February 5, 2023: Hockey in a Polar Vortex

I feel sorry for the hockey players.  This winter has been so warm that Meredith Bay still hasn't frozen over, so the New England Pond Hockey tournament, which brings players from all over the county, was moved from Lake Winnipesaukee to Lake Waukewan.

26 rinks of cold fun on Lake Waukewan.

And then, on the weekend of the event, we get the coldest weather of not only the year, but near all-time record cold.  Saturday morning it was -17 degrees in Meredith, not our coldest ever seen, but cold enough, and with the wind it felt like 44 degrees below zero.  The start of the games on Saturday was delayed until noon when the temperature had warmed up to -1, though with Waukewan exposed to the northwest winds, the wind chill was still a cool -25 degrees, but the games went on.

Some of the action on Saturday afternoon.

They shorted the length of the games from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, but some teams had to play two games in a row - these are some tough folks.

With the delayed start, I bet the restaurants and bars were busy late into Friday night!

Mount Washington was of course the coldest spot in the state, and perhaps on the continent if you factor in wind chill.  I watched the temperature drop all day on Friday, falling to a low of -46.2 Fahrenheit with a wind chill of -108.  

Wind speeds and temperatures recorded Friday on Mt. Washington.

Mt. Washington even made the national news yesterday; you can listen to (or read) a report on the record-setting conditions on the summit and what caused them here.

I didn't get out for more than a few minutes at a time on Friday or Saturday, but I did get a quick hike in on Wednesday when the cold weather was just forming. The air mass coming down from Canada was already pushing in very dry air with dew points down to -30 degrees Fahrenheit, ushering in those cobalt blue skies.

Red Hill Fire Tower.

And from the summit of Red Hill I could see large areas of open water in Lake Winnipesaukee.

Someone asked me about bears during this cold snap.  (This person had a surprise, up close and personal meeting with a bear while trail running, and now thinks about bears a lot!)  With such a short cold spell and good snow cover, I think all the ground dwelling animals like bears and foxes will be just fine because the ground is still warm and the frost has barely penetrated the earth.  I worry more about the deer and the tree dwellers like birds and squirrels.  On the coldest days the squirrels were nowhere to be seen, but the birds were at the feeders.

The birds spent a lot of time taking in calories on Saturday.

Birds can lose up to 10% of their body weight burning energy to keep warm through a single cold night, so they need to consume food every day.  Perhaps the squirrels do better in their nests insulated with leaves, curled up into small balls with their thick furry tails wrapped around them.  Still, with those temperatures and winds it must be pretty hard on them.  

I expect the mourning doves have been around all winter but I first saw them last week during the snow storm, the two of them puffed up in an oak tree keeping warm.

Mr. and Mrs. Mourning Dove

The world may be cold, but it sure is pretty.

The trail up to Red Hill.

December 25, 2021: Winter Solstice, Cold Moon

Merry Christmas!

Posting earlier than usual in order to send Christmas greetings to all! 

We have now passed the winter solstice and thus, spring is on the way!  Well, that may be a bit of optimistic thinking, but at least the days are now getting longer.  This year the solstice found me once again at the top of Red Hill in Moultonborough, one of my favorite quick hikes with a great view, though I will warn you if you head in that direction, access to the fire tower is closed for the winter.  But you can still enjoy that bright blue New Hampshire winter sky.

The Red Hill fire tower on a blue sky day.

There is no view to the north without climbing the tower, and with the sun at the lowest rise the sky - not even 23 degrees above the horizon at high noon on the solstice - there is a lot of glare looking south even on a clear day.

This was taken at noon, just an hour after the solstice.

On December 18th, three days before the solstice, the December full moon arrived; I was able to catch it just 32 hours later during a beautiful pink sunrise on December 20th.

The December moon is called the Cold Moon according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, though the native peoples of North America, whom lived here for at least 12,000 years before Europeans arrived, had first given it other names according to their heritage.  

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The snow that fell last weekend was enough to allow for some great winter activities through mid-winter scenes.  I took a ski over at Page Pond in Meredith on the multi-use trail and around the fields at Barnard Ridge Road.

Crossing Bickford Brook on the multi-use trail.

The Belknap Range from the top of the upper Page Pond field.

Unfortunately we later had a little sleet and mixed precipitation which put a slushy, icy end to the skiing, but when the sun came out afterwards there were some pretty sights to be had.

Sun glistens through the ice coating the trees.

The slush didn't stop the animals from going out - the trails and the lake are covered with frozen otter and fox tracks.  

Animal tracks wind all over the lake.

The animals don't mind walking in the slush.  These frozen tracks will be here a while.

