New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

NH is full of life right now

Thursday 05/17/2012

No doubt in my mind we are at or fast approaching the time of year that there are more living animals in this state than at any other time of the year. This is "baby season" in NH. More animal life is living and breathing than ever.

Many frogs and salamanders have already laid their eggs and many are hatching right now. A hike to a vernal pool will show you handfulls of life if you cup your hands and scoop up a hand full of water. It may be colored black with hundreds of baby frogs, especially wood frogs.

Fish too have spawned, perch, pickerel and now bass have laid their eggs and have or will hatch within days. Just add a little sun light to warm the water. Down on the coast over 150,000 river herring have already run up the Fish and Game fish ladders to deposit as many as 100,000 eggs per female in the freshwater above the dams. You do the math. Or I will at probably 75,000 females or about 75 million baby herring. Now that's a bunch of babies.

And on land deer are giving birth this week into the last of May, so add a couple of fawns per 40,000 does= 80,000 fawns. And fox and coyotes and beavers and just about every other mammal has given birth this past month. Lets not forget our 40,000 turkeys, at least half are now hatching about 10 poults each. And ducks and geese too, with a clutch of 4 to 6 for geese and close to a dozen per female duck. So add in a few more tens of thousands. See what I mean. New Hampshire is full of life right now. So get outside and enjoy some of it!