Climate

Weather Underground: Westmore, Vermont Forecast lists detailed current conditions and provides daily forecasts for the upcoming week. At the bottom of the page are links to Personal Weather Stations, including Weather Station History for Westmore, Vermont, which provides graphs, charts, and tables with a vast array of Westmore weather statistics, past and present.

"Willoughby Lake Weather" also offers an impressive collection of weather statistics, including the lake temperature, in case you're considering a dip! The site has a visually engaging opening page with current details, graphs of the last week's information, and a live weather cam. Dig deeper and you'll find statistics on highs, lows, and averages going back a couple of years.

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Ecology

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Flora and Fauna

Excerpted from:"Willoughby Lake Legends and Legacies," Harriet F. Fisher. Academy Books, Rutland, Vermont. Copyright © 1988.
Reprinted with permission of the author.

In the early 1830s when there were few roads and few settlers around Willoughby Lake, conditions were ideal for hunting and fishing parties. Accommodations for these groups could be found south of the lake at Gilman's original tavern.

The 1854 KnickerbockerMagazine writer included this reminiscence of his 1846 trip: "We found a most delicious dinner of 'longe' or muscalonge smoking upon our friend's table. The 'longe' is a large fish resembling the salmon, of a fine hard texture and exquisite flavor, generally inhabiting cold and deep water. One hundred pounds per day may occasionally be taken with the hook in Lake Willoughby, and we were told that the fish weighing twenty pounds had frequently been caught.

Similar data appeared in Northern Tourist, the 1854 guide to the Willoughby Lake House: "The lake abounds with fish, particularly the muscolung, a species of gray trout, while the numerous streams and ponds in the vicinity are filled with the common mountain trout. At no lake in the world can there be found such beautiful trout. Mottled trout weighing from two to five pounds, also lunge, a species of overgrown trout, have been taken from this lake, weighing 38 pounds."

From time to time the Vermont Union also reported on the excellent fishing at Willoughby Lake. In June, 1881, 50 to 125 pounds of fish per day were being caught, mostly by trolling.. These fish weighed from two to twelve pounds each. Ten and fifteen pounders were caught in deep water with minnows and artificial bait. A fish and game club was formed in 1907 and the lake was stocked with trout from the fish hatcheries. C. W. Tenny of Barton was secretary of this club.

On Mother's Day, May 8, 1960, Leon E. Hopkins of Lyndon Center caught a laker weighing 34 pounds, 25 inches in girth, 46 inches in length. It was too big for the net so Hopkins worked his boat toward Crescent Beach. When he reached shallow water, he jumped out of the boat, grabbed the trout by the gills and pulled it onto the beach.

In May, 1981, John Staples caught a lake trout which weighed 34 pounds, had a 27 inch girth, but fell short by 2-1/2 inches of the length of Mr. Hopkins' fish. However, this is on record as the biggest fish because the Vermont Fish and Game Department did not start keeping records of big fish until January 1, 1969.

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James P. Taylor, in a 1912 Vermonter, described the natural riches of Mt. Pisgah, mentioning the fruit of the red baneberry, false Solomon's seal, the delicate spire of the rattlesnake fern, great patches of dark brakes, colonies of bright, sensitive fern, the splendid birches, and the fruit of the mountain maple.

It is said that over 100 species of birds have been seen around Lake Willoughby. These include thrushes, warblers, hummingbirds, jays, finches, loons, mergansers, herons, and gulls. In 1985 excitement prevailed around the lake when a pair of peregrine falcons nested on the cliffs of Pisgah and hatched three young. The Westmore Association ran a contest to name the chicks. The winning names, suggested by the Rev. H. S. Beckwith, were Will, Lou, and Bea. A biologist from the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) protected this falcon family and watched its progress all summer. This was the first time in almost thirty years that peregrines had nested in Vermont. In 1986 the falcons returned, and hatched two offspring. In 1987 the falcons again returned and had a family of four. The mother was injured and cared for at VINS in Woodstock. Apparently one of the babies survived at Willoughby Lake.

Black bears, bobcats, moose, deer, fox, rabbits, hedgehogs, raccoons, skunks, mink, beaver, chipmunks and squirrels have long been known in the area. Many years ago panthers were occasionally seen. One report mentioned short-legged otters travelling from pond to pond, leaving a trail in the winter as if a log had been dragged through the snow.

Unusual flowers and ferns, some rare, are among the flora found at Willoughby Lake. One rare treat is to climb Mt. Hor and note the many species of ferns on the way. At the cliffs, members of the Westmore Association have placed signs identifying different ferns. Here, boulders above, below, and on all sides are literally carpeted with polybody ferns.

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The Northern Tourist told of several species of plants of particular interest to botanists, particularly at Blueberry Cove on the west-northwest shore. This booklet also described the "Garden of Eden," a shelving rock, four hundred and ninety feet above the foot of Mt. Pisgah. When reached by a difficult climb, it proved to be a botanical delight of several acres, according to the report; it inclined at an angle of thirty degrees and was covered in part with herbs and undershrubs. The writer and a botanist friend gazed on strange plants in a natural garden of exotics. "Matured in this mild and sunny spot, were several species which have never before been seen in the United States. It is a treat to which the botanist is rarely served."

In a 1917Vermonter, Charles R. Cummings discussed a bulbous fern on the side of Mt. Pisgah which is found nowhere else except in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. He also mentioned the fir balsam (taken locally as a remedy for colds), and described the making of fragrant balsam pillows. About 200 carloads of spruce and fir brush used to be shipped from stations near the lake; the landowners received from five to fifteen cents a bunch. The white spruce which grows in this vicinity, he wrote, is found nowhere else in Vermont. He added that much good maple sugar is made in Westmore and adjoining towns.

In July, 1921, thirty delegates of the Vermont Botanical and Birds Clubs met for an annual field meeting - a four-day scientific investigation. One of those days was spent at the Garden of Eden. It was a humid day and the ascent up the cliffs was strenuous, but the rare little ferns with saxifrages nestling among them repaid the climbers' efforts. After lunch at the Boulders Tea House, they explored the marl bogs south of the lake. Because the club was concerned about plant protection as well as plant study, they took only such specimens as would complete valuable herbaria or constitute substantial additions to knowledge of the Willoughby flora. During their stay, they spotted 63 species of birds, many of them rare warblers that love to nest at high altitudes.

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