Life on the Mountain

Moose Alces alces

Mammal

The largest animal in the White Mountains: a bull can stand more than six feet tall at the shoulder. Moose wander through every zone, even above treeline, but spend most of their time in wet lowlands, where they wade into ponds to eat water plants.

Look for it: Drive Route 16 through Pinkham Notch slowly at dawn and dusk, when moose often stand in the road. On foot, give them plenty of room. A moose that lays its ears back is about to charge.

Moose on Wikipedia

Photo: Martin Cathrae, CC BY-SA 2.0, resized.

Canada jay Perisoreus canadensis

Bird

A bold, fluffy gray jay of the northern forest. It survives the winter by caching thousands of bits of food, glued into bark crevices with sticky saliva, and it nests in late winter while snow still covers the ground.

Look for it: Canada jays often swoop in to investigate hikers at viewpoints. It’s tempting, but don’t feed them: human food isn’t good for them.

Canada jay at All About Birds

Photo: Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized.

Spruce grouse Canachites canadensis

Bird

A grouse of the boreal forest that eats mostly conifer needles in winter. It is so tame that it often freezes in place rather than fly away, which earned it the nickname “fool hen.” Males have a red comb above the eye.

Look for it: Watch the trail edges in dense spruce and fir. You’re more likely to find one at your feet than up in a tree.

Spruce grouse at All About Birds

Photo: Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized.

Blackpoll warbler Setophaga striata

Bird

A tiny black-and-white warbler that nests in high spruce-fir forest. Its fall migration is one of the most extreme in the bird world: many fly nonstop over the Atlantic Ocean from the Northeast to South America, a trip of about three days.

Look for it: Listen in June and July for a very high, thin, rapid “tsit-tsit-tsit” from the treetops.

Blackpoll warbler at All About Birds

Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized.

Bicknell’s thrush Catharus bicknelli

Bird Rare

One of the rarest songbirds in the Northeast. It nests only in dense, stunted fir and spruce near mountaintops in the Northeast and eastern Canada, and winters mostly on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The White Mountains hold about a third of its breeding habitat in the United States.

Look for it: You’ll almost certainly hear one before you see one. Listen at dawn and dusk in June for a thin, flute-like song that spirals downward.

Bicknell’s thrush at All About Birds

Photo: Phillip Kenny, CC BY 2.0, resized.

White-throated sparrow Zonotrichia albicollis

Bird

Not rare, but it is the sound of treeline in summer. Its clear, whistled song is often written as “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody” (or, in Canada, “O sweet Canada, Canada, Canada”).

Look for it: Listen anywhere in the krummholz from late May through July. Look for the white throat and a yellow spot in front of the eye.

White-throated sparrow at All About Birds

Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized.

Labrador tea Rhododendron groenlandicum

Plant

A low evergreen shrub of bogs and treeline, with narrow leathery leaves that are rusty and woolly underneath, and round clusters of white flowers in June. Its leaves were once brewed as a tea, but the plant contains compounds that can be toxic.

Look for it: Turn over a leaf, gently, to see the rust-colored fuzz. Leave it on the plant.

Labrador tea at Go Botany

Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized.

Robbins’ cinquefoil Potentilla robbinsiana

Plant Found only in the White Mountains

A tiny yellow-flowered plant that grows nowhere else in the world. Trampling and collecting nearly wiped it out, but after its habitat was protected it recovered, and in 2002 it was removed from the federal endangered species list.

Look for it: Its home near Lakes of the Clouds is closed to hikers. Enjoy it from the trail, and read its comeback story.

Robbins’ cinquefoil at Go Botany

USDA Forest Service. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

White Mountain avens Geum peckii

Plant Rare

Bright yellow flowers that grow in only two places in the world: the White Mountains and a few spots in Nova Scotia. It likes wet, rocky places such as streamsides and late-melting snowbanks.

Look for it: Look along wet seeps in the Alpine Garden from late June into August.

White Mountain avens at Go Botany

Photo: Doug McGrady, CC BY 2.0, resized.

Diapensia Diapensia lapponica

Plant

A classic arctic cushion plant: a hard, tight dome of tiny leaves that holds heat and resists the wind. It’s one of the first alpine flowers to bloom each year, covering the ridges with small white blossoms.

Look for it: Look in early to mid June, on exposed, windswept ground. Don’t step on the cushions: they take decades to grow.

Diapensia at Go Botany

Photo: Doug McGrady, CC BY 2.0, resized.

Lapland rosebay Rhododendron lapponicum

Plant

A dwarf rhododendron only a few inches tall, with bright magenta flowers. Like most alpine plants here, it is an arctic species at the southern edge of its range.

