New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

A steady rain of three days has given voice to the local brooks.

Thursday 10/11/2007

The two inches of water since Monday has given voice to our local brooks. It is good to see, and hear, them running again. It has been much of the summer, since July, that we have had much of any running water in the local brooks. I have no idea how, or if, any of the native brook trout survive such long periods without an appreciable flow.

We are at nearly peak colors in this part of New Hampshire right now. In another week or so any hard wind driven rain will surely strip many of the leaves from the trees.

Yes it is fall, though temperature have been running way above average. In fact the twenty days running up to Columbus Day had 19 of the 20 above average in temperature with several of them setting or nearly setting records. When I stepped out of my truck returning from my daughters in Concord last night about 8:00 PM how the crickets were chirping. Crickets in mid October? Hardly something that has happened before in my life time. Normally by now we have had at least one killing frost. A killing frost kills more than the vegetation, it also kills the summer insects. Not only have we not had a killing frost going into late October, but we have not had any frost yet at my house. More than just unusual, this is weird.

It would be hard pressed not to recognize Global Warming given the current conditions in NH. For me Global Warming isn't something that is going to happen, there are signs of it all around us every day. Will there be crickets in November I can't help but wonder?

Geese have been milling about and I have been spotting them in numerous cut corn fields between here and Concord this past week. I was at the State House on Wednesday and was greeted as I was going up the back stairs by a lone monarch butterfly drifting by. Imagine monarchs still migrating in late October.