New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
Slooowly we head into spring.
Friday 04/03/2015
Despite the height of the sun in the sky winter is holding grasp to the woods and fields nearby. I'd say less than half of the snow is gone from the open farm fields nearby. And the woods are still coated with a foot or more of snow. Rare is the year that my lawn is not bare by the second week of April. This one looks like a record late spring.
I have seen turkeys moving about this week and deer grazing on a patch of bare ground a bit ago. I think most wildlife can at least move about again at least here in central NH as well as south of here. Still the ducks have not swept through in numbers like I usually see. I did see a number of ducks in the Little Suncook River in my travels east of route 4 yesterday. And I spotted a great blue heron out there in the marshy waters as well.
Work took me to Portsmouth yesterday afternoon. So as usual I took a southern track along A1A from Rye to North Hampton to gaze out at the sea and watch the salt marshes come to life. At least this week they were bare of ice with lots of black ducks and a few geese bunched up. I also saw more herons and egrets in spots. Still the roadside snow bankings persist. Even Eel Pond in Rye has yet to open hardly at all. Now this is real late for that one to open up. I did have a flock of a couple hundred geese fly over me as I skirted the south side of Great Bay. Even there you'd think that by now they would be headed further north. They are in a race against time to get north, lay a clutch of a dozen eggs, and incubate them a month before summer arrives. I think everything will be in a race against time to make up for the late spring. I'm thinking vernal pools will be overflowing with water this year so at least the frogs and salamanders will have plenty of time to hatch out and sprout legs before the pools dry.
Forecast for the next week, after a spurt of warm air today, will turn cold and be cloudy and rainy with below normal temps.That sure is going to hold spring up another week. Did I mention I'm ready for spring? Yes I am. Oh for that first feeling of a warm spring breeze against my cheek. Kind of like a grandmother's kiss.
