With summer upon us, lots of critters are out and about in the Granite State. It’s the perfect season to catch a glimpse of animals in the wild.
So, June’s Big Question is: What has been your favorite New Hampshire animal encounter?
Here’s what some of you said:
Arnie - Canterbury, NH: I recently had a great encounter with two Cecropia moths that were mating inside our spirea bush.
Two years ago, I spotted this amazing bright green caterpillar that was 4 or 5 inches long, with these really cool feet that were grasped around the stems of the bush and had these little black and red bumps on their back. This is the coolest caterpillar I had ever seen. So I looked it up and discovered it was the caterpillar of the Cecropia moth, which is the largest moth in North America.
Earlier this year, I found a cocoon on the same spirea bush and I looked it up and it matched the description of the Cecropia cocoon. So I had had my eye on this bush, and as it was in flower, I looked underneath and found first what I thought was one really large, impressive moth. And then, as I looked a little bit more closely, I realized it was two. And they're gorgeous. I mean, they have all these spots, and stripes, and colors and patterns on them, and it was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
Molly - Keene, NH: My favorite animal encounter happened in my yard. It was during COVID, so I spent a lot of time sitting on my porch. But one morning in particular, I was sitting there and I felt something behind me, like the hairs on the back of my neck were sticking up, and I turned around and I looked right into the eyes of a bobcat.
I didn't know at the time. I thought, ‘That is a really big cat.’ And then I looked closer and I thought, ‘Oh, those legs don't look quite like a cat. The tail doesn't look quite like a cat.’ His ears were tufted.
And it lasted probably, I don't know, 30 seconds to a minute. And then the bobcat slowly started sauntering off. But I felt an immediate sense of kinship, of here we are, we're both creatures of the earth, in the same place at the same time, and we just had this opportunity to notice each other.
Ted - Holderness, NH: My favorite animal encounter recently has been seeing a moose print and moose droppings in my back field and backwoods. We moved to the property 23 years ago, and we had frequent moose encounters back then. And over time, as the climate has warmed, moose have been more elusive to see because there's not as many around.
Last year I saw small moose prints and some small moose droppings, and then this spring, we saw very much larger moose prints, which were very exciting. So we know that a large moose is either hanging out in the woods and being elusive and we haven't seen it, or it just passed through. But either way, it's been a fun encounter.
Steve - Hanover, NH: My favorite animal encounter is with Scar, one of the chipmunks that lives in our yard. He and I originally met about four months ago when he ran across my foot. Over time, I basically just put a peanut a little closer and closer. And now he comes and taps me on the foot and eats from my hand.
So we had two other chipmunks that were watching Scar—and his name is Scar because of his scar on his left leg—Buffy and Scout. We named Buffy, Buffy, because of her color, and Scout likes to climb up in the tree and watch everything, so hence, his name is Scout. They observed Scar getting peanuts and started coming over and tapping me on the foot as well. So every day at 4 p.m., when we go out to listen to NPR, we sit out there and Scout, and Buffy and Scar come over and expect to have a peanut dinner. That's my favorite part of everyday living here in New Hampshire, sharing the land that we have with the animals that live with us.
