New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
Tis' the Season for Greetings
Friday 11/30/2012
As I came down the road to my house a few days ago I could see my neighbor ambling along the road in front of his house so I stopped to exchange pleasantries since I haven't talked to him in months. And the first words out of his mouth were of the season's greetings. "Did ya getcha deerya yet?" Yes that is the typical "season greetings" in my life this time of year. And it occurred to me that I have been getting lots of those greetings the last couple of weeks as it is "deer season" in NH.
And yes I did get "my" deer or as he put it, cha deer, meaning your deer. And how is it any ways that deer hunters have "your" deer roaming around in the woods? Kind of like we expect to see one with our name on it as we creep through the woods. Well any ways an interesting thought this time of year.
Seems like I was right to get out in the woods three weeks ago when I awoke to a coating of snow. That layer melted in hours and we have hardly seen a flake since. But the last week we have had some good cold temps with ice now formed on all the smaller water bodies. One two or three acre pond I drive by three times a week on my way for a swim has even turned to white ice the last couple of days. That is looking like we may actually get some early ice for ice fishing this year. Last year we had practically no safe ice until mid January even on the smaller lakes and ponds around here. And Great Bay never had much of any ice all winter.
How the turkeys have been about the last few weeks. Nearly every morning I'm headed to the pool I see at least one flock of a couple dozen turkeys. No doubt decedents of some wild birds I released about 30 years ago now in towns not far away. They were exciting times in my small part of restoring turkeys to NH.
Even though we had pretty freezing temps the last week or more the fields remain green around here. No doubt there are still acorns to be found by the deer and turkeys as well. Things are looking real good going into the winter. The deer I got had tons of body fat stored not just under the skin but deep inside the body cavity too. I hope we keep the ice that has formed as the predictions are for a much warmer week next week well above averages for December. Our economy really needs ice for our fishermen and cold temperatures fore the ski areas to at least make snow. With Christmas just over three weeks away any snow would be appreciated by many in NH.
Previous Note
2012-11-09
Flip switch on, we have snow, 12 hours later, switch is flipped off and the snow is gone.