April 19, 2026: A Squirrel's Tale

The weather was nice enough the day after ice-out on Wicwas to get on the lake for a kayak, and I wasn't the only one on the lake; I caught up on winter news with several others out enjoying the nice day.  It's always a long stretch to be off the lake between the time the ice isn't safe for travel until there's enough open water to kayak.

There was still ice in some of the protected, north-facing coves.

In addition to the loons and the geese, several other waterfowl are arriving on the lake.  There was a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, sharp looking birds.

Ring-necked Ducks

Buffleheads (another beautiful diving duck), and both Hooded and Common Mergansers all made their appearance.

Buffleheads

A quartet of male Common Mergansers

On my first kayak of the year I'm alway impressed by how quickly the pond lilies emerge, as well as how clear the water is in early spring.

Pond lilies emerging from the lake bottom as soon as the ice is out.

These plants probably start their process as the ice thins and small amounts of solar radiation start to penetrate to the bottom of the lake.

I also came across a beaver lodge that has been expanded and now towers high above the lake.

This home will stay dry even if spring flooding raises the lake level.

As I paddled across the imaginary line that separates the south and north loon territories, I found a loon on sentry.  I was sure it was the northern male guarding its boundary.  It was preening, so I watched from a safe distance - so not to not disturb him - while I waited for a foot wag.

Sprucing himself up to look handsome for his mate.

He was at it for a long time, but eventually, I got the action I needed.

White band with a black dot - that's our guy.

The spring invasion of migrating birds is really heating up now.  On one walk I saw or heard 18 different birds including a Hermit Thrush, Golden-crowned Kinglet, White-throated Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Blue-headed Vireo, and Northern Flicker.  Some migrants will stay here to breed while others are just stopping for a rest on their way to breeding grounds farther north.

🐦🐦🐦

Now for the squirrel tale, or rather, tail.  I found this on the ground in a small open area amidst a mixed pine-hardwood forest. 

I wasn't sure what it was until I turned it over and saw the red fur.

It's clearly the tail of a Red Squirrel.  The question is, did a predator catch the squirrel and leave the tail behind, or did it catch just the tail, which the squirrel jettisoned to save its life?  Scouring the area for clues was fruitless - no carcass, fur, or any signs of a struggle, which isn't surprising.  A predator would likely either take its meal to a safer place to eat, or take it back to its den or nest for its family.  But if it caught the squirrel, wouldn't it have taken it away tail and all?  Why would it cut off the tail and leave it there?

If the squirrel did escape alive, it will have a difficult life; squirrels can't regrow a tais the way starfish or lizards can regrow a body part, and a squirrel uses its tail in many ways including for balance and for insulation in winter.

The detachment point.

At any rate, I'll be keeping my eye out this summer for a tailless red squirrel!

P.S.  Speaking of migrating birds, the MOTUS bird tracking station on Red Hill in Moultonborough has detected two Saw-Whet Owls which are now far north in Canada on the St. Lawrence River.  You can always find the latest detections using the link at the top of the Wicwas Nature Journal.

March 15, 2026: Season of Change

Spring is a season of changes and after a good hard winter with abundant snow, there's a lot of change to happen.  We'll start with Lake Wicwas itself.  It will take a while to melt this year's thick ice, especially with a deep snow pack to insulate it, but the warm March sun (only a week now until the vernal equinox) is starting to do its work even though the first signs may be hidden.  Some of the snow will sublimate directly into the atmosphere, but some will melt and get trapped at the surface of the lake.  One might never know it's happening until a step is taken onto to the lake on a warm day - or a snowmobile passes by.

Snowmobiles on the lake reveal what's hidden under the snow.

Compressing the snow, whether by foot or machine, reveals several inches of watery slush under the snow.  If you keep moving it's not too bad because it takes a moment for the snow to get saturated, but if you stop you can sink deep into wetness.

The slush freezes up when it gets cold enough over night, which happened later in the week.  

I mentioned previously how temperature is stabilized in the subnivean zone at the interface of land and snow; by this time of year with such good snow cover, that open gap is getting big enough for larger animals to hang out down there.  I watched a red squirrel one morning eating bird seed, and ducking down into its safe room whenever something startled it.  At times it would climb up to a high spot to scan for dangers before resuming its meal.  In this video I cut out the long section where it just sat still, observing from its sentry.

My most interesting observation this week was where otters had found their own secret path through the subnivean zone from lake to land where they established a latrine.  They somehow found - or created - an opening some three feet from the lake which they used to emerge from the depths.

