Which Duck Is This?

Anyone recognize this duck ? We have several duck species on our lake at present: Mallard, Common Merganser, Bufflehead, but this guy with black head and neck and long black/white banded beak I cannot find in my books. Any experts on New England water birds out there?

 

BTW in other bird news: the Great Blue Heron arrived today. But the Bald Eagle pair have been gone for a week: did the warm spell send them north?  Are they off hunting and will return? Did the emerging boaters disturb them? Who knows eagle behavior?

Mergansers

Ice is out of our lake in mid-March, and the mergansers – common and red-breasted – are here in force, finding many small fish to feed on along the melting ice edge

 

First Month

On June 2 we have been here a month. Unpacking is 90% over – the pile of boxes in the garage has less than 10 remaining. Most rooms are not only habitable but also partially decorated. There is much still to do, but our pace of doing it has slowed considerably!

And there has been time to reflect. The most obvious joy is what Marian calls “the million-dollar view” of the lake. All the trees have now leafed out (and the oaks have broadcast their pollen!) and all is green. Fishermen are on the lake daily, and kayakers are often out in the evenings and on weekends.

The “summer people” have begun to arrive – good crowd over Memorial Day weekend, with fireworks (legal in NH) off the beach at dusk. Neighbors to one side cleaned up their yard and opened their house, but won’t stay here until their kids are out of school. Locals say some Memorial Days are warm enough to swim, but not this year as the cool end of a long winter refuses to move away. Plenty of showers and thunder this week. But I did get to cut the grass for the first time! Paul and I both kayaked, and he fished off the dock. A Heron visits our beach, as does a pair of Geese with their four babies. 

As we slowly discover the local villages, we are even more delighted at the area. Pretty places, often with historical areas full of beautifully preserved 18-19th C. homes, inns, town-halls, churches. And we still have all the “modern conveniences” of big-box stores 15 minutes away in Tilton.

We have attended a small Congregational Church a few miles away, and like what we find there – pleasant, faithful and energetic people. I was asked to preach there on my third Sunday to give the Interim Pastor a break, and was well received – even if I felt a little rusty after two years away from the pulpit!

So the house, the lake, the area, the church are all big “pluses” for us. We are glad to be here, and look forward to the summer and fall (it has been a bit chilly so far!)

The Lake

A lakeside home offers a remarkable spectrum of views. Light and color change constantly. The lake surface changes from a silver mirror in early morning, reflecting every tree and cloud in profile and color, to dark gray white-capped waves driven by a brisk NW breeze in mid-afternoon. Even after dusk, it’s amazing how a dark-adapted eye can see the profile of the lake’s west bank reflected in a steel-gray again-calm surface.

White Pine, Hemlock, Oak, Red Maple, Birch frame the lake. Button-brush and reeds skirt the water’s edge. Birds abound: sparrows, finches, chickadees, orioles, swallows, red-wing blackbirds, plovers, robins, crows, hawks, mallards, wood ducks, loons, Canada Geese, a Blue Heron… all in a casual day’s view from the deck!

We have loved our first week on the SE shore of a dammed, 60-acre, 1/2 mile-wide, 50ft deep lake in New Hampshire’s Merrimack Valley, midway between Laconia and Concord. Pale green and muddy pink clothe the trees on the far shore amid the pines, and red-maple flowers are dropping on our deck. It’s good to be in NH now that Spring has arrived!

Shellcamp Lake to the NE

Shellcamp Lake to the NW