October 20, 2019: Bucks on the Prowl

I've seen quite a few signs of white-tail deer lately - the bucks that is - out and about, claiming their territory.  I caught this guy on my trail camera one night this week.

A nice size buck cruises its territory.

The most visible signs are the many "scrapes" they make on the ground. 

The buck was facing to the left, kicking debris to the right to clear the soil.

These are commonly seen near hiking trails because bucks with a rack of antlers appreciate the easy travel along cleared trails.  The scrape above shows that the buck had dug up leaves and such and thrown it back a good ten feet.  The scrape itself often has a triangular shape where the buck used its front feet to dig at the ground. 

The typical V pattern made by the front hooves.

After making a scrape a buck will urinate there so it can soak into the bared ground, thus letting its scent linger for several days.  This provides a mating signal to the females in the area, as well letting other bucks know that this territory - and its resident females - have been claimed. 

Another technique bucks use to mark territory is called a rub. 

A rub on a young hemlock tree.

I found this rub on a hemlock tree this week in the same area.  A buck will rub its antlers on a tree, often an aromatic hemlock, to leave another territorial marker.  Deer have glands near their eyes which add their unique scent to that of the freshly released hemlock bark which intensifies the marker.

Deer aren't the only creatures out prowling around in the dark these days.  The sunrise in late October and early November is the latest we get all year (later than at the winter solstice due to daylight savings time) so it's the least painful time to get up to witness the birth of a new day.

The first peak of sun rises over Lake Winnisquam.

This week I took the short hike up Ladd Mountain in the Chemung area of Meredith to indulge in the beauty of early morning.

Mist on Lake Winnisquam

It's an easy 1-mile hike up, and when I was there this summer I thought it would be good vantage point with an eastern exposure overlooking the northern end of Lake Winnisquam.  I wasn't disappointed.

Dawn breaks over Meredith.

It's hard to believe we still haven't had a hard frost.  One morning the temperature dropped to almost freezing, low enough that in an open field with a lot of radiational cooling, I saw my first ice crystals of the season. 

First ice, only in open areas on the very lowest lying leaves.

Earlier in the week I was out on Turtle Island in Lake Wicwas doing some fall clean-up and saw that the turtle nests laid way back in June had hatched out.

Holes and shells where baby turtles emerged from the nest.

The shell fragments are soft and leathery feeling.

I had forgotten how late in the year snapping turtle eggs hatch until my brother sent me photos of 21 little guys hatching out from a nest in Canterbury on October 1st.

Just two of a litter of 21.  Photo by Glen Powell.  (Thanks for sharing!)

Snapping turtles have evolved with a very strange property related to hatching eggs.  The sex of the turtles that hatch is dependent on the temperature while they are developing in the ground.  Temperatures below 77 degrees F will result in only male turtles, while temperatures above 80 produce only females.  Between these temperature there will be a mix of sexes.  It seems like a strange way to balance the population, and it makes me wonder if they will evolve quickly enough to maintain a successful population at our latitude as the planet's temperature increases.

There were a lot of photos being shared of the rainbow that appeared on Friday.  I was lucky enough to be out on run and saw it shimmering over the hills north of Lake Wicwas.

Rainbow over Wicwas, seen from Wicwood Shores Rd.

At least one adult loon is still on on the lake, and one of the chicks remains glued to her (?) side all the time. 

One of the chicks, most likely with mom.

They separate only to dive, regrouping as soon they surface.

It's a pretty sight to see loons on the lake in autumn.

There were a lot of gorgeous colors around the Lakes Region this week before the storm that blew through on Wednesday night stripped many leaves off the trees, but there is still plenty of color to be seen this weekend.

Still nice colors west of the lake as of yesterday (Oct 19th).

One of these nights we'll get that first hard frost.

November 11, 2018: Bucks are Getting Active

Most of the smaller animals have their mating season in late winter or spring with their offspring being born or hatched several weeks later.  But the larger animals including moose and deer have much longer gestation periods, so they mate in the fall, again to give birth in the spring when food is plentiful.  (One interesting exception to this is the black bear which mates in June, but then employs something called "delayed implantation" so gestation starts around November with birth occurring in January, though the young won't leave the den until two or three months later, relying completely on the mother's milk during that period.)

The white-tail deer has a gestation period of just over 200 days, geared toward birth in late May or early June, so their mating period is right about now, and the bucks are busy marking their territory and rounding up their does.  The most visible signs of this are large scrapes bucks make in the forest floor where they scrape up leaves and soil and then mark the area with their scent using urine and the glands on their hind legs.

A large deer scrape in the middle of a trail

They tend to build these sites underneath branches - typically  hemlock in our area - and they will also scent these overhanging branches with the glands on their forehead.

This scrape has a common triangular shape where the buck was facing to the right

Also, if you look at the very top of the photograph below you will see where the buck has used its antlers to rub scent on the trunks of small hemlocks, scraping off the bark, adding further scent to the site.

Note the stripped bark on the skinny hemlocks at the top of the photo

I can imagine scented trees facilitating the buck's scent drifting through the forest with the wind, and the scented liquid absorbed by the soil lingering for days.  This behavior will alert both male and females that a buck has claimed this territory and the does within it as their own.  You might see these right on a trail as deer often take advantage of easy travel along these cleared paths through the woods.

The cooling weather has started to drive the birds migrating from Canada our way;  this week I saw two groups of hooded mergansers on Lake Wicwas, including one pair, and one group of two males courting a single female.

Male Hooded Merganser

And the female

Two males escorting a single female on the journey south

We haven't had any winter weather here in the Lakes Region yet, but 30 miles farther north it's starting to look frosty.  I took a hike up Mount Moosilauke last week, and there were sure signs of winter up at the 4800 foot summit.

North Kinsman from the south peak

Rime ice at the north summit

It was just a taste of what's to come.

Snow started at 3800' elevation

Finally, on this Veterans Day, a thank you to all those who served our country - especially you dad!