April 20, 2025: Hungry Beavers

Happy Easter!

While we're waiting for the wildflowers in the forests to bloom - the Trailing Arbutus will be first - we can enjoy cultivated crocuses, daffodils and Hepatica.  

These hepatica were planted by us, but at least they are native to North America, unlike the crocuses.

Hepatica are native in a wide range across the United States, from Canada to northern Florida.

I had my first paddle on the lake this week and appreciated the clear water and the chance to see new shoots of various aquatic plants pushing up from the bottom of the marshes.  There were also lots of birds to see and hear.  The Pine Warblers were the stars of the audio broadcast, but the Song Sparrows were a strong supporting cast and much more musical than the raspy call of the pine warblers.  But the most populous birds were the geese.

I passed by at least five pairs on the lake.  

Guard duty

Many were arguing with competitors for territory, but at least one pair was already on a nest.  I came around a corner just as one of the pair, likely the male, went off in the other direction to drive away an intruding goose, which left the female unprotected on the nest.  

Well camouflaged on the nest.

I was able to glide by without disturbing her, but she held her head low to the water just like loons do, and was absolutely motionless the entire time.

I saw only one loon on my paddle, but quarrels between loons have been seen and heard this week.  I was able to confirm that at least one of our banded loons is back on the lake.

That's a green and silver band on the right leg.

This is the female from the pair that has nested in Harris Cover for several years now.  It was interesting to find her far into the northern territory.  The long-time male in the northern territory lost his mate last summer so it will be interesting to see what happens there.  I haven't determined if the northern territory banded male is back on the lake this year.

We still have a few Ringed-neck Ducks  and many Wood Ducks.  

A couple of male Wood Ducks.

At one point there were five male Ring-necked Ducks courting a single female.

The main attraction was swimming away to the left of this picture.

It might seem like she was being harassed, but she was more likely assessing which one is best suited to be her mate.  The boldest male would often fend off another male if he approached her.  Five courting one makes me wonder if there are more males than females, and if it may be near the end of the pairing-up season.  

And the beavers - they are so much fun to watch.  In addition to seeing them swim across the lake every evening, one morning a beaver was feeding on submerged branches from a White Pine tree that had fallen into the lake.  It was just floating calm as can be enjoying its breakfast.

Look at that tail and those dexterous fingers!

When it finished with one branch it would dive down, gnaw off another from the tree and come back up to dine some more.  You can follow its path under the water by tracking the bubbles surfacing.

The beaver family creating a new pond near the Hamlin Forest trailhead continues to expand their domain.  I'll give an update on that situation in the coming weeks.

Ice-out on Wicwas was called on April 11th, three days before Lake Winnipesaukee was declared ice free.  That gave Wicwas a total of 105 days of ice cover, well below the average of 119 days due to the warm fall and late ice-in.  As of mid-week, I was still able to find a few patches of snow and ice around Meredith.

It's a different story in the mountains where it's still definitely winter.  Passing through Franconia Notch on our way up to Jay Peak in Vermont we saw Mt. Lafayette was freshly blanketed in white.  And at Jay, yes, it's still winter there!

It's easy to see why hikers that don't do their research get into trouble in the mountains this time of year.

April 13, 2025: Spanish Moss and Soggy Snow

We spent the past week in South Carolina where it was nice to see something other than snow in the tree branches.  When we returned to the lake on Thursday night we found quite a change had taken place in the days we were gone.  Not only was all the snow gone, but the lake was almost completely open.  We were greeted the first night home with the call of a loon drifting over the lake.  The next morning was dull and gray - a perfect day if you're a duck - and we were immediately treated to a smorgasbord of ducks on the lake including mergansers, wood ducks, mallards, black ducks, and these ring-necked ducks which are always a treat to see.

Ring-necked Duck.

Later in the day a pair was having an afternoon siesta near the shoreline.  

Sleeping with one eye open at 1:00pm.

I was careful not to disturb them, but eventually they woke up and perked up a bit.

When they suddenly leapt out of the water, I thought I had startled them.

But in fact, their flock, which was hidden around a point of land, had taken flight, and they were just heading off to catch up with their friends.

Can you see the mallard on the rock near shore?

Another early migrant was an Eastern Phoebe.

Eastern Phoebe perched over the lake, hoping the insects are out soon.

And no surprise, with the ice out, the beavers are back on their evening cruises across the lake in search of food and timber for building supplies.

There were branches nibbled clean of their bark showing they had been on shore, and sure enough, come night fall, one arrived to feast.

That's one big beaver that seems to have stored up plenty of winter food, but nonetheless is looking for something fresh to eat.

Now, South Carolina.  Our hostess arranged for perfect weather in the mid 80's all week and not a drop of rain.  A fun part of visiting new areas is finding unfamiliar things to investigate, such as these blossom-type items scattered all over the ground in a Low Country forest.  I figured they were pollen-producing blossoms of a tree and it didn't take long to identify them as Sweetgum.  

The dried up, brown spikey-thing (a "gumball") tucked into the leaf litter on the left was a helpful clue.

Imagine how much pollen can be expelled from all those blossoms.  

Male flowers of the Sweetgum tree.

Not far away at food-serving facility beside a lagoon I saw a large bird we don't have in New England but is easy to identify.

A Black Vulture looks for easy pickings.

Black Vultures don't venture north of Massachusetts, but maybe soon they'll make their way up here like the Red-bellied woodpeckers and winter Bluebirds have.

On the Isle of Palms we saw the usual culprits such as Laughing Gulls, Egrets, and Boat-tailed Grackles, but also a new bird for me, Willets.

