January 26, 2014

With all the cold weather, there hasn't been much activity around Lake Wicwas this week, including myself!  I did get in a ski today - I saw a few other ski tracks, filled in with the blowing snow from last light, and few fox tracks in the woods where it was a little more sheltered.  There was also evidence of lots of  mouse activity, running back and forth from spot to spot, probably carrying food home to its nest.  At least it shows there is still plenty of food around for the foxes and fisher cats.

Since I don't have any pictures to add from Lake Wicwas, I thought I'd post some incredible photographs taken by a friend from way back.  Those who have known me a long time will remember Lindsey Brown from our Concord, Mass days.  Lindsey is an accomplished wildlife photographer who has the skills to capture the most spectacular pictures.  Recently he has been along the New England seacoast observing birds of prey, and he has photographed some of the most beautiful Snowy Owls you'll ever see. 

Snowy Owl, Salisbury Beach, 18 January 2014;   with permission of Lindsey Brown

The Snowy Owl is mostly a native of Canada and the arctic, but in winter they will travel to the northern United States in search of food.  The Snowy is not the largest in size, but it is the most massive of our owls due to the weight of the thick feathers that protect it from the arctic temperatures.  They even have feathers to keep their legs and feet warm. 

 

(We think it's cold here!  Maybe that's why they are here now, just trying to find some "warm" weather.)

The Snowy Owl is diurnal, unlike most owls which hunt at night.  It prefers wide open country, which is why they are commonly found along the shore, but they also will hunt at farms and large fields.  They hunt from the ground, sitting at a location with good sight lines, and flying, sometimes running, to capture their prey.

Hampton Beach, 12 January, 2014;   Lindsey Brown

Their preferred food source is lemmings, of which a single animal may consume 1600 in one year.  Their population tends to fluctuate along with the Lemming population.  Along the New England coast, their diet may change to seabirds as well as mice, squirrels, and other small animals.

If anyone has ever seen one around the Lakes Region, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Lindsey - thank you for sharing!

"Stealth" - Lindsey Brown photo

January 19, 2014

The most tantalizing aspect of using my trail camera is the mystery of what I might find when I retrieve it and down-load a set of new images.  Most of the time I haven't capture anything extraordinary, but I usually get a least one or two interesting pictures - and I always learn something about the animal life, even if it's just that they aren't active, at least in my chosen location. 

Knowing we would have warm weather and a full moon, I set my camera out for a few days last week to see who was in the neighborhood. As is often the case, the Gray Fox came by a couple of times, once on the 13th and once on the 15th, both times traveling in the same direction. 

13 January at 4:51am

 I'm always excited to see this magnificent animal in the area, with its thick winter coat and beautiful colors. 

15 January at 5:57am

But then I moved onto the next image and beheld one of the greatest shots I've ever gotten:

Breakfast!

A good-size Fisher Cat carrying a large Gray Squirrel home for breakfast!  A few weeks ago (see December 22 post) I followed Fisher tracks around Lake Wicwas, and I knew one was in the local area because I had seen its scat.  But I have never got a picture of one, probably because they take such varied paths from tree to tree in their search for food.  My guess is that after getting such a large meal, this one was happy to take the shortest route back to its den to either eat or store its bounty for later. 

The picture was taken at 6:45 am, before sunrise when it is still quite dark;  I don't see squirrels out this early, so the fisher had probably found the squirrel's nest in one of its trips up an oak tree.  (This time of year it is pretty easy to see the ball of leaves that form a gray squirrel's nest high up in an oak tree.)  At any rate, there will be one less squirrel under the bird feeder this week.

We had a beautiful, light snowfall on Saturday night, which greatly enhanced the scenery around Lake Wicwas - it was getting a little drab after the recent thaw.

And this morning, the squirrels were back searching for food under the new snow.  (Though I only saw one gray squirrel!)  With a layer of crusty snow and ice on the bird feeder baffle, one clever red squirrel found a way to climb up and mount an attack on the feeders. 

Linda enjoyed the ensuing display of creativity and acrobatic ability.

You have to appreciate their drive for sustenance! 

