January 21, 2012

Well, it’s nature in action, but it’s still hard to see – the deer I was observing last week has most likely concluded its life here at Lake Wicwas.  This week a coyote took down a deer right in front of our house.  It wasn’t a pretty site, so I won’t show a lot of detail, but still, consider this a mature audience warning….

We first noticed the carcass out on the ice, and went out to study the situation.  We were able to follow the peaceful track of the deer as it as browsed along the shoreline, having no idea it was being stalked.  Suddenly the calm track turned into a frenzy of hoof and canine prints, accompanied by large tufts of fur. 

This went on for a good stretch, before they moved out onto the lake, which was not a good move for the deer.  On the ice it had even worse footing, and there were many times when it fell onto the ice, probably providing the coyote opportunity to attack its neck rather than just its legs. 

Not that it really mattered – with the hard going even on land, the result was determined as soon as the coyote detected the deer.  Although coyote will hunt in packs, I’m guessing this was a lone coyote, as only one of the deer’s legs was damaged, and we only saw a single coyote on later days.

Once killed, the coyote started with the large parts of the animal, and over the next few days, worked its way through the less desirable parts.

Over the next few days there was a steady stream of visitors, and the carcass slowly eroded away.  This is probably the hunter, but there’s no way to be sure.

Most of  the visitors came at night, but there were some daytime visits, including frequent calls by the crows which are picking the bones clean.

We did not see any eagles joining in, though it doesn’t mean they weren’t there.  I also saw fox prints along the shore, but no signs of it approaching the much larger predators prize.

On this daytime visit (1:45pm) the coyote walked back and forth, but never approached the carcass, as it appears to have detected our motion, even inside the house.  It nervously paced the area for five minutes before heading off into the woods.  The deer should have been so cautious.

Of course, I don’t know for sure that it was the same deer I tracked last week, but that particular animal was clearly not as wary as most.  To be out in exposed areas when travel was so difficult is unusual;  in those conditions most deer stay within their well protected and hidden deer yards.  Those that don’t have that instinct don’t tend to pass their traits on into the gene pool.

January 15, 2012

Well, this is a little more like it - 6 to 8 inches of snow on Thursday, and 2 degrees below zero last night.  It never got above 8 degrees all day!  I know not everyone likes this kind of weather, but after all, it is mid-January in New Hampshire!

I took a couple of walks to see what has been moving around since the snow, and came upon a set of tracks that weren't immediately identifiable.  But shortly I found a section where the tracks were well defined, providing clear evidence it was a deer. 

White Tail Deer Track

Then not much farther along came the tell-tale evidence of a white tail.

Continuing on I found where the animal had browsed on some fresh, tender shoots, and had also dug around under the snow to find some more succulent green plants that were hidden from sight - probably partridge berry, club moss, or spearmint. 

Deer Browse

The rain that fell after Thursday's snow has frozen into a hard crust on the surface of the snow, which scrapes and cuts the deer's legs with each step.  Small specks of blood were visible around the hoof prints wherever it paused for a bit to browse.

And farther on there were larger drops of blood where it was moving in an open area where the snow received more rain and the crust was especially thick.

It makes me wonder how much blood the animal will lose in a whole day of searching for food.  Clearly the easy living of the early winter is over.  At least they have conserved a lot of energy, and had good browsing up to this point, so they should be strong for whatever the rest of the season brings.  Here's a close up of the snow surface that shows the sharp edges that cut through the deer's skin.

I was surprised to see the size of this pile of pine cone debris that a red squirrel had generated in just the three days since the snow. 

Just Three Days Work

Under the tree you can see where it has stashed its supply of cones that it will feed on this winter.  This squirrel probably has dozens of these stashes around the portion of New Hampshire that it claims for its home.

Red Squirrel Food Stash

January 8, 2012

One can hardly call it "snow", but Lake Wicwas did receive a dusting on Friday morning.  Not enough to do much of anything but cover up the ice to prevent what otherwise would have been some pretty good skating.  The ice is 8 inches thick about 20 feet out from shore, but I would still be careful farther out considering there was open water only ten days ago. 

