Author: Carl Martland

Publisher:

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 9781519635860

"Sugar Hill Days" describes what a careful observer might see when walking through the wild areas of the hills and wetlands that border the White Mountains of New Hampshire. For nearly twenty years, I have enjoyed spending time in the nearby wild areas of Sugar Hill, taking photographs and writing notes on what I have seen. Over the course of eighteen years, my observations filled up a couple dozen dog-eared, coffee-stained little notebooks. I was inspired by Thoreau to use this information to create a calendar for the natural seasons of Sugar Hill. Thoreau said that if one observed closely enough, each day might be viewed as its own season, because each day something new could be found blooming or flying or crawling, and each day something else might be found drooping or dying. I therefore organized my observations by day of the year, making it easy to discern the ebb and flow of life in and around nearby wetlands, fields, and forests. I now know when to keep an eye out for the first waxwings or for a lost fawn. I know when the bears are fattening themselves on apples, and when bitterns and great blue herons show up to hunt for frogs. Whatever the season, I know where to go and what to look for, because I know what I have seen before at that time of the year. My "calendar" includes a half dozen drawings and more than 50 full color photographs that documented the events that I entered into my notebook. Every drawing and every photo illustrates a specific description of wildlife or wildflowers that will be found in the book. The book provides many interesting accounts of animal behavior, as well as some facts about wildflowers and wildlife behavior at different times of the year. I hope that it will encourage people to go out more often to see what's going on in their own back yards and in any woods, fields, wetlands, rivers or ponds that happen to be nearby. Carl D. MartlandSugar Hill, New Hampshire