February 26, 2023: Bigfoot Sighting!

On a recent trek through through the wilds west of Wicwas I had the incredible fortune to catch a glimpse of the ethereal and much sought-after Sasquatch!  

Bigfoot stalks the forests west of Lake Wicwas.

Careful examination of the area however, turned up no evident prints so I was unable to track it or even measure the size of its feet.  How it got there and where it came from will remain a mystery, adding to the perplexing history of this mythical creature.

Now we know Bigfoot has red eyes.

This week was another roller-coaster week in New Hampshire.  It started warm, got snowy, then turned frigid.  On Monday the lake was still good for skating, and I saw a few of these ice volcanoes on the lake.

Ice volcanoes

Bumpy but smooth, if that makes any sense.

And it had been so warm in recent weeks that the snowdrops have emerged already, the earliest I've ever seen them.

Snowdrops were up by February 12th.

My prior earliest observation of snowdrops was on February 17th, just last year.   Fortunately they haven't yet bloomed, because snow and cold arrived and plunged us back into winter.

This recent cold spell reminded me again of seeing self-heal plants poking up through the snow earlier this winter, which made me think about how plants - perennials in particular - can survive through frigid New England winters.

Self heal after a January snowfall.

Warm blooded animals create their own heat, and cold blooded animals either seek a space that stays above freezing, or incredibly, as in the case of the wood frog, create chemicals that let their body freeze nearly solid without damage.  But how do evergreen trees and perennials with roots within the frost line survive sub-zero temperatures?  Plant cells, like all living materials, contain water which expands when it freezes, which would normally burst the cells open.   To understand how plants avoid having their cells burst when temperatures drop below freezing, I went to the UNH Extension Service data base and found a nice summary of their methods written by Sharon Walker titled  "Dormancy - A Key to Winter Survival".  Walker explains that during the summer plants create materials, especially sugars and salts, which they store in their cells.  This lowers the freezing point of the water in their cells, the same way salt in the ocean lowers the ocean freezing point to 28 degrees versus fresh water at 32 degrees.  Furthermore, as the weather cools their cells wall become more permeable to water which allows water to leave their cells, increasing the concentration of sugars and salts, and allowing more room for expansion without bursting.

I've seen how the leaves of rhododendron and related plants curl up in very cold weather - I wonder if the curling is the result of contraction of cells in their leaves. 

So far this winter our cold snaps have been short, and this one is again only a couple of days and barely below zero so it will be just a short test for the flora and fauna of the Lakes Region.  But it's cold and snowy this morning, and nice to have winter back - it is February after all.  

A snowy morning from the top of Ragged Mountain.  Photo by Linda Hammill (thanks!)

The snowdrops will have to use their magic chemistry to pull through another roller coaster New England winter.

February 19, 2023: Porcupine Ledge

I mentioned last week that I had been exploring a granite ledge that porcupine claim for their home. 

"Porcupine Ledge"

These rocky ledges are a favorite habitat for porcupines with all the nooks and crannies to hide in, and the hemlock trees that thrive on granite ledges.  

The days before I visited had seen a thaw-freeze cycle so there weren't any fresh tracks to be found but there were plenty of signs porcupine still inhabit this ledge - and are plenty active.  Immediately obvious as I approached the area were trees with large sections of their trunks stripped bare of their bark.

A stripped Striped Maple.  (Acer pensylvanicum) 

Striped maple trees have soft wood with moist, tender bark and are clearly a favorite of porcupine.

Porcupine are somewhat fussy, passing over areas with tough bark.

But they are very methodical in their eating, using their fine, sharp teeth to carefully scrape all the cambium right down to the heartwood of the tree they're dining on.

Porcupine incisor marks.

It appears they visited this tree in prior years based on the aged, gray wood in between the fresh chew marks.

Weathered gray wood from a prior year.

Hemlock trees are another favorite of porcupine and there are many hemlock trees on the ledge that have been dined on over the years. 

An Eastern Hemlock trimmed of its branches.

Often the first sign that you are in porcupine territory will be finding the ground covered with bits of hemlock branches that were chewed off the trees during the porcupine's harvest. 

Branches cut and dropped on the ground.

The frozen snow had preserved their trails from before the thaw so I could easily follow their paths to find their dens.

Porcupine trail leading to a den in the ledge.

Porcupine dens are typically small caves in the rocky ledge where they're protected from the elements and the earth keeps the temperature above freezing all winter.

The entrance to a den.

The floor of the entryway is often covered with droppings, an indicator the den is in current use.

Here's a photo of Erethizon dorsatum near the top of Porcupine Ledge from a prior winter:

Taken at night with my trail camera.

And here's one up in a tree, doing its thing.

Taken from a ski trail at Ragged Mountain.

We had some awfully pretty days this week, and with the thaw and freeze cycle the lake surface is back to being skate-able, so I took a skate around the entire lake yesterday.

A beautiful skate on Saturday.

And I found some pretty sights at Waukewan Highlands (off Parade Road in Meredith).

Near sunset on the Yellow Trail at Waukewan Highlands.

And finally, a gorgeous, fiery sunrise that Neil Crimins witnessed last weekend while ice fishing off Leavitt Beach on Winnipesaukee.

Thanks for sharing Neil!

