New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
A bald eagle before breakfast and alewives galore.
Tuesday 06/14/2005
I finally got up to my camp in Maine over the weekend to open it up for the year. It was perfect timing as back here in Epsom everyone was roasted with hot and humid conditions all weekend, while I sat on the little camp's deck as a nice sea breeze kept me cool. In fact by 4:00 PM Saturday afternoon it got chilly. I was out fishing on the lake when I felt a quick cooling. All of a sudden about 4:00 PM a cold air mass swept by changing the temperature drastically.
We got to camp just before dark Friday to open up camp and sweep the cob webs out and check out what the mice had done this winter. There was actually very little mice activity compared to most years. Just as I stood out on the deck Saturday morning with a glass of OJ in hand an adult bald eagle sailed across the lake and lighted in a tree obvious to all. Then it flew back over the lake and dipped to pick a fish from the surface and headed back towards her nest on the far shore.
The alewives were just arriving in numbers in the lake and were heading up the little brook we drive across on the way into camp. The run is about 2 weeks later than usual. But tens of thousands of alewives ascend the river that flows from the lake to the tidal waters eight miles away. It is always an amazing feat to behold. And to watch the eagles and ospreys regularly feed on the mass of fish is so awesome of a sight.Camp is such a relaxing earth-connecting place.
We arrived home Sunday evening at the tail end of a terrific storm. I could see where several of the neighbors driveways had eroded in a deluge minutes before. My mother said it came all at once. I was surprised to read 3.75 inches of rain in my gauge. Yesterday afternoon I was searching for geese to band next week. I spent the afternoon in my vehicle with the AC on high. This morning was still kind of hot and muggy but that too has changed pretty abruptly. I headed down into the Nashua area to look for geese. It seems to me that there are fewer broods of young this year. The Fish and Game "goose crew" which I have been a member of for over a decade, hopes to band 500 to 800 geese next week. GOT GEESE? If you know of any group of a dozen or more geese right now in NH please email me with the location. We will be banding all next week,
I headed back this way to participate in a short hike and discussions with a land owner about permanent protection of a 150 acre tract of land. The trees showered us with a cold rain as we hiked into some of the land up a logging road. By the time I headed home I had the heat on in the truck. Oh what a few hours can do to the temperatures here in NH. A cool rain pours down steadily this afternoon outside my window. Just the sound is cooling.
