New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
A brief trip back to summer with a slow roll into fall.
Thursday 09/07/2006
Today's temps were pushing 80 and more summer-like than the last three weeks or more. Nights continue to be pretty chill, usually falling into the 50's, with one morning reading in the mid 40's at my house.
Sunday night's rain brought a flurry of frog activity just in time for me to catch a few for a show and tell I had booked for two groups this week. There were fewer I noticed on my trip home a couple days later when it was raining. I wondered if the big move Sunday night was a move to their wintering spots.
Tuesday morning I spent nearly three hours lecturing and showing nearly thirty Community Tree Stewards things, from my hour-long power point presentation on the history and current status of wildlife in NH, to taking them out to ID 20 plus "wildlife signs" I had planted at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth. I duplicated the same thing this morning in Goffstown to another similar sized group. All these folks are so ready to learn about wildlife and give me plenty of feedback on some of their experiences. I always come away with a renewed sense of the direction conservation is headed in NH. Many of these folks are members of their towns Conservation Commissions or Planning Boards. It is these folks who have the best chance to leave a lasting legacy of land protection and conservation in their towns.
I have done a little bit more of mast (nut) surveys. There were good numbers of red oak acorns in WMU -M, but I saw few in the trees I scanned in J2 yesterday morning.
There is so much color around our wetlands this week. It just seems so early. Things sure are LOOKING fall-like, even if the temperature doesn't agree. I did notice some real active turtle nest predator action this last week. The poor turtle eggs that were laid in June are just about ready to hatch. Except the skunks have been digging them up by the dozens lately. I wonder if the developing eggs now have more protein or something. Why have the skunks waited until now to dig so many up. Another riddle to contemplate.
