New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

The tree frogs own the night, and first fire flies.

Wednesday 05/31/2006

Since last Saturday the gray tree frogs have been migrating my way through the trees. It is an annual event to hear them calling across the road some distance away one night, then, closer yet the next night, then around my house and finally serious calling as they breed in the wetland down in back of my house. In a couple of weeks they will retreat in much the same manner. These are the only frogs that I can regularly catch as they migrate in numbers to the wetland. Yet, I don't think I have ever seen a tree frog actually in the water. Every now and then I will catch one resting during the day on my house or other structure. I don't remember ever seeing one in the woods. In fact if you take one and place it one the side of a tree it will disappear right before your eyes as they camouflage so quickly.Though they are very common, based on the numbers I hear calling here and practically every where else I have been in a wooded area the last week or more, but they are indeed one of the ghosts of the forest. In fact it was last night that the tree frogs out chorused the spring peepers, literally drowning out their calls.

I have not heard numbers of American toads here since just before the Great Mother's Day Flood. They were calling in earnest just before the high water. I'm sure their eggs were washed away in the flood as well as the peepers, that had called a few weeks before. But the peepers are clearly back, laying more eggs to restore the flood losses. But not the toads, yet. I'm beginning to wonder if they don't re-spawn if any of the toddler toads will emerge this summer. A summer without tiny toads? We'll see. My guess is I'm worrying for naught. A bull frog called sporadically this evening as well. Life in the meadow is returning to normal it seems.

Monday night was the start of the fire fly season here. Only one from my several hour observations as I sat on my deck well into the evening. But by Tuesday night, there were several and even more this evening.

I dropped my truck off first thing this morning at a nearby garage for the annual inspection. I noticed a Luna moth dead on the stoop of the door and picked the remains up to chide the garage owner that he had killed a rare moth. He hardly gave me a glance saying " Them are around here all the time and my chickens love them." I can count on my fingers, probably on one hand, the number of Luna moths I have seen up close in my 56 years of life as of today. So I was pretty skeptical of his claim. When I arrived back at closing his son pointed out another one I had walked right by this morning when I entered the garage. Seeing was believing in this case.

The Suncook River has nearly dropped back down to its normal May/June flow, but the color has only improved slightly. I was in a meeting yesterday with state and federal folks about the river and what are the logical next steps to evaluate this historic event. The US Fish and Wildlife biologist gave an up date of over 1,100 state threatened Brook Floater mussels that have been collected and are in safe keeping at the Nashua federal hatchery. That nearly doubles the first week's attempt at recovering this rare critter. No doubt many others have simply dug deep into the sandy areas and out of sight as the water levels dropped. There will be plenty to discover and learn as the river changes over the next weeks and months. I plan to be a part of that monitoring.

A "summer bird" showed up unexpectedly over the holiday. Where did spring go? Suddenly it is summer. That's what the House Wren was telling me when he showed up a couple days ago. Although spring started way early this year, we lost nearly two weeks of it to the flood times. I suppose the bob-o-links will be announcing their summer presence as well. And the woods are full of lady slippers right now. Summer is officially three weeks away. But the wren has a different opinion. Now, so do I.