December 22, 2019: Winter Solstice Arrives

Sunset over Oakland Cemetery one day before the winter solstice.

Every year the winter solstice brings one of the most reassuring moments of winter:  The days are getting longer.  As of 11:19 pm last night the sun reached is nadir relative to the northern hemisphere, and from here on out it will rise higher in the sky every day.   It reminds us all that - even if there are many cold days ahead - spring will return and reopen our frozen lakes. 

The first two souls I saw on the lake this winter.

Lake Wicwas has been frozen for a couple of weeks now and on Friday I saw the first two people out on the ice.  After soliciting a report on the ice (thank you HC), and after two days with temps in the single digits and teens, I concluded it was safe for cautious travel and went for a ski before the warm weather arrives.

It's nice to see tracks on the lake again after being vacant for so long.

The skiing was quite good despite a bit of slush on the ice to contend with.

Of course, not all the lakes are frozen yet;  Winnipesaukee will take several more weeks to complete its turnover and freeze all the way across the broads.  Early in the week Lake Waukewan was partly frozen but there was a pair of bald eagles on the frozen area, doing some fishing.  The report (and picture - thanks for sharing Tony!) from a local resident was that the eagles actually cut a hole in the ice to pull out a fish! 

A pair of eagles try their hand at ice fishing.  (Photo by Tony Sabutus)

It's been cold enough that the snow we received on Tuesday has remained light and dry so the animals can still easily paw through the snow to collect the large stash of acorns hidden below.  I came across a section of turned up oak leaves which is a sure sign of some animal in search of acorns.

It could be turkey, bear, or deer, and it's usually pretty easy to determine which by the other signs.  Tracks are one, and these objects make it even easier.

Those are deer droppings, not coffee beans.

Acorns have such great nutritive value that deer feast on them as long as they can get to them.  These deer had plowed around over quite a large area under these oaks trees.  I found a few partially crushed acorns that had fallen from their mouths - not an unusual occurrence as a deer breaks up the hard shells to facilitate digestion in its four-chambered stomach.

A couple of crushed, but dropped acorns.

A deer's first chamber is partially for storage to let them eat more food than they can use in the moment, digesting it later.  Deer have developed quite an intricate system of processing food that they themselves can not digest - they employ the use of Ruminococcus bacteria in their stomach to ferment cellulose (hmm, makes me want to brew some beer....) which breaks it down into digestible products.  Wikipedia has a detailed description of the process here.

Another interesting aspect of deer's food processing is that all that chewing over the years wears down their teeth in such a reliable way that tooth wear is the best method of determining the age of a deer.  A deer will rarely live as long a ten years, but if it does, it's teeth will have worn down so much that it will probably starve to death - or become so weak that it becomes easy prey for coyotes.

There are plenty more cold, wintry days ahead for humans and deer, but every day, the sun will rise slightly farther to the north, and it will climb just a bit higher in the sky.

2:00 pm on December 19th.

I hope everyone has a warm, peaceful Christmas with family and friends where you may be.

Artwork by Desktop Nexus