to get some sun.  In addition to the sun’s warmth, they need the UVB rays to produce Vitamin D3 for processing calcium required for shell and bone growth.  UVA rays help with several body functions.  Sunning spots can get crowded!  Allowing fallen trees to stay in the lake helps.  These turtles feed on aquatic plants, algae and small aquatic invertebrates and fish. Young turtles are mostly meat eaters but become more vegetarian as they age.  They can live for 30 years or more!

We have a healthy painted turtle population in Wicwas even though a lot of their eggs are dug up and eaten by various predators before they hatch.  This excavated turtle nest was beside a trail in the Hamlin Town Forest this week.

Leathery egg shells left by a predator that consumed their contents.

Every year I find one of two of these dug up nests, often right on the shoulder of roads near water bodies.  Sometimes I even come across a mom laying her eggs.  This good size snapper was right on the side of Chemung Road at the Chemung State Forest.  

A female snapping turtle laying her eggs a few years ago.

This baby painted turtle was found this week by Lindsey Duggan:

Photo by Lindsey Duggan

If turtles are just laying eggs now, how can we see baby turtles already?  Well, painted turtles that are laid in late summer can overwinter underground after hatching, and emerge in the spring when the ground warms up.  

What's even more unusual is that she also found a baby snapping turtle.

Snapping turtles don't usually have the same wintering trait as their painted cousins - even if eggs are laid in late summer, snapper eggs usually hatch the same year.  But according to MassWildlife, they sometimes do overwinter in the nest, and that is likely how that baby turtle emerged in early June.  Another possibility is that it did leave the nest late last fall and immediately dug into the bottom of the lake for the winter.

-----🐢🐢🐢-----

One morning this week I saw a lot of commotion in the leaves of a maple tree just after sunrise, so I took a moment to see what was in there - it was a Gray Squirrel. 

A gray squirrel amidst the maple leaves.

It was very focused on some activity, running up and down the branches, stopping here and there to chew on something.  I waited for it to come to the end of branch so I could get a good look to see what it was up to - it was munching on maple seeds!

It would pull all little helicopter samaras from a clump, gobble up the seeds, and let the wings flutter down to the ground.  Then it would move on to the next clump. (Sorry about the focus, the moving branch made focus difficult.)

Just one tree seems like it must have an inexhaustible supply of these seeds!

The double winged "helicopter" seeds of a maple tree are called samaras - a latin name for a seed.

This week's off-lake exploration was to Mt. Liberty in Franconia Notch, from which the recent snow was still visible on Mount Washington.

Down at the snowless base of Franconia Notch, both sides of the Appalachian Trail were carpeted with large patches of Bluebead Lily.  

These are often inconspicuous plants, scattered here and there, hidden under other small plants, and with their blossoms hanging downward.  But in large patches along the trail edge, they were hard to miss.

Close up, they have their own hidden beauty. 

Later in the summer each blossom will produce a large, hard blue fruit - that is, assuming a friendly pollinator does its part!  

The fruit is inedible by people though many animals can and do eat them.

I'll  close with the loon update.  The LPC summer biologist came to survey the lake this week. 

Nicole, our summer loon biologist.

We observed the northern loon nest - it's a well hidden nest. 

Can you see the loon in there?

As of today, we still don't know if the southern pair has nested.  We'll keep you abreast of the latest developments!

May 31, 2026: Challenged by Cherries

I've always been challenged by the various cherry trees we have in the Lakes Region, and this spring, with many blooming, once again I couldn't tell them apart.  So I decided to make a concerted effort to finally figure them out.  There seem to be four species that grow here, although I learned that one of them isn't actually a cherry tree, but a fruiting shrub, growing up to six feet high.  That's the one that's blooming widely all around the lake, the Black Chokeberry.

Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)

Black Chokeberry grows along the shores of lakes and wetlands, and also on field edges - I've seen them at 2000' elevation on the ledges of Mt. Roberts in the Ossipee Mountains.  Their flowers grow in clusters, as do their fruit.

Chokeberry is flowering now all around the Lakes Region

Chokeberry fruit in September.

The fruit stays on the plant into winter, providing a late winter food source for year-round fruit-eating birds like bluebirds and cedar waxwings.

There are two varieties of chokeberry that grow in New Hampshire, black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) and red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), but I'm pretty confident most of what I see is the black variety as they are a more northern species, growing as for north as Canada.  Also, the color of the fruit I've seen in the fall is a good indicator.  If you look inside a chokeberry fruit you'll find multiple seeds (like a fruit) rather than the single pit of a cherry.

