November 5, 2023: Beaver Scent Mounds

Here we are in early November and we just had our first frost at the lake.  And that was just barely, with frost fomring only in open areas subject to radiational cooling with a clear view of the sky.  Leaves on the ground and small plants had just a tinge of frozen ice crystals on their surfaces.

The first frost on November 2nd.

I was surprised to find ice in the shallow marshes around the lake where the surface had cooled enough for a skim of ice to form.

First ice on the lake. 

On a hike on Leighton Mountain in the Chemung area there were even a few icicles that had formed from water dripping off a ledge.

On that same ledge was an obvious cave where an animal was probably sleeping as we went by.

 Fresh dirt pushed out of the entrance shows it's an active den.

It looks like a nice warm and secure home deep in the hillside, though I don't know whose home it is.  It's in the right location for a porcupine, but there was no scat at the entrance, and no signs of trees stripped of their bark around the den.  It appears too small for a bear den, and too far from water for a racoon.  Fox like better hidden areas with concealed entrances.  So I'm guessing a bobcat lives here.  It's too far away for me to trek back and forth with a trail camera, but maybe this winter I can go back when there's snow on the ground and look for tracks.  

On a walk near the lake I noticed an area where beaver had been coming on shore apparently to mark territory, so I placed my camera there to see if I could catch the claimer of the land.  Sure enough, the very next night, at 1:30 am, the beaver appeared.

A beaver collects material for a scent mound.

The camera recorded a short video of it doing its thing.  It collected an armful of leaves and pine needles, and formed them into a small pile.  It then climbed over the pile and deposited its scent right on top.  The whole process took about 20 seconds.  

Beavers have a set of glands called castor glands that produce castoreum, a highly aromatic substance they use for marking territory.  (The strong smell makes it a common ingredient in cosmetics.)  If you turn the volume up you can hear the beaver release the castoreum at five seconds into the video.

One of my walks this week found me at a beaver pond which has created the right habitat for a heron rookery.  Their nests look like large tangles of sticks at the tops of dead trees.  

Three Great Blue Heron nests are visible in the treetops at the far side of the pond.

The dammed-up pond dammed flooded the roots of the trees, killing them, creating the ideal platform for herons to nest and raise their young.  Beavers create valuable environmental benefits for many animals including birds, amphibians, reptiles, and humans.

Another week has passed without any sightings of the juvenile loons LuLu and Checkers, so I think it's time to say they have left the lake.  We will never know if they return after their four or five years spent on the Atlantic Ocean.  My last sighting of them was October 21st.

My last picture of LuLu or Checkers.

In an interesting coincidence, October 21st is the exact same date of the last sighting of the chicks Coca and Jimmy in 2021.  Lake Wicwas has now successfully fledged ten loons over the past six years.

I'll close with one more autumn moment from my hike on Leighton Mountain, a pretty scene looking over Randlett Pond.

Randlett Pond.

A bit of fall remains, but the drab of November is almost here.

September 20, 2020: California's Trees Come to New Hampshire

Yes, those are California's forests blowing over us at 25,000 feet.  The fires in California, Oregon, and Colorado are making their presence known here in New England via smoke being transported 3000 miles in the jet stream.  The fine particles in the air absorb and reflect the shorter wavelengths of light, leaving only red to penetrate the atmosphere at sunset.

That's the sun on September 16th.  (No filter)

A clear day - evident by long visibility at ground level - should provide us a beautiful blue sky but instead paints a uniformly gray background behind the mountains due to the smoke at higher levels in the atmosphere.

Mount Lafayette, 40 miles away, was clearly visible from the White Mountain Ledge.

Here in New Hampshire we're experiencing a serious drought and our local fire danger is also very high, especially with the strong, dry winds, but it's nothing compared to the diametrically opposed weather problems in the gulf states and the west.

There's a lot going on around the lakes right now as summer transitions over to autumn - the autumnal equinox occurs this Tuesday at 9:30am - and changes are happening quickly.  Almost on cue, we had the first frost just this morning.  I'll cover as much as I can in a rapid fire manner.

It's impressive how well some of our wildflowers can flourish even in a dry summer.  The goldenrod and asters somehow adapt to the conditions and are just as beautiful as ever.

Heath Asters, Calico Asters, and Goldenrod share the stage.

I don't ever remember seeing the stream at the entrance to the Hamlin Trails completely dry.

A bridge over troubled water.

It will be interesting to see how the trees and the fall foliage handle the drought.

Today's frost was limited to open areas with good sky exposure for radiational cooling, and away from the lake, as the warm water kept areas near the lake several degrees warmer than just a few hundred feet distant.

