New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
Spring in full swing.
Friday 05/24/2019
At last we are in full spring mode here in Epsom. My lilacs are all abloom as well as my plum and apple trees and even our columbines have started to blossom. A turn of the head while outside brings another bird into view and a cock of the head does the same for a sound of a bird's song or call. So the air is full of sights, sounds and smells like no other time of year. The pulse of Nature in New Hampshire is throbbing right now. Best to pay attention to the outdoors right now.
The turkeys continue to frequent the neighborhood. If not in my yard than a trip out will find a turkey or two in a yard up or down the road from my house. So any day now the newly hatched turkey polts should be following mom. We are in the peak time of year for our whitetail deer does to be fawning. In fact right now there are more living things in New Hampshire than at any other time of the year.
So lets add these lives up:
Our deer population is some 120,000 with 70 or 80 percent of them females (does) who are right now giving birth to at least one fawn and for those two years old or more likely twins. So right these we have around 70,000 more deer.
Most of our million female frogs have laid a hundred eggs or more that are just now hatching. Same goes for the toads that will start laying eggs around here later this week.
Hundreds of thousands of birds have or are nesting right now with clutches of eggs from four or five for our smaller song birds to a dozen eggs for our turkeys, ducks and grouse. That has added or will add in the next couple of weeks another million or more mouths to feed.
Foxes, coyotes and all our other mammals have given birth already too. Basically from mice to moose everyone of the females has given birth within the last month or two.
Nearly all of our freshwater fish have spawned or will within a week or two. So some millions there. Plus the river herring which live much of their life at sea have traveled up our freshwater rivers to spawn the last few weeks. Literally a couple hundred thousand of them. And each female herring may spew 200,000 eggs each. Ya right. Now we are really talking the million numbers game. A couple decades ago I helped the fisher staff transfer a couple thousand herring from the Cocheco River to
Northwood Lake. Based on the number of eggs produced we estimated that likely 14,000,000, yes million, juvenile herring were ready to return down stream during the early fall migration.
So we have likely well over a million or two new mammals, birds, reptile, and amphibians, and tens of millions of baby fish.
Yes New Hampshire is overflowing with life right now.
Locally Stewart and Billy Yeaton, one of our dairy farmers has just planted his silage corn this week. I'm thinking about ten days later than most years. It has taken a while to dry things out and maybe start warming the soil so a seed will sprout. The leaves are finally out on most of our trees here except for the red and white oaks across the road from my house. It looks like the hay in the field across from my house is about ready to be cut or chopped. I'm sure I'll hear the whirring of that machine in a week or so.
Make sure to take the time to get outside and enjoy all the state has to offer right now. Things are happening at a rapid pace so don't miss it.
