New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Rain, rain go away. And don't come back any day soon.

Friday 07/03/2009

Vacations drowned it would seem. Seems like each day I check my rain gauge there is 2.2 or 2.5 inches of rain in it. This morning was a welcomed surprise as it was dry since yesterday afternoon. Still the Suncook River is at full banking out my window and the little brook down the road is roaring with water. Not your typical July 4th expectations. June came in as the 4th rainiest month ever and we had three times the average rain. All of NH's rivers are swollen with rain. The ground is cold and pretty muddy.

My garden seems to be doing OK just at a slow pace...What is left of it any ways. The garden is down the road a mile from me at my mothers. Her neighbor has a couple horses and a beef cow. The cow got out this week, for the fourth time, and ate all three of my corn rows to the ground. One row was getting up there. Fortunately she just trampled my peas and potatoes a bit and didn't clean them off. My mother went next door to alert them to the missing cow and corn. I'm a bit ticked as it was a lot of work to have a cow destroy in minutes. But it is the neighbor's land that I hunt each fall and has some good grouse and woodcock habitat and I have a permanent tree stand and her land. I have hunted her land for 30 years. We need to learn to live with the local farmers and land owners even when things get unsettling. At least that is the way I'll look at this one. Last year it was the deer who ate the beans off and pepper plants as well. I plant a huge garden to share with family and friends even if I don't have them on the list it seems.

All this rainy cold weather is no doubt taking its toll on the local birds. From turkey polts to grouse and lots of song birds no doubt young of the year numbers will be down. As I listen to the steady beat of the rain on my deck roof on these cool June evenings I wonder how any thing can survive being soaking wet 24 hours a day, day after day. I frequently wonder how wildlife survives these conditions. My thoughts frequently travel out into the forests.