New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Spring thaw??

Friday 03/07/2008

I know it is too soon to hope for spring this year. But I am anyway's. I was surprised to see how much the Suncook River has thawed this morning compared to yesterday morning. Yesterday there was one small spot way up river that was open. This morning there was a thirty foot wide by a couple hundred yards long open seam in the middle of the river close at hand. By this afternoon the river has opened near bank to bank in that same spot with a quarter mile of open water right up the middle of the river. The river always surprises me how quickly it can open up from the ice cover. And I'm sure the two to three inches of rain coming in for tonight and through tomorrow will sweep out the rest of the ice. Ice that took weeks to freeze to a solid cover can be melted and swept from sight in just a few hours.

I saw a half dozen deer out mid day on the north side of Rt 393 in Concord today. The steep slope is frequented by the local deer and even a few hours of sun seems to melt the steep south facing slope free of snow which the deer quickly find. Elsewhere I watched a couple deer still walking on top of a good three feet of snow in a wooded piece. So the crust is holding up so far for them. Not so for me yesterday afternoon in my backyard where I gave it a test. I only hope the deluge of rain predicted quickly settles and melts the snow to keep the coyotes from gaining advantage to the deer the next couple of weeks.

I already have had a report of a red winged blackbird in the Concord area. No spring birds here, not so much as a spring call from the local chickadees or titmice. Though I did slow to a crawl last night in my truck as a skunk waddled down the middle of the road not far from my house. It seemed pretty reluctant to head up over the high snow banking. I couldn't blame it and shared the road as long as I could.

Spring is at hand for sure, although a look at the piles of snow and ice covered country side sure looks like we have a long, long way to go.