New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
No snow in sight for NH
Friday 12/11/2015
We've had a remarkably warm fall so far. Sure we've had a few days of skim ice on the local beaver ponds, but days later it has all melted. Up until the last day of the month November was the second warmest on record, but the chilly 30th dropped that record to number five warmest. So far nine of the first ten days of December have been well above average.
These temperatures are very bad for our moose as they have their winter coats and temperatures higher then the twenties puts them in heat stress. Not to mention the lack of snow statewide that is surely giving the baby winter ticks more and more days to get on our moose.
This doesn't bode well for them this winter. Fish and Game moose biologist Kris Rines says we need snow up north in April when the engorged females fall off the moose so that they land on snow. When that happens only 50% of her eggs successfully hatch. If there is bare ground then 90% of the eggs hatch.
Now come November when the baby ticks are seeking to get on the moose for the winter it is snow again that keeps them at bay. Each day without snow on the ground is just another day for these baby ticks to climb on board our moose. So this snowless fall really will precipitate a winter tragedy for our moose.
Back here in Epsom, yes there is no ice, but it looks more like early fall when I gaze at the local fields. For they are lush green. While all the leaves are gone and the woods are turning the gray of winter everything else looks months behind.
The gray squirrels as of late have been eating the remaining crab apples from my trees. In fact I am watching one dash about the trees this very minute and somehow hang down to pluck some of the remaining fruits. I was thinking they would last well into winter with the abundance that was on the trees, but they are going fast with birds and squirrels both cleaning them up. Elsewhere I'm seeing and abundance of crab apples on urban trees, like at Wal Mart. I'm thinking this will be another winter full of robins with so much food remaining on the trees. No need to go south when you have lots of local food. The planting of these ornamental crab apple trees over the last couple of decades I think has impacted bird migration.
I'm seeing turkeys most days. The ducks seem to have gone as well as the geese or maybe by now have retreated to the urban environment where they spend the winters. Through the month of October we were looking at the warmest year on record for the country. Looks like a new record is almost certain.
