New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Swamp maples in full fall display.

Thursday 09/14/2006

Well, NH Nature Notes is back after a brief hiccup. My web master was unexpectedly in the hospital for a bit. But he's back and so am I. He had me worried.

Time just seems to be slipping by so quickly lately. The shorter days are jamming things up already. And it is not just me that seems to be getting frantic to get things done sooner than later. Flocking ducks and geese are whirling about the evening skies. Lots of flocking birds about from robins to blackbirds. Everything seems to be in a rush.

So I took a couple days to slow my pace down. My camp in Maine was in need of some emergency repairs before winter. My son stopped by for a day a couple weeks ago and discovered some broken windows. So I strolled up Wednesday evening, arriving after dark.

Camp is a place devoid of most human sounds much of the time. Across the mile wide lake a highway casts an occasional vehicle sound my way when the wind is from that direction. Unlike the highway near my home that is now sounding off twenty four hours a day with distant vehicle sounds. So I mostly listened to my thoughts. Through the night a couple of small flocks of geese over-nighting on the lake murmured a barely audible cackle. But that was it. Loon and bull frog calls have ceased. In my last stroll to the shore in the totally dark starless night I could cupped my ears to hear the chirping of a line of crickets along the shore.

A brief early morning rain shower Thursday woke me with the pitter-patter on the roof. By mid morning I had gone out for breakfast AND repaired the window. So I fished, and fished, and fished the day away. The sun came out just as I got on the lake giving me a nice warm day with a strong south breeze to keep a chop on the water. Camp alone is such a special place. And how the fish were biting. Nice largemouth bass and huge pickerel, one I measured at 24 and a half inches long. I usually am targeting pickerel while at camp. It was at this lake that I caught the biggest one I have ever caught when I was four years old. That fish was nearly as long as I was tall. I fished til dark.

I made breakfast in Friday morning and shared it with a local trapper who was checking a local beaver problem site for another land owner nearby. Trappers are such interesting people. They are keen naturalists. I found that he has been involved volunteering for years to help restore the alewives to the lake. I remember this fellow from nearly 50 years ago when he was a baby. My father and his were best friends while growing up in town. But he has lived here all his life, and trapped most of it, and freely offered me insight into what his experiences have shown him. So a couple hours drifted by before I got out on the lake. It was that kind of a trip. A watch less trip for me. Time just didn't matter.

The fish were not quite as cooperative as the day before, but I caught plenty including another huge pickerel at 22 and a half inches long. The days was overcast all day with heavy dark gray clouds billowing overhead. Yet it remained sunny all day. Kind of a weird day, cloudy but enough holes in the billowing clouds to shine on me all day long. And the colors of the shoreline were spectacular. The swamp maples were in full color in multiple shades of crimson red. Whole shore lines stood as red sentinels sandwiched between the lush green grasses along the shore and the darker green oaks beyond. It just took my breath away at times. I fell in love with life all over again.