Lake Wicwas Nature Journal: 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.