New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Well we are in to what I call the season of ducks. The last week of March and the first of April we usually see the bulk of the duck migration. Despite the seemingly endless lock of winter on to us there are some signs of spring and certainly the wood ducks I saw this week was one of them. Typically right now nearly every small opening in the ice will be visited by ducks passing through. And we actually have more and different ducks and types of ducks migrating through in the spring than fall. For instance we hardly ever see ring-necked ducks in the fall but flocks of them pass through each spring.

This week as I head to Concord most mornings for my hour long swim I was seeing flocks of robins milling about. So there are signs of spring despite what will set us back later today and tonight.

In fact within the last couple of minutes at 10:40 it has started to snow here in Epsom. They are predicting close to another foot of snow here overnight into tomorrow. And it has been just the last couple of days that the snow has mostly melted in the farm fields around here. But as usual when I headed south to Manchester yesterday by the time I got to Hooksett the ground was pretty much completely bare. Oh what a difference that ten miles or south means this time of yea

I had some business south so I took a loop down along the Merrimack River in Litchfield then on over to Scobie Pond in Londonderry to check ice conditions. For the last decade or more I open my bass fishing season with a trip to Scobie Pond. A pond I have fished most of my life. Not so spring looking yesterday with plenty of white ice yet to darken up on most of the pond. But the sun is climbing ever higher by the day into the sky and will push back pretty hard against old man winter now. I did notice the Merrimack River in Hooksett was more bluish then winter gray with that higher sun angle. Another sure sign of spring.

I kown it has been a while since I posted a Nature Notes, I did spend a month in Florida with my wife mid February to mid March and I just wanted to let my mind go into neutral for a while. I did see a fast slithering snake, two river otters, some alligators and a gopher tortoise. I was surprised by the lack of road killed anything despite the thick traffic. Not a single dead deer in Florida. Most large dead birds that looked mostly like hawks and owls. 

I was welcome back here by my huge flock of blue jays still at my feeder. I tipped a barrel of corn on its side to feed them while I was gone. By my count 24 one day. My ruffed grouse is back, in fact I just saw him a few minutes ago, and a nice cock pheasant visited my feeder a few days ago. So life abounds around here despite this last gasp of winter to hold spring at bay. Watch out. For like a shaken bottle of champagne the cork is bound to pop out any time soon and spring will pour out all over the land in the blink of an eye.