July 28, 2024: The Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid

I found a few new summer plants over the past two weeks including this spectacular member of the orchid family:

Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid (Platanthera psycodes)

That's one of the longer common names for a plant that I've come across.  I saw these along the Livermore Trail in Waterville Valley last week on my hike to Mt. Tripyramid, but it took me a while to identify it.  According to the U.S. Forest Service its scientific name comes from the Greek figure Psyche, which was represented as a butterfly, because this orchid's petals have the shape of a butterfly.  [U.S. Forest Service]  

Lots of fringes on the lower lip.

It further states that the Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid is not rare, but thrives in wet, shady areas where "the mosquitos are so thick they will carry you away" so maybe I've always hurried past them.  

On a later walk scouting for invasive species (I found a patch of invasive Burning Bush that I took care of) I noticed this plant that I couldn't quite place - the pods were like milkweed, but it wasn't quite right.  Another walker came along and suggested looking to see if there was a milk-like substance in its stems or pods, and sure enough, there was.  

Poke Milkweed. (Asclepias exaltata)

Looking up the plant I found it's a variety of milkweed called "poke milkweed".  Thanks GE for the suggestion!

There are still blueberries to be found around the lake but time is running short.  On one blueberry excursion along the edge of the lake I came across an area of lily pads that had been whitewashed.

Any guesses as to what caused this?  If you guessed Eastern Kingbirds, I think you're right, but then it could also be an Eastern Phoebe like this one I saw on my morning kayak. 

Eastern Phoebe decorating lily pads while waiting for the next bug to enter its zone.

Both of these flycatchers sit on branches overhanging the water to watch for bugs, and as they wait, their droppings fall in the lake - or in this case, on the lily pads.  But no fear - they may not like you picking blueberries in their territory and will chatter away at you, but they won't come close enough to drop anything on your head!  Also on this morning's paddle I caught a Great Blue Heron flying overhead.

Great Blue Heron

In addition to blueberries, there are lots of red berries ripening up now, including these which will eventually turn black - if the birds and animals let them.

Black Cherry, not quite fully ripe.

One animal that really likes these cherries is the black bear, and I found a stand that showed evidence of a bear visit.

Branches bent over, possibly by a bear.  (Yes SD, this is your favorite bear location.)

Black bears are not particularly gentle consumers of berries.  Whether it's black cherry or blueberry, they will bend a branch down or simply break it off so they can sit down and munch on the fruit.

Another likely bear sign.

Our banded male from the northern nesting territory does appear to have accepted a new mate.  It continues to spend lots of time fishing and preening with another loon right around the failed nesting site.  And the number of loon altercations has declined so maybe the other contestants have conceded the contest.  

Let's end this week with last night's sunset.

It may be pretty here in New Hampshire, but it sure isn't pretty in Canada and California where the fires are burning.

July 21, 2024: Loon Census

The 2024 loon census was held this past weekend and though there were no new chicks to be included there is an interesting development.  Michael Marion and I did the survey on the north half of the lake and at 8:00 when the count started there was a single loon floating near the vicinity of the northern territory nesting site, and very shortly a second loon came to join it.  The two of them appeared quite comfortable as they came together, and even started preening together.

I had initially thought being so close to the nesting island that one of them would be the breeding male so I took several pictures of them preening, and when I expanded them I in fact saw that one was our banded male. 

Northern territory male identified.

So it appears to me that he has already accepted a new mate, or at the least is evaluating a potential mate.  It also further makes we wonder if his prior mate was killed by this female which wanted to take over the male and its territory - after all, that's how the prior female came to be his mate.  Only the strongest genes survive.  After preening, the pair swam southward together further into Marion Cove.

After observing these two loons we moved slowly out of the cove, and at the north end of Sheep Island we saw four more loons swimming together into Marion Cove where the pair was.

Two of these are likely the southern nesting pair.

We watched the four of them swim down the cove and decided to follow along behind to see what would happen.  As soon as the first pair noticed them they turned around and swam directly north to meet them.  As they came together there was no altercation; instead the six of them grouped up and swam together.

We watched for a minute and then continued on to survey the rest of the lake before 9:00 when the survey ended.  We saw no other loons in the northern half of the lake.  At 9:00 we met to share notes with the Thorpes who had surveyed the southern half of the lake.  It turned out the six loons we saw were the only ones observed on the lake.  It seems certain to me at this point that breeding is over on Wicwas and there will be no chicks in 2024.  The two pairs will likely stay on the lake to defend their respective territories; there has been a lot of ongoing loon interactions with circle dances, head bobbing and wing-rowing chases around the lake.  It will be interesting to see what transpires next year and if a new pair will establish a third nesting territory on the lake.  After discussing the events both parties returned home and on the way we saw the six loons still together and now heading south down the main body of the lake.  

At least two non-resident loons being escorted by the locals.

There was a fascinating twist of nature found on the lake last week by Nancy Marion:  a blue-headed frog.

