March 17: 2024: Mink on Thin Ice

It's a busy time of year with so much happening all at once as the world wakes up from its winter slumber.  One cold morning as I was enjoying the interesting patterns that formed on the lake over night, a flash of brown scooted onto the thin ice from shore and bounded across the lake right in front of me.  It was one of those lucky occasions when I had my camera in my hand.

Mink on the ice.

No problem with traction for those claws.

A mink doesn't worry about falling through thin ice - when it came to edge of the ice it just slipped into the water and continued on its way.

That was on Wednesday.  The day before was bright and windy and that took a big toll on the ice with the wind really breaking things up.  

The ice started breaking up on Monday.

Getting wider under the March sun on Tuesday.

The wind blew shreds of ice up over the transition point which glistened like diamonds in the sun.

By noon on Tuesday there were large expanses of open water.

By Saturday, most of winter's ice was gone with just one ice patch blocking the passage on the west site of Bryant Island.  It's possible ice-out will occur later today which would make it one of the earliest ice-out dates recorded.  

Many geese have now arrived and they're fighting over the best nesting sites in the marshes.  We've also seen bald eagles almost every day this week, both circling over the lake and sitting on the ice, perhaps feeding off things that were blown up onto the ice with the wind.

A couple of bald eagles survey the lake.  Are they looking for a nesting site?

In addition to annoying the Canada Geese endlessly, one afternoon an eagle flew right over me and landed in a tree, and had a heated argument with a red-bellied woodpecker that was not happy with its presence.  The two of them made quite the ruckus.  Here's a clip of the interaction - the eagle starts and ends, with the woodpecker calling out in the middle.  

This went on for quite some time.  Between the eagles, the geese, the mallards, and the red squirrels in the forest, it's been a noisy week.  Now we just need the wood frogs to join in.

The mergansers have also been plentiful this spring with a couple of different groups congregating on the lake.  I saw a few altercations of males chasing males, but mostly they seem well behaved as they figure out how to pair up for the mating season.

A couple of available female Common Mergansers.

And a male about to go...

under the ice for a fishing excursion.

I didn't realize that like Wood Ducks, Common Mergansers make their nests in tree cavities up to a mile away from water.  The female chooses the nesting site and builds the nest, and I believe the female also selects her mate, the one she finds most desirable after observing them all strut their stuff.  After mating, the male is done and leaves the child rearing to the mother.  I'd love to know how she gets a dozen little ducklings to travel a mile through a thick forest back to the lake.

The beavers also came around as soon as the ice opened up enough for them to swim along the shore line, and they are already building their scent mounds to mark their territory.  

I've also heard spring bird songs this week including the Song Sparrow and even a Carolina Wren (though that was a bit south of the Lakes Region, along the high banks of the Merrimack River in Concord) so the great migration is underway.  But this entry is long enough, so those will have to wait for another week.  

This is a great time to get outside to watch the world wake up and break into its triumphant return to life.  Just remember to wear your mud boots, and that tick season never ends - I've already found one deer tick - so take appropriate precautions.  

Mr. Mink won't be able to take short cuts across the lake any more, but for us, it's a time of renewal, rebirth, and rediscovery.

Blueberry buds, red and swelling with spring life.