New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Ooo, la, la what colors. And ADD ducks

Friday 10/17/2008

I can't remember a fall more bright and full with colors than this year. My mother keeps saying the same thing asking "Do you remember a year ever more beautiful than this one?"

And we have had wonderful colors way longer than normal. For instance when our family left on a flight out of Manchester to Orlando on September 12 I could see lots of colors of the "swamp" red maples as we flew out of Manchester. Same goes for my flights to and back from DC on the first week of October. We just have had no significant wind or rain storms, let alone a wind driven rain to knock the leaves off the trees. And now not only are all the maples colored but so are the oaks. Most years the maple leaves are long gone before the oaks color up.

In fact this week I took my mom for a leaf peeper tour up to Laconia and along the south side of Winnpieasukee. I drove up route 107 from Pittsfield. All the distant hills and mountains were completely colored in bright oranges and yellows as well as reds. Oh what glorious colors. And with no big storms in sight it looks like the colors are here for a while longer. Certainly some of the maples along the wetlands have shed their leaves but the high and dry maples are still pretty much full of colored leaves. But the next rain or wind storm will transform us overnight into a winter's look. While this fall has been glorious for sure, we are just days from what will seem like winter, especially when we slide the clocks back in a couple weeks.

This time of year we have ADD ducks. Ducks are on the move skittish, maybe the hunting season has a bit to do with it, but for the most part ducks are not sitting around much this time of year. No lollygagging geese
either. Ducks and most other critters are doing some serious eating. With the abundance of nuts this fall no doubt the deer and bears will be putting on a nice fat layer for this winter. One of the best in several years. Oh what a fall it is!