A pickerel frog with a case of Axanthism.  Photo by Nancy Marion.  

She (nor I) had never seen a creature like this and looking into it she learned that it's a rare condition occurring in a very small percentage of frogs caused by the frog's inability to create yellow pigment - a condition called axanthism.  (Researchers Michael Berns and Lowell Uhler from Cornell found that only 0.003% of the 2 million frogs studied had this condition.  [Wild Rhode Island, Summer 2021, Vol 14, Issue 3])  A frog's typical green color is the result of yellow and blue pigments combined to make green, but when yellow pigment is absent you get a blue frog.  I found only a few studies on the subject, the best was referenced in the article by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management [ibid].  Here's an excerpt from the article:

"Green skin in frogs is caused by three types of cells in the skin working together. Melanophores that contain melanin make the skin darker or lighter, just like in humans, iridophores are cells that reflect light, and xanthophores that contain carotenoids produce a yellow pigment.  After Berns and Uhler’s study was published, several other researchers postulated that the blue coloration was the result of lacking one of the three pigment cells located in the skin of the frogs."  

It appears Nancy came across a true rarity that will be reported to our own Department of Fish and Game!

I came a cross another amphibian on a hike on the Tripyramids this week, one that's not rare, but is nonetheless impressive in its size.

This toad was right in the middle of the hiking trail.

Another not-rare find on that hike was this snake sun bathing in the rocks on the north slide.

Garter snake on the north slide of Mt. Tripryamid.

Even though it's only a garter snake it gave me quite a startle because finding a snake in a dry, rocky, sun-exposed habitat, one's mind instantly thinks rattlesnake.  I know there are very few rattlers in New Hampshire, but there are some, and this is the perfect spot for them.

I saw quite a few more pretty dragonflies around the lake this week, but the insect I'll share today is this Primrose Moth I found in Linda's Evening Primrose flowers one morning.

Primrose Moth on ...  a primrose.

Evening Primrose bloom only at night when moths are active.  The sweet smell of the plant attracts the moths they need for pollination.

I'll end today with two more sights from Mt. Tripyramid:  finally a clear, less humid day, and a pretty mountain stream.

The Osceolas on the left with the Franconia Range in the distance.

Slide Brook

July 14, 2024: A Week of Extremes

It was a week of extremes on lake Wicwas, from great beauty to true tragedy.  We'll start with the beauty from a paddle in one morning ​as the lake was just waking up.  Dragonflies and damselflies start their days drying off the prior night's dew along the reeds and ferns near shore before starting their hunting excursions for the day. 

Pondhawk

There were quite a few young damselflies that apparently had just hatched out from their larval stage.  

This is a spreadwing damselfly, perhaps an Emerald Spreadwing.

I found their exoskeletons on reeds where they had metamorphized into their flying forms.  

Exoskeletons left on the reed where they climbed up out of the lake.

I also saw that blueberry season has begun. 

They're still mostly green but some have turned a powdery-blue.

The first fruit was just starting to ripen but later in the week I was able to find enough for our first batch of Lake Wicwas summer blueberry treats.  They'll probably hit their peak this coming week so if you're around now is the time to take advantage of this opportunity to taste summer in New Hampshire.

On the gloomy end of the enjoyment spectrum is more sad news for the loons.  Jayden from the Loon Preservation Committee came out on Wednesday for a routine check on our loon nests, and as we approached the north nest everything seemed fine with the male loon at his sentry post, but as we got near the nest we saw a terrible sight.  The female loon was dead on the ground about four feet from the nest. 

The female loon with the nest in the foreground.

Not expecting this event we had to return to shore to get proper protective gear to bag the loon to bring it to the Loon Center for study and hopefully determine the cause of death.  This gets a little grisly now, so you may want to skip over the next two pictures.  There were no visible injuries on the bird such as a spear hole through the sternum which would indicate attack from another loon.  

A scavenger or two had found the carcass but most of the bird was intact.

Possible causes of death include a fight with another loon, perhaps a female trying to evict this female from its mated pair so it could take its place.  (This is in fact what this female did in 2021 when she killed or drove off the prior banded female - she hasn't been seen since.)  Another possibility is of course lead poisoning.  Either of these could have weakened the loon causing it to return to its nesting site where it expired.  There's also a possibility of attack by a predator but it seems unlikely since the bird was not taken away or consumed.  We know it took place at most 48 hours earlier, because two days prior the female was sitting happily on her nest. 

July 8th, 2024

The Loon Center is very busy right now so a necropsy (an animal autopsy) will probably not happen until this fall but hopefully blood tests and examination of injuries and will give us some indication as to what happened.   If we get a report later in the year I'll be sure to pass on what was discerned.  Both of the destroyed eggs were outside of the nest and were collected for study as well.  Before and after this event there has been a lot of loon trauma on the lake, perhaps all caused by a rogue loon that's been here much of the summer.  It's been dubbed "Bad Loon" by someone who's seen it even harassing the ducks!

