February 28, 2021: Beede Falls Ice Cave

This week I witnessed one of the most amazing natural phenomena I've ever seen, and it's all due to friend and outdoor enthusiast Shayne Duggan, who told me about this unique experience.

Inside the Beede Falls Ice Cave

Just this past autumn I had stopped by Beede Falls in Sandwich Notch on my way up Mt. Israel from Sandwich Notch Road - the first time I had seen this waterfall.  This is what that beautiful waterfall looked like in November.

Beede Falls after a good rain last November.

But Shayne shared some incredible winter pictures from the falls, and I had to see it for myself.  With Sandwich Notch Road closed for the winter, Linda and I hiked along the Bearcamp River Trail from Mead Base to the upper falls.  Arriving at the falls there was absolutely no running water visible in the river.  

The same waterfall in winter.

But there were openings at either side of the now-frozen waterfall.

An intrepid hiker peers behind the curtain.

Poking my head in one of those doors opened up a whole new world hidden behind that wall of frozen water.

Looking in behind the wall of ice.

The swirling water over the centuries has gouged out the rock where the water crashes down so the pool undercuts the bottom of the cliff that forms the face of the falls.  When the pool freezes over you can crawl along the surface of the ice, passing behind the water flooding down, which over the course of the winter has frozen into a crystal ice curtain.  

Behind the falls.

Linda enters the cave, walking on the frozen pool.

Linda took this next picture from that spot, looking along toward the other opening.

There was enough light shining through the ice that the cave was reasonably well lit on the inside.

Drops of that perfectly clear mountain water coming off the rock has formed beautiful, lustrous ice formations inside the cave.

The rush of water pouring down into the pool makes a fair racket resonating inside the cavity, though you can barely find the moving water in between  the stalactites and the frozen wall.  Here are a couple of videos of what it looks and sounds like from behind that wall of ice.

I imagine the ice wall builds up from the bottom as water crashing into the frozen pool freezes higher and higher until it reaches the top of the ledge, but that's just speculation.  

Talk about mother nature giving us a spectacular treat to enjoy in winter!  Perhaps this was the inspiration behind the ice castles that have become a popular attraction up in North Woodstock.  

Nature's own ice castles.  (Looking back to where I came from.)

We were there in the afternoon when the falls were in the shade; I'd like to go back in the morning and see what it's like with the sun shining directly on the ice.

We made the trip a loop by continuing past the falls up to Sandwich Notch Road which is closed in the winter, then followed that back to Diamond Ledge Road and returned up to Mead Base.  Sandwich Notch Road is a dead-end snowmobile trail in winter; we didn't encounter a single snowmobile on a nice Friday afternoon.

It may be deep winter up in Sandwich Notch, but back at the lakes some early signs of spring are just becoming perceptible, such as the stronger sun melting snow on south facing slopes and the first tinge of yellow appearing on the goldfinches.  

We're about to start that transition period of March where chick-a-dees are singing one morning, and the morning next there's a blizzard.

More snow just yesterday.

March can be our snowiest month of the year!

February 21, 2021: Blue, Blue Skies

The snow conditions haven't been very good for tracking lately.  First we had some rain which put a crust on the top of snow preventing any tracks from registering except for the deer which have sufficient weight on tiny hooves to break through the crust.  But for obvious reasons, they don't much like walking around in those conditions.  On the few occasions I did see deer tracks there were often blood stains on the snow where the sharp crust cut into their lower legs.  One place I saw these tracks was on the trail up to Red Hill on Wednesday, an absolutely spectacular blue-sky day.

Fire tower on Red Hill.

I didn't check the numbers, but the dew point that day must have been below zero for the sky to be that blue.  

One night we got a dusting of snow which was just enough for little mouse tracks to be seen on top of the crust.

Mouse tracks running from tree to tree.

