New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
Deer, ducks and more ducks this week.
Wednesday 03/01/2006
I started off the week doing a site visit with Rockingham County land specialist Phil Auger and Bear-Paw Land Trust executive director Dan Kern on a prospective 276 acre track in the area. From the aerial photo I brought along I could see that tract had a significant amount of hemlock and was very likely a large deer wintering area. As we hiked along the northern edge we found lots of deer activity in the hemlocks and there was tons of old sign that this had been a majoring wintering area for years.
That was the good news, the bad news is this land may end up with 40 to 80 houses on it if some conservation dollars can not be found to protect it. More bad news, there is none available in this town, and really not very much at the state level since the legislators again failed to significantly fund the LCHIP program. This is just one of the several tracts of land in the Bear-Paw area covering 7 towns from Epsom east that have been offered as conservation area by the owners if they can at least recoup some of the lands value. The Bear-Paw folks have been inundated with opportunities to protect lands during the past year. I hiked one this summer with Phil where the land owners are agreeable to payment of only one third of the $900,000 value. Time and time again we have had opportunities to save significant blocks of very desirable wildlife habitat, and save the towns millions by not have houses built on the land, yet towns in this area are not taking advantage of the offers. We are being so shortsighted by not protecting these lands.
Yesterday I took local conservation officer Sergeant Dave Eskeland with me to check duck nesting boxes in remote areas of Bear Brook State park. I was able to drive my Fish and Game truck all the way in to Hall Mountain Marsh as well as a stop at Hayes Marsh. I sure appreciated his company in these remote areas.The ice has not been very good this year so I wanted to get my duck boxes done during the recent arctic blast that has provided the best ice of the winter. Most years I am alone doing all my duck boxes and invariably fall through the ice a couple times. It sure made sense to have a partner this winter way out in Bear Brook. I did manage to drop one leg part way through the ice at Hayes, but Dave stayed dry the whole day. Coyote, grouse, crow, fox, deer, moose, human and porcupine tracks were noted in various locations. And there was ample evidence of both wood duck and hooded merganser use in about half the boxes. We even took time for a quick lunch break in a sunny location out of the fierce frigid wind at Hayes. The tube steaks were delicious as we soaked in the sun and I dried my leg by the fire. We hit another marsh not far away by mid afternoon.
Early this morning I fired the rocket net over 185 mallards at our usual winter duck banding site in Dover. I'm usually delegated to fire the rockets. So, so many times waiting for just the right moment never happens and the ducks flush away in an instant. Usually this means gathering the duck crew another day. It is a rush to fire the rockets, I must say. It was 4 or 5 degrees again this morning and the ducks sure were hungry. In fact I can't remember a time that the ducks looked so relaxed moving on to the bait site. Yes, you have to be able to "read" the mood of the ducks from 100 yards away where I waited to fire the rockets. Spending your life watching and learning the ways of wildlife sure does pay off some days. You really do have to have your ducks in order some days.
And we did this morning. We got 185 mallards including 41 recaptures and 144 new legs to band. The most interesting thing was that two of the mallards had leg bands that were very worn. One had the numbers almost completely worn way. In the past we have captured a couple of mallards at this site with leg bands that were very worn but the numbers were still readable. They were the oldest ducks we had ever captured I think at least about 20 years old. Two of this mornings bands were worn much, much more. I'll bet if we can get the results from the bands, that these ducks are close to 30 years old! Likely some of the oldest mallards ever recorded. What a great week so far and two more great days to look forward to. I can't imagine not being a wildlife biologist. Life is good!!
On the way back to my office in Durham I stopped by a site to check for rabbit tracks. It has been in my mind to check a site for cottontail rabbit tracks. This mornings snow condition was great for checking. Sure enough in 10 minutes time I was looking at some cottontail rabbit tracks in the snow. Based on its location very close to where I picked up a rare New England cottontail rabbit road kill a couple years ago, it very likely is a rare rabbit. The New England cottontail rabbit is soon to be added to the federal list of threatened and endangered species. There may be a few hundred left in New England. It is always exciting to find a rare species. This just added to a very good day.