I hope all the animals managed to get a good supply of fat and protein to store up, as the weather is now forecast to return to a prolonged stretch of deep freeze!  We'll see if it will surpass the last one....

January 12, 2014

The polar vortex retreated back to the north pole, allowing a stubborn temperature inversion to take hold which gave Lake Wicwas over 24 hours of freezing rain.  While the temperatures were well above freezing above 1500 feet in elevation, along the Merrimack River valley the temperature was stuck right at the freezing point.  The trees received only a thin layer of ice,

but the long cold-soak we experienced allowed an impenetrable (and impassible) sheath to form on the ground.

Any surfaces not treated with sand or salt had nearly an inch of beautifully clear ice!

The snow-pack is thick enough that it easily withstood the rain except on the lake, which became mostly saturated.  This afternoon the temperature rose sufficiently to soften the snow up enough to go for a ski, but there was so much debris that came down from the ice that it was more of a maintenance project than a ski event.

The water level in the lake rose a few inches from the rain, and the outlet stream is running strongly.  A few openings were created along the shoreline from the rain as well.

I saw no animal signs today other than an old set of tracks from a fox that sought out the open water for a drink.

A little cold weather now and maybe we will get some skating on Lake Wicwas this year.

January 5, 2014

Happy New Year!

Sorry to talk about the weather, but that's about all that happened around Lake Wicwas this week.

January 4, 2014

Yesterday the temperature dropped to 17 degrees below zero, the coldest we've seen here since 2009.  The low temps have been at or below zero for six days now, but at least we have haven't had a lot of wind to go with it.  An uncommon snow storm event at these temperatures brought us 10 or 12 inches of snow on Friday - incredibly light and fluffy snow, four times less dense than our typical snow according to one report.  That means the amount of precipitation that gave us 12 inches of snow would usually produce only 3 inches.  If you could brave the cold, it made for some awesome skiing - almost like being out west (almost).

It was so light and deep that the cross country skis tunneled down far enough that the ski-tips didn't even disturb the surface of the snow.  But it sure fashioned smooth skiing with some beautiful sights to behold.

The cold mornings and clear air graced us with pristine sunrises hinting of alpenglow.

7:15 am

7:23 am (sunrise was 7:20)

8:04 am

And frosty sunsets that even look cold!

4:39 pm

Sunset is already occurring 15 minutes later than it was in early December, but the sun is just now starting to rise earlier in the day;  overall daylight is eight minutes longer than on the winter solstice.

It was cold enough on Sataurday that the only sign of animal life I saw was one set of fox tracks in the deep snow.  It used my old ski tracks a little bit, and I expect it will be taking advantage of them more now that they are tracked out again.

Today it warmed up 45 degrees from yesterday's low - all the way to 29!  And that brought out a lot more activity.  I saw skiers, and a couple of sets of snowshoe tracks on the lake. 

It's amazing that 27 degrees can seem downright balmy!

I followed someone's ski tracks (TG and HC I expect - thanks!) for a while, which made for much speedier travel than breaking out a new trail. 

Thanks for Setting the Tracks!

The animals were more active as well - I saw weasel scat on the road, and there were now deer tracks in snow, though they travelled on the road quite a bit as well.  And when it's been so cold, I'm always surprised to find wet slush on the ice under the snow.

Next we're onto a quick New England roller coaster ride, with temperatures forecast to rise to 40 degrees on Monday before dropping right back into the single digits. 

I hope you caught a glimpse of the crescent moon on Saturday evening just after sunset - where ever you may have been.  It was fabulous here in Meredith. 

December 30, 2013

Winter has returned to Lake Wicwas, and just in time for people to enjoy the holidays and extended vacations.  This past weekend there were lots of people out on the lake - I saw hikers, skiers, people ice fishing, people snowshoeing, and the first snow mobile tracks on the lake.  Sunday night brought our first heavy, wet snow of the season, what I call cement snow.  It tends to stick on the trees even after the inevitable northwest winds that follow a New England storm blow through.

It gets plastered to everything, and freezes on hard, bending branches and trees, but making for beautiful winter scenes.