The lake is off to the left of the tree.

It's a good size gap between earth and snow that lets an otter pass.

That's a deep, dark hole!

The number of tracks, staining on the snow, and size of the latrine tell me this has had a lot of use.

One more sign of animals digging down under the snow was this hole where a Red Squirrel tunneled down to access one of its caches of pine cones.

The jagged stalks are the spine of the pine cone, called the rachis.

Last night mother nature freshened up the scenery with a couple of inches of new snow, just what we need in March to keep things pretty. 

Heading into late March now, there may not be many more skiing opportunities left around the lake this winter, even with a lot of snow on the ground and 19 inches of ice still in the lake!

It will be while before we see blue water.

March 1, 2026: Warm Winter Homes

During our snowshoe trip through Page Pond last week we found a squirrel nest high in a Black Cherry tree, which caught my attention because I usually see Gray Squirrel nests in oak trees.  A gray squirrel nest can be identified by its location high in a sturdy tree, and almost always constructed with an outer layer of oak leaves.  They usually build their nest in an oak, probably for easy access to their preferred building material, but that isn't always the case as seen in that cherry tree and this pine tree:

A gray squirrel nest in a sturdy White Pine.

I've often wondered how a nest made of leaves placed high in the bare branches of an oak can survive through winter with the wind tearing at it for months - let alone how a squirrel can keep warm in there when it's 10 degrees below zero with a northwest wind howling.  And doesn't the resident get wet when it rains?  I found the answers to my questions in a book titled "Winter World" by Bernd Heinrich. [HarperCollins, 2003]  Heinrich explains that the gray squirrel builds its nest in the summer when the oak leaves are still green. 

In this nest - which is in an oak tree - some leaves still show some green color.

It chews off branches with the leaves still on them, brings them to the construction site, and then weaves them together to form the frame of the nest.  Thus the leaves are securely attached to the branch because without completing the fall leaf progression, the chemical process that released leaves from a tree doesn't take place.  They turn brown, but they stay secured to the branch, and that's how the nest survives the wind.

Here we can see branches woven together.

Next the squirrel will chew off green leaves which it layers and knits together inside the frame in a shingle-like manner to shed rain and snow melt, explaining how it keeps dry.  Finally, it will chew up soft woody material, bring it to the nest, and attach it to the green leaves all around to create a thick internal layer of insulation.  Heinrich doesn't say where the entrance hole is, but I expect it's near the bottom on the side away from the prevailing wind.  So inside that apparent random collection of oak leaves is a tight, dry, insulated home for the squirrel.  And that's important since squirrels mate in late winter with their offspring born in early spring.

With all that said, gray squirrels will also make a nest in a tree cavity for their winter home and raising their first of two litters.  But I know they were using the nest I saw in the White Pine because someone was up there making a racket - that's the only reason I found it - I went looking to see what was making all that noise.  I wouldn't otherwise look in a pine tree for a squirrel nest.

Red Squirrels have a similar nesting method and schedule, though there are notable differences.  Red squirrels nest lower in trees, and for some reason, tend to pick small, flexible trees.  This may be to discourage larger predators from climbing up to raid their nest.  Or maybe they just like to be swayed to sleep as the wind blows the tree around.

Here's another example of a red squirrel nest I've seen.

Did you notice the invasive bittersweet climbing all the trees?  😞  

As well as squirrels build protective nests, they alone are not enough to keep them warm in winter; they must eat constantly in order to burn enough calories to generate heat to keep them warm.  Small animals, unlike the large species such as moose, deer, and even beavers, don't have enough body mass to store much fat to burn during the winter.  But many small mammals, the red squirrel included, have a special attribute: it builds small stores of brown fat around its internal organs.  Unlike the more typical white fat, brown fat has a high rate of oxidation when burned which creates a lot of heat.  It's this heat that keeps the red squirrel warm on the especially cold days when it won't venture out to access the food stores it collected over the fall season.  To fuel its heat generating needs, a single red squirrel will need to collect thousands of pine cones in its winter pantries.  

A Red Squirrel's hoard of White Pine cones collected in the fall.

We don't see red squirrels as often as the gray, but this one has been visiting in the warmer weather this week (we saw 40 degrees!), happy to collect the easy pickings of all the bird seed its best friend the white-breasted Nuthatch shovels out of the birdfeeder onto the snow.

Gobbling up a high fat content sunflower seed.

