New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

I saw the bear, I saw the bear, and oh yes, an osprey carrying a fish too.

Wednesday 04/18/2007

The flood, the flood, it is on everyone's mind locally. And the water is slowly receding. Life ever so slowly is getting back in order. But not for everyone. I visited a neighbor this morning, kind of to check on them and see if I could be of any assistance. It was 11 months to the day since his house was flooded last May. I told him over and over again last spring to expect more floods because the river bed is full of material from the sand pit above and will be flooding more often with less rain to do it. And so it was. The rain did mostly come within a 12 hour period, but my rain gauge has measured only 4.8 inches. Not a real unusual amount, but the flooding was worst than ever. A full three feet above last May's record flood. This morning he was head down saying he intends to move his house to higher ground "this time". He is a "river person" spending many nights through the summer ON the river.

But my real exciting news is I finally got to SEE the local bear. Well, a local bear in any case. My mother, my son-in-law and several neighbors have all seen a bear or more on this road. But not me; New Hampshire's "bear biologist' for two decades. Rick and I took our dogs for a walk in Bear Brook this evening for a couple hours at last light. We kind of wanted to talk about the flood and see it's effect in the Park in person. As we walked over to check the now famous moose bones we found that others have added to our fine work of art by finding more of it's bones and adding to this master piece. So it is indeed a work of art in progress. Apparently it is now a group effort. We did add a few new touches of our own. Shortly after walking away from the moose we saw an osprey flying down Deer Brook with a fish in it's talons. It got to the Suncook River and went north dropping down at last sight. Minutes later it, or it's mate, came back sans fish. We are now determined to see if we can locate a new osprey nest.

The big news of the day came just as I drove back to Rick's and was making the turn into his driveway. A good sized bear galloped across the road right in front of us crossing onto Rick's property. Now I should mention that he awoke this morning to a bear abused bird feeder. So we knew one was around. I just have never gotten a glimpse of one before in Epsom. This really made my day. I just can't wipe this smile from my face. It was such a beautiful bear. An image that hangs like a picture in my mind's eye. You just can't beat good luck!