New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

It has been months since we have had a rain storm like this in Epsom. My thinking takes me back to April when we had some decent rain. And boy have we needed it. It looks like September will go on record as the warmest ever. So this heat coupled with the five month long drought has no doubt had an impact on our fish and amphibians. The smallest of streams locally have been totally dry for a couple months any ways. I stopped to check a couple of them a while ago. These are the brooks that in years past I could count on catching a few brilliant native brook trout. Save for a few deeper depressions with a little off colored water in them there was not enough water to keep a trout alive based on what I was seeing. By the way, these are exactly the type of streams that are once again protected under the restored Clean water Act. I'm just hoping there are enough trout surviving in some deeper shaded holes to restock these little streams when we have water again. So it was really a double whammy on our native brook trout this summer. Thanks to a changing climate we are having record heat and now even a drought to top things off in a bad way.

 

No doubt the amphibians had a tough time getting their legs in time to get out of the quickly disappearing vernal pools after the cold late spring got them into the vernal pools a good two weeks later than usual. For them too there was little water to be had for living and hiding all summer long. Many were forced into what little water was left making them much more vulnerable to predators like a hungry heron.

 

On the plus side it seems to have been a banner year for our turkeys. I am seeing numbers that I have never seen before. Flocks of broods seem to be scattered every where. And despite the drought the apple trees are hung with fruit and even the red and white oaks I am seeing are baring nuts again this fall. So our wildlife should go into winter in pretty good shape.

 

I often sit on my front deck looking up at the towering red and white oaks that lay across the road from me. Its amazing how even sandwiched between the neighbors house up the hillside on the other side of the road and my house here, not far back from the road, how much wildlife can be spotted with a little patience. Well mostly gray squirrels and blue jays for the most part, but a spattering of chipmunks, red squirrels, woodpeckers and such. As I have often said it is like peeling an onion. You just need to stop and look a while and peel off the layers to find the wildlife that was right in front of you all the time. You just haven't taken the time to peel it back for a look. This is especially the case when observing a wetland. Given a chance I make my weekly conference calls from the deck and take my reading outside too the absorb what I can over the spring, summer and fall seasons.

 

I came home from Concord this afternoon and quickly spotted a cock pheasant standing in my front lawn. I have been watching it march back and forth my lawn as I have sat here at the computer this afternoon. There was a time I would have taken my German shorthaired pointer out to work the bird to give her some action. Not so much any more. There is a Fish and Game pheasant stocking site a mile or so down the road from me in Bear Brook State Park. Birds have been stocked the last two days around the state leading up to tomorrows opening day of bird season. The crab apple tree out my window is laden with apples. More than I have ever seen before. The high bush cranberry is laden with red fruit as well. Splashes of color are every where right now.