First frost:  September 20, 2020

Even with the drought the mushrooms are fruiting, though not as abundantly as usual.

A trio of Amanita mushrooms.  (Note the green oak gall photo-bombing the picture.)

This is easier to understand when I remember that a mushroom is the fruit of a huge fungus than can spread underground over a very large area so it has a wide domain from which to collect moisture.

With cooler weather the animals seem to be more active.  I've seen several deer in the neighborhood the past couple of weeks, including this one in a field, trying to decide if it needs to worry about me or can just ignore me.  

It did take a few bounds, stop and look again, then repeated the process until it decided it was safe.

Other signs of animals on the move are evident by their scat.  These two calling cards were found on a walk near Rattlesnake Mountain in Sandwich.

A good size pile of bear scat.

And an even larger pile from a moose.

Smaller animals are on the move too, including turkeys.  I've seen large flocks all around the region, including a multi-family unit of 19 crossing Livingstone Road just west of Meredith Center.  On a trip through the town of Hill last week I had to stop for another large flock crossing in front of me, and when I did, some of the poults decided it was a nice place to plop down for a rest.  

Murray Hill Road in Hill.

I might think it was because the road was warm, but this was before 8:00 in the morning, so that wasn't the attraction.

Lots of early-migrating ducks have been paddling around in the lake.

The early morning wake-up call.

I see large groups early in the morning, while later in the day they seem to break up into pairs and smaller groups.

Our loon family, however, hasn't gone anywhere yet.  

Harold or Betty, looking quite mature on a crisp fall day.

Harold and Betty are still here, as are both parents.  If there was only one chick it's likely the male would have left by now, but with two chicks to feed he is still helping out.  But in the next few weeks both parents should be departing, leaving the chicks to fend for themselves into November before they also head to the ocean for the winter.  

I wonder if they notice the changes in the sky.

November 12, 2017 - A Visit from Jack

We finally had our first visit from Jack Frost this week.

Ice formations on a window facing the water

Fractal geometry on display

The first hard freeze of the season occurred November 9th, when the temperature dropped to 24 degrees, covering everything with hoarfrost.

Red or brown, nature is an equal-opportunity employer

Hoarfrost ("hoar" coming from the old English word for "old", presumably because it makes its host look old and gray) forms when humid air comes in contact with an object whose temperature is below the freezing point, thus changing from a vapor to a solid without passing through the liquid phase.  It most often occurs in calm air and is common in the Lakes Region this time of year as warm lakes provide the needed moisture before they freeze over.

Hoarfrost on goldenrod

Water vapor molecules first nucleate directly on an object and then grow, sometimes into long crystalline formations.

These ice crystals grew all night, fed by moisture from the lake

It was late for the first frost, so I looked up the average first-frost date - data for Plymouth was the closest I could find - and the average date there is October 1st.  (This means 50% of the time a frost occurs before that date.  Scientists track multiple frost definitions, the one I'm quoting is for a temperature of 28 degrees; the 32 degree definition occurs about two weeks earlier.)  Meredith is south of Plymouth and moderated by lakes, but even down in Concord the average date is October 3rd, so any way we look at it, we were well over a month later than average.

When Jack did finally arrive, he made his presence known, bringing with him strong squalls on Friday with a touch of snow.

He even caught the birds by surprise as they paddled around the lake trying to find a protected spot in which to hide.

There are ducks hidden in there somewhere

With temperatures well below freezing (it was 18 degrees on Saturday morning) and the strong wind churning up the lakes, I expect water temperatures in New Hampshire lakes have dropped dramatically.

Windswept water froze onto overhanging branches

Jack even painted the first skim of ice on the lake in protected coves and marshes.

More fractal patterns on the surface of the lake

After a long hiatus, I did see one deer this week - just a glimpse, no photo....  I also saw signs of a buck in the neighborhood: bark worn off an aspen tree where the deer rubbed its antlers on the trunk.

Deer rub in the Hamlin Conservation Area

Bucks do this to mark their territory, their antlers placing a scent on the tree, telling both male and female deer that he owns this area.  Its presence here shows the value of clearings like this to wildlife in an area where much of the terrain is mature forest.  You can easily find this rub if you want to see it:  it is right beside the yellow trail in the clearing where the trail splits in two to head up to Crockett's Ledge.  You can see the trail sign at the fork in this picture for reference.

This deer rub is easy to find

Maybe the hunters will have some snow for tracking this year;  it seems like Jack may have decided to stick around now for the season.

Answer to the location of the Meredith Rose from two weeks ago:  It is located on Main Street beside the Meredith Historical Society, across Highland Street from Town Hall.