February 12, 2023: More Fun with Ice

Last week it was hockey, this week it's the Great Meredith Fishing Derby run by the Meredith Rotary Club.  But first, some other fun with ice this week:

Profile Falls

We took the short hike up to Profile Falls in Bristol, expecting that the fluctuations between warm weather to get the Smith River flowing, and cold weather to form ice might have created some interesting sights, and we weren't disappointed.

The river was flowing strongly and there were lots of ice formations above, along, and below the falls.

Closer to home, on a walk out to some local ledges to see what the porcupines are doing this winter (more on that in a future post), some icicles that formed on a rock outcropping caught my eye.

As I approached to get a closer look I saw these incredibly resilient ferns growing among the icicles.

Rock Polypody (Polypodium virginianum)

Not only are they still green here in the middle of winter, but they have found a way to eke out a living on the exposed face of a granite ledge.

I believe this is rock polypody which is found in several natural communities in New Hampshire.  It somehow thrives on rocky exposed surfaces, and growing throughout the year, is a winter food source for animals including deer, turkey, and grouse.  [Ref:  Sandra Mitchell, Evergreen Ferns can be Enjoyed Year Round, Northern Woodlands]  I expect the ferns take advantage of moisture and nutrients collected and stored by the moss and lichen that share the ledge.

As for the ice on the lakes, there was a lot of activity on Wicwas and Waukewan for the fishing derby because the larger lakes aren't safe.  We took a walk out to see the action on Lake Waukewan - it was breezy, but nothing like last weekend, and a lot warmer!  

Ice fishing action on Waukewan

And a quieter scene on Wicwas.

The NH Audobon Backyard Bird Count took place this weekend.  My inventory included:  chick-a-dee, goldfinch, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, bluebird, mourning dove, titmouse, house finch, and red and gray squirrels.  I didn't see any blue jays, hairy woodpeckers, or even crows.

Eastern Bluebird

House Finch

Red-bellied woodpecker

The bluebird and house finch were seen near Lake Waukewan; all the others at Wicwas.  I also received a report of a pair of bald eagles on Waukewan (thank you BG!) , but they don't go on my bird count list.

I also saw one other bird during our visit to Profile Falls Park where there's a nice walk (or snowshoe or ski - they groom a short trail there) to the Pemigewasset River.  There we found the only wildlife on that excursion, three American black ducks out on the ice.

American Black Duck

It's not only humans that enjoy the ice in New Hampshire.

The Pemigewasset River in February.

February 5, 2023: Hockey in a Polar Vortex

I feel sorry for the hockey players.  This winter has been so warm that Meredith Bay still hasn't frozen over, so the New England Pond Hockey tournament, which brings players from all over the county, was moved from Lake Winnipesaukee to Lake Waukewan.

26 rinks of cold fun on Lake Waukewan.

And then, on the weekend of the event, we get the coldest weather of not only the year, but near all-time record cold.  Saturday morning it was -17 degrees in Meredith, not our coldest ever seen, but cold enough, and with the wind it felt like 44 degrees below zero.  The start of the games on Saturday was delayed until noon when the temperature had warmed up to -1, though with Waukewan exposed to the northwest winds, the wind chill was still a cool -25 degrees, but the games went on.

Some of the action on Saturday afternoon.

They shorted the length of the games from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, but some teams had to play two games in a row - these are some tough folks.

With the delayed start, I bet the restaurants and bars were busy late into Friday night!

Mount Washington was of course the coldest spot in the state, and perhaps on the continent if you factor in wind chill.  I watched the temperature drop all day on Friday, falling to a low of -46.2 Fahrenheit with a wind chill of -108.  

Wind speeds and temperatures recorded Friday on Mt. Washington.

Mt. Washington even made the national news yesterday; you can listen to (or read) a report on the record-setting conditions on the summit and what caused them here.

I didn't get out for more than a few minutes at a time on Friday or Saturday, but I did get a quick hike in on Wednesday when the cold weather was just forming. The air mass coming down from Canada was already pushing in very dry air with dew points down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit, ushering in those cobalt blue skies.

Red Hill Fire Tower.

And from the summit of Red Hill I could see large areas of open water in Lake Winnipesaukee.

Someone asked me about bears during this cold snap.  (This person had a surprise, up close and personal meeting with a bear while trail running, and now thinks about bears a lot!)  With such a short cold spell and good snow cover, I think all the ground dwelling animals like bears and foxes will be just fine because the ground is still warm and the frost has barely penetrated the earth.  I worry more about the deer and the tree dwellers like birds and squirrels.  On the coldest days the squirrels were nowhere to be seen, but the birds were at the feeders.

The birds spent a lot of time taking in calories on Saturday.

Birds can lose up to 10% of their body weight burning energy to keep warm through a single cold night, so they need to consume food every day.  Perhaps the squirrels do better in their nests insulated with leaves, curled up into small balls with their thick furry tails wrapped around them.  Still, with those temperatures and winds it must be pretty hard on them.  

I expect the mourning doves have been around all winter but I first saw them last week during the snow storm, the two of them puffed up in an oak tree keeping warm.

Mr. and Mrs. Mourning Dove

The world may be cold, but it sure is pretty.

The trail up to Red Hill.