May 20, 2018 - An Arachnid Convention

The weathermen have really struggled the past two weeks - they keep forecasting rain, but it never happened.  The incredible stretch of warm sunny weather ended yesterday, but it was much appreciated by the trees which blasted out their leaves in just one week, and though good size, the leaves haven't turned dark green yet.

This provides a unique window into seeing what kind of trees make up the forests of New Hampshire as the dark green of the coniferous trees - pine, hemlock, spruce - stand out from the light green of new leaves on the deciduous trees.  A stark strip of light green leading up from the lake caught my eye again this week.

I asked why there is such a uniform stand of deciduous trees with white pines lining both sides.  The answer came quickly:  there is a ravine here with wetlands at the bottom.  White pine thrives in dry sandy soil, but not in the soggy soil of a wetland.  The natural community known as a Red Maple - Black Ash Swamp [Ref:  Sperduto & Kimball, "The Nature of New Hampshire", University of New Hampshire Press, 2011] is the domain of red maples which thrive in the rich, wet soil, and crowd out most other trees, save for a rare Black Gum.

A wide range of birds use this community for food and cover and on any morning a dozen different birds can be heard, though most are hidden away in the dense forest.  One pretty Chestnut-sided warbler did present itself to me.

Chestnut-sided warbler (Dendroica pensylvanica)

The squirrels and chipmunks which live on the edges of these wetlands are not so shy, especially when you're standing just beyond the entrance to a chipmunk's new home that it's still in the process of furnishing.

The squirrels just seem annoyed that you are in their territory.

We can optimistically hope that the dry weather will mean a shorter black fly, mosquito and tick season.  Have you ever wondered why you can come back from a walk with three or four ticks on you?  Maybe you happened upon lunch break at a parasite conference.

Female wood ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) hanging out at the food court, waiting for lunch to arrive

But we allergy lovers sure appreciated the little rain we did get on Saturday to knock down the pollen levels a bit.  Those trees, loving the hot dry weather after those April showers, can dump out a lot of pollen from all those branches.

Oak trees are producing a lot of pollen at the moment

I'm hoping the weathermen - which are forecasting another dry week - are wrong again, and we'll get a little much-needed rain.