New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
Heading headlong into summer it seems.
Tuesday 04/18/2006
Spring is speeding by at the fastest pace I can ever remember. Monday, while at the office, I took two calls regarding fox families. One was a call from Exeter about a vixen and 6 kits, and less than an hour later it was a mom and 5 babies in Dover in a woodchuck den up against a fence at a day care center. Mid April is just too early for this year's young foxes to be out of the den.
What is going on here? Melting of glaciers and the polar caps is one thing, but young foxes ready to move outside the den by mid April is another. These calls are at least two weeks ahead of schedule. And so it seems as are some of the leaves now popping from the trees. Around here leaf-out is usually the first week or ten days of May. Last year the cold spring delayed them until late May into early June. Maybe this is a one-time event, and an early spring sure seems nice compared to my memory of last year. But still, it is very weird. An endless, but wet fall, a wimp winter and now a quick spring turning more summer like by the day just seems to be a pattern. Has the weather pattern actually shifted? No doubt it is just a fluke this year. But despite my sense that it feels nice to have an early spring, it sure does get my mind thinking about this global warming thing. It is the series of things and not just any one that has me wondering just a little bit.
But back in my back yard, well it is full of life. Robins sing gloriously by day and spring peepers by night. Life just abounds with song right now. It is time to soak it all in like a warm spring shower. Which is still missing during the night. There has got to be a whole lot of anxious spotted salamanders out there waiting for that night shower so they can move back into the forests from the edges of the vernal pools where they have been waiting over a week to make their egress. Do salamanders worry? I worry about their next move back into the forest when it rains after dark. Please don't drive after dark if it is raining if you can help it. Get that gallon of milk on the way home from work if rain is predicted after dark.
