New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Wow. What a difference a week can make. Sure there were a few trees with some splash of color a week ago but now the whole landscape is painted in brilliant colors. I'm hoping the stress of our drought doesn't cause our trees to shed their leave quickly. It seemed like a few local maples turned color a couple of weeks ago and within just a very few days shed their leaves. I want this glorious fall to last and last and last.

Flocks of birds continue to whirl about. We've had flocks of geese milling about for a couple of weeks now since the local dairy farmer shopped his corn. I finally bought my state and federal duck stamps this week thinking I'd get out duck hunting. I went out to local wetland the other night to see what was happening for ducks. Well more than half of this sizable wetland was bone dry. I mean walk across it in sneakers without getting your feet wet dry. Well after shooting hours about four woodies came swooping down over what water remained. It sure looks like ducks are going to be pretty scarce locally. And a bat flew by. Seems like this is pretty late to have bats out still.

I sure was hoping for some dribble from Hurricane Matthew, but no luck there either. I've never seen our wetlands this dry. Our local native Brook trout streams are still bone dry as well. We need water in our wetlands going into winter for all the wildlife from beaver to frogs and turtles to have a safe place to go for the winter.

But not only are there numbers of geese about but turkeys are everywhere it seems. And I'm seeing deer about in open fields mid day. Not something you'd expect this time of year. It just seems as though game to hunt is more abundant this year than I ever can remember. Even my local crazy grouse was back the other day to pester my dog.

Despite the beautiful fall colors today is feeling more like summer with temperatures into the 70's. A good ten degrees above average for this month. And it looks like more of the same next week. I sure hope it cools down a bit before the opening of the moose season next weekend.