Moving on to the true cherries (genus prunus), the grand champion is the Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) which can grow up to 80' tall and is highly valued by craftsmen for its beautiful wood.  It has blossoms and fruit that grow in racemes - a long, thin tubular shape. 

Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)

Black cherry was planted on many New England farms and you can find them at the Meredith Page Pond Town Forest near the Barnard Ridge Road trailhead.  There is a very large one in the old orchard being rejuvenated, as well as several smaller ones in the field.   

Common Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) has flower clusters similar to black cherry, but its leavers are wider and more rounded, and it's a smaller tree, growing only to 18' tall.

Common Chokecherry

Pin Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) is also a small tree, growing to about 20'.  Its flowers and fruit grow in clusters similar to Black Chokeberry.

Pin Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica)

The three prunus cherries are all considered pioneer species, as they quickly emerge in open areas following fire or logging (the chokeberry is not).  A great example of this is the stand of pin cherry trees that rapidly took over a clear cut abutting the Eames Conservation Area in the Hamlin-Eames Town Forest.  If you hike the White Trail where it runs along the boundary line you can see this stand just over the stone wall that is the boundary.

So, we have pin cherry, black cherry, common chokecherry, and black chokeberry.  No wonder I've been confused by cherries!

Black Cherry:

Habitat:  old fields and woodland edged
Height:  40'

Flowers:  5" long racemes 

Fruit:  1/2", dark red to black

Leaves:  5", elliptical, toothed

Pin Cherry:

Habitat:  clearings

Height:  20'

Flowers:  1/2" in clusters 

Fruit:  small, red

Leaves:  4", lanceolate

Common Chokecherry:

Habitat:  water edges, roadsides

Height:  18'

Flowers :  4" racemes

Fruit:  1/2" red to black

Leaves:  elliptical, finely toothed

Black Chokeberry (not a cherry):

Habitat:  water edges

Height:  12'

Flowers : 3" clusters 

Fruit:  1/4", black, in clusters

Leaves:  2", oval, finely toothed

This week found me near Squam Lake, hiking up Eagle Cliff  (where I found many black cherry trees!) and over to Red Hill.  It was a cool, sunny morning and the lake and mountains were beautiful.

Squam Lake from Eagle Cliff.

The hike along the ridge from the cliff to the Red Hill fire tower was a spring nature tour.  I heard 17 different birds, including a loon carrying all the way from the lake on that quiet morning.  Other treats included seeing a bright red Scarlet Tanager (which I often hear, but rarely can see high in the canopy) and hearing both Hermit and Wood Thrushes.  

The wildflowers were as captivating as the birds, and I even found a new flower I hadn't even heard of before:  Rock Harlequin.

Rock Harlequin  (Capnoides sempervirens)

It's a tall, spindly plant with pretty pink and yellow blossoms at the top.

The North Carolina State Extension states rock harlequin thrives on rocky cliffs, granite domes, and in rock crevasses with poor drainage.  They prefer acidic soils in climates with cold winters and cool summers. [Ref:  NC State Extension]  This is exactly where I found these; they were growing in a sunny spot right at Eagle Ledge, amidst a large patch of bluets.   

Bluets

Often when I see bluets they're more white than blue, but these flowers up high had a nice blue hue.

A few wild columbine were also blooming alnog the ridge trail.

Columbine

May and June spring hiking can be slow with all the nature to observe, so remember to bring along the bug spray when you're out.  It is also loon nesting season, and there is news on that front.  The Wicwas northern pair has selected a site and is now on the nest, hopefully with two eggs to incubate.  They chose the same site as 2024, which didn't work out for them - the nest was predated, after which they built a second nest in a different location.  Let's hope things go better this year.  The site is well hidden and well away from boating traffic, so no signs will be placed there.

Both members of the southern pair have now been confirmed by their bands (thanks DT!) and with only a single loon being seen in their territory now, it's likely they have a nest with eggs too.  If you happen to come across it on your travels, please let us know so we can take any precautions needed to protect it.  

Friday's 3" of rain raised the lake level by 6" even with the dam lowered in preparation.  Hopefully both pairs can defend their nests from the rising water.  Last year we fledged only one chick, Spangle.  We hope to increase that number in 2026!

Spangle, shortly before leaving the lake in early December 2025.