Mink Tracks

The snow did provide a good opportunity to find out what animals have been traveling around the lake.  Of course we found lots of squirrel tracks eveywhere, but we also found a long trail of weasel tracks traveling a great distance on the ice right around the edge of the lake - most certainly a mink, as it investigated holes in the ice at the edge of the lake.  Fisher usually spend more time in the woods.  This efficient hunter left the distinct tracks of a member of the weasel family; the uniform spacing of the tracks is also indicative a mink.  Note also the numerous track of squirrels close to shore, which surely would become the mink's lunch if they had met up with each other.

 

Crow Tracks

We also found many crow tracks along the shore of lake, where they were looking for food themselves.  But had the mink found them, it would have had fresh poultry for its lunch in addition to squirrel meat.  The mink tracks went right by the crow tracks - it certainly knows where to find food.

Up on shore we found giant piles of pine cone remains at the bottom of each trunk in a uniform stand of large white pines. 

Red Squirrel Midden Pile

The red squirrels sit with their back against the tree to protect being attacked from behind, and feast on the seeds in the cones, leaving large piles of scales and shafts behind.

Finally, we found the largest beaver tree we've seen all fall. 

This tree was quite an undertaking - it makes we wonder why they did 90% of the work and then left the tree behind.  Perhaps a mink walked by?

January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Will winter ever really arrive? It was 44 degrees today, and again, there is open water in Lake Wicwas, though only in the center of the lake.  Yesterday we saw the first brave souls out on the ice, but they wisely ventured only a few feet, gave the ice the ever-reliable "rock test" and then returned to the safety of land.

We did see many people today ice fishing on other lakes - hopefully everything worked out.  The ice is not  reliable due to all the melt/freeze cycles, even if it is a few inches thick.

No flying squirrels visited today, but we did have a red squirrel this morning who is very happy that there's no snow on the ground, which provides easy picking for dropped bird seed.  But they are always on the lookout for predators!

Clear to the right.

Clear to the left.

OK, let's search.

 

Found one!

December 29, 2011

Wednesday night's warm rain took the ice back out of Lake Wicwas!  It was 47 degrees overnight - the peak temperature recorded sometime around 2:00am.  There was heavy rain, and although much of the lake remained iced-over, the main body of the lake was completely open today, even today after a very cold night last night.

 

This means that even if it freezes back over tonight, it will be the latest ice-in I've recorded - just barely later than 2006 when it froze over on December 29th. We shall see.

December 28, 2011

This evening we experienced yet another new creature at Lake Wicwas - something we've never seen before:  a flying squirrel. 

They are reportedly quite common in this area, but being nocturnal, they are not often seen.  Flying squirrels do frequent bird feeders, but since we don't put our feeders out during bear season, and we don't usually bird-watch in the middle of the night, we've never seen one.  This evening though, Linda turned on the light to see if the approaching cold front was bringing any snow, and there on the feeder was this cute little guy.

I don't know if it's a "northern" or a "southern" flying squirrel, but I'll guess a northern because of its rich brown coloring, where the southern has a lighter fur in the winter.  The northern is larger, and this one seems rather small, but it was scrunched up due to the cold, so it's difficult to judge its true size.

It hung onto the feeder for a long time - at least 30 minutes - trying to get to the seed, which it couldn't reach with its short legs.  Linda spreads lots of seeds under the feeders for the ground birds, and the squirrels enjoy that as well, and they know that where there are seeds on the ground, there's a source up above!

You can see the dark line that separates its dark uppper-body from the the light fur on the underside of the layer of skin that stretches between its legs and its body that it uses to glide from tree to tree or from tree to ground. 

This guy was not at all concerned about us or the light coming on the middle of the night - it made no attempt to run off.  In fact, it let me go out and take a couple of pictures with a flash from only a few feet away!  I thought when I went out it would leap off the feeder, but instead it just hung on with its little feet, and went on trying to crack the cache.

One more of nature's fantastic creatures observed on the shores of Lake Wicwas!

December 19, 2011

8.4 degrees last night just about did it.  By mid morning the entire lake was frozen except for one section in the widest part of the lake, and I expect that was frozen over by sunset.

Noon on December 19, 2011

It looks like beavers finished their building just in time.  Now all we need is for the cold weather to stick around long enough for the ice to bulk up, and we'll some fantastic skating.  With the lack of snow we're having this year, there's good chance, but then after all, this is New England.