April 5, 2026: Happy Easter!

Spring is coming to New Hampshire.  The crocuses have joined the snowdrops in bloom, and the early spring birds are singing their joyous Easter songs. 

Crocus

Snowdrops

This week I heard the spring songs of phoebes (the first of the flycatchers to arrive), brown creepers, red-winged blackbirds, the singing-star Song Sparrow, and even a northern parula - all promising signs of spring.  Meanwhile, the lake is still firmly iced in, though with a beautiful warm and sunny day yesterday, the ice is turning dark, large cracks are forming around the edges - large enough to support the occasional pair of ducks - all of which mean the end of ice is near.  

Looking north over Wicwas yesterday from Wicwood Shores Road.

I doubt there will be any more coyotes crossing the ice unless we get an unexpected cold snap.

Last week's mid-day sighting of a coyote in the open was unusual because coyotes are primarily nocturnal.

There's not a clear story of the evolution of the Eastern Coyote, but a widely accepted theory is they are a mix of the Western Coyote and the Eastern Timber Wolf.  DNA testing of our coyotes shows roughly equal parts of these two species, with a small amount of domestic dog DNA as well.  The theory is that two major factors lead to this as a new species.  First, Europeans cleared the eastern forests where the timber wolf was present, all the way to the mid-west which was the eastern limit of the Western Coyote.  The presence of wolves probably kept them out of the east, but as the wolves were removed, there was the opportunity for coyotes to move in.

The second factor is that both wolves and western coyotes were hunted in a relentless effort to exterminate them.  As the popultion of both species declined, mating opportunities became scarce, and a result, they started interbreeding.  The extermination of wolves was largely successful, but it was not for coyotes which have incredible survival characteristics.  The result of the interbreeding is the eastern coyote, which weighing 30 to 50 pounds, is noticeably larger than the western coyote at 20 to 30 pounds.

Between the wolf extermination project and the decimation of the large mammal population (caribou, moose), wolves are no longer present in New England.  But coyotes have extremely wide diets including mammals large and small, birds, insects, amphibians, fruit, vegetation, and human garbage, so they thrived as the wolves departed the scene.  Despite governments spending millions of dollars to kill coyotes (in 1971 alone, the US government spent $8 million on the coyote extermination project), their numbers continued to grow.  The effort was self-defeating.  It turns out that coyotes have a remarkable survival instinct:  when their population is stressed for any reason, they actually increase their rate of  reproduction to ensure their lineage continues.  Coyotes are probably here to stay.

I rarely hear coyotes, though people west of the lake report hearing them at night on occasion, and I see their tracks and their scat regularly all around the lake.  

Coyote  tracks and scat after a light snow earlier this winter.

I've seen several instances of successful coyote hunts, most dramatically, deer killed on the ice in winter (See January 22, 2012).  One winter I set a camera at a kill site and captured a lot of nighttime action. 

A coyote approaches a deer carcass.

One coyote came near the site during the day, but it didn't venture out in the open; it crept along the shoreline, deciding to wait for the safety of dark.

As to why a coyote was out in daylight last week, it may have been needing extra hunting runs for its family.  Coyotes mate in winter, giving birth in spring, and the female remains with the pups in the den while the mate and other males in the pack hunt for food for her and the pups.  Both the male and female as well as perhaps an older sibling will care for the young.  The book "Tracking and the Art of Seeing" by Paul Rezendes [HarperCollins, 1990] provides an excellent portrait of coyotes.

I was in the Ossipee Mountains this week, and even in that southern part of the White Mountains, it's still winter at higher elevations.

Mount Washington viewed from the summit of Mt. Shaw in the Ossipee Range.

Ice formations on the Mt. Shaw Trail.

The warm day was sending a lot of snow melt into the streams.

I'm always happy to come across signs of moose wherever I am.  These tracks and droppings were near the Black Snout summit at an altitude of 2800'.

A pile of moose droppings near the summit of Black Snout.

