February 2, 2020: Pond Hockey Classic

The 2020 Pond Hockey Classic survived this variable winter, and the action in the rinks was as good as ever.

Some teams are pretty serious.

Note the Giuseppe's Jerseys

They were able to hold the event on Meredith Bay, but it was close - the ice was sound enough to hold 26 rinks worth of hockey, but they kept vehicles and vendors off the ice.  Most importantly, they found a spot for the Labatt's beer tent.  (What would hockey be without beer?)  Even without cars, trucks, fires, and food vendors on the ice, there was plenty of entertainment out there, including hockey players of all sizes.

The feeder team.

Lots of happy faces - it was a much warmer day than most years.

No age or gender rules here.

 The usual assortment of winter vehicles was present, displaying a wide range of transportation methods.

Fat bike - with spikes.

Clearing the ice between games.

Sled dog try-outs.    ;-)

Would someone really ride this on the ice?

Regardless of what mother nature throws at us, Meredith always finds a way to pull off a good event.

Meredith Village is a beautiful spot for events, summer or winter.

The ice on Meredith Bay was reported to be between 8 and 12 inches on Wednesday, probably thicker when the tournament started on Friday after a couple of cold nights.  I checked Lake Wicwas and found 13 inches of ice on Friday, about six inches of black ice with seven inches of solid (not porous) white ice on top - plenty safe for almost any activity on the lake.  There were a lot of snowmobiles out a week ago, but with the trails losing a lot of snow, I saw none this week.

There were people out ice fishing, including this group that built themselves a nice fire to keep warm.

Later in the week I saw they left a fair amount of partially burned wood on the ice.

If this washes up on shore, you'll know where it came from.

Up on the shore I found that the thinning snow cover has allowed the animals to return to digging for acorns.  First squirrels,

Squirrels pulled this out from under the snow.  (Mice would have chewed the shells into smaller pieces.)

and then deer.

Deer were back to digging them up too.

All are happy to be able to access this high calorie food in the depth of winter.  I also found evidence of rabbits, though they don't eat acorns.

Rabbit scat - there were many.

These perfectly round droppings are most likely from a cottontail rabbit rather than a snowshoe hare based on the habitat (the two animals' scat can look very similar).  I found these in dense woods with lots of cover, which is where cottontails like to hide out.  Hares favor more open forest where they can use their speed to elude predators.  [Tracking and the art of Seeing, Rezendes, HarperCollins,1999]

Members of the order lagomorpha, which includes rabbits and hares, digest their food twice, somewhat like ungulates (deer, cows, etc.) but in the rabbit's case the food passes through the entire digestive system twice.  The first time through the scat emerges soft, and is eaten by the rabbit and digested again [ibid].  The scat we find on the ground is the second and final product.

There's snow in the forecast for the coming week, so perhaps we'll get some new snow on the ground to freshen things up for the winter sports enthusiasts as well as the sled dog races coming up in a couple of weeks.  This won't be acceptable for sled dogs:

And don't forget:  next weekend is the Great Meredith Fishing Derby!

December 11, 2016 - Ice-in

Last week's bright wintergreen is now a memory, buried beneath the snow until spring - at least if the winter continues the way it is starting out.  On Monday we had a nice fluffy layer of fresh snow draped across the landscape.

Falling into the open water it provided ready-made ice which froze up over a good portion of the lake.

Then a strong wind a few days later blew much of it away, opening up the majority of the lake again.  Even with temperatures down into the teens, the wind kept the lake wide open as recently as Saturday.

No ice on the main body of Lake Wicwas on December 10

The wind does tend to splash water up near shore, creating interesting ice sculptures.

Rocks and branches coated in ice

But last night, with the wind abating and the air temperature dropping to 5 degrees, the lake did freeze over, with ice-in declared this morning, December 11.

Less than 24 hours later Mother Nature had put the lake to bed for the year

Every year the lake freezes up in a new manner.  This year the early ice in protected coves, followed by some moderate temperatures and sunny days created perfect circles in the ice with spider-cracks where water must have trickled off the surface, finding its way back into the lake.

Soon after sunrise

Later the same afternoon

Returning home from a Christmas shopping trip one afternoon I ambushed a rafter of turkeys that had discovered Linda's bird feeders.  They left quickly but calmly, and I was able to catch a quick picture of the last two as they strutted off into the woods.

They had been around long enough to thoroughly trample the areas around the feeders, leaving plenty of evidence - they are not a stealth bird, that's for sure.

Turkey prints are quite distinctive

Fresh, early snow is always great for seeing what animals have been out around the lake all year, often without any prior trace.  In addition to the turkey and the usual squirrels, this past week fox, coyote, rabbit (or hare), mice, deer, and otter all left their mark around the lake.  Here a rabbit and a mouse followed the same trail.

At this point an otter slid along on its belly right across the trail and down into the lake.

A River Otter belly-slide

All these tracks will soon be covered up, as more snow is forecast to arrive tonight.  It means there may be no skating on Lake Wicwas this year, but I'm starting to think:  snow shoes, cross country skis, and pretty sunrises.

A cold sunrise over Wicwas

January 20, 2012

Lake Wicwas has been on a weather roller coaster lately.  How does a 50 degree temperature change sound?  It was 55 on Monday, (though still two degrees from the record high) and then 5 degrees on Friday.  Most of our snow melted, though we received a few more inches on Wednesday;  not enough to ski in the woods, or even to need snow shoes, but it sure made for a splendid sunrise.

