New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Winter, Winter everywhere..Not.

Thursday 02/03/2011

My wife and I escaped the worst of a winter's week last week with a trip to the Dominican republic. Days were sunny and in the 80's with a nice afternoon breeze.We were at a nice resort but what was amazing to me was the lack of folks down there this winter. Nearby resorts were closed and ours had maybe 50 or 60 guests in a place built for a couple hundred. In fact most of the buildings were vacant. More so than the vacancies noted a month ago in Aruba. This economy is impacting so much. I felt so bad for these folks trying to survive on a fraction of the past tourists.

We did take a mid day tour of the local city of 300,000 Puerto Plata. It sure pays to get away to learn to appreciate all that we have and take for granted. But for the most part the locals were happy and very friendly. Streets were very narrow and crowded with cars and people going about their lives.

I did get a day of fishing in. How beautiful the deep blue waters were but the fish were not as friendly in biting our baits. My wife and I and another couple of friends who traveled with us did spend a day on a boat sailing along the coast. I snorkeled at the two stops along the way. The corals were in poor condition and fish not too plentiful. One thing I noted all week long was the lack of critters, especially iguanas. Here I learned from a staffer that folks catch and sell them so "You have to go to the mountains to find them." Birds were plentiful and the sweet sounds of birds singing and calling each morning were worth the mid winter trip.

We got back home late Saturday night in time to clear some of the snow from my deck roof in preparation for the next storm yesterday. Looks like we got another foot of snow from the two storms over Tuesday and Wednesday. Save for a few squirrels at my feeder and a scattering of birds, not much is moving about around here. Not a track to be found. The snow is crotch deep to me and I'm sure this deep fluffy snow has limited the movement and survival of lots of critters. Unless we get a crust soon many animals will perish. The one savings grace is that we had not much snow until the January 19th storm. But has it piled up since and no doubt is stressing our wildlife. From now on their survival is ticking down each day that these conditions remain. And another couple of storms are forecast. This will be a brutal winter on our wildlife.