The contrast in light makes things stand out that I have missed even though I likely walked right past them the day before.  Here I saw a tree that has been freshly harvested by the Pileated Woodpecker, searching for the eggs of carpenter ants left to hatch this spring.

And Linda caught this Red Fox trotting across the lake, taking a short cut to one of its favorite hunting grounds. 

This is the time of year when red fox pair up - they have been solitary since raising their kits, but now they are preparing for their courtship in late winter.  Their coats have built up their full winter thickness which allows them to hunt on cold winter nights, although on nights like this week, when it may get below zero, they may may spend more time in their den.

I recently learned that red fox are not native to North America.  It seems the British were getting frustrated hunting the indigenous gray fox - because they can climb trees, which rather defeated their whole hunting strategy using dogs and horses.  So they brought over some of their favorite red foxes rather than having to adapt their sport to the local fauna.

Here we are, not even out of December, and already well into the depths of winter.  Meredith Bay on Winnipesaukee is already frozen over, which is good news for the fishing derby and the New England Pond Hockey Classic.  We probably won't see the ground again until late March or April, especially if the weather pattern keeps bringing us snow twice a week!

December 22, 2012

I had a great adventure tracking a Fisher Cat today, as the soft snow and warm weather made fine tracks to follow.  I noticed the tracks when I was skiing yesterday, and went out on show shoes to follow their story.

Fisher Cat Trail

I don't know whether it was a male or a female, but based on the size of its stride and its body, I'm going to guess it was a female.  The distance between her strides when she was moving in open space was about 42" - a good length, but a full grown male will bound up to 52".  Of course, it could be a small male as well. 

42" Between Prints

I followed her tracks for several miles, sometimes in open areas, sometimes in dense trees, but always going from tree to tree.  She would frequently dig around in the snow looking for a squirrel or mouse, and occasionally she would tunnel under the snow or under a tree stump.  Here she tunneled along under a fallen tree for a good 12 feet.

Searching for Rodents under a Fallen Tree

She favored large pines and hemlocks, climbing up them for who knows how long.  It does make it little harder to follow a fisher track than a fox or coyote, as I had to search around a bit to find where she came back down on the ground.  Sometimes it was quite obvious, as she would occasionally jump out of the tree, leaving a full body implant, sometimes with even a tail print. 

Imprint from jumping our of a tree

 

This is how I could estimate the size of this fisher cat (the largest member of weasel family that lives in New England).

In one instance I could see that she had leaped onto a tree as well, as blown snow had stuck to the side of the tree, and she left four clear paw prints in the snow where she landed before jumping higher up on the trunk.

Fisher cats have a swivel joint in their rear ankle (reference Rezendes, "Tracking and the Art of Seeing") which lets them climb down trees head-first as well as up them.

She led me on quite a tour of the south east side of Lake Wicwas:  up hills, along ridges, to the shore line (where she hunted for mice under a tree blown over by the July 2012 storm), along streams and across marshes.

I never found any evidence of her catching her prey, but I did find where she had climbed up some winterberry bushes to eat the berries.  She left a few scattered on the ground....

But it's clear that she did have some luck in her hunting, proven by her scat.  She left a couple of markers for the other animals - in obvious, well visible locations.  This sample shows lots of evidence of vegetable matter, including some undigested winter berries.

This sample however, had feathers in it:

 

Perhaps she caught a chick-a-dee in one of her excursions up a hemlock!

In a large stand of hemlock trees, I believe I found either her home territory, or a favorite hunting ground, as there were tracks everywhere.  And I could see why - there were signs of red squirrels everywhere as well, with debris from pine cones, and lots of holes where squirrels live and hide.

I even followed her trail up a rocky ledge where she crossed some porcupine trails that led into the porcupine's den - but she didn't seem interested in meeting up with a porcupine in its own home.  A fisher cat will take on a porcupine, but that, along with the deer tracks I found, are a story for another day. 

I'll close for now with the satisfaction of knowing that all the bird feeding (and squirrel feeding) that we do finds it way up the food chain, whether it's fox, hawks, or fisher cats!

Downy Woodpecker

Chick-a-dee

There is plenty of entertainment around Lake Wicwas, in winter or summer!