March 19, 2017

Winter has received a generous extension from mother nature in the form of a mid-March storm, and what a storm it was, the biggest of the season.  14 to 19 inches of snow fell in the Lakes Region, accompanied by strong winds out of the northeast which left tens of thousands of people in New Hampshire without power.  Parts of Moultonborough and Center Harbor were without power for days, at least 400 of whom were still not restored as of yesterday.  This video shows some of the damage in Moultonborough along route 109 (courtesy of Sue Mangers and Sheila Adams.)  Fortunately Meredith seemed to be shielded from the worst of the winds and suffered mostly minor outages.

This snow layered on top of that remaining from prior storms pretty much buried all the undergrowth and formed large drifts where the wind blew the snow across the lake, dumping it on the western shores.

Blueberries and mountain laurel are buried

The ground here grades smoothly to the shore - that mound on the right is all snow

I took a short snowshoe trip the day after the storm to see who had been out and about, and I found a treasure trove of animal tracks.  I first came across the tracks of a coyote bounding along through the deep snow.

Coyote Trail

 A bit later I saw this sign:

A mark dropped, not sprayed

Those of you who saw the bobcat post on February 19th will know that I'm guessing this sign in the middle of its track makes me think this was a female coyote.

The most prevalent tracks I saw were from weasels - they were everywhere.

A pair of weasels traveling along the trail

Weasel prints

I didn't follow any of these tracks, rather they just kept crossing the trail, often following right along the trail for long sections, sometimes revealing the appearance of a pair traveling together (weasels tend to remain as a pair throughout the year).

Here one of them dug down into a hole to look for a mouse, their favorite food, though they will take any other small animal they can find - they are ferocious predators. 

It looks like it came up empty

At one point the trails of predator and prey coincided.

A mouse preceded the weasel here

I know that otters love to slide along on their bellies in the snow, but this was the first time I had seen such activity by a weasel.

Weasel slides

I was intrigued by the marks on either side of the main slide which look like perhaps their feet drag along beside their body.  As we'll see in a moment, this is not nearly so evident in otter slides.

In one area I think there was a set of bobcat tracks following along beside our weasels.

Bobcat on the left?

Not much farther along there appeared the tracks of the much larger River Otter, the size difference perhaps not evident in pictures but striking in comparison to the weasel.

The much larger otter slide

They are certainly fun-loving creatures, even creating their own roller coasters complete with twists and turns.

Otter roller coaster

Note there is no evident foot drag beside the belly slide of the otter.

Coyote, bobcat, weasel, otter - all of these animals were present within just a half-mile stretch of trail near the lake.  It makes me appreciate what is meant by a "co-occurrence" area and why it's so important to protect these special places.

This last storm put us over the average snow fall for New Hampshire and will keep winter activities in good shape for some time. What a difference a year makes:  today, the lake is in full winter dress.

March 18, 2017

While last year at this time we thinking about fishing, boating, and swimming.

March 18, 2016

The warm winter of 2015-2016 gave us the shortest ice season ever, with ice out on March 18th.  This year it's looking like we'll be much closer to our typical date around April 15th.  Only time will tell.  Spring arrives tomorrow!

December 30, 2012

It's nice to have it looking like winter at Lake Wicwas.  A couple more storms brought light fluffy snow to the area, enough to allow some skiing on the more gentle and smooth terrain, but the snow was so light it was barely sufficient.  After the first storm we had a sunny and calm morning.

First Ski of the Year - December 28, 2012

After last night's storm, today was quite cold and windy.  And it looks like tonight will be the coldest day of the year so far, and the wind is still howling at 20 to 30 mph, bringing wind chills down to ten below zero.  But the forecast looks good enough for the travelers to escape before the weather gets bad again.  Have a great winter in the warm south!

Our neighbors were fortunate enough to see a weasel, probably an Ermine, snow white with a black-tipped tail, before they left.  It was bounding across their property with a mouse in it's teeth.  When it saw a human it dropped its kill, and dashed off to hide, but after waiting and watching quietly, it returned to collect it's dinner and dash off with it.  A pretty neat sight one is only likely to see in the winter.

The next day I found these weasel tracks in the fresh snow - the distinct double track of a weasel, and based on the size of the track it is likely an Ermine or a Long-tailed weasel.

Long-Tailed Weasel or Ermine Tracks

On Wednesday I saw an interesting flying creature - actually, I heard it first.  This extremely noisy apparatus came flying over the lake in the early afternoon.

An ultra-light must a great way to see the area, but it sure doesn't look all that secure hanging in the air barely above the tree tops.  And it certainly isn't a peaceful ride.

I was rather surprised to see see the lake still not completely frozen as recently as Friday.  The entire wide portion of the lake, from Loon Point, down along Sheep Island, and over to the Rawson Wood Islands was still open.  The picture below was taken from the Hamlin area, looking east towards Corliss Hill.  The cold weather tonight after the snow should finally freeze it up, but probably  not safely.  I measured four inches of ice about 20 feet out from shore in our cove a few days ago.

December 28, 2012

January 30, 2011

What a winter so far - lots of snow, cold temperatures, and no rain!  Sunday night we had the coldest weather Lake Wicwas has seen in a couple of years:  13.4 degrees below zero.  It hasn't been that cold since 2009, when it got down to -21.6 degrees on January 17th.  That, by the way, is the coldest temperature I've recorded since I started keeping records in 2002.

Snow Shoeing on Lake Wicwas

The storms have been coming mid-week this winter, which isn't great for the school schedules or commuters, but it's great for weekend sports, with fresh snow and good weather for the weekend.  This weekend was beautiful - partly sunny and warm (near freezing) temperatures.  Today there was a group out ice fishing, complete with gas grill for their lunch.  They had only caught a couple of perch when I went by in the late morning.  They used an interesting technique to pick their fishing spot - they drove out on the lake until their ATV got stuck in the slush, and that's where they fished!

Ice fishing off Loon Point

Stuck in the Slush

I still don't understand exactly why there is so much slush under the snow even when it's been so cold.  Between the top 6" of snow and the firm ice, there's a good 6" of slush.  I know snow is good insulator, but where does the heat come from when there's cold ice below, and cold air above?  My best guess is that IR radiation from the sun penetrates the snow until it hits the dark ice where it gets absorbed, melting the bottom layer of the snow.  Any better ideas?

I skied around the marshes and swamps on the west side of the lake looking for signs of otter, but I didn't see any.  I did see tracks of smaller weasels on and around Sheep Island.  It was likely a mink, as the tracks frequently went down into the lake at holes along the shore line.

Mink Hole under the Ice

Weasel Tracks

Weasel's leave a tell-tale two by two track, and this one followed my ski trail for a while, enjoying the easier going in the deep snow.  It then took a pretty straight path up into the woods away from the lake.








There are also lots of fox trails all around the lake with the weekend's warmer temperatures.  I found what seems to be a fox super-highway, with lots of tracks all leading into and out of this stream.  All these tracks were made since the last snow on Thursday.

Fox Tracks Leading onto a Stream

The house construction on the north side of the lake is coming along nicely - people who come back in the spring may never know it's been rebuilt.

And I was quite surprised to see that the docks on Byrant Island have been removed!

There are two more storms projected for this week - there may be new snow yet again next weekend!