July 2, 2011

The loon chick has made it through its  most precarious first few days, even with lots of lake activity due to the great weather over this holiday weekend.  This evening the family came by again for an evening fishing trip, and the chick is already noticeably larger - its parents must be feeding it well. 

They seem to be giving it a little more space now, with the little guy hurrying along behind as fast as it can.  I'm surprised that both parents almost always dive together, leaving the chick alone on the surface - maybe they team up to scare their prey towards each other.

We saw them feed the chick a couple of small fish; each time a parent came up, the chick would hurry over to see if it had a meal.  It looked as though the adult injured one minnow, and then put it in the water next to the chick so it could learn how to grab it for itself. 

When one parent came up with a large fish, the chick wanted that one too, but no, this fish was kept by its owner. 

I had to put in this picture of a cormorant, taken early in the morning with the sun low on the bird - it shows its well-adapted feet, with webs for swimming, yet still able to grasp tree branches for roosting.

May 22, 2011

The spring wildflower season is in full bloom around Lake Wicwas, and due to a week of cold, wet weather, they are having a long season. 

Fringed Polygala

Eastern Starflower

Rhodora

Some of the flowers you can see right now around the lake include Wild Strawberry, Goldthread, Violets, Trillium, Mayflower, Eastern Starflower, and one of the prettiest little flowers, Fringed Polygala.






















 


This summer's blueberry crop has started, with the low-bush blueberries in blossom.  I discovered a new shrub along the shore of Lake Wicwas, something I haven't seen before, but believe it to be a Rhodora.  It's similar to an azaela, or a rhodoendrum.

Blueberry

One of my favorite woodland creatures, the Eastern Newt, has emerged from its hibernation; I caught this little guy just crawling out from the leaves last week, and by yesterday, there were dozens around the forest.

 

Eastern Newt

I haven't seen a lot of loon activity on the lake this spring (although, I haven't been out on the lake a lot either).  There were a couple of loons out yesterday, acting up a bit, but it wasn't clear whether it was mating behavior or aggressive behavior.  The less interesting birds are more evident.  The geese have taken up on the field as usual, making plenty of noise as they argue with each other.  And there's at least one cormorant back on the lake, taking up its usual perch in the dead pine trees.

Cormorant

 We haven't seen the sun here for more than an hour this whole past week.  All the rain has brought the lake back up to 10 inches above full level.  In addition to the bass boats, there were several pleasure boats on the lake this weekend, in spite of the less than desirable weather.  We all keep hoping nice weather will arrive some day.