New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Our snow is gone and bird calls are filling the air.

Monday 03/15/2010

Wow are we ever moving into spring at an ever quickening pace. Red winged black birds showed up at my place this week. Most all of the ice is gone from the local small ponds and the snow has all but disappeared this past week save for a few spots from plowed piles.

Life is filling the air all around. I try to get outside on my deck each morning and even grab a listen now and then through the day with my parabolic listening device. Though the distant view looks bleak with browns dominating my view from the deck and a lifeless looking horizon dominates my view. Life to the ears is abundant though still hidden from my eyes.This device literally sucks the sound from the air from close to a half mile away. Birds sounds pour into my ears through the headphone connected to the bowl shaped device. Not only can I hear the chitter-shatter of the chickadees bouncing from limb to limb on the shrubs along the back edge of my lawn, but the distant cackle of blackbirds, far beyond my view, can be sensed as well. Then there is the murmurs of the ducks down back in the meadow now mostly free of ice. Sounds are in every direction. Soon it will be the quacking of the wood frogs in the bog pond far on the other side of the corn fields that will dribble into my ears and then the spring peepers will soon follow.

We are on the very cusp of the most life filled time of NH. Thousands of ducks and geese will be passing through within a few days. Blackbirds in the tens of thousands will be on the move. And life in the form of frogs will literally be springing from the forests floors and will be migrating to the wetlands. Spotted salamanders are just days away. Even the red maple buds have swollen with desire to soak up the ever warming sun.

This IS the most thrilling time to be alive in NH. Wonderful life abounds by sound, smell and touch.