September 7, 2025: Quieter Days on the Lakes

Welcome to September, a time when things graciously slow down around all the lakes.  I took advantage of a calm day to paddle the big lake; it's a peaceful place on a September morning.

Lake Winnipesaukee in September.

I paddled around several of Meredith's Islands to the east of Meredith Neck: Beaver, Hawk's Nest, Three Mile, and Pine.  I had the lake to myself until almost 11:00, affording opportunities to see several birds including this eagle having its breakfast on Three Mile Island.

I will surmise this is an immature Bald Eagle that has not yet earned its white head and tail feathers.

A little farther along, a Double-crested Cormorant was biding its time off the eastern point of Hawk's Nest Island.

A cormorant surveys the big lake.

I discovered an interesting find deep in a secluded cove in the cut between the Beaver Islands:  a stand of Black Gum (aka Black Tupelo) trees which were starting to turn red.

There used to be several large black gum trees on Wicwas too, but most of them have been taken down by beavers, though there are still a few smaller trees around.  You can find them most easily in the fall when their thick, glossy leaves turn a deep crimson color.

Look for these dark-red black gum leaves in early to mid October.

After paddling past Pine Island I followed the shoreline of Meredith Neck north back to Leavitt Beach, and along the way I rounded a point and flushed a Great Blue Heron off its resting point on a shoreline bounder.

Here are few manmade sights you might recognize from this part of the lake.

Stone marker at the north entrance to the channel behind Pine Island

That's Red Hill directly behind, with 4043' Mt. Passaconaway the high peak off in the distance.

AMC Camp on Three Mile Island

Y-Landing on Meredith Neck

Back on Lake Wicwas, our most famous residents, the loons and our juvenile Spangle, continue to do well even while constantly fending off intruders.  I found mom and spangle fishing in the middle of the lake one bright day.

Stopping to watch - at a safe distance of course - after one dive Spangle came up right next to me!  She did her best to hide, keeping a low profile before she dove again.

Heading north after this I found what I presume to be Spangle's father right at the line defining the north and south nesting territories guarding his domain against four other loons.  Even as a nearly full-size juvenile, spangle is still vulnerable to attack by other loons and protected fiercely by her parents.  

Spangle has shed all her baby feathers and is now fully clothed in juvenile plumage.

The feeble amount of rain we received this week did little to help the drought situation.  The lake is now down about seven inches, and almost all the streams are bone-dry (this was prior to yesterday when we did get some first appreciable rain, the first since July 13th, with more on tap for today).

Not a drop of water in these streams.

The only exception are ones that have beaver dams upstream which store enough water to keep the stream running slowly all summer as water leaks through the dam.  

This stream is supplied with water from the upstream beaver pond shown below.

The pond level is down, but that's what's keeping the stream alive.

The dry summer has been great for tourism and outside activities, but hard on plants and wildlife.  Water in both beaver ponds and flowing streams are incredibly valuable resources to animals in drought years.

I'm hearing lots of reports of ground hornet nests this fall - perhaps due to the dry summer?  I have personal experience with two already.  One I found in the Hamlin forest at the intersection of the Blue and Yellow trails heading up to Crockett's Ledge.  There was a large boulder turned over beside the trail and I wondered why.  Looking around I found the hole where it came from and realized a bear had excavated a bee nest to access the eggs and larvae.  

An excavated yellow-jacket nest.

Hornets that had survived the attack, perhaps because they were away from the nest at the time, were working like a construction crew after a tornado to recover what they could from the remains.  

I still can't image how a bear can endure the dozens, maybe hundreds, of stings it sustains while it feeds on a nest.  My advice to hikers is to simply keep a steady pace as you hike.  As long as you keep moving, even if you stomp right on top of a nest, by the time the hornets come out to investigate, they won't bother you if you've gone past them.  They're only likely to be a problem if you happen sit down right next to one - so be aware of where you stop for a break on your hikes.  If you see bees, move on quickly.

I wanted to mention all the wild fruit that's ripening now but that will have to wait.  I'll share just this fun moment of watching a young robin collecting cherries from a Black Cherry tree.

It's an important time of  year for animals to start stocking up on calories for winter, whether for hibernation or migration.

August 17, 2025: A Leap of Leopards

A group of leopards is called a leap, which seems appropriate for this species of leopard:

Northern Leopard Frog (I think)

It seems everywhere we go around the yard these days we're seeing streaks of motion deep in the vegetation.  It takes a bit of searching because these small leopards blend in well with diverse backgrounds, but as one gets close they jump again, revealing their hiding spot.

