New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Opening day turkey season check and another "ducky" day.

Wednesday 05/04/2005

I did my annual opening day of NH's turkey season check yesterday. For years I spend much of the day stopping at several of the turkey registration stations in Region 3. I like to know how the season opener unfolds each year. It really gives me a chance to talk one-on-one with a number of turkey hunters. From the distribution of turkeys in the region to hunter conflicts are spouted freely from the excited hunters who are registering their game. Plus I usually take a few picture. By mid morning Steve Courchesne, at Steve's Sportsmen's Den in Hooksett, had a commanding lead in my Region on turkeys checked. He noted that there was a line of hunters waiting for him to register their birds by the time he got back from a quick turkey hunt himself at 7:30 am. He had registered nearly 30 turkeys by the time I left around 10:30 am. I stopped in Manchester and Greenland to speak to hunters there as well.

I finished the day late last evening running my first of three sunset woodcock survey routes. Actually the listening period begins 22 minutes after sunset which put me in Strafford along route 126 at 8:12 to begin the route. We are required to stop every 4 tenths of a mile and listen for exactly two minutes for woodcock peenting. Although I did have several along this route last year, traffic and rain swollen roaring brooks drowned out any last night. I had a later stop to pick up some material for the Friends of the Suncook River in Barnstead which put me home after 10:00 PM.

Today I did my last waterfowl nesting plot survey. This took me back to Strafford. And what a survey it was! I think I saw more waterfowl, especially birds indicating a breeding pair, than I ever have before. Here's what I saw in my nearly three hours of studying the four active beaver ponds that serendipitously fall within the one kilometer square plot:

1- black duck pair
1- single black duck indicating a pair
3-single drake wood ducks indicating three pairs
2 male wood ducks together indicating one pair
1 female wood duck flushed ( single females are not counted as a nesting pair)
1 pair of wood ducks flew by, (not counted as they didn't take off or land in the plot)
1-mallard pair
1 single mallard drake indicating a pair
1 female mallard that appeared to be setting on a nest
2 female hooded merganser
1 drake hooded merganser indicating a pair
1 Canada goose indicating a pair
1 female ring necked duck with three males indicating a pair
1 great blue heron building a nest where none have been before
3 otters fed on the larger pond for half an hour right in front of me catching bullheads
40 plus painted turtles sunning themselves
1 wicked good deer crossing while I was checking wetlands on the southern end of the plot
1 set of fresh moose tracks there too (but no ducks in the water-filled bogs)
1 hollow-tree porcupine den
numerous black flies... they were out for the first time in numbers today

All in all a wicked good day!