December 7, 2025: Winter Arrives

Winter arrived this week, in a serious, but not too harsh manner.  We had two nights with temperatures in the single digits which ushered in eight inches of beautiful light snow.  It made for easy shoveling and some fabulous early season skiing.

There weren't many animals tracks in the fresh snow, perhaps because of the cold.  I saw only fox tracks and a few short squirrel tracks where they went digging in the snow for food.  I always enjoy seeing the fox use my ski track for easy transportation.

They'll follow the packed down track for long distances, stepping out here and there to investigate a scent or detour to a known good hunting spot, but soon return to the trail.

The snow caused our cove to freeze up, with 4 inches of ice by Friday, though the main part of the lake was still wide open.

Did you see full moon this week?

Still open water on Friday

By Saturday, with calm overnight, most of the lake was iced in, which is a little concerning considering the juvenile loon was still on the lake on Friday.  People are watching carefully to see if she's gone or still swimming in a little sliver of open water.  

I took one last hike up behind the lake before the snow fell and I was able to find one set of needle ice growing beside the trail.

Needle Ice growing out of damp soil.

That will be it for needle ice this year.  I wrote more information about this interesting ice formation a couple of years ago:  Needle Ice

Through the bare branches in the woods, I noticed for the first time a couple of caves in the ledges along the Red Trail.

Curiosity made me investigate whether anyone was living there; I found no signs of porcupine (the caves are too large for them) or bears (the caves may not be well enough insulated with the large, exposed openings).

I also could see the cliff face at Crockett's Ledge.

It's incredible how trees can find the smallest foothold to take up residence in a granite face.

I also witnessed a nice turkey parade as they followed their leader calmly away from my presence.

Now I'll probably only be seeing their tracks in the snow, because winter is here, and it's probably here to stay.

The scene at Cannon Mountain this week.

December 1, 2024: Thanksgiving Snow

The first snow came to the lake late this year, falling right on Thanksgiving day.  It played havoc with travel north of Concord, but it sure made for a beautiful Thanksgiving Day in the Lakes Region.  The morning started with a Barred Owl giving thanks for a good population of little rodents this year.

I only noticed it when it glided down through the air, a flash of brown against a white background.  I lost it when it blended into the shrubs on the ground, but waited for it to take flight again.  The sortie was apparently was fruitless, so it found a new perch to watch and wait, and from its observation post it clearly detected my motion as it stared right at me for the picture above.  After a short stint it decided it wasn't a promising hunting spot and flew to a different post a few dozen yards away.

On the move.

Settled onto a new perch, but still watching me!

I don't know how long it sat there.  

Other avian visitors this week included more migrating ducks:  common mergansers, hooded mergansers, and a large flock of mallards.

Five ducks, almost in a row.  Hooded Mergansers.

Mallards - over a dozen in this flock.

A lone female Common Merganser on a quiet Thanksgiving morning.

The first snow always gets me excited to go right out and see who's been sneaking around the lake without anyone knowing.  Thursday night's tracks revealed several deer, a fox, and a mink - probably the same one I saw last week.

A deer print, and below, its track along the trail.

A nice fox print in wet snow.

And mink tracks, which I wouldn't have noticed weren't for the calling card it left me.

Mink scat - small and twisted.

I'll end with one more picture of our first snow, and a couple from the day after, which is often the prettiest day of a winter event.  

Here's to many more winter scenes as the new season begins - December first is the first day of meteorological winter!