November 17, 2019: The Foxes found the Apple Tree

There were more beautiful pre-winter scenes on display this week, courtesy of an early cold snap.

A frozen Beaver Pond in the Hamlin Conservation Area

Thankfully there were also some nice fall days to finish off the pre-season yard work before the real stuff arrives.  The lakes and the hills of Meredith provide abundant opportunities to soak in the beauty.

Perhaps all this early cold weather is preserving the apples that have fallen on the ground because the foxes and coyotes have found them still good enough to eat.

Fresh scat filled with apple left as a calling card in the middle of the trail.

Hundreds of apple trees were abandoned in the Lakes Region when the settlers vacated their farms to move west and many of them still produce fruit.   And then there are local farms that maintain either reclaimed or newly-planted orchards.  I expect the foxes know them all.

A few weeks ago the fox's diet was more protein-based than fruit-based as indicated by the amount of fur in this scat from October.

This October scat is loaded with hair.

But soon enough most plant material will be gone and the canines - as well as weasels, felines, and raptors - will all be living off of small animals.  Winter is a tough time to be a rodent.

Duck season peaks in the Lakes Region in November with many migrating birds stopping on our lakes to fuel up during their travels south.  There have been rafts of over a dozen mallards.

17 mallards ply the waters of Lake Wicwas.

They like to dabble along the shorelines, finding things to eat on the bottom.  Under the category of "you learn something every day" I discovered that mallards - and other ducks - eat acorns.

For a late evening snack, a couple of male mallards partake of acorns from an oak that hangs over the lake.

Diving ducks such as Hooded Mergansers tend to travel in smaller groups, often only just a pair.  Mergansers take much shorter dives than loons, usually less than 15 seconds, though they are just as adept at catching fish, as this female proved.

Mrs. Merganser comes up with a fish.

She had to work on it for quite a while before she was willing to swallow it.

Playing with her food before she swallows it whole.

I never realized just how much control a male hooded merganser has over its hood.

From a highly elongated hood.

All

the way

down

to a low, rounded hood. 

Stokes & Stokes don't have mergansers in their three-volume book of bird behavior, but I expect the male merganser uses this ability to communicate a range of signals to other birds.


Back on land I was a bit surprised to see a fresh deer rut in the snow this week, but I guess the deer are still in mating season.

A fresh rut in the thin snow.

Be aware that hunting season is in full swing now through December 8th, so be sure to wear bright clothing when in the woods.

We were also treated to the full harvest moon (or beaver moon in some circles) this week.

"Because I'm still in love with you
on this Harvest Moon"
(Neil Young)

It was just another moment in the ongoing art show that nature provides us, free of charge, just for the looking.

Journal Note:  I have started uploading to the nature journal photographs of the flora and fauna living around Lake Wicwas.  I started with mammals and will work my way through birds, amphibians, etc. over the coming weeks.  My goal is to have a record of the plants and animals I've observed around the lake.  You can find them in the tabs underneath the main photo on the home page.

October 8, 2017 - Beaver Invasion

Did you see the rare October Harvest Moon this week?

The Harvest Moon rising over Meredith Bay

One definition of the Harvest Moon is the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox, which usually is the September full moon. This was the first October Harvest Moon since 2009.

The glorious weather this week hasn't been able to stave off the foliage progression, as waning sunlight continues to deplete chlorophyll levels in the leaves regardless of the temperature.

Even the lilly pads are getting in on the action.

Pond lilies also have an inherent color that is hidden by the process of photosynthesis

The beaver population throughout New Hampshire continues to expand, at least as far as I can tell.  We now have one or two beavers swimming past every night, just before nightfall.  They are coming on shore everywhere, cutting small openings along the bank where there are are none, and building large scent piles to mark their territory.

Scent piles say "No Trespassing - these are my trees!"

If I go outside they pick up the slightest motion and jump in the lake. They'll swim around a bit and give some loud tail slaps - one night I was treated to four of these.

This picture was taken in the spring - right now they are coming out after dark.

Beaver are genetically programmed to stop any flowing water, bringing much agony to people who manage dams.  This fall they have been persistent at stuffing the Lake Wicwas dam with all kinds of debris.

The Wicwas dam seen from the lake side

We can't thank the town employees enough for dealing with this disgusting mess - downstream are the remains of prior clear-out work.

Old beaver debris on the other side of the dam

It's quite a success story for these, our largest rodents, after having been completely eliminated by trapping in the 1800's.  Between 1926 and 1930 six beavers were released in New Hampshire - has this entire population grown from those six animals?

The Indian summer has confused the blueberry bushes, as I saw some bewildered plants that are setting new blossoms.

Blueberry blossoms in October?

But no, I don't think we'll get a second blueberry crop this year.

It's still early, but the peak foliage will be coming to the Lakes Region soon; hopefully you'll be able to get out and enjoy it - either on land or on water.

Enjoying some water-borne leaf peeping

September 22, 2013

I hope you were able to see the full Harvest Moon a few days ago.  It occurred on a beautiful clear day and was spectacular - unfortunately I was not able to take any pictures.  The full moon came just a few days before the equinox, and although it seems like the days have already become awfully short, right now we have almost exactly 12 hours of sunlight.

Back on May 19th I wrote about a Nursery Spider, and this week I found a spider's nursery, although I believe this one is from a Dock Spider (Dolomedes) based on its location right beside the lake.

Nursery Web of a Dolomedes Spider

The spider had layed its eggs on a leaf, and then wrapped up several leaves to form a protective nursery around it.  It even selected a large, sturdy leaf to give it a roof.

A mother spider will stay and guard the nest until they hatch.  The spiderlings will have their first molt in the nursery, leaving their exoskeleton in the nest.  These spiders had all hatched and were gone when I found their nest, littered with their first skin.

Expended Exoskeletons from the Recently Hatched Spiders

I can only begin to guess how many spiders hatched from this one female Dolomedes.

Farther away from the lake I came upon what appears to be a lichen growing on the base of a tree.

I walk this trail frequently and hadn't noticed it before, but lichen grow very slowly, so if that's what it is, it must have been there for quite a while considering how large it is - lichen grow less than 1/2 inch per year.

In the early morning rain today a group of deer wandered by;  there were four of them in the road, with a fifth following along well up in the woods - perhaps a buck, I couldn't really see it.  As the fall rut approaches, the bucks will start to monitor does, marking territory, and perhaps fighting to secure their mates.  We should be seeing signs of the rut over the next few weeks throughout the woods.

With autumn upon us now, life around Lake Wicwas will start to change rapidly in many ways.