New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

05/31/50 vs. 05/31/05: 55 years and counting, plus frogs on the move, and where's the chipmunks this year?

Tuesday 05/31/2005

I mistakenly typed 50 instead of 05 right off this time. I so often must give my birth date that 05/31/50 kind of just slipped out. So today I celebrated my 55th birthday by at least a trip to Maine. Most of the last 30 plus of my 55 years I have been up to Maine to open our camp on my birthday. So this morning I just HAD to get to Maine, the state of my birth. I did manage a trip to the Kittery Trading Post. My excuse to my wife, who also took the day off, was to search for a particular lure. But even at KTP, I didn't find it. A Top Gun floating plug was what I was after. I did purchase my non-resident Maine combination fishing/hunting license thanks to the nice $100 bill my son Adam had given me for my birthday, plus just a little from my pocket. So now I am REALLY ready to head to camp. There are not many things better than to be an owner of a camp on a secluded lake shore in Maine. Especially a lake that has been part of my life for all 55 years.

Back here in Epsom the frogs have been more active. Well actually it is the American toads who have finally hit their stride at calling since Saturday night. They were very sporadic before that. And the spring peepers just seem to keep on peeping in one of the longest spring calling events I can remember. I have noticed a few have begun to gradually move away from the water. In my walks along the wetlands I can now hear some back a few yards away from the waters edge. I bet the high temperatures of 80 degrees predicted for Friday through Sunday will really move them back into the woods. Two nights ago I heard more than one tree frog in the trees across the road from my house. They are now migrating towards the wetlands down back. Each year I can hear the wave of tree frogs sweep past my house on the way to the water. And some years a distinctive wave can be heard on their exodus. Green frogs have yet to tune up down back.

Where are the chipmunks this spring? It has struck me the last few days that I am just not hearing, let alone seeing, any chipmunks at my house. Plus in my travels along the back roads the last few weeks I have not had to dodge the little road runners. Seems like the roads were filled with them, live and dead, the last two summers.

I also noticed along Route 4 today that a significant number of trees don't have their leaves on yet. Full leaf out is at least two weeks behind. I bet the tree rings this summer will be very narrow. It is going to take a very long stretch of sunny days to gain back the lost sun. After all, we are in the period of nearly the longest daylight period of the year. 20 days from the sun heading south. Its pretty hard to make up for lost sunlight on plants when the days are growing shorter each day. Its going to be a cool water summer as well. Lots of cold water flowing into the lakes with no sun to warm it.

In another spring ritual I have been down to my moms to rototill her garden for planting. That too is a couple of weeks or more behind schedule. She normally likes to get some peas and potatos in the ground by early May. Not this year. The cold soaking ground would just have rotted the seeds she figured. Adam and I headed down the last couple of evenings to get most of the tilling done and furrows drawn for her to plant in. Other than preparing the site she does the planting and care the rest of the year. At age 82 she still grows enough potatos for all her needs and plenty of other vegetables to share over the summer. Pickles, dilly beans and canned tomatoes are stocked in rows in her basement each fall. She stays active and independent and is role model for us that follow.