One thing that I absolutely love doing is making lists. Grocery lists, packing lists, to-do lists – you name it. They help me remember little things and stay on top of responsibilities, which is important with schedules that change every week, like ours. I also find that the act of writing out words, coupled with the mindlessness that comes with making lists, serves as a therapeutic outlet for me. It calms me and makes me feel like I’m being productive, no matter what I’m doing.
It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that I’ve been creating a multitude of lists since I’ve been at the SLA. The one that I’m most excited about, however, isn’t related to service work but more personal and fun – it’s my animal list. Being from suburban Northern Virginia, the only animals I’ve ever really stumbled into are deer, squirrels, and maybe a fox or opossum here and there. Since I’ve been in Holderness, however, I’ve learned of so many other animals that you can find roaming around! Naturally, I’ve noted them down. I now present to you the working list of animals that I want to see while I’m in New Hampshire:
Moose
River otter
Wild turkey
Bald eagle
Beaver
Loon
Black bear* (This one’s a hard maybe.)
I don’t doubt that this list will grow as the months go on, but I think it’s a good starting point.
Now, I bet you’re wondering if I’ve been able to check off any of these animals yet. The answer is yes; I’ve actually seen all but one. During our first week here, we took our pontoon boat Calypso out on the lake and saw two loons in the distance. Loon populations on Squam are vulnerable, so we didn’t want to disturb them. Instead, we took a nice little peek through a pair of binoculars. Then a few weeks ago, someone noticed a beaver on the cove. It was wading in the vegetation, kind of just bopping around. It flopped its tail a few times, which was fun to see. On a volunteer trail work day around Five Finger Point, I spotted a bald eagle flying over us as we were eating lunch. Most recently, we caught a river otter on the cove. It was sitting on the ice over a fishing hole. We observed it through one of the telescopes in the SLA’s Great Room, but I’d really like to see one out on the lake sometime.
A beaver on Piper Cove, seen through a telescope.
The best animal that I’ve seen yet, though, is a moose. That’s mostly because it was unexpected. Back in November, Bri, Eric, and I were doing trail work on a stretch of the Crawford-Ridgepole Trail when I suddenly heard a whoosh. I looked up to see Bri sprinting to the side of the path. Confused, I looked straight ahead and saw a sizable (and angry) female moose! I stopped dead in my tracks – what do you do when you run into a huge moose, let alone one that’s trying to run at you? Well, folks, apparently you’re supposed to get out of its line of sight and hide behind a tree. So that’s what I did. It ran around us a few times, which was nerve-racking. In the end, it continued on its way, and we went back down to the truck to be safe. Honestly, it was pretty thrilling.
The only animal I have yet to see is a wild turkey. From what I’ve heard, wild turkeys are supposed to be a pretty regular sight over here. I figure seven months is a good amount of time left to potentially see one. If not, then hey, at least I saw a moose!
Nikka had never walked on a frozen lake before, so she is really excited to start doing winter water quality monitoring for the Squam Lakes Association now that the lakes are frozen over! Learn more about Nikka here!