I took my own first steps out on the lake on Thursday and was surprised to find six inches of ice, four inches of solid black ice under an inch or two of that frozen slush.  Yesterday, after a night of 10 degree temperatures thickened it further we were able to get some skating in after all before today's snow ended that.  

But now, skiing and snowshoeing are back on the agenda!

As the days get imperceptibly long over the coming days, the moon will head in other direction.  By the morning of the equinox it was already showing a shaded edge. 

Our daughter has a few words of wisdom posted in her kitchen, courtesy of the moon: 

            Advice from the Moon:

                    Live life to the fullest
                    Be someone to look up to
                    Don't be phased by difficulties
                    Take time to reflect
                    Light up the night!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

February 21, 2021: Blue, Blue Skies

The snow conditions haven't been very good for tracking lately.  First we had some rain which put a crust on the top of snow preventing any tracks from registering except for the deer which have sufficient weight on tiny hooves to break through the crust.  But for obvious reasons, they don't much like walking around in those conditions.  On the few occasions I did see deer tracks there were often blood stains on the snow where the sharp crust cut into their lower legs.  One place I saw these tracks was on the trail up to Red Hill on Wednesday, an absolutely spectacular blue-sky day.

Fire tower on Red Hill.

I didn't check the numbers, but the dew point that day must have been below zero for the sky to be that blue.  

One night we got a dusting of snow which was just enough for little mouse tracks to be seen on top of the crust.

Mouse tracks running from tree to tree.

Trees tend to make openings in the snow next to the trunk, either due to wind blowing around the tree or from sun warming the dark trunk, which provides easy access up and down through the snow cover for the mice.  As I mentioned last week, I have trouble differentiating between voles and mice, but I think these are mice tracks.  Not only are they running around above the snow (voles tend to tunnel underneath the snow) but they also show tail tracks - look closely at the tracks in the lower right - blown up here:

The tail drag mark is evident.

Voles can also leave tail tracks in snow but it's less common with the shorter tail they have.

Then on Friday we received a nice little snowfall of a few inches to put a good surface on top of the crust, but I didn't get out locally to see what was around, instead taking a trip over to Dorchester to ski on the nicely prepared trails at Green Woodlands.  

If  you're a cross country skier and have never been there, you should check it out - many miles of trails groomed for classic and skate, plus many other trails left for backcountry skiing.  And it's all at no cost.  Usually they have warming huts with fires and hot chocolate, but they're closed this year, although they do have one outdoor fire pit open with the fire burning, ready to cook up s'mores.  You can find out more at their website or facebook page.

Back on Lake Wicwas, during a ski along the west side of the lake, I came across this neat sight over the frozen water:

A Kingbird nest from warmer days.

It's the nest of an Eastern Kingbird, nicely being kept safe for next summer under a blanket of snow.  Evidently they have taken advantage of some human trash to reinforce their nest with strong fibers of blue plastic.  Animals will certainly make good use of whatever they can find.  I remember my grandmother putting out pieces of strings for birds to use in their nest building.

This kingbird nest raised a brood of four chicks in 2016 though I don't know if it's been used since then; kingbirds don't usually reuse a nest the way the phoebe, another flycatcher, does.  If the nest hasn't been rehabilitated since 2016 it certainly has held up well over the years.  Right now the kingbirds are enjoying winter in South America, somewhere along the Amazon River living off of fruit; they won't return to New Hampshire for quite a while yet, waiting until the insects they live off have emerged.  It's too bad the flycatchers will never get to experience that beautiful blue New Hampshire sky.

November 10, 2019: Dragonflies in November

It's hard to believe dragonflies are still patrolling the skies in November.

The meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum) dragonfly is known to survive late into the fall.

I had seen several dragonflies out enjoying a warm sunny day this week, and then somehow this one managed to get into the house, and it posed for a portrait before I scooped it up and returned it to its proper domain.  This meadowhawk would have mated in late summer, so it has completed its life mission even if it didn't survive the change that was coming.

Wednesday was too nice to pass up one last quick fall hike between the yard chores.  It had been a while since I'd hiked Red Hill via Eagle Cliff, so for a short trip, that fit the bill. 

Squam Lake from Eagle Cliff.

The bare ledges on Mt. Whiteface are always a good identifying feature.

I saw only three people on the hike:  a couple at the fire tower, and Bob, a property steward doing his fall survey on the Eagle Cliff Trail.  (Thank you for your work Bob, it was good talking with you!) 

Then on Thursday the front approached; overnight the temperature dropped, and Friday, it hit.

Multiple squalls blew in on the northwest wind.