Trees tend to make openings in the snow next to the trunk, either due to wind blowing around the tree or from sun warming the dark trunk, which provides easy access up and down through the snow cover for the mice.  As I mentioned last week, I have trouble differentiating between voles and mice, but I think these are mice tracks.  Not only are they running around above the snow (voles tend to tunnel underneath the snow) but they also show tail tracks - look closely at the tracks in the lower right - blown up here:

The tail drag mark is evident.

Voles can also leave tail tracks in snow but it's less common with the shorter tail they have.

Then on Friday we received a nice little snowfall of a few inches to put a good surface on top of the crust, but I didn't get out locally to see what was around, instead taking a trip over to Dorchester to ski on the nicely prepared trails at Green Woodlands.  

If  you're a cross country skier and have never been there, you should check it out - many miles of trails groomed for classic and skate, plus many other trails left for backcountry skiing.  And it's all at no cost.  Usually they have warming huts with fires and hot chocolate, but they're closed this year, although they do have one outdoor fire pit open with the fire burning, ready to cook up s'mores.  You can find out more at their website or facebook page.

Back on Lake Wicwas, during a ski along the west side of the lake, I came across this neat sight over the frozen water:

A Kingbird nest from warmer days.

It's the nest of an Eastern Kingbird, nicely being kept safe for next summer under a blanket of snow.  Evidently they have taken advantage of some human trash to reinforce their nest with strong fibers of blue plastic.  Animals will certainly make good use of whatever they can find.  I remember my grandmother putting out pieces of strings for birds to use in their nest building.

This kingbird nest raised a brood of four chicks in 2016 though I don't know if it's been used since then; kingbirds don't usually reuse a nest the way the phoebe, another flycatcher, does.  If the nest hasn't been rehabilitated since 2016 it certainly has held up well over the years.  Right now the kingbirds are enjoying winter in South America, somewhere along the Amazon River living off of fruit; they won't return to New Hampshire for quite a while yet, waiting until the insects they live off have emerged.  It's too bad the flycatchers will never get to experience that beautiful blue New Hampshire sky.

February 14, 2021: Prey and Predator

This week we had one of our littlest visitors come to the birdfeeder, a meadow vole.

A meadow vole munches on a dropped seed.

I always want to call these furry little guys "mice" and have to remember that mice are nocturnal while voles are the ones out during the day.  Sometimes skiing I'll have to dodge a vole as it sprints across the ski slope, it's little dark body looking like a sunspot moving across the snow.  Other identifying features are the ears - mice have large ears while voles' ears are tiny.  Another is the tail: Mice have long tails and voles have short ones, though this guy never showed me his whole tail.

I only see them in the winter when they stand out against the snow - during the summer they must blend in perfectly with their surroundings, though sometimes I'll hear a rustling of leaves by the trail and I presume it's a vole scurrying away.  In winter voles spend most of their lives safely protected under the snow in the subnivean zone (see post from 17 March 2019, The Subvivean Zone) but they'll pop up to the surface and take the risk to collect the abundance of dropped food under a bird feeder.  

Poking out of one hole, with another tunnel seen just above him on the left.

Voles must be in cahoots with the nuthatches which throw piles of seed onto the ground as they dig through the feeder to find a seed they deem worthy of eating.

It took some patience to get a picture of this guy as he would barely show just a bit of his body for an instant before ducking back down for safety.  But a couple of times he exposed himself enough that I was able to see who was down there.  

And he is smart to be so wary.  I still haven't seen our bobcat, but there are regular fox tracks going around the feeders.  Others around the lakes have had good reminders of just why those rodents are so careful.  

A bobcat stalks a feeder- photo by Tom Witham.

That picture of a bobcat stalking a birdfeeder was sent by a friend who lives near Meredith Bay. (Thanks TW!)  While foxes travel continuously in search of prey, bobcats will often settle down in a spot with a good view of a promising stretch of landscape and wait for food to come to it.

Another local bird watcher sent this photo along (thank you AC!):

A barred owl keeps watch over a Wicwas feeder - photo by Annie Crane.

Do you think this owl has its eyes open enough to keep watch for its prey?  I also wonder how it manages to balance itself way out on the end of that dead branch!  At least it has nice fluffy feathers to keep its toes warm.

