New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

So another cycle is coming to a close. The lush green leaves of May, shriveled some over the long hot and dry summer, only to cast their brilliance at us in their death throws. And this morning's rain is helping them to release their last grasp of life on the trees. Just five months ago the trees were bare. So our trees actually spend seven of twelve months in dormancy.

 

That got me thinking about our amphibians as well with an equally short span of active life. Most year our frogs and salamanders are active by mid April. And occasionally even leave their winter slumber in late March. But this year we had a late winter that translated into a late spring with little frog and salamander activity until almost May. So they too have only had five months to breed, have their eggs hatch and grow legs and then gather enough stored energy to make it through our coming winter. Talk about a race against time.

 

It was a little over a week ago on a rainy Friday night at camp that I caught some movement in the grass and bent to catch a frog. It was a tree frog  but was nearly black in color and certainly ready to go to bed for the winter. I pretty much knew it was to be the last frog of the year. So how do animals that eat and thrive for just five months out of a year survive? I am always puzzled about all the life that surrounds us. Most unseen by the majority of us. Life is draining from us by the moment now. Birds are migrating, the insects have laid a batch of eggs that will bring new life next spring and have been killed off now by our hard frost. And the frogs, salamanders and turtles are drifting off for a seven month nap. How cool is that?