New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Robins galore

Monday 02/23/2015

Despite the fact that we had a record cold of minus 17 in Concord two days ago and enough snow in my yard to hide a VW under I'm still see robins most days in my travels. I kind of predicted this might be a robin winter as I viewed this fall's crop of ornamental crab apples. From the Concord Wal Mart to office parks and parking lots around the state it seems that we had a bumper crop of crab apples. And haven't the robins stayed around this winter to feast on them. By actual count I had 21 robins here for over a month eating the fruits of my high bush cranberries and barberries. But they moved on a little over a week ago.

The other bird in abundance at my house this winter have been the blue jays. About a dozen at a time. My mother a mile down the road has had an abundance as well. Chick-a-dees and juncos seem to be faring well at my feeders despite the abundance of snow and below average temperatures. These are the birds that shiver all night long to keep from freezing to death. Yes the shiver all night every night to survive. Especially in the sub zero temps. How these windy cold night send my mind outside picturing these poor freezing critters.

This deep snow will no doubt have an impact on our deer numbers as well as many other mammals. The snow is deep and fluffy making it difficult for most species to move about. Save for the mice and voles who are happily safe from predators under this deep snow as they scurry about at temperatures closer to 30 degrees under the blanket of snow. Still for foxes, coyotes, bobcats and fisher death rates will be higher than average given these conditions. We need a warm day to set up a crust to get these guys on top of the snow.

Looks like plenty of water to fill the vernal pools. But this deep snow with no warming trend in sight has me wondering how late it will be this spring before we hear the first wood frogs quacking. Oh for the sweet sound of a pond full of peepers.