September 19, 2021: The Sun Also Rises

Summer time brings the most spectacular sunsets, often presented thanks to copious amounts of water vapor in the summer air, and sometimes with a supporting cast of smoke from fires in the west that drifts in our direction in the upper atmosphere.  But early fall is my favorite time for sunrises, and not just because the sun comes up at a more reasonable hour:  sunrise was at 6:28 am yesterday, shortly before I saw the first rays of the day scrape the top of the hill that contains Crockett’s Ledge.  

Yesterday's first light filters through the morning mist.

In another month the sun will rise after 7:00 am as we lose almost 20 minutes of daylight each week as we approach the autumnal equinox.  The next few weeks - before sunrise is set back again by the end of daylight savings time - is my favorite time to climb up Crockett’s in the dark to watch the sun rise over the hills to the east. 

Sunrise from Crockett's Ledge.

If you decide to experience it for yourself, just be on the watch for bears, as I once had an encounter with a bear and two cubs heading up there for the sunrise.

One of my favorite aspects of learning about all the different forms of life in the Lakes Region is knowing what something is when you come across it, sometimes where you least expect it.  One day, opening our mailbox, I saw this stuck to the top of the inside.

An egg sac that didn't arrive via the USPS.

Having just learned about pirate spiders this summer (see Plundering Spiders) I immediately recognized it as a pirate spider egg sac.  Knowing what it is, and that’s it’s not going to hurt me (or the mail person) I’m comfortable letting it be and watching to see if I’ll find any eight-legged scallywags scurrying through the rigging on the mailbox.

On the subject of spiders, this is a good time of year to spot all the bowl-and-doily spiders living in our fields and meadows.  

A bowl and doily spider web saturated with morning dew.

These clever spiders are present throughout the summer but their double, bowl-shaped webs are most noticeable on misty mornings when the heavy dew condenses of the threads of their web.  Their secret to survival is the two-layed web.  They live on the lower web (the doily), protected from predators by the upper web (the bowl).  They lie in wait for an insect to fall, fly, or crawl into the bowl, at which point they sneak up on it from below to bite and inject venom into the unexpecting prey.  The female builds the nest, and the male may live in her house, participating in the capture and the consumption of the food her domicile provides. 

September so far has blessed us with wonderful late-summer weather - nothing even close to a frost yet - with just a few hints of color starting to show in the trees around the Lakes.

Tree tops are starting to turn on the hills west of Lake Wicwas.

I was farther north up on Mount Chocorua this week and even in the White Mountains there’s very little foliage changing.

The Three Sisters with Mt. Chocorua on the left.

A flash of red on Carter Ridge coming down from Middle Sister.  (Mt. Washington is in the distance.)

It's time for a loon update.  Coco and Jimmy are still here, fishing on their own, though one of them, presumably Jimmy, is still often found close to mom and he continues to make a somewhat whiny  sound as he begs mom to catch him a fish - I can hear it on a quiet day carrying far across the cove.

Jimmy nags mom for a meal.

They are a couple of mighty fine looking birds, and we should still have many weeks to enjoy them.

They'll be here to watch plenty more sunrises this fall.