April 15, 2012

New Hampshire continues to have little rain, and Lake Wicwas is even lower than it was two weeks ago. There are rocks poking their heads above the surface where I haven’t seen them before, and underwater surprises are lurking for the unwary. I have only seen a few fishing boats out so far, but the beautiful weather this weekend brought out lots of kayaks and canoes.

I’m currently anchored close to home, recovering from some foot surgery, so I’m not able to get out and photograph what’s happening around the lake this spring.  I’ll be missing one of my favorite times of the year, seeing life return with animals and tiny wildflowers emerging.  I was able to find some blueberry buds swelling up, and red maples bursting out their early flowers.

Blueberry Buds

Red Maple

Fortunately my partner-in-crime captured a few sights for me. One recent event she found was the work of the pileated woodpeckers we saw earlier – a pine with several fresh holes tracking the path the ants had burrowed in the tree and made their nest.

She also found the first flowers blooming – the tiny, fragrant, trailing arbutus.

Trailing Arbutus (Mayflower)

There continues to be a steady parade of water fowl passing through the cove. Mergansers, wood ducks, mallards, even a pair of buffleheads glided past this week (not to mention the geese).

Buffleheads

Early one morning, with the sun just lighting up the hills, I saw a single otter swim across the cove, bounding up on land to take a short-cut across a peninsula back to the water on the other side.  It's rejuvenating to see beautiful summer mornings return.

At one point this afternoon, flying low overhead, were three hawks - finding the thermals driven up by the warm southwesterly breeze - when a fourth, even lower, came by with a tasty red squirrel dangling from its claws.   I’ll bet it didn’t share.

There is also a regular procession of beavers going by every evening just at sunset.  I did manage to drag myself over to the nearest beaver harvest, and found a lot more cutting has occurred in the past few weeks. The NH DES wouldn’t like what’s going on within the shoreline protection area!  At least the beavers don’t disturb the shrubs or soil.

To stave off the cabin fever, we took a drive up north and found there’s still some winter left in the notches. There’s snow on the Franconia and Presidential ranges, and one could still ski on the upper two-thirds of canon.

Presidential Range

Canon Mountain

Child's Park

Back closer to home, the work on the new playground at Child’s Park is nearly complete, just in time for summer. The equipment is in and they were grading the new ball field.

 A couple of early customers were already scoping it out.















And, as another indicator of the approaching summer, the sun has now moved far enough around in the sky to bring back summer sunsets!

April 2, 2012

Today we had the opportunity to witness another aspect of love-birds:   we observed a pair of male pileated woodpeckers performing some kind of territorial or mate-defending dance for over 15 minutes - that's from when we noticed them until they moved out of our sight, so the encounter could have gone on for much longer.

We first noticed the two birds clinging near to the ground on opposite sides of a twelve-inch diameter oak tree;  they appeared to be playing peek-a-boo.  They would lean their heads around one side of the tree and then back the other way. 

One would hop around the perimeter a bit, and the other would usually move in the same direction to remain generally on the opposite side of the tree.  Only on short occasion would both of them be within the same quadrant of the three, and almost never side by side. 

They would occasionally hop up the tree a few feet, but never more than about five feet high before they hopped back down again, both of them maintaining the same vertical height.  It was not clear which was the aggressor, and which was on the defensive.  During the whole process we got some great views of these beautiful birds - look at this view of their feet:

Through all this, there were only two  moments when there was any kind of obvious aggressive action - a bit of wing flapping at each other was all. 

After more than ten minutes of this peek-a-boo behavior, one calmly flew to another, slightly smaller oak tree about ten yards away to the west.  The other followed along just two or three seconds later.  They repeated the same dance for another three minutes before one flew off again - to a third oak tree, this one larger than the first and another ten yards away - and again, the second followed. 

The dance continued here for another five minutes.  At this point they moved yet farther to the west (each move was in a westerly direction) and we lost sight of them. 

Is it possible that the agressor was always keeping itself on the eastern side of the trees, forcing the other male westward, away from its territory, nest, or mate? 

For all we know his could have been going on all afternoon, with one bird being ushered far away from the others nest.  A little reading indicates that pileated woodpeckers mate in March to April, so this could be what we were observing.

Other observations of the day included a pair or mergansers ambling along the shores of the lake, and our first kayak of the year.  I didn't note yesterday that there were also fishermen out on lake Wicwas - the first day of fishing season!

April 1, 2012

A lot has changed around Lake Wicwas since my last real entry on March 11.  All the snow and ice is gone, and the cultivated bulbs are blooming! 

I couldn't find snow even in the last places it lingers, such as the bottom of the north facing ledges - nothing but porcupine scat. 

Porcupine Scat

There was a remnant of snow where it had piled up after sliding off the roof, but that doesn't count.

It always takes a while to get used to looking out and seeing blue water again after the drab gray of winter snow and ice, but it sure is nice to see the trees reflecting in the morning sunshine.  Warm days of swimming, boating, and fishing aren't far away now!

Lots of migratory birds have been visiting this week.  We've seen ring-necked ducks, wood ducks, mergansers, and of course, Canada geese. 

Canada Goose

They are all negotiating with each other over territory.  I watch one goose chase away a pair that was scouting the shore line for a nesting area.  I also saw two small wood ducks shoo away a flock of much larger ringed-neck ducks.  The wood ducks just flew at the group of ring-necks, and off they went.

Ringed-neck Duck

Now they're here

Now they're gone!

Later a few more wood ducks joined them, forming a small group of three mating pairs.