The squalls went all day and the temperature never rose above freezing, but on an afternoon walk I found I wasn't the only one out in the storm.  While I was standing near the shore, a flash of dark brown caught my eye, and there, five feet in front of me right at the water's edge was a young mink!

That little brown shape is a mink.

I had my phone in my hand and snapped one blurry picture before it saw me and ducked into a hole in the bank.  That was the nature highlight for the week!

Friday night the wind let up and the cold settled in, allowing the first ice of the season to form on Lake Wicwas.

Ice forms first in sheltered coves.

It then works its way out into the lake.

I love the ice formations when it freezes on a calm night in a protected area.

Jack Frost visited Sheep Island

There's no telling at this point if the ice will last as it all depends on the weather.  But as long as the lake is open we'll follow the loon story the best we can - until they depart.  I saw (what I'm calling) Davidson and mom on Tuesday, and I saw Harley on Saturday. 

Davidson and mom.

However, John Cooley, senior biologist for the Loon Preservation Committee, indicated that it really could be either chick with the parent.

One would expect the younger bird (Davidson), usually smaller and weaker, to need more help and thus stay close to a parent, but sometimes if the weaker bird is picked on by its bigger sibling and excluded from the family, it will venture out on its own.  And the juvenile we're calling Harley (the independent one) did start separating from the family quite early in the summer.  Harley is a very proficient fisher; I saw it bring up a huge fish which Harley worked on for a long time before it went down the hatch.  So we really don't know who's who, but we'll keep watching to see if we can tell when each leaves the lake, and if any of them leave together. 

Who knows, maybe Friday's weather and ice forming will have them saying "time to move on!"

Not "a fit night out for man nor beast"  (Yukon Cornelius)

Then again, now that we've gone back to beautiful fall weather, maybe they'll stick around a while longer.

Meredith Center Free Will First Baptist Church on Saturday

December 23, 2018: Winter Solstice

Well, it wasn't what we expect the first day of astronomical winter to be like:  the temperature was in the 40s, and it poured rain most of the day.  But the day certainly didn't start out that way - all over the Lakes Region people were treated to a blazing sunrise:

Dave Thorpe captured this gorgeous sunrise as morning dawned on the winter solstice

Thank you Dave for sharing that beautiful start to a dreary day.

Then on the first full day of winter it was more like the first day of spring - foggy, warm, and everything melting fast.

The first day of winter?

Much of our early snow has washed away and what's left wasn't good for much of anything - skiing, tracking, or even walking due to deep puddles on the trails.

Frozen ground impedes water seepage, forming large puddles

Streams are running fast like the spring freshets

Because of the ugly forecast for the 19th I took my winter solstice hike a day early, hiking up Red Hill for the third year.  It's becoming a tradition.

The Red Hill fire tower stand tall in the blue winter sky

The southern White Mountains from the Tripyramids to Chocorua

It was a beautiful clear New Hampshire day with blue sky north and south except for down low over unfrozen Lake Winnipesaukee where mist was rising and condensing in the cold morning air.

Steam rises from Lake Winnipesaukee with the Belknap Range behind

There were a couple of inches of nice dry snow above 1200' elevation and the only tracks down the Cabin Trail were from a deer that took advantage of the well packed snow, using it for a good half a mile.

Deer tracks in fresh snow on Red Hill's Cabin Trail

Earlier I had been up on Arbutus Hill and the White Mountain Ledge in the Hamlin Conservation Area and found other signs of deer.

This deer rub is on a maple sapling

Bucks rub their antlers on small trees, especially hemlock, both to put their scent on it and to help rub off the antler's velvet.  With mating season over they will lose their antlers over the next few weeks.  Since their antlers fall off every year, why don't we find them in the forest?  It's because they are loaded with valuable minerals, so the woodland animals chew them up as soon as they sniff them out them.  If you look in active dear yards in the spring you may find one; its suggested to avoid deer yards in the winter so not to drive animals away from their yards which afford them protection from harsh winter weather and predators.

I'm still thinking the bears are gone for the winter, but this warm spell might change that - we'll see.  Back in early November, when they were still very active, a good size bear was captured on a trail camera as it took a stroll along the shore of Lake Wicwas.  Bruce Bouley captured this video of it; definitely worth watching - it's one big bear!  Thanks Bruce!

In addition to bears, the thaw may bring skating back, but only after a good solid freeze; the integrity of the ice is unknown at this point.  I hope the bob house that appeared on Lake Wicwas last week made it through the thaw.

The first bob house of the season appeared on December 16th

Last night's chill followed by seasonal temperatures today should get things moving back in the right direction.  And we may have missed the full cold moon on the solstice, but we had a second chance to enjoy it this morning.

The Cold Moon sets over Wicwas