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.

February 19, 2023: Porcupine Ledge

I mentioned last week that I had been exploring a granite ledge that porcupine claim for their home. 

"Porcupine Ledge"

These rocky ledges are a favorite habitat for porcupines with all the nooks and crannies to hide in, and the hemlock trees that thrive on granite ledges.  

The days before I visited had seen a thaw-freeze cycle so there weren't any fresh tracks to be found but there were plenty of signs porcupine still inhabit this ledge - and are plenty active.  Immediately obvious as I approached the area were trees with large sections of their trunks stripped bare of their bark.

A stripped Striped Maple.  (Acer pensylvanicum) 

Striped maple trees have soft wood with moist, tender bark and are clearly a favorite of porcupine.

Porcupine are somewhat fussy, passing over areas with tough bark.

But they are very methodical in their eating, using their fine, sharp teeth to carefully scrape all the cambium right down to the heartwood of the tree they're dining on.

Porcupine incisor marks.

It appears they visited this tree in prior years based on the aged, gray wood in between the fresh chew marks.

Weathered gray wood from a prior year.

Hemlock trees are another favorite of porcupine and there are many hemlock trees on the ledge that have been dined on over the years. 

An Eastern Hemlock trimmed of its branches.

Often the first sign that you are in porcupine territory will be finding the ground covered with bits of hemlock branches that were chewed off the trees during the porcupine's harvest. 

Branches cut and dropped on the ground.

The frozen snow had preserved their trails from before the thaw so I could easily follow their paths to find their dens.

Porcupine trail leading to a den in the ledge.

Porcupine dens are typically small caves in the rocky ledge where they're protected from the elements and the earth keeps the temperature above freezing all winter.

The entrance to a den.

The floor of the entryway is often covered with droppings, an indicator the den is in current use.

Here's a photo of Erethizon dorsatum near the top of Porcupine Ledge from a prior winter:

Taken at night with my trail camera.

And here's one up in a tree, doing its thing.

Taken from a ski trail at Ragged Mountain.

We had some awfully pretty days this week, and with the thaw and freeze cycle the lake surface is back to being skate-able, so I took a skate around the entire lake yesterday.

A beautiful skate on Saturday.

And I found some pretty sights at Waukewan Highlands (off Parade Road in Meredith).

Near sunset on the Yellow Trail at Waukewan Highlands.

And finally, a gorgeous, fiery sunrise that Neil Crimins witnessed last weekend while ice fishing off Leavitt Beach on Winnipesaukee.

Thanks for sharing Neil!