August 9, 2026: Life at the lake slows down, but it never stops

August is a time when things slow down around the lakes.  Most animals are done nesting and keeping a low profile as they raise and protect their young.  Birds are mostly quiet and mammals keep to safe, secluded areas.  But there is still life to be found.  Several summer birds - vireos, thrushes, chickadees, even owls - can be heard calling even on the warmest summer afternoons.  Insects are trilling at night, as are frogs and toads.  And sometimes, life hops out right in front of you when you least expect it.

Pickerel Frog

This pickerel frog leapt out of a flower pot onto the deck when I was watering Linda's begonias.

Finding shady areas with damp soil in her flowers must be a favorite trick frogs use to keep cool and damp because this occurred multiple times in various flower pots during this hot, dry week.

An observant person on Harris Cove noticed another summer resident finding a way to cool off on a hot day.  They first thought a beaver was swimming across the lake, but when it reached shore and emerged from the water, it was something a bit larger than a beaver.

A Black Bear climbs out of the lake after a refreshing swim across Harris Cove.

Thank you SM and JH for sharing!

Then of course, there's the most visible sign of life around the lake - the loons.  Loons really have no place to hide, which means we get to observe the entire offspring-raising process.  

Pip on August 7th, halfway through its molt of baby fuzz to juvenile plumage.

Each summer on Lake Wicwas has been different and interesting ever since a second pair of loons appeared on the lake in 2016 after decades of just one pair having the lake to themselves.  After the first year - when the two pairs fought over the lake all summer - they made a peace agreement, dividing the lake in half, with each pair keeping to their side.  Until now that is, when there have been six loons on the lake most of the summer.  Friday morning I observed an altercation between five loons right at the dividing line.  It began with four of them doing aggressive circle dancing with lots of head dipping, diving, wing rowing and calling. 

Four loons in an aggressive circle dance.

Then the fifth showed up, steaming in from the north territory - I'm guessing it was the northern male.  Things settled down pretty quickly then.  One of the five - presumably the northern male - headed back to the north and the other four went south, two pushing the other two along. 

Putting together all the pieces I've observed over the summer, I have theory:  A third pair has decided it wants to claim territory on Wicwas.  My observations are consistent with both territorial pairs pushing these new intruders out of their territory, so the newcomers are getting squeezed on both sides into the demilitarized zone at the boundary.  

We know the northern male is especially large.  (When he was banded, his legs were too large for any of the metal bands the LPC had, which is why he wears only  a single plastic band.)  My theory includes the south pair experiencing the brunt of the intruders attempt to claim a territory.  This could explain why the south pair abandoned an egg half way through the incubation period - they were too busy defending their territory to tend to it.  It would also explain why we often see Pip left alone while the parents are chasing the intruders back out of their territory.  I watched one aggressive chase with wing-rowing and calling as one loon chased another out of Marion Cove.

I won't be surprised if we have a third pair appear next summer to continue their mission to nest on Lake Wicwas.

Here's another example of late-summer activity; this one needs video:

Fortunately, these are non-biting insects, just male midges swarming in search of females with which to mate.

Thanks to the recording made by association secretary Dean Dexter at last week's Lake Wicwas Association annual meeting, I was able to create a video of my presentation "The Formation of a Gem".  You can find it here:  The Formation of a Gem

I'll close with a new (for me) aquatic plant I found during my recent weed watch tour - it's small, native, representative of good water quality, and pretty too.

Water Lobelia (Lobelia dortmanna)

Enjoy all the glory of New Hampshire in August!

August 2, 2026: Lake Wicwas Annual Meeting - The Making of a Gem

When I was asked to be the speaker for the Lake Wicwas Association annual meeting, my first thought was how about many people have told me this lake is "a gem".  That got me wondering just why it's such a gem - what makes this particular lake so special.  So I spent the week looking at the many aspects of how Lake Wicwas became the gem it is today, and I decided that's what I would present:  how this gem came to be.  The presentation was recorded, and I'll post it on the journal when it's available.  But for now, here's a link to the charts and a short summary of the discussion.

Formation of a Gem - A Natural Tour of Lake Wicwas

I began with a story of how the lake was formed during and immediately following the most recent ice age in North America. 

I then introduced the most important factor in changing the barren landscape that was left behind:  the beaver. 

Before the beavers came and did their work, Wicwas may have just been a muddy swamp with a stream running along the present northern bank. 

But as beavers dammed the stream up, a lake began to take shape.  It likely remained smaller than today for the 12,000 years the Native Americans lived here before the Europeans arrived and started building mills on beaver dams to power gristmills.  As the need for larger and more powerful mills arose, they raised and reinforced these dams for greater water storage.  The first mills in all of Meredith were right next door to where we were sitting in Meredith Center; the original stone mill foundations, and even a newer water turbine, can still be seen in the Mill Brook where it crosses under Meredith Center Road. 

