New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Winter-Spring-Winter-Spring

Thursday 12/29/2005

What a roller coaster ride the last few weeks have been. Two weeks ago I woke to a minus 13 on my digital thermometer and ice quickly claiming any open water. Two warm spells this past week with a good dose of rain mixed in has the Suncook River back into a low flood stage with plenty of open water mid river at least.

This mornings trip to my office at the Region 3 Fish and Game office in Durham provided a complete transition from winter to a more spring-like setting. The hay field across from the office was free of snow and pretty green, except for the 244 geese I counted. Not far away in another green field next to a cut corn field my count was another 700 geese. As I glassed the closest ones, several hundred, I could not see a single leg band on any of them! Gee it looks like I have plenty of work left to do to get to know these birds.

We are hoping to conduct the annual mid winter coastal waterfowl survey next Tuesday, or the next day of suitable weather in 2006. It is always exciting to fly low over Great Bay and the rivers to count all the ducks and geese. It was looking like it would be a quick search with all the ice forming last week, but the ice has gone south it seems. Last year there was very little ice nearly doubling our flying time.

I'm glad in a way for the rain as it has made walking into the woods easy again with only two to four inches of snow remaining here in Epsom, if that by tonight's steady rain. It does my heart good to see bare hillsides and open patches. We had four or five inches of a very had icy crust that made it tough for the wildlife to feed for a couple of weeks it seems. This is a good break for them. I try to get out on the ice before too much snow falls to get at my duck box work. I like to be able to see and read the ice as I walk. Ice under snow is way more treacherous even if we have had more cold temperatures. Channels and springs make lots of traps in the ice even on a very cold winter. Ice without snow is the way to go even if it is pretty thin.