New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff
The roaring Suncook River.
Sunday 10/16/2005
The Suncook River flows slowly and quietly past my house in Epsom day in and day out for years on end it seems with few exceptions. Today is one of them. The Suncook is roaring by my house this night. Back to back very high rain events less than a week apart have swollen the river until it has given it a voice roaring as it sweeps past in it's muddy race to wards the sea. Perhaps three or four times it has roared in the 26 years I have lived here. Today was the loudest it has been and the river has created a lake of the meadow and corn field in the flood plain below my house. i sit well above it and am in no danger of its powerful grasp. Others in NH have not been as fortunate this past week.
My rain gauge has filled again in the last few days as has the river. A week ago a huge storm dumped at least 6 inches of rain to swell the river for the better part of the week. By Friday the river had dropped considerably but the last two days of rain has it flooded to the highest level I have ever seen it. Even the spring thaws and rains have not swelled it to this degree. It is a powerful sound as I slide open my back deck slider to listen to this pulse of nature.
When I went down to the rivers edge this morning to take a close-up look and take a few pictures, plus check my raft tethered to a tree, I noticed a flock of birds flittering from branch to branch in the shrubs and trees along the banking. I couldn't identify them in the early morning light, but it reminded me how this river is an important migration corridor for wildlife as well.
Moose season got underway Saturday and as usual I am manning the biological check station at my office in Durham. Only one moose for the day. a nice 720 pound bull taken in Effingham by William Whitney of Sandown. Apparently the fowl weather has put a real damper on the moose hunt as I normally check 4 moose on the opening day. Today was even worse, not a one came in. I should be at number 8.
I am amazed at all the colored and still green leaves clinging to the trees despite the deluges of rain in recent days. Usually by mid October the leaves have mostly turned color and a rain like this followed by the winds of today strip the trees mostly bare. It can suddenly look more like November under these conditions. The mild wet fall has slowed the trees from turning and saved the colors for at least another week or two. This has been a real long fall.
Monday 10/10/05 Flooding Suncook River and lots of colored trees.
Despite the muted light of another overcast day the scene out my home office window is of a dozen or more suns blazing yellow to orange from the foreground to afar. The red maples are turning more brilliant each day. Luckily they had just started to turn when the deluge of rain from Tammy hit. So most of the leaves are still on the trees. Though a few trees that turned a week ago are now laid bare by the wind and pelting rain.
And did it pelt! When I finally got around to checking my rain gauge yesterday....it was full and overflowing. Five plus inches of rain were in it and who knows how much had flowed over the filled vessel. I have had a rain gauge out for well over a decade and never have had it filled, much less overflowed. I just didn't think about emptying it mid storm so that I could get an accurate reading. Not only has it overflowed but the Suncook River out my window this morning has turned the scene into more of a lake appearance. The corn field that was cut just a week ago now is mostly underwater! It is an odd combination of brilliantly colored trees and chocolate roiling waters. I can't remember another like it in the 26 years I have lived here. To the west side of NH some towns got a foot of rain water flooding many areas. The Suncook River has overflowed its bankings but only the flood plains seem to be affected. I'm not aware of any homes threatened here.
Another busy week has passed with even a busier one coming up. Actually I'll work the next 12 days in a row since moose season starts next Saturday. Last Thursday and Friday I stocked pheasants again. What a change in leaf color from the week before. I did have a side trip to the UNH Diagnostic Lab to deliver a piece of moose brain stem collected by the Fish and Game moose biologist. It will be tested for the CWD disease. This moose had acted very sickly and was stumbling. Just a week or so ago it was announced that CWD had been found in moose out west. While CWD has not been found in the several hundred deer checked in NH it makes sense to check odd acting moose. Of coarse these are the same symptoms as moose brain worm, EEE and West Nile.
I managed to see another rare Blanding's turtle crossing the road not far from my house Friday afternoon. It was a huge one. The biggest one I have ever seen with a shell at least a foot long. This was the second of the year on this stretch of road. I have seen numerous Blanding's crossing this area over the last decade or more.This was the 6th or 7th Blanding's I seen this summer. My best year ever for them.
