New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
The new pup has arrived!
Thursday 02/03/2005
Hold on to your hats, gloves, mittens and various articles of clothing at my house. A new German Shorthaired pup has taken up residence as of 2:00 PM on Ground Hog Day. She is 8 weeks old and as playful and inquisitive as any pup could be. Got her from Howie Lister of Tamworth the breeder of our other 10 year old short hair. He has been a wonderful pet, quick to learn and please so we wanted another from his bloodline while we could get one.
Other than the tornado that swept into here yesterday, the week has been pretty mild with mid day temperatures hitting the mid 30's and the snow slowly receding from the roof tops. What a week to be gone to Mexico as there was a near complete transformation of the landscape while I was gone.
Great Bay hardly had ice before I left. Yesterdays morning's travel put me along a small portion of it which revealed and ice covered mass of water.The snow is actually deeper again at the coast than here in Epsom. This was the third coastal storm that left far less snow inland. I must say this is opposite most years when the coast has a mix of rain or all rain leaving the bulk of the snow inland. I stopped to watch a flock of several hundred geese in a snow covered field in Durham yesterday. This is a frequent feeding site for them. I was surprised to see them feeding somehow in a corn field that was deep with snow.
I had to be in Deerfield in the early AM and then headed East on secondary roads paralleling route 4 to the south. Deer tracks were every where crossing the roads and skirting the fields. A couple of houses I drove by were obviously feeding deer as the houses looked to be the hub of a bicycle wheel with spokes of deer trails going out in all directions. The deer where crossing the road for a couple hundred yards either side of the house. A clear reason NOT to feed deer as they are forced to cross roads repeatedly where they normally would not be moving thus risking death in a collision.
Here in Epsom we have about 10 inches of snow. I forgot to stick my measurer in the ground before it froze so I could just glance out the window at the snow depth. The Suncook River is completely frozen and lays a stark contrast of white bracketed by the early morning shadow to the south and the pines along the northern banking. There was a lone trail down the center for several days. By it's nearly straight non-meandering line and robustness, my guess is, a coyote walked the river a few nigfhts ago. The last two nights have added a couple more lines. The strengthening February sun will be melting the southern exposures day by day. We have already added over an hour of daylight to each day since winter set in.