I have a hard time telling the difference between the Northern Leopard Frog and the Pickerel Frog.  I tend not to pick them up to study the inside of their thighs where the difference in color can clearly identify them (the pickerel frog has bright yellow thighs which the leopard frog lacks).  But the poorly-shaped and haphazardly arranged splotches on its back are indicative of the leopard frog; the pickerel frog has better defined spots.  Here's a mature pickerel frog I saw last June:

And a Pickerel Frog (I think!)

All the ones I'm seeing now are small, indicating they are newly emerged this year.  Both of these frog species hatch from eggs laid in the spring in ponds.  They develop through a tadpole phase and if they escape predators, they emerge onto land in mid-summer and start to spread out, which we are seeing now.  The pickerel frog is widespread in New Hampshire and not a species of concern, whereas the northern leopard frog is a Species of Special Concern and listed in the NH Wildlife Action Plan as a Species in Greatest Need of Conservation.  Seeing a lot of leopard frogs is a good sign of a healthy habitat.

As quick as they are, frogs are not safe from predators.  They're one of the favorite foods of the Great Blue Heron which are often seen standing like statues on the shoreline waiting for a frog to come within striking distance of their long neck.  But this week on a morning paddle I found a heron in another common, though surprising venue.

Great Blue Heron perched in a White Pine tree.

Whether in water where it's legs imitate lily pad stalks or up in a pine tree, they are well hidden.

Where's the heron?

Spending more of their life away from water, toads are less likely to be taken by a heron, but of course they will be snatched up if found.  Toads are getting large and plump this time of year after feasting on various insects and grubs all summer.

Toads, though amphibians, are found in drier climates than frogs, even at the top of mountains like this one near the summit of Red Hill.

And it sure is dry out there.  At the White Mountain Ledge in the Hamlin Town Forest the blueberry bushes and maple trees at the exposed ledge are curling up and turning brown.

Shriveling blueberries

and brown maple leaves.

It doesn't help that the soil there on top of the granite ledge is very thin and doesn't hold much moisture.  Some areas of the Lakes Region have had cloudbursts lately, but locally, the Lake Wicwas weather station has recorded only a total of half an inch of rain since July 14th.  It a good thing we have beavers.  Many streams are bone dry, but those downstream from beaver ponds - which store water and leak some continuously through the dam - are still flowing, if slowly.

A slowly-flowing stream below a beaver pond.

And Lake Wicwas, fed by two beaver-dammed ponds (as well as springs) is only down about an inch from full lake level.  

Measured at the Wicwas outlet yesterday.

Nature has a way of taking care of itself, if allowed.

The colors of late summer are starting to fully develop; it's a beautiful time to be in the woods or on the water.  But this entry is long enough, so I'll add just one scene of what's to come next to lure us out into nature in the coming weeks.

The colors of late summer at the lake.

P.S.  Regarding the loons, Star hasn't been seen for a couple of days, so we are concerned - stay tuned.

August 25, 2024: Double-Dammed Pond

We're getting towards the best time of the year to be outside:  The bugs are mostly gone, the air is cooler and drier, and once the smoke from wildfires moves out the sky will be blue.  With so many great hiking options right close by there's no need to travel far to get your nature fix.  Right here beside Lake Wicwas is the 700 acre Hamlin-Eames-Smyth Town Forest with almost 20 miles of trails.  One of my favorite loops is the Blue Trail that goes out to Double-dammed Pond.  

Double-dammed Pond

This pretty beaver pond got its name from the fact it has dams at both ends of its elongated pond.  On my way out there I stopped to peruse numerous fungi with a range of sizes, colors, and shapes.

Indian Pipe

Amanita

Yellow Slime Mold

I think this is a Yellow Slime Mold (with a second fungus growing with it) - something worth studying further - it's really interesting.

Those are just a few of many you'll see if you take a walk in the woods this week.  I'll include more of the mushrooms I've seen this summer when I do the annual fungus post.  

🍄

Most of the woodland flowers are done blooming now but if you look along the shores of any pond or stream where more sun reaches the ground you're likely so see aquatic or wetland flowers blooming.  A perennial late-summer favorite of mine is the turtlehead.

Turtlehead (Chelone glabra)

It was on a walk to a different beaver pond quite a bit farther north that I came upon a fabulous raptor perched proudly on a drowned tree in the pond.  

It was a small a raptor and I knew it was something special, though I wasn't prepared to declare it was a Merlin until I returned home and checked the field guides, and finally sent the picture to a friend who's a true avian expert (thanks RB!) and he confirmed it was a Merlin.  

