New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

And now for the rest of the story.

Tuesday 09/13/2005

Back in early May I wrote about finding a road killed herring gull on route 4 in Dover. Serendipitously I have an answer to a question I posed back then " Where was this gull banded?" As follows:

Hi Eric!

My name is Julie E, and I heard that you found one of my banded gulls
this summer. My friend Dan H called to let me know and I just
checked out your website and saw the photo. It's so hard to believe that
you found that gull- what are the odds??

Anyway, I banded that one (a female) at the Shoals Marine Laboratory last
summer. She was nesting near one of the buildings on the island. I
started banding gulls (adults and chicks) last summer on Appledore as part
of an effort to understand the population dynamics, foraging ecology, and
interspecific interactions between Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed
Gulls. I'm doing this as a postdoc at Cornell University and the Shoals
lab, although I reside in Massachusetts. I'm giving a talk on some of my
research at the Seacoast chapter of the NH Audubon meeting on Oct. 12.

Can you give me more details about the gull you found- Dan said that the
band number was 1737-65304, is that correct? You found the gull in Dover,
NH?

Thanks!!

Julie

I spent three hours with a group of conservationist walking a 200 acre tract of land in Deerfield yesterday. The Bear-Paw Greenways Land Trust is hoping to figure out a way to protect this nice tract of forest which is near some other conservation properties. There were 8 of us. In fact the piece is not too far from a Fish and Game owned tract and would be a nice addition to the already protected lot.

The most interesting observation I had was as we were hiking out. I was beat as it had warmed considerably by mid day. All at once a half dozen or more little wood frogs were scattering in front of my feet. They were this years young and were about an inch and a quarter long. A bit of a distance from a wetland, there were a number of beaver ponds on this tract, and just in the leaf litter in the middle of the woods. I stopped to take a close-up look at a couple of them. I just couldn't see why there was a clump of baby wood frogs in the middle of the woods. Of coarse I forgot my camera in my truck.

The woods are just plain crunchy. It's like walking on corn flakes practically! The smaller brooks are finally drying out to their normal mid summer parched beds. The soil itself has really dried out the last three rainless weeks. Insects still rule as that is about all you can hear day or night for wild sounds. I took my dogs to Bear Brook last evening at sunset with Rick. Just a couple hour hike, (plus the 3 earlier had my butt dragging) and the whole time the air was filled with sounds of crickets. There is a loud buzzing by late afternoon in a few of the white pines along the edge of the field nearby. Not every tree, and only white pines, but a real loud insect buzzing sound coming from the branches. Does anyone know which insect it is?