Yesterday we braved the cold to go out and take in all the action on the big lake, but this year we went to Alon Bay rather than Meredith Bay so we could see the ice sculptures and watch the planes on the Alton ice runway - it's their Winter Carnival weekend.

Coming in for a landing on the nice.  Note the large winter tires.

See the ice fishing tip-up?

Yes, it's fishing derby weekend as well.  I wonder if that tip-up right next to the runway will have any luck.  

The Alton Bay ice runway is the only FAA approved ice runway in the continguous United States.  If you've never seen it, it's definitely worth the trip.  It was a beautiful day and there was a constant stream of planes coming and going.  I'll add some of the may different planes we saw yesterday in case there are any aircraft aficionados reading the journal.

This is a nice winter set-up.

Another one with skis.

Ground control kept things safe and orderly.

Lots of planes in the parking area.

Arriving in formation.

And taking off one after another.

A fun day on Alton Bay.

And the action continues today if you want to head over this afternoon - what a great way to spend Valentine's Day!  💘💘💘

The runway will stay open as long as the ice is safe and they can clear the runway.

February 7, 2021: Common Redpolls visit the Lakes Region

Hello February, what a great winter month!  The days are already longer; the sun a little brighter, a little warmer.  New snow comes frequently to freshen the world and cold weather is consistent enough to allow a host of winter activities.  Lake Winnipesaukee is now iced-in so the Pond Hockey Classic on Meredith Bay was a go for this weekend, as is the fishing derby next weekend.

As the winter progresses and cold temperatures take over the northern hemisphere, the Lakes Region sometimes hosts transient birds visiting all the way from the artic in search of food - and maybe warmer weather.  It's the only time of year we are able to see the beautiful snowy owl, for example.  Another visitor from the north stopped by our bird feeder this week, a whole flock of them in fact.

Common Redpolls

Common redpolls spend the summer far up in Canada, breeding in pine, spruce and birch forests as far north as Greenland.  In winter they head south, sometimes all the way down to the southern Massachusetts border depending on the available food supply, often in large flocks, and this is when we might see them.  Redpolls prefer small seeds like thistle and millet that fit in their beak, both of which we have in at least one of our feeders.  

Those tiny seeds are perfect for crunching in their small beaks.

Traveling in large flocks, they can be aggressive toward other birds, even those in their own flock when feeding.

The flock commandeered the feeder.

I watched them fluff their feathers and thrust their open beaks at other birds to shoo them away; even the usual bully white-breasted nuthatch was put off.  But sometimes a nuthatch or a brave chick-a-dee would flit in quickly to steal a seed from an open perch.

A chick-a-dee braves the rebuff of the redpolls (note upper left) to steal a seed.

When I saw the first bird I didn't know what it was and had to look it up.  The black face is good identifying feature if you can get one to look at you.

Note the black face.

It's always a treat when you get to see a bird that doesn't regularly visit the area.  

A fellow birder just north of the Lakes Region shared a picture (thanks EKJ and RH!) of a pine grosbeak in they saw in Campton.  

Edie Kressy caught this pine grosbeak in Campton.

This is another northern bird; the Cornell Ornithology range map shows it just sneaking down into the northern half of New Hampshire, a part of its range listed as "scarce".  Like the red-bellied woodpecker that's moved north into our region, the pine grosbeak may soon move farther north and out of New Hampshire altogether to find the climate it needs, so that was a nice sighting.

I mentioned that the ice on Meredith Bay is sound enough for the winter activities this year. 

The Pond Hockey Tournament was on, but at reduced size and without spectators in the rink area.

But one should still be careful travelling on the ice as many areas on the larger lakes are still not safe for travel.  Even Lake Wicwas which has been iced-in for over a month still has dangerous spots, as we discovered this week poking around in some shallow areas near shore.  

Unsafe ice still exists in spots on Lake Wicwas

I'll finish out the week with a few pictures of February in the Lakes Region.

Nature never disappoints.