New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

The prehistoric looking Suncook River and tracking turkeys.

Wednesday 07/12/2006

Since the great floods, yes floods, plural, the gates at the dam on Buck Street in Pembroke have been opened; Pretty much wide open in fact. The tremendous floods of May into June have built up such a layer of silt along the river that the extremely low water conditions of the last few weeks has caused a huge mud bowl. In fact last weekend an elderly gentleman in the Kingstown Mobile Home Park nearby actually got caught in the mud and had to be rescued by the fire department. Last Saturday I went down to help my good friend Rick get his raft out into the river as the low water condition had it grounded. I sank up to my knees in the quagmire helping him push it out. He went to Home Depot to get a long plank to extend from his dock out to his raft so he could get on it. What a mess. The dam was down due to the load of debris in the river above the dam. It seemed like everybody was asking me when the river would return. I called the Jimmy Leung at the NH Dam Bureau on Monday to ask what kind of schedule the river was on and expressed the feelings of Epsom folks who have been asking me. By early Tuesday morning the dam was mostly closed and the river is on the rise, thankfully. Today's and tonight's expected rains should help refill it.

Last Sunday I took my raft down river a mile or more to Bear Brook State Park. I actually had to poll it over some shallow areas, and that was going with the current. The low water level has a very strong current going. Something I have never seen before. The Suncook River looked prehistoric in places when I traveled down. Trees have toppled into the river and huge muddy bankings bracketed the river. A view I have never had before. In the 27 years I have lived here I have never seen the river this low.

Today, I had a morning meeting at the Pease Trade Port as part of my function on the wildlife/airport conflict team. We learned that a mourning dove struck a loaded tanker in the early dawn light as it was taking off a couple weeks ago. The pilot had to do an emergency abort of the take off as a result of the strike. They couldn't tell how big the bird was, how many, or what damage there might have been to the jet. A split second decision had to be made for the safety of the crew and those around the airport, so the pilot hit the brakes...hard. In the process of aborting the take off the brakes overheated. The bird did no damage where it hit the plane. But the over heated brakes, nearly 500 degrees F., has caused damage totaling $140,000 in parts alone.

NH actually had a mourning dove season declared in the early 1980's. But a week before it was to take place the governor, Sununu?, ordered the Fish and Game director, Barry I think, to declare an emergency closure. So technically NH actually HAD a dove season, it's just that no one got to hunt them.The following year the legislators voted to make the dove a permanently protected species. I'd like to see those same legislators cough up the $140,000!

This afternoon I joined Angelic Shutes the graduate student tracking the radio collared turkeys around Pease. She reported during the meeting that 22 of the 30 turkeys radio collared in February are alive and well. Most of them are still living around the airport. It appears predators killed 6, one was probably killed by a person as the collar was cut off the bird, and one collar stopped working. We quickly tracked down several turkeys from one end of the two-mile long runway to the other. All luckily outside the critical area. One hen was escorting ten grouse-sized polts. Then there is the year-old hen that has moved over to Hooksett from Portsmouth. They have temporarily lost track of her. If I get a chance I may give her another go myself. We had a great time "hunting" turkeys today with camera in hand.