That's a first for me.  I've seen small, fast raptors speeding through the yard on occasion and wondered if was a Merlin but never got a good enough look to know.  To see one perched, waiting for an unsuspecting bird to fly near was a real treat.  Merlins are small falcons and are very fast and powerful birds.  Other birds are their primary food source; they catch them on the wing, chasing them down, or forcing them to fly higher until they tire out and are overtaken.  Merlins breed in Canada so this one was probably on its way to the southern US or Central America for the winter.

Beaver Pond in Twin Mountain

Back on Wicwas I came upon what I thought was a new sculpture someone had placed in their yard.

It looked so real, but was so stationary that I didn't think it was real; it never moved as I paddled right by it.  But looking back over my shoulder I detected a slight twitch in its head, and decided it was in fact the real thing.  Last week someone shared with me that they watched a heron eat a turtle - whole.  He said it was quite a sight to see.  I'd never heard of that, and looking into it, I learned that herons have two stomachs, which together, allow them to digest turtles.  The first has a potent stomach acid that softens bones and shells.  The second stomach grinds everything up with the help of stones the heron eats for this purpose, much like loons do.  That begs the question of whether herons, like loons, suffer from lead poisoning from consuming lead fishing sinkers.  Maybe herons take different size stones, or maybe they collect them from areas where fishing tackle might not be lost.  

The forest has been quiet here in late summer, but I have seen this deer a couple of times recently. 

Yesterday morning we had a lengthy stare-off where the deer took a long time to decide if I was a threat.  It eventually concluded "yes" and was off.

Is that where the term "high-tail" it out of here comes from?

April 9, 2023: Spring Overture

Happy Easter!  

And with Easter came the early sounds of spring.  It's just the opening overture before the full spring musical arrives, but the early spring songbirds are here and they are singing the opening of the first act as the spring migrants are arriving now in droves.  This week I saw an eastern phoebe, a brown creeper, a song sparrow, a few great blue herons, several robins collecting nest material, a flock of over two dozen American black ducks, and the first pair of mergansers. 

A pair of common mergansers fishes in a sliver of blue water.

Most exciting to see was the brown creeper, a small bird that mostly keeps hidden in dense forest as it creeps up and down tree trunks looking for insects. 

A song Sparrow and a brown creeper glean seeds as the snow recedes.

Brown creepers are resident year round but I only hear them in the summer, and only once or twice have I been able to follow the song to actually see the bird.  But here in spring, there was a single bird collecting leftover seeds below where the feeder had been.

Brown creepers have a long, down-curled beak that helps them probe into bark crevices in search of insects.

The birds are relegated to finding leftovers now that the feeders have been removed for the summer as bears are up and on the prowl, very hungry, and bird feeders are a strong attractant to unnatural habitats.  

The first heron that I saw came flying in low over the still frozen lake and plopped itself down on the shoreline in front of a gap of five feet of open water.  

Just moments before this we thought we saw a duck sitting on the ice near this stretch of open shoreline, but when we looked closely we realized it wasn't a duck, but in fact was a mink.  The mink tramped around on the ice a little bit before sliding off the ice into the water and swimming along the shore out of sight.  But when the heron flew in, that obviously caught its eye because the mink swam right back up that sliver of water and stopped at the edge of the shoreline right in front of the heron.

You can just barely make out the mink to left of the tree reflection in the water.

Upon reaching the shore, the two of them had a stare-down.  

I'm pretty sure a heron wouldn't go after a mink, but less sure that a mink wouldn't attempt to grab a heron, though I think once it encountered that pointy four-inch beak it would regret that decision.   But we won't know because that heron decided there were other places to fish and it flew off to a less crowded fishing spot.

Strong April sun and a brisk northwest wind on Friday started to break up the ice with large cracks forming miniature icebergs.  A few more warm days next week and we may be getting close to ice-out.  Ice-out on Winnipesauke was called on Friday, April 7th.

The ice started to break up on Friday.

Yes, it's the dichotomy of spring.  Remnants of a frozen winter,

A snow-covered trail on Arbutus Hill.

slowly melting away into a liquid spring,

Spring snow melt cascades down a stream in the Hamlin Town Forest.

which the trees soak up to resurrect their eternal life.

Red maple buds getting ready to burst on the next warm day.

I also had a report of spring peepers being heard just south of the Lakes Region.  (Thanks GP!)  That always adds a fine soprano voice to the spring orchestra!