July 19, 2026: Annual Loon Census

The Loon Preservation Committee's Annual Loon Census took place yesterday.  Each year, LPC hosts an annual Loon Census, when from 8:00 to 9:00am on a Saturday in July, volunteers count loons to collect data that helps the LPC monitor New Hampshire’s loons and their progress on lakes throughout the state.  This year, Lake Wicwas was well represented, showcasing a total of seven loons in the census.  The star of course, was little Pip.

Pip and a parent.

Pip was spotted with both parents at 8:16am in the far northwest corner of the northern pair's territory.

The northern territory family.

A big fish being prepared for Pip.

Pip's parents continue to provide generous meals, though Pip spends a lot of time with its head submerged studying the experts to learn how to fish for itself.  

At the same moment this was being observed, Team-Thorpe was observing three loons in the south territory, two of which are assumed to be the banded south pair.  The third was likely a rogue, looking for nesting territory for itself.  Then around 8:50am, those three were joined by a fourth loon, right at the boundary between the two nesting territories.  

Four loons on the boundary line.

I wonder if the two resident pairs are both pushing the rogues towards the other pairs territory, pinning them at the boundary.  I was able to confirm from the female's leg bands that the south pair (at a minimum the female) was part of this asylum.

Not a great look, but good enough to see the blue and green bands.

So, Lake Wicwas contributed a total of seven loons to the census.  The overall results will be reported by the LPC later in the year.  For more information on our loons, be sure to attend the Lake Wicwas Annual Meeting on August 1st at the Wicwas Grange.

This week I made my first visit to the Red Hill River Conservation Area with a long-time hiking partner.  It's a beautiful, quiet area in Sandwich with a well-flowing stream, an interesting network of gentle trails, and some large, mature trees.  

Red Hill River in Sandwich.

One of many good size White Pines and Hemlocks on the property.

We hiked a 2.5 mile loop along part of the river and over a small hill, and there are other route options as well.  We even discovered an old cellar hole along the route.

A cellar hole with remnants of a stove and brick chimney.

This area is definitely worth a visit; you can find trail information and driving directions here.

There were plenty of  interesting sights back around Lake Wicwas as well.  On one walk I came across a large pile of feathers beside a fallen tree.

It wasn't hard to identify who these feathers belonged to - can you guess the owner?

The bright blue and white colors indicate a Blue Jay met its demise here.  Determining the identity of the predator took a little more digging.  The conditions of the feathers gives an important clue:  note how the feathers are intact, clean, and undamaged. Mammals - bobcat, fox, etc. - tear into their food, ripping, shredding and damaging feathers in the process.  But these feathers have been cleanly plucked right out of the bird; a trademark raptor food-prep method.  Also, raptors frequently sit on a log or a branch to prepare their food, then, after the excess, non-consumable weight is removed, they'll take it away to be consumed elsewhere by themselves or their mate and young.

So, this is likely a raptor kill site.  I first wondered if it might be the Broad-winged Hawk I saw last week, but broad-winged hawks are too large and insufficiently agile to catch a bird in flight; they primarily feed on rodents and amphibians, though they will pluck a baby bird from a nest if they find one.  Broad-winged hawks are buteos which are generally considered ambush predators.

The raptor that caught this blue jay was most likely an accipiter, which in New Hampshire includes Sharp-shinned Hawks and Cooper Hawks.  These birds are smaller, with short wings and long tails that allow them fly fast and maneuver deftly though tight trees in pursuit of prey.  One source I found said blue jays are a "classic meal" for a Cooper's Hawk, so maybe that was it.

A highlight of the week was a quick visit from the three brothers.

Three River Otters play in the lake.

Otters have round tails, unlike the flat tail of beavers.

These are most certainly the three otters I tracked all winter (I don't know that they're brothers) taking a playful cruise far out in the cove one morning on their way down to the dam and Mill Brook, possibly heading over to Lake Winnisquam.  

I'll close with another cheery face, this one sent to me by a friend and fellow musician that lives in Moultonborough (thank you BB!).  This little guy was checking out some good smell that attracted its attention.

It's better to have a woodchuck staring in your window than a black bear!

 

April 22, 2018 - The Mystery Bone

It's always fun to run into a friend who is also out enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.  Last week I bumped into Russ Brummer, a teacher at New Hampton School, out with a couple of his students on field trip, and we talked a bit about interesting things we had seen over the winter.  After we had gone our separate ways I thought, I should have asked him about a mystery Linda and I had been working on (after all, Russ is the Science Department Chair at the New Hampton School and has degrees in Biology and Environmental Studies!).  Linda had found this fox scat (or possibly coyote scat) that featured a prominent bone protruding from it.