Moose prints are huge compared to white-tailed deer.

The large animal followed the trail for quite a distance;  it requires a lot less energy than breaking its way through deep snow and dense forest. 

Down at the base however, it was back to spring, and there is a large sugarbush near the trailhead.

They were collecting sap as I arrived in the morning.  When I returned after my hike, I took a peak in one of the buckets.

In just a few hours, a couple of inches of sap had been collected.

The sap was flowing nicely.  

They must have to empty the pails every morning when the sap is flowing this well.

A lot is changing now in the Lakes Region.  Warm days and cold ice sometimes conspire to give us unexpected experiences.

Fog settles in on Lake Wicwas as the sun sets.

Spring is a beautiful season in New Hampshire, something worth waiting for - and appreciating when it finally arrives.  

Happy Easter!

March 29, 2026: Wandering Skunks

 A bit more snow this week provided evidence of a skunk meandering here and there looking for things to eat.  The snow also gave us more beatuiful scenery in the steadily intenstifying spring sun.

That light overnight snowfall left an ideal medium to record the skunk's tracks as it made its rounds of the neighborhood.

Meandering skunk tracks in fresh snow.

You may recall last summer (Skunking Through the Flowers, August 3, 2025) we had a juvenile skunk exploring the yard during the day when I was able to watch its meandering all around and through the flowers.  

Our young skunk last summmer.

I wonder if this was the same animal, now mature and traveling at night as mature skunks do.  I followed its tracks around where the flowers will soon rise again, over to the garage, around the house, and even right up onto the front step.

One of the best ways to identify skunk tracks is ther quite random and variable path, far different from most wild animals.  

This may be due to the fact that a skunk doesn't really worry too much about being attacked, as most predators know enough to stay away from a skunk.  But a hungry bobcat, fox, coyote, or owl will still take a skunk if needed.  They are easy prey, and the stench is worth it if one is hungy enough.  There weren't any clear prints to study due to the soft, light snow, but this shows their size, and you can make out the toenails in one of the prints:

Skunks have especially long front toenails to held them dig for food and making dens.

Skunks in New Hampshire have mated by now, and the young will be born soon if not already.  They'll spend seven weeks in the den nursing before their first venture out into the world.  My skunk could be either a male or female; the male has no role in raising the young so mom needs to hunt for herself.  Sometime in June she'll bring the half dozen or so kits out of the den and show them how to hunt for themselves.

Waukewan Canal between Lakes Waukewan and Winnipesaukee.

Linda and I took a nice spring walk around Swasey Park in Meredith Village during the week - there's still a lot ice in the canal and on Lake Waukewan.  But in open water there are now ducks and geese staking out their nesting territories.

I also saw two geese in a small patch of open water near the outlet of Wicwas.  

We extended our walk into the village to check the outflow of the canal over the falls at the Inn.

While in town we spent time enjoying the blue sky and soaking in the sun while perusing the many sculptures and weathervanes in Meredith Village.

"Pamola" - The Wabanake spirit that lives atop Mount Katahdin and guards the highest point in Maine.

Congregational Church

Palmer Inn at Mill Falls

Hermit Woods Winery

The Inn at Bay Point

I'll close this journal entry back at Lake Wicwas with yet another visitor to the lake:

Eastern Coyote

This coyote trotted across the lake just yesterday, so I'll read up on coyotes and provide more information about this interesting and sometimes misunderstood animal next week.

It may look spring-like in some spots with crocuses emerging and the snowdrops blooming,

Snowdrops

but Lake Wicwas is still firmly in the grip of Old Man Winter with 12" of solid ice on the lake, plenty to support coyotes for a couple more weeks.

Old Man Winter still has a few cards left to play.

March 8, 2026: It's Been a Long Winter

When March comes along we usually see some early signs of spring, but this year, with two feet of snow on the ground, there's not much to see yet.  On a search for promising signs this week, I found mostly remnants from last fall, though these old milkweed plants were pretty on a winter day.

