|
Wednesday 03/23/05 Deer yards, duck boxes and dicey
ice to boot.
I'm finally getting to the last of the duck boxes I
check annually. A lack of ice early winter, then deep
snow by the time we had good ice has me running a bit
behind this year. Over the last two days I have made my
deepest runs into the wilderness of Region 3 to wrap up
the duck box work.
Yesterday morning I hit a local pond to quickly take
care of it. The ice seemed great and the walking without
snowshoe on the pond made quick work of the boxes there.
Still this year's ice has been weird. Right in the
middle of this 15 acre pond I noticed a dark spot. As I
skirted it I could see a 5 foot hole right in the middle
of the pond. Good thing I am not out here at night.
Plenty of ice on the rest of the pond, just not in that
one spot.
By late morning I headed well into Bear Brook State Park
on my 3-wheeled ATV. No problem getting to my first stop
where only a couple of boxes were posted on metal posts.
I drove the ATV right out on to the ice. First box no
problem, but as I stopped at the second box the front
tire dropped right through the ice. Good thing I stopped
where I did.
By the time I got down to Hall Mountain Marsh the sun
had warmed the day nicely. And the top 5 or 6 inches of
ice had turned to slush on much of the marsh. Numerous
open holes and "dark ice" kept my heart in my throat the
rest of the time out there. Still this is one of my
favorite places to get to in the winter. The 10,000 acre
Park has a few places that humanity is absent; No dogs
barking or traffic sounds. Hall Mountain Marsh is one of
my few escapes from the civilized world in this part of
New Hampshire.
Today I hit the Fish and Game Departments Corey Wildlife
Management Area in Deerfield. Another "remote" spot here
in Downeast New Hampshire. I was able to drive my truck
part way into this site on an active logging road. But
it took me two hours of snowshoeing to check dozen duck
boxes on the lower and upper beaver ponds. I measured 17
to 20 inches of snow in the hardwoods. It was slow
going, it seemed like most of it was up hill, plus the
slight crust gave way at each step slowing my pace.
Checking duck boxes is always an interesting task. Today
one box held a dead hen hooded merganser and her clutch
of eggs. She was missing her head. My guess is a mink or
a weasel did her in last May. They typically take off
the heads first. Some boxes clearly show "successful"
hatchlings. Ducklings have an egg tooth that they use to
open the large end of the egg at hatching. The membrane
under the shell is often the only part left whole mixed
in with the down, egg shell fragments and pine shavings
that we replace each winter. The little membrane is
called an "egg cap". Count them and you can tell how
many ducklings were hatched from the box. Yesterday at
Hall Mountain I had a dozen eggs that were just hatching
when the mother abandoned them for some reason. Lots of
eggs were partially hatched and a couple of desiccated
ducklings lay in the bottom of the box.
I arrived at the upper pond about noon. I often bring a
couple of hot dogs to roast over a fire for lunch here.
By my watch I had a fire going and perfectly cooked a
hot dog in under 6 minutes! After a brief lunch break I
headed up again into one of the larger deer yards in the
area. Another near hour of climbing up towards
Nottingham Mountain. As I expected only recent deer
activity in the yard. Not much hemlock barking this
winter. In fact even with the relatively deep snow the
deer were just traversing the yard. Hardly any deer
trails. The snow came late this winter and the deer
seemed to prefer the steep south facing slopes, with
late February and March sun, to the shaded but usually
warmer thick hemlock stands.
I set my GPS unit to GOTO my truck and took the short
way out arriving at my truck after 5 hours on the shoes.
My cloths were wringing wet with sweat by the time I got
out. I was beat! I haven't spent that much time on
snowshoes in a while. Still lots to see the last couple
of days. Winter has not released his grip on the woods
in this part of the state. It is a rare year to have
much snow left around here on April Fools Day. But this
year is sure to be an exception. Boy, am I sore and
tired tonight!
Dead Hooded Merg in Box Fire
by ice corey wma
Hot Dog - Deer Yard Check Day Successful Hatching Box
|