Willets foraging in the surf on Isle of Palms.

It took a bit for me to recognize them as they were wearing winter or immature plumage.  (Thanks RB for the confirmation!)

Along Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, a pair of Barn Swallows was dashing around over the marsh collecting insects, but then perched on a railing just for our enjoyment.

Barn Swallows at Shem Creek.

There were also pelicans gliding low over the creek watching the fishing and shrimp boats for cast-off fish.

Over at Folley Island we saw Pelicans performing their freefall crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

Searching for targets.

On the attack.

Contact!

No trip to the Low Country would be complete without a visit to a stand of Live Oaks with their Spanish Moss.

This is "Oak Alley" at Boone Hall Plantation which also provides much history of the slave trade and life in South Carolina.  It's worth a visit, for the history lesson as well as the flowers.

Some of the gardens in front of the plantation Mansion.

And then, after a beautiful trip through the Shenandoah Valley where we drove along miles of Red Buds and flowering trees, watching summer return to late winter, we were back in New Hampshire.  And yesterday, mother nature made sure we knew that as we woke up to this on Saturday morning.

Back to snow in the trees - we should have stayed down south another week!  Thanks for a great visit!

April 6, 2025: Spring Visitors are Arriving

If there are any bird watchers following the Red Hill Tracking Station, you know it detected its first bird of the year on March 15th:  a Northern Saw-whet Owl. 

Northern Saw-whet Owl  (Photo from Cornell Lab or Ornithology)

I've never seen one of these small owls, and probably never will as they are nocturnal and seldom seen.  But they are resident in New Hampshire year round, and they have a call that sounds like a truck backing up which they give in the evening from January through May, so maybe I'll hear one some evening.  

Like many owls, the female incubates the eggs and cares for the young for the first couple of weeks while the male hunts for the entire family.  But then the female abandons the nest, leaving the remaining care up to the male.  The male does a fine job of providing for the family, but he isn't interested in house-keeping. Though the female keeps a clean nesting site while she is resident, the male does no such thing.  According to the Cornell website "By the time the young owls leave the nest, 10 days to 2 weeks later, the nest cavity has a thick layer of feces, pellets, and rotting prey parts."  

The migration patterns of this owl are not well known, which is why researchers started Project Owlnet to learn more.  The detections from the Red Hill Tracking Station will be very helpful to the research.  You can read more about the Northern saw-whet owl here.  You can also see what other birds have been detected passing near the fire tower on Red Hill here, and there's always a link in the header at the top of this blog.  

A couple of early spring birds I did see this week were a Song Sparrow and a huge flock of Common Grackles making a loud racket in the tops of the trees.

A Song Sparrow gleans spilled seeds under the feeder.

A Common Grackle, May, 2021.

While some birds arrive, and there are growing expanses of open water at the inlet from Dolloff Brook and at the dam, there's still enough ice in the lake that the loons may hold off a bit longer.  Areas of lake that open up on warm days often freeze up again during a cold night.

And as the lake level rises and falls, ice sheets are left hanging in space, fastened to flooded shrubs along the shoreline.

Hermit Thrushes may arrive any time now, and the Broad-winged hawks should be close behind them, so keep your eye out for them.  And if you see a loon, either in the lake or flying overhead, please let me know - it shouldn't be too much longer now even though some days I do question that.

Keep the faith!

March 30, 2025: The Spring Sprung Backwards

Spring sprung back to winter this week.

Oops - winter's back.

Snow fell on the snowdrops, but it was a nice soft snow with a beautiful warm day following that gave us another opportunity to get out on the skis and snowshoes.

Note that long line of animal tracks.

While skiing I followed a set of tracks almost the whole time, tracks that took me a while to decipher.  They were too small for a bobcat, and too undisciplined for a fox.  There wasn't any tail drag which ruled out porcupine, plus they covered far greater territory than a porcupine would travel.  A process of elimination brought me to a member of the weasel family.  Another sign is the 2-2 track pattern characteristic of the weasel family as seen at the bottom of the photo above, though it's not very clear due to the soft snow.  Being too far away from water to be a mink, and too small to be a fisher, I concluded it was either a Long-tailed Weasel or an Ermine, both of which call New Hampshire home.  Rezendes' tracking book reports that the two animals' tracks are similar in size, but the long-tailed weasel is more erratic. 

An erratic, winding trail is characteristic of the Long-tailed Weasel.

Rezendes describes the animal as "distracted by everything in its environment", so my best guess is a long-tailed weasel.  

The snow also provided proof that our otters were out, enjoying the snow as much as I was.

An otter slide on a downhill section of trail.

You can easily determine the direction of travel on land:  they hop uphill and slide downhill.  They'd been on land, on the ice, and they even seem to revel in splashing around in the slush.

It's amazing to me that they can keep warm.

Did I mention bears last week?  Yes, they are out.  A pretty big one has been using a long stretch of the Arbutus Hill (White) Trail up in Hamlin/Eames.  

That's a big bear print.

It found some reason to meander around here a bit.

I also came across coyote tracks and lots of turkey tracks.

A turkey walked long sections of the trail too.

Arbutus Hill Pond is still almost entirely ice-covered.

So, Spring has taken a little set back; even more snow and ice fell yesterday.  But if one can get past the travel difficulties and power outages, we can be grateful for winter's beauty.

And yes, there are signs of spring if you look for them!

Hobblebush Viburnum pushing out new leaves and flower buds.

One late picture taken at 8:00 this morning (Sunday):