Look for it: Peak bloom is usually early to mid June, around the same time as diapensia.

Lapland rosebay at Go Botany

Photo: Jacob W. Frank, National Park Service. Public domain.

Alpine azalea Kalmia procumbens

Plant

A creeping mat of tiny evergreen leaves, dotted in June with pink, star-shaped flowers smaller than a fingernail.

Look for it: Kneel down (on the rocks, not the plants) to see the flowers properly.

Alpine azalea at Go Botany

Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0, resized.

Boott’s rattlesnake-root Nabalus boottii

Plant NH endangered

A globally rare wildflower found only on a few alpine summits in New England and New York, and much of the world’s population grows around Mount Washington. It was first collected in the White Mountains in 1829.

Look for it: Unlike most alpine flowers, it blooms in late summer. Look for nodding cream-colored flowers in August.

Boott’s rattlesnake-root at Go Botany

Photo: Ken-ichi Ueda (kueda), CC BY 4.0, resized.

Bigelow’s sedge Carex bigelowii

Plant

The grass-like plant that covers the alpine meadows, turning them gold in the fall. It’s easy to overlook, but it is the only known food for the caterpillars of the White Mountain Arctic butterfly.

Look for it: Look for its dark, upright seed spikes in midsummer.

Bigelow’s sedge at Go Botany

Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized.

White Mountain fritillary Boloria chariclea montinus

Butterfly Found only in the Presidential Range

A small orange-and-black butterfly that lives nowhere in the world except the Presidential Range alpine zone, cut off from its relatives to the north since the last ice age. It is listed as endangered in New Hampshire, and after more than 100 years of study, no one knows for sure what its caterpillars eat.

Look for it: Look for it on sunny days in mid to late summer, in the wetter alpine meadows such as the Alpine Garden.

White Mountain fritillary, Vermont Center for Ecostudies

Photo: Samantha Derrenbacher, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Public domain, via fws.gov.

American pipit Anthus rubescens

Bird NH special concern

The only bird in New England that nests only in the alpine zone. East of the Rockies, the only places in the United States where it has been found nesting are Mount Washington and Maine’s Mount Katahdin. It builds its nest on the ground, tucked into the sedge.

Look for it: Watch for a slim brown bird walking on the ground and bobbing its tail, and listen for its flight call, a thin “pip-it.”

American pipit at All About Birds

Photo: Stephan Sprinz, CC BY 4.0, resized.

Rock vole Microtus chrotorrhinus

Mammal

A small vole with a yellowish-orange nose that lives among mossy boulders and talus. It’s rarely seen, but it has a special tie to this mountain: the species was first described to science in 1894 from a specimen collected at the head of Tuckerman Ravine.

Look for it: You’re unlikely to spot one. Listen for rustling in the rocks along the Tuckerman Ravine and Alpine Garden trails.

Rock vole on Wikipedia

White Mountain Arctic Oeneis melissa semidea

Butterfly Found only in the Presidential Range

A mottled gray-brown butterfly found only in the high sedge meadows of the Presidential Range, from about 4,900 feet to near the summit. Its caterpillars eat only Bigelow’s sedge and probably take two years to grow up. New Hampshire lists it as threatened, and its population may be under 1,000.

Look for it: Look from late June into early August on sunny, calm days. When it lands on lichen-covered rock with its wings closed, it all but disappears.

White Mountain Arctic, Vermont Center for Ecostudies

Photo: Kent McFarland, CC0, resized.

Mountain sandwort Minuartia groenlandica

Plant

One of the most common flowers on the summit cone: small white blossoms in tufts in the gravel and cracks between rocks, often right beside the trail.

Look for it: It blooms from June through August, longer than most alpine flowers.

Mountain sandwort at Go Botany

Photo: Doug McGrady, CC BY 2.0, resized.

Map lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum

Lichen

Bright yellow-green patches outlined in black, like countries on a map. It grows so slowly, a fraction of a millimeter a year, that scientists use the size of its patches to estimate how long a rock surface has been exposed.

Look for it: Look at almost any boulder near the summit. A patch the size of your palm can be a century or more old.

Map lichen on Wikipedia

Photo: User:Tigerente, CC BY-SA 3.0, resized.

Common raven Corvus corax

Bird

The summit’s most visible resident. Ravens ride the updrafts over the ravines, tumbling and rolling in the wind, apparently just for fun. They are among the most intelligent birds in the world.

Look for it: Listen for a deep, croaking “gronk.” They’re bold around the summit buildings, but don’t feed them.

Common raven at All About Birds

Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized.