Bridgton

It has been a rough winter season for many outdoor activities in New Hampshire, but a below-average snowpack is hitting the snowmobile industry especially hard.

State scientists are testing the water for a toxic blue-green algae bloom at Twin Brook after tests showed 2 dogs had algae-related toxicity after swimming there Aug. 21.

The openings were left after ice-in started during a cold snap, but didn’t quite finish in the deepest parts of the lake, about a quarter of a mile off shore. The two loons were stuck and unable to take off, because common loons require a water “runway” to push off and get airborne. Farther up the lake, three other loons were stuck in similar fashion.

A potent storm system hit Maine on Monday with heavy rain and wind gusts close to 60 mph that caused more than 100,000 power outages. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses across the state lost power Monday night as the wind brought branches down on power lines. There were multiple reports of trees falling into roads in Lisbon, Durham, Bath, Woolwich and Bar Harbor, among other places.

It had to be one of the strangest cases of eagle death that Danielle D'Auria has ever seen.

Preliminary results suggest that avian flu and/or phocine distemper virus may be contributing to the elevated seal strandings in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts since June 1, 2018.

The number of outages is down from a peak of 484,000 statewide after winds and rain ravaged the region Monday morning.