December 14, 2025: Ice-In

A few more cold days and a calm night early in the week gave Lake Wicwas its earliest ice-in since 2019, being declared on Wednesday morning, December 10th, when the last open area north of the Rawson Wood Islands froze over.  (Thank you KM and LB for the reports!)  By then some of the coves already had six inches of solid ice and were ready for skating.  A few people got out there before the second snow of the season fell and put an end to skating for now. 

Good skating in the cove before the snow.

On my skating trip I found that the otters had also been out enjoying the ice even before the lake froze up.

River Otter tracks frozen in the ice near Sheep Island.

With no concern about falling through the ice, otters get to have fun playing in the ice and slush long before it's safe for humans.

Otter hops and slides.

We'll never know if in fact Spangle, our juvenile loon, made it off the the lake before it froze over, but I'll assume she did, and count it as another successful loon fledged from Lake Wicwas.  That makes eleven loons fledged over the past ten years.

Our second snowfall mirrored the first, dropping another four inches of beautifully light, dry snow - a good medium for seeing animal tracks, large and small, and I found both during a pretty winter walk at Page Pond.  

A gorgeous day at Page Pond Town Forest.

On the small end, I saw that lots of mice had been out scampering on the snow in search of seeds, their long trails flopping on the snow with every hop.

Mouse tracks with their distinctive tail drag in the soft snow.

Their long excursions over the snow leave them vulnerable to attack by predators that may be watching from perches in trees that rodents often scamper between.

A long mouse trail in open cover.

That's one of the reasons we leave a few trees in the fields.  When the snow pack gets deeper, the mice, moles, and voles will create tunnels under the snow for safer travel.  But even down there in the subnivean zone they remain vulnerable to foxes with their excellent auditory and olfactory hunting skills.   (See March 17, 2019:  The Subnivean Zone)

On the larger end of the animal kingdom were signs of a robust deer population in and around the Page Pond Town Forest.  There are deer tracks crisscrossing much of that large unfragmented area of conserved land, and we came across several areas where deer had bedded down for a nap, melting the snow right down to the leaves.

At one spot there were three such beds close together, making me think it might have been a doe with her two fawns.

With winter firmly settled in, it's safe to put out the bird feeders, and it didn't take long for the birds to find them.  Chickadees are always first, but the nuthatches, woodpeckers, titmice and other birds are smart enough to follow the chickadees, knowing chickadees will lead them to food.  A nearby birdwatcher has seen Bluebirds, Carolina Wrens, and an American Tree Swallow - I'll be watching for them as well as many others that should arrive soon.  He also observed momma bobcat and her two kits walking along the ice at the shoreline.  I'll definitely be watching for them and their tracks; they are a lot of fun to follow to learn about their behavior.  (Thanks for sharing RB!) 

Momma and a kit scouting the lake edge a few years ago.

Perhaps you were out enjoying the milder weather yesterday and found your own nature signs.  But if not, today promises to be another good day, perhaps with more sun.  Winter is not only beautiful in the Lakes Region, but with snow on the ground it offers the best opportunities to see what animals are running around in your neck of the woods!

Happy Tracking!