Fox scat with an unusual bright-white object sticking out

At least it looked like a bone to me.  But after separating it to look closer, it didn't have the structure of any bone I could recall.

Hollow and folded construction made me think bird

So when I got home I sent a few pictures to Russ to see what he could offer.  He immediately proposed that it was a tooth.  Since I happen to have a couple of animal jaws that I have collected from my walks over the years I went to look them over.

Deer and beaver bones

Deer teeth are sharp and pointy

It doesn't look like a deer tooth.

Beaver teeth however have that folded characteristic

So sure enough, it is a tooth, and most definitely a molar from a beaver!  It makes one wonder if the fox caught a beaver, or more likely was just gnawing on the leftovers of one that had died or was killed by something else.  Either way, thanks Russ for solving the mystery!

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After a few steps forward, spring took a step backward this week with another cold stretch and a touch of snow that brought us back to winter scenes.

Wicwas from Crockett's Ledge

But the past few days have put us back on the right track, with ice in Meredith Bay receding down the lake, and the ice on Wicwas showing signs of softening as it turns from white to dark gray.

Ice in Meredith Bay is almost to Church Landing

There is a large section of Wicwas that had turned black by noon today

I also saw my first Great Blue Heron of the season, fishing in the ice off the Harris Conservation Area, and just today, the first wood frogs were singing in a vernal pool, calling to their mates that spring is here.  Other signs of spring are joining in too:

Bright Blue Jays

An oak is born

It won't be much longer now, and with the weather finally changing I look forward to seeing more friends out on the trails - and soon enough on the lakes - with more mysteries to share and solve.

Late breaking news:  The first loons were spotted on Lake Wicwas today, in the open channel of water along the north side of the lake!  (Thanks AC & TC!)

September 30,2012

No turtles were sunbathing this weekend - or people either for that matter.  Three days of cool, damp, rainy, drizzly weather prevented that activity!  At least it makes for deep color in the foliage as the filtered, indirect light brings brings out high saturation in their colors.  But no blue skies in the background!

Last week I noticed the red maples turning in the wetlands of Lake Wicwas.  This week, with more color in the leaves and the cloudy lighting, they really stood out, causing me to notice just how many trees are growing back into the large wetland along the east side of Chemung road.

The tall dead trees in the swamp indicate it was once a forest.  I expect many years ago beavers dammed a stream to flood the area, killing the trees in the process.  Beavers are the only animal other than man that make major changes to the environment for their own purposes.  They build dams to form the ponds they use for food (aquatic vegetation that grows there), for their homes, and for protection from predators.

We can be pretty certain the dead snags are all pine and hemlock, as those are the two trees beavers really don't like;  they would have taken down all the other trees in and around their pond.  But quite some time ago they abandoned their self-made pond.  This is another way beaver are like humans:  once they have depleted all the resources in an area, they just abandon it and move on to take over another forest for their home.  Over time the pond has drained, and filled in as the wetland plants grew and died each year.  At this point, it is dry enough that Red Maple is starting to reclaim the area.  Red maple is also known as "swamp" maple due to its ability to grow in very wet ground.

As these trees grow, their leaves will deposit more organic material on the ground and their roots will pull more moisture from the soil, creating conditions suitable for more tree species, and the forest will reestablish itself.  At which point, the beaver may come back to harvest the trees again, and the cycle might repeat.  Until then, different animals will enjoy the wet habitat, and we'll enjoy the bright red maples.

On a morning walk, a large flock of Blue Jays came by, making quite a ruckus, with a large variety of sounds, from their usual harsh calls to more musical notes, to loud clicking sounds.  Lang Elliott has two great recordings of Blue Jays on his website - the second of his two recordings more closely reflects what I experienced this morning.  (His recordings were made in Ithaca New York.)

The jays were mostly high up in the trees, especially the pines, flitting from branch to branch, though one came down low enough for me to see it had a large red berry in its beak.  Blue Jays, like Gray Jays, will cache food to use later, but this flock appeared to be migrating.  There were perhaps two dozen of them, and they moved slowly across the area over a period of five or ten minutes. 

By next week we should see many of the trees in the lakes region approaching their peak colors.