New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Frogs galore and more this week.

Monday 04/10/2006

New Hampshire is racing into spring at a faster clip by the day. Wood frogs and peepers are singing away in all the local pools. I heard my first song sparrow at my house this afternoon. The local fields have greened up within the last week and have been peppered with deer grazing on the succulent greenery.

Last Wednesday I headed up to the Eagle Mountain House in Jackson with fellow outdoor writer Bill Carney for a two day workshop on how to spread the word about the new state Wildlife Action Plans and the need to conserve vanishing habitat for even now common species. We had a very rewarding drive up taking I-93 to Holderness then north on Rt 113 through Sandwich and up through Tamworth to Rt 16. We saw ring necked ducks, mallards, black ducks Canada geese; stopped briefly and heard a grouse drumming just north of Squam Lake; saw turkeys twice and had to stop for a hen pheasant in the road at the junction of 113 and Rt 25. The ground was covered by snow in Jackson on arrival, but that had melted by Friday afternoon.

The workshop was co sponsored by the Open Space Institute and the National Wildlife Federation. The workshop was geared to working with New England Outdoor Writers. Since I am a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, many of the guests were friends of mine. And toss in a northern NH icon, John Harrigan, who was the guest speaker on arrival night.

There was plenty of give and take over the two days. Great food, great conversation and a pledge by all of us to help educate and bring people together to focus on the long-tern need to protect sufficient habitat in the northeast, including New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The return trip Friday afternoon was less fruitful.

Two days of real warm days has really got the peepers going locally. We have had three movements of spotted salamanders locally. The first was two Saturdays ago April first. Actually that night the rain ended before dark with only a few moving. Even though I left my bedroom window wide open thinking that any rain would wake me so I could get up and do a survey. I missed it. That night, April 1st we must have had a drizzle or something overnight, at least enough to get the salamanders going again. Sunday morning a neighbor, who walks each morning, called me to report 7 dead salamanders in the half mile between her house and mine. There was only one when I went to bed. So I missed a shower and the major run of salamanders. A few have moved in the last two after dark rain events that I have been home to check. Monday April 3rd, although I didn't get home from the hearing in Lancaster until midnight, but 5 were counted. Last Saturday night I had a count of 7 on my 3 mile route. Plenty of peepers moving and scores dead as well as my first toad and a pickerel frog.

So pretty much any rain now after dark will cause major movements of frogs and toads and will likely be the night that the yellow spotted salamanders will be moving..... back into the forests.