"Bad Loon"     Photo by Amy Wilson.

We also went to the site of the southern pair where Jaden was able to find some shell fragments from that nest which were also collected to be analyzed.  It's unlikely the southern pair will nest again, but the pair is still staying close together in their nesting territory so it could happen.  At any rate it's been a very difficult year for the Wicwas loons and it may be the first year since 2017 without at least one chick fledged.  It's a painful year to be a loon watcher on Wicwas.

The ducks have done much better.  I've seen a couple families of little ducklings zipping rapidly into the weeds when they hear my kayak approaching, and this week I must have caught them off guard when I rounded a corner because once we saw each other, Mrs. Wood Duck put on quite a show scooting and splashing dramatically along the surface to draw my attention in the opposite direction from where she had sent her little ducklings down around the corner. 

Once she was far enough away she went airborne and circled up and around to make sure she was seen.  But looking back at the ducklings I saw what I'm pretty sure was another adult hen herding the ducklings along.

Mrs. Woodie #2 herding four visible ducklings plus an unknown number around the bend.

I know some waterfowl as well as some land birds (turkeys for example) will merge their broods together and I wonder if that's what happened with these two merganser females. 

OK, we'll end the week back at the beautiful end of the spectrum with some summer flowers blooming right now.

Shinleaf

Swamp Milkweed

Steeplebush

Pickerel Weed

Page Pond

Swamp Rose.  (Those last two pictures were taken at the Page Pond Town Forest on Meredith Neck.)

Bring a pair of binoculars on your travels around the lake to enjoy these heart-warming summer sights.

July 7, 2024: Great Spangled Fritillary

In celebration of the Star Spangled Banner, a Great Spangled Fritillary came to visit us on July 4th.

Great Spangled Frittilary

This pretty butterfly is common across much of North America and I see them occasionally around the lakes and mountains.  

The inside of its wings have brighter coloring than the outside.

The adults feed on a wide range of flowers throughout the summer and this one enjoyed both the nectar in the Black-eyed Susans as well as the camouflage the orange blossoms provided for it.

It would hard to see if I didn't know it was there.

Probing with its proboscis into the center of the blossom.

After mating in July the female will lay her eggs in late August or September.  The eggs will hatch but the larvae will burrow into the leaf litter on the ground where they will spend the winter.  (The fritillary is one of many butterflies and other beneficial insects that depend upon lawns and gardens not being raked in the fall so there will be more Fritillaries next summer.)  Unlike the adults, the caterpillars are very picky eaters:  they eat only violets; the adult always places her eggs on one of the violet species.  

It was another sad week for our loons as now the south nest in Harris Cove has been predated.  It was noted on Wednesday when Debby saw both loons out in the lake and was able to see the abandoned nest from shore. I checked in with Jayden our LPC biologist who asked me to go take a close look to confirm. I found an unoccupied nest full of mussel shells.  

The southern nest after predation.

I searched for eggs and shell fragments on the island and in the water but found nothing.  Jayden guessed it was predated by a raccoon, otter, or mink.  It's late for another attempt at nesting but not impossible.  We'll see.  As of now the north nest is still hanging in there. 

There was enough curiosity about one of the weeds I saw last week that I went out to get more data on it, and it had matured and grown enough in one week that with the assistance of our local weed expert we were able to definitely identify it as bladderwort.  I've found three types of bladderwort in Lake Wicwas; the one in question from last week's weed survey is the Greater, or Common Bladderwort.  

Greater Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris)  The black objects are the bladders.

Those black bladders are its distinctive characteristics, though its size is significant too - it can grow up to three feet long over the summer and sometimes forms large mats that can be confused with invasive milfoil.  On new growth at the tips the bladders are almost clear, turning pink then red as they age, and finally the dark black color.  This is all a single plant:

Pink bladders on the tips are new growth, while the black bladders on the right are older.

The second bladderwort I found is the floating bladderwort, much smaller and more delicate than the common bladderwort - also prettier:

Floating Bladderwort  (Utricularia radiata)

Like the common, this one is free-floating - no roots to tie it to the lake bed.  I lifted one up to see the floatation parts.

These upper leaves are inflated to provide floatation.

Lifting it completely out of the water revealed the full size of the plant.

This Floating Bladderwort is about 18" long.

The third bladderwort I've seen in Wicwas is the Purple Bladderwort which flowers later in the summer.  All three of them are carnivorous, using their bladders to suck in and digest small insect larvae.  I wrote about bladderwort's carnivorous ways (no Cheeseburgers in Paradise for them) in July 2020.

An added bonus for my encore weed tour was that the Watershield was blooming.

A Watershield (Brasenia schreberi) blossom.

There were no butterflies on the aquatic flowers, but plenty of other pollinators were doing their thing.

Small flies pollinate a Yellow Pond Lily.

We'll see what the second weed-watch tour discovers in a couple of months, and meanwhile hope our remaining nest can survive the next two weeks.