Wood Ducks

The water level in the lake is very low at the moment - a good seven inches below full, with water still flowing over the dam.  We'll be in good shape if we get heavy spring rains, but if we have a drought, it could be an interesting summer for the lake.  Boaters should beware of shallow rocks until the level comes back up.

Beaver sticks mark the usual full lake level

And an epilog to the deer and coyote story that started back on January 21:  we found the remains of the deer's backbone and pelvis left right in the middle of a trail that runs along the shore of the lake.  Either a fox or a coyote must have dragged it onto shore for final picking of the bones.

Something moved the remains from the lake onto land

But that was winter, and now it is spring - the time of renewal - and love is in the air.

March 25, 2012

Well, who knew that when I left for Colorado to get some skiing with the family, I'd come back to New Hampshire and find Spring!  I guess I missed summer - the report was it hit 82 degrees, but today it's back in the 40's.

I never expected to miss ice-out;  just two weeks ago the ice was 13 inches thick.  But Tom C. reported that, in what may be the warmest winter ever, Lake Wicwas had ice out on March 22nd!  Lake Winnipesaukee ice out came just one day later on March 23, setting a record for the earliest ice out by one day.  The previous record was March 24, occurring in 2010 - two new records in two years - global warming anyone?  Tom also saw the first blue heron of the year just today.  Perhaps those snow fleas knew something the weather forecasters couldn't predict. 

So, I missed the entire coming of spring in the 2012 - no pictures to share.  We'll probably get a blizzard in April, so maybe I'll get another chance.  But at least it was still winter in Colorado - here are a couple pictures to prove it!

 Photo Credit:  Emily Fisken

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

March 11, 2012

Even with a few more inches of snow this past week, signs of spring are becoming abundant.  The brilliant white snow and warm sunshine made for beautiful spring days, and melted the new snow quickly wherever it had southern exposure.

The streams are flowing well with snow melt now, but there is still enough snow cover to form bridges to cross over them if you travel up or down stream a bit.

In a field there were a few well-melted tracks I couldn't identify, but following them into the woods it became clear it was a turkey - or actually four of them.  I've seen their tracks around the lake only a few times this winter.

Turkey Tracks

A sure sign of warm weather - if not necessarily spring - are the snow fleas.  I've seen these tiny insects as early as January, and as late as May depending on the temperature and the depth of the snow pack.

Snow Fleas

Yes, that's a real finger

 

Then along the lake edge I came across a set mink tracks that followed along my ski trail from last weekend. 

Mink Track

In this print I could just barely make out that there are two paw imprints in each footprint in this "2 by 2" trail.  The front feet land first, and then the rear feet land right on top of the front prints.

An audible sign of spring was the honking of Canada geese, as a group of three flew over the lake looking for enough water to take up their summer residence. I wonder how many will make Lake Wicwas their home this summer....

I also came upon yet another interesting beaver tree.  It must have been an inexperienced beaver that took this one down, as it didn't cut enough away on the lake side, so it split high up on the trunk, leaving an interesting landmark on the lake.

And even when you think you're surrounded by wilderness, signs of humans jump out at you.  I was standing right next to this tree stand before I even realized it was there.  I wonder if this hunter did as well as the coyotes  this year.

One other great sign of spring today:  the sugar shack on Chemung Road was boiling!  Fresh maple syrup will be ready soon;  I'm already thinking about this summer's blueberry pancakes!

March 4, 2012

Now that spring (meteorological spring that is) has arrived, mother nature decides it's time for winter.  Thursday brought the biggest snow fall to the area since Thanksgiving - nearly a foot of light, dry powder.

I took only my second cross-county ski trip around the lake, and the last one was in October.  Yes, I haven't skied since the Halloween snow, meaning I missed November, December, January, and February!  Actually, there were a couple of times I could have gotten out, but it would have been pretty thin with lots or portages around bare spots, and rocks to damage the bottoms of the skis. 

Saturday was back to warm weather, and late in the afternoon a few peeks of sun came out to brighten up the winter scene.

By evening, there was bright moon light, and with low ground fog it made for a very eerie feeling.  The world was well lit, but looking into the woods or across the lake was like peering into a haunted forest.  There was also a nice astronomical show - Jupiter and Venus are close together in the WSW evening sky, and will continue to get closer for a few more weeks before they start to separate.  If you look within an hour of sunset, you can also see Mercury just above the horizon.  Finally, Mars, which on Monday makes its closest approach in its two-year dance with Earth, is also visible in the eastern sky early in the evening,

Jupiter (above) and Venus (below) - taken March 4 at 8:39pm

We have had more goldfinches than usual this winter - perhaps due to the warm weather.  We usually see only a few goldfinches, and lots of chick-a-dees, but this year has been the exact opposite.  The snow storm brought them out in full force, sometimes there were seven or eight on the feeder at once.  The snow birds (juncos) appreciate all their dropped seeds.

Unfortunately, rain came on Saturday to saturate and pack down all that nice light snow.  Then the cold night froze everything up, so we had a rather noisy snow shoe trip on Sunday morning, though on the lake the sun had softened things up.  We saw only a few tracks, as most animals could walk easily on the frozen crust.  We did find quite a few little tufts of lime-green lichen that were blown out of the trees when last night's cold front came through with strong wind gusts.

Usnea Lichen

This looks like a Usnea lichen, so named because it contains usnic acid.  Usnic acid has anti-biotic properties, and has been used medicinally since ancient times.  So if you're ever stranded deep in the wilderness with an injury at risk of infection, just look for this little lichen.

And what's this I see?  Could it be a sign of spring?       Is that a hint of yellow on one of those finches?