The high energy content in sunflower seeds will regenerate its fat stores while reducing the depletion of its cone collection.  Red squirrels are fun to watch, but they can't top the antics of the gray squirrels.

Ah, yes, bright sun and 40 degrees - spring is here!  Meteorological spring that is.  March first is considered by meteorologists as when the weather patterns are more spring-like than winter-like.  There is still plenty of winter left in New Hampshire, and March is often the best time to enjoy winter activities such as skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, or just a walk on a pretty trail.  The WOW trail in Laconia is a prime candidate, just bring some traction devices for your boots.  Other options are the many snowmobile trails in the area, such as the trail between Lake Wicwas and Lake Winnisquam.  For those you'll need snowshoes.

The bog in the Chemung State Forest between Lake Wicwas and Lake Winnisquam.

With the deep snow cover and thick ice on the lakes, it will be an excellent season to enjoy your favorite winter activities!

January 18, 2025: January Thaw

The January thaw came early this year when we saw three days with the temperature in the 40s.  Warm winter days always encourage a bit more activity in the outside world.  I saw a chipmunk out looking for fresh food, and a red squirrel came to compete with the gray squirrels under the bird feeders.

A red squirrel comes to visit.

It even dares to enter the squirrel house.

Prior to this I've noticed red squirrels finding lots to eat all on their own. 

These holes in the snow are scattered around the forest, indicating where a squirrel's fine sense of smell detected something down under the snow, often an acorn, sometimes a pinecone.

Oak leaves tell me this squirrel was after acorns.

A cone under the snow is most likely from a white pine that dropped it in the fall, because the cones from hemlock trees are still on the branches.  For these, the red squirrel sits in the tree and strips the scales off the tiny cones to access the even smaller seed underneath each scale.  A hemlock with a good crop of cones is noted by the large array of debris underneath it.

Debris scattered by a red squirrel stripping hemlock cones.

That's a lot of hemlock cones!

The tiny scales, and an intact cone attached to a hemlock branch.

Hemlock cones are quite small, the scales smaller, and the seeds underneath smaller yet, but they pack enough energy to make it valuable for birds and rodents to make the effort to extract them.

  

Larger bits of detritus found under trees are created by a larger bird hunting for larger prey.

This scattering of wood chips was made by a pileated woodpecker chopping holes in a decaying white pine to access insects, almost certainly eggs and larvae of carpenter ants that have made a nest in the soft, decaying wood. 

 Chips made by a pileated woodpecker can be two or three inches long.

Looking up I see where they came from.

This dead pine will feed a lot of different animals both before and after it falls.

So far this winter we have seen all but two of our most common avian friends at the feeders; the only ones missing to date are mourning doves and juncos (aka snowbirds).  To date we have seen chickadees, titmice, downy and hairy woodpeckers, white and red-breasted nuthatches, and goldfinches - lots of gold finches.  This week they emptied one of the feeders in just a few days.  

Goldfinches can monopolize the feeders, but it didn't stop this chickadee from trying to claim a perch.

Goldfinches are small but bold birds, able to fend off even the big bully of the feeders, the white-breasted nuthatch.  They can also be aggressive to their own kind.

Although when a woodpecker shows up, even the smaller downy woodpecker, everyone moves over, at least for a few moments. 

Downy Woodpecker

Other nearby birdwatchers with different local habitats have reported winter birds that we rarely see at our feeders, including bluebirds and cardinals.  Over the course of the winter we usually get a few interesting visitors such as crossbills, purple finches, cedar waxwings, and the aforementioned bluebirds.  We're surprised at how rarely we see blue jays, often thought of as birdfeeder bullies.  

Put the dates February 14 and 15 on your calendar for the NH Audubon Backyard Bird Count.  Anyone can participate and it only requires a few minutes in the comfort of your own home.  I'll provide more information on that in the coming weeks.

As a result of the warm days and some rain, the lake once again offered excellent skating opportunities when, in typical New England fashion, the temperature plummeted overnight from the 40s to the single digits.

A very nice skating surface.

Add in 20 mph northwest winds, and I didn't mind that a sore ankle gave me an excuse to not partake in skating on a cold blustery day.  And the next day?

The snow was back and the skating over.  

But there were some signs of spring this week if you squinted hard.  On those warm days I heard chickadees singing their spring "dee-dee-dee" song, and the sighting of a chipmunk is always promising.  And then there was this:

A few bits of yellow summer plumage peeking out from under the brown winter feathers of a male goldfinch is always a positive sign.  It's still early in winter, but we're already one-third of the way to the spring equinox!