New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
Suncook River remains in flood condition and checking deer on the opening day of the NH muzzle loader season.
Saturday 10/29/2005
This weekend wraps up another long week for me working seven days in a row. It's hunting season time in NH and I work lots of it. I was out in the field all day Wednesday finishing up the NH pheasant stocking for the year. This last stocking of the year is usually just a few birds at selected sites; primarily state lands and federal flood control areas. So of coarse with all the rains and flooding conditions most of the flood control areas had water back up on them. Plus because of the earlier flooding two weeks ago the department held off on delivery of hundreds of birds. But this week they had to go. I ended up loading up some of my sites with over a hundred birds each. Hopkinton and Brentwood took the bulk of the 85 boxes (360 pheasants) I had to find a place for. I did get a chance to take my new German shorthaired pup Koko out for her first successful hunt later in the week. She pointed and retrieved a couple of pheasants.
I was one of three speakers at a habitat workshop co-sponsored by Bear-Paw Regional Greenways and the Friends of the Suncook River. A workshop I arranged. We presented the group of over 25 in attendance the most up to date information on the Departments Natural Resource Inventory mapping capabilities. I focused on how to use the maps in the Suncook Watershed. We had lots of good comments from those in attendance. These maps truly are the recipe for conservation success in New Hampshire.
My rain gauge showed two and a half inches of rain again this week. Half of what was in it three weeks ago, but the ground is so saturated that the Suncook River swelled to a high flood stage again the next day. This is the third time in as many weeks that the river has completely or nearly completely flooded the corn field down back. Even though we have not had rain in several days the river is still flooding the corn field. This has never happened like this for so long a period in the 26 years I have lived here.
Today I manned my annual deer biological check station at Wildlife Sports in Manchester. By days end I had lifted a ton and a half of deer in and out of vehicles for a 30 deer total. The biggest was a 220 pound buck taken in New Boston by Jim Beetz of Litchfield. I'll be back to the station all day Sunday as well.