Spent milkweed pods from last summer.

One pod still had seeds in it.

It's interesting how well these stalks hold up through a long winter.  I also found Maleberry bushes with lots of seed pods along the shoreline.

Seed pods on maleberry (Lyonia ligustrina), also known as He-huckleberry.

There were some splashes of bare ground showing on both exposed south-facing slopes and under dense hemlock trees early in the week.

Bare patches of ground under hemlock trees.

These, however, were covered up with snow from this week's nor'easter, but it shows why deer use dense stands of hemlock trees for their winter homes.  The thickly-needled branches catch much of the snow that falls, which subsequently melts before getting to the ground.  This makes travel much easier for heavy bodies on skinny legs with small hooves.  

Meanwhile, the tiniest animals like mice, which have relatively large feet for their body mass, can hop along the top of even light, fluffy snow when they come up to gather birdseed.

While I was poking around in those hemlocks, I discovered another remnant from last year, an old bird nest.

A bird nest in a hemlock tree.

Based on the location and nest construction, I put my money on a Robin's nest.

I found no signs of sugar maples being tapped around the area either, something that's happened as early as mid-February in recent years.  But all wasn't in vain in my first search for spring.  I did find some Red Maple branches that were showing bright red color to usher in the spring season.

And, saving the best for last, the earliest of the spring flowers have sprouted, though these are definitely cheating because they aren't wild, and they were planted under the eaves by a warm foundation.

Snowdrops are emerging as the snowpack recedes.

Still, it's a cheery sight to see, and with 60 degrees in the forecast, they may bloom this week!

March 23, 2025: Now We're Springing Along

Ah yes - Snowdrops are blooming - spring is coming along.  Snowdrops aren't a native plant, but they're always the first to bloom, even before the crocuses.   

Snowdrops in March.

A true native sign of spring is lichen greening up, which in spring, unlike its dry, gray, cardboard-stiff status in summer, is now plump and verdant with moisture provided by winter snow melting off its granite home.

Rock Tripe Lichen.  

It actually looks somewhat edible this time of year.

This week we had more warm, beautiful days as well as some rainy ones, and what are usually small streams, sometimes even dry streambeds in summer, are now gushing with snowmelt.

And as a result, the lakes are flooding.  

A flooded shoreline along Lake Wicwas.

Hiking trails are filled with with huge puddles.

Frost still in the ground keeps low spots from draining.

With all the runoff along the shoreline I decided not to venture out to measure the ice thickness, but I'll bet it's still a good foot thick away from shore.  I may not trust it, but the animals do, so we know it's thick enough to support the weight of a bobcat.

A bobcat makes its way across the lake one morning.

And finds a way to get off the ice without getting its feet wet.

Cold ice on a warm day condenses some interesting fog banks as the moist air spreads across the lake.

We did take in the birdfeeders this week after they were emptied out, but I sprinkled a few seeds on the railing to give the birds a little more food while the rest of the snow melts.  It provided an opportunity to watch the birds in action.  

In this first video, a couple of White-breasted Nuthatches sort through the seeds to find one worthy of eating or taking away to hide somewhere.

In the next video, one bird works away on a hard-shelled safflower seed, then finds a few small seeds to gulp right down while it searches for another large seed worthy of hacking open.  You can see how much effort it takes to extract that little bit of high-energy fat from the shell.

At first I thought they were eating seeds that had fallen into cracks, but I soon realized they are smart enough stuff thier seed down in the crevice to hold it in place while they crack it open.  In this last video it hacks away at a safflower seed, then finds a few smaller ones to gobble up whole, before selecting a couple more safflower seeds to work on, finally taking one more large seed off to hide away in a tree bark crevice to save for later.

Look at those talons:

I guess that's how they can climb straight up and down tree trunks!

I also heard my first Red-winged Blackbird this week.  Snow, ice, flowers, sun, migrating birds - they're all part of spring in New Hampshire!