Photo Credit:  L. Powell

I did take a nice ski on the lake, at least on the edges.  After the warm weather and open water just a few weeks ago, I'm still not willing to bet my life that the middle of the lake is safe.

Along my trip, I came across a marker obviously staked near an active beaver lodge.  It was clearly put there intentionally, and well marked.  When I saw a second near another beaver lodge, I figured something was going on.  I checked two other lodges, and they also had similar markers.  What's up?

Today, I got my answer. On a walk around the lake we came across a couple of people at one of the markers.  They are trappers, and I learned a lot about beavers and trapping.

Trapping season runs from November through April;  starting in November, beavers grow a layer of soft fur, which makes this the best season for pelts.  There isn't much of a market for beaver pelt;  he sends the pelts to Idaho for tanning, and is collecting enough to make a bed cover.

A small piece of poplar wood is used for bait, which makes the trap pretty much a one-species snare - no other animal will be attracted to an old chunk of wood!  Trappers must check their snares at least every three days, so it's a pretty intensive undertaking. 

Trapping to meet the insatiable European demand for pelts completely eliminated beavers from all of New England except the farthest reaches of Maine by the middle of the 1800s.  After their reintroduction in Vermont in the early 1900s, their population has boomed - they have few predators left and little market value.  It is not uncommon for a colony to completely harvest their available food supply, and have to move on or starve.  Land owners in the lakes region will hire trappers to reduce the size of a colony if it is devastating their property.

Lake Wicwas and its surrounds are probably near the limit of a healthy population, based on the observations I've made.  I've identified eleven lodges within the boundaries of Lake Wicwas alone, not including the Chemung Forest or the Hamlin/Eames/Smyth area.  It might sound cruel, but trappers are doing what nature no longer takes care of on its own.

This particular trapper will help people with problem animals, including skunk and raccoon.  Let me know if you need a contact.


On Saturday we took a hike -  no snow shoes needed - up to Arbutus Hill Pond.  On the way we saw deer, moose, rabbit, and fox tracks.

Rabbit Tracks

There are also splendid ice formations on the streams.

We were startled at one point by a grouse that flew out from under cover of a hemlock tree, followed shortly be two or three more.  We followed their tracks a bit;  they are rather narrow, often in a straight path without distinct foot prints except where the snow was barely an inch deep beneath the tree they were hiding under.  Without seeing the birds we never would have identified the tracks.

The ice fishermen were out in force this weekend, at least before the squall came through today.

Ice Fishing on Lake Wicwas

There was once again dynamic weather, with sun on the lake but threatening weather coming over the hills from the west.

Squalls coming from the West

Oh - and then this evening, we had another visit from the flying squirrel! 

They are very bold rodents;  it really takes a lot to get them to abandon an unrestricted food source!  If you've never seen a flying squirrel actually fly, see if you can run this video - it's my first attempt at uploading a video.

A late update:  I captured a beautiful gray fox coming and going on his nightly rounds early this morning.  Keep the trappers away from him - we need the foxes - they keep the rodent population in check!

2:18 am

4:23am

September 16, 2012

More signs that summer is fading fast - we're losing about three minutes of day light every day now.  Cool, dry, fall weather blew over Lake Wicwas this weekend, allowing the atmosphere to cool quickly once the sun set, bringing the coolest temperatures since May.  The dense, cool air mass flowed down the slopes around the lake, promoting a visceral mist as it encountered the warm surface of Lake Wicwas.

The birds are noticing it too, as the first flocks of Canada Geese are heading on their way southward - but not our flock yet.

Canada Geese

We are beginning to see more of the impatient members of the plant world too.

Our loon chick has matured noticeably in the last two weeks.  Compare these pictures to August 28.

It has lost almost all of its baby fuzz, it has adult markings now, and is gaining in size.

Its wings are developing, and it is starting to investigate what they are all about.

Look at how it folds them all up to put them back into storage.  It looks like one of those hard-top convertible cars with an automated roof.

It will be ready to use those new appendages in a couple of months.

I also saw the osprey again.

It fooled me by perching high up in the top of a tree - from a distance I thought it was an eagle, as that is an eagle's usual observation post.

More mammal activity is also evident; they are all fattening up for the winter.  I heard deer in the woods, though didn't see any, other than one right on the road as I drove in.  I found a three foot long branch lying on a trail, with most of its leaves nibbled off.

But it wasn't a deer, as it was cut off cleanly right at the ground rather than ripped from up high (I had to search a bit to find from where it was cut).

This perfect 45 degree cut, which looks like it was made with pruning shears, is the sure sign of a rabbit.  It cut off the young sapling so it could acquire the tender leaves that were out of its reach.

There is more scat on the trails too - I'm pretty sure this is coyote scat based on its diameter of 3/4".

He's probably delighted that the rabbits and deer are eating well!

We took a trip up to Ossipee and walked a couple of very nice trails there.  The first was in the Ossipee Pine Barrens which is a rare and very unique habitat in New Hampshire.  The second was around White Lake at White Lake State Park.  There we found a vivid, almost psychedelic fungus growing all along a downed tree.  Although it's not Lake Wicwas, it is too fascinating to not share it.

I think it's a polypore, and I'm guessing the orange pigment is being pulled from the host tree.  Remember the red wood under the fallen tree after the storm on July 4th?  It had bright red color just under its bark.  Perhaps this is the same kind of tree, and the fungus is drawing on that coloring.  (Note:  I have since learned this is called chicken-of-the-woods, also known as sulphur spore.)

Back to Lake Wicwas, here's another look at the coming season.