The dam at the outlet of Wicwas was raised to store more water so it could be released all year long to power mills throughout the year.  As the need for better roads arose, the dam was built up again to keep the road over the dam from flooding, though Meredith Center Road does still flood during major rain events.  This final improvement brought the lake to its current size and depth, though beavers continue to provide critical benefits including water filtering, erosion control, water storage, and flood control.

A gem has many facets.  The remainder of the presentation showed some of the many perspectives of the lake - there are so many different ways people appreciate our gem:  peaceful reflection, recreation,  social connections, and family heritage spanning generations.

And then there are the non-human ways in which the lake is seen as not only beautiful, but absolutely essential to life for so many animals, large and small, that depend on the lake for their very existence.  

Seeing, understanding, and marveling at their existence circles right back as a huge factor in why we human inhabitants see Lake Wicwas as a true gem indeed.

In what special ways do our lakes shine for you?

July 26, 2026: Vinylhaven Island, Maine

Penobscot Bay in Downeast Maine was our home base this past week; our explorations went south to Rockland, north to Belfast and Fort Point just below where the Penobscot River enters the bay under the Penobscot Narrow Bridge, and east to Vinalhaven.  The highlight was the trip out to Vinalhaven Island, about 10 miles off shore.

Entering the channel to Caver's Harbor on Vinylhaven.

I was watching for mammals on the way out and back from Vinylhaven - a seal or maybe a dolphin - but alas, it wasn't to be.  But there were birds.  On the open water of the bay, seagulls were swarming the lobster boats, fighting over fish scraps thrown overboard. 

Plus one lone gull that circled high above all the others for some reason unknown.

A common Herring Gull circling over Penobscot Bay.

There are over 4,600 thousand islands off the coast of Maine, most of which are quite small.  

One of the 4000 islands in the Gulf of Maine.

Many of these islands used to provide critical nesting sites for shore birds because there were no mammals to predate the birds or their eggs.  Today, the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refugee is working to protect these sites to help endangered species such Puffins and Artic Terns which have lost much of their habitat to human activity.  We didn't see either of these birds as we made our way through some of these islands on the approach to Vinallhaven, but we did see a few common species, one of which we see regularly in the Lakes' Region. 

A single Great Blue Heron hanging out with the gulls.

We also saw cormorants, which are seen up and down the coast of Maine. 

Double-crested Cormorants

Cormorants are also present on the larger bodies of water in the Lakes Region, and occasional visitors to Lake Wicwas.  Here are couple of cormorants perched in a pine tree on Wicwas.

In a small inlet to the Lanes Island Wildlife Preserve on Vinalhaven, there were several Common Eiders diving, and one resting on one of the many seaweed-draped ledges. 

Common Eiders, females and/or juveniles.  (Males are black and white.)

Common Eiders are the largest of our ducks, behaving more like seabirds than most of our lake ducks.  They can dive down 60 feet and their primary food source is the Blue Mussel.  They tear mussels off the rocks, swallow them whole, and let their strong gizzards grind up the shells to digest the good stuff inside.  [Cornell Lab of Ornithology]

We also explored a little human history on the bay, including Fort Point, where a fort was built in 1759 to protect the north country from attack by sea.

Today there are only remnants of the block house foundation and some of the berms built around the fort.

Securing the land for the military however, has resulted in protecting 120 acres and one mile of beautiful Maine coast for public access. 

In a 2020 post I mentioned the lime kilns in Rockport (September 27, 2020).  This week, walking along the Goose River in Rockport, we saw this huge bank of what looked like lime.  The immediate assumption proved correct:  this is a giant mound of lime tailings discarded after burning the limestone to create the calcium oxide (quicklime) that was shipped to New York and Boston to make mortar and plaster.  

A mountain of waste produce from turning limestone (calcium carbonate) into quicklime (calcium oxide) by heating it to 2000 degrees F in giant kilns

The rusty scrap metal in the piles are the bands that held lime casks together for shipping. 

Rusty old bands from lime casks

Quicklime needed to be packaged and handled carefully because if it got wet onboard the ship, the resulting chemical reaction would create enough heat to spontaneously catch fire. 

While we away from the lakes, our reliable loon watchers kept a good eye on not-so-little Pip.  

Photos by Debby Crowley

Look - wings!  With tiny primary feathers!

There was a moment of concern when a bald eagle swooped down, but Pip evaded the attack!

I'd be remiss not to mention the excellent blueberry crop this year.  It's still not too late to pick a batch, but I recommend finding shaded bushes, as the fruit in the sunniest spots is getting overripe now.

Still loads of berries yesterday.

I'll end back in Maine, with a postcard-perfect picture from Penobscot Bay,

Memories like this bring us back to the coast of Maine every year.