New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

A deep freeze and a disappearing deer.

Wednesday 02/07/2007

We have been stuck in a way below average freeze going on two weeks and with not let-up in sight. This has been great for a major freeze up of our lakes and even the rivers. The Suncook River out my office window is frozen completely over. Not what i certainly expected in early January when it was totally open with temperatures in the 60's. But this is New England after all. So next week I'll get working on my annual duck nesting box check safer than I had expected.

I have got out for a couple late afternoon hikes into Bear Brook State Park. Not much for wildlife sign except for tons of coyote tracks at the disappearing deer. Just over a week ago I picked up a road killed deer in Manchester on my way back from counting ducks to the south. I dumped it down in the park very close to where the local conservation officer dumped a dead moose in December. The moose had been devoured in a couple weeks. It was less than a week for the deer to be gone except for the two legs I had wired to trees so it couldn't be drug off by the coyotes. I took a picture of Rick Hamlett wiring off the deer and another of just one leg left just over a week later. It always amazes me how fast an animal can be eaten by the wildlife. Coyote tracks radiated out like spokes from the moose/deer site. But not much else as far as I could figure out. It is too open of an area to expect fisher to spend time there and I just think the coyote dominate the scene. Years ago I was checking a wooded site where a farmer had dumped a dead cow. I found a partially eaten red fox. The evidence suggested it was feeding inside the cow when a coyote killed it and partly ate it. So I think these sites are just too dangerous for a fox to visit.

Birds abound at my feeders. Well not much for blue jays actually but quite a flock of starlings. Chickadees, juncos and crows seem to round out my visitors. Not much of a variety it seems. This frigid air mass will have many animals simply holed up and waiting for a break to move and feed.The next break in temperatures will be a great time to see lots of wildlife activity. I'm pretty much holed up too. I head to the Sportsmen's Show in Worcester Friday. Stop on down for a visit.