New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

The Suncook River is at a high flood stage, spring has stopped for two weeks.

Friday 05/27/2005

It is still cold and raw this morning, but gradually warming. NH has set some record low, high temperatures for the day, several times over the last week. Spring has virtually been frozen in place the last week or more. The Suncook River continues to rise flooding a third of the corn field in the meadow below my house. This is an event that has happened only a couple times a decade in the 26 years I have lived here.

I led a hike to the Popple Island NH Audubon Sanctuary in Epsom last evening as a workshop for both the Bear-Paw Regional Greenways and the Friends of the Suncook River. The rain did put a damper on the attendance, but those that showed were dedicated local conservationists. The little Odiorne Brook was in a raging torrent as we hopped rocks to skip over its flow like a group of skipping stones. Thankfully the moderate rain that was coming down as the other Fish and Game staffer, Katie Calihan, and I waited before the 6:00 PM hike, actually let up just as our group headed out on the trail.

Other than the wind and dripping trees, the woods seemed totally silent and devoid of life. This in a week that an evening hike such as this would fill the air with bird calls and songs. This is about THE peak bird nesting week in NH. We did manage an oven bird call just before we ended the hike about 7:45. I didn't even see a spotted newt or a frog or any live critter in our hour plus long hike. The site did provide excellent habitat types to describe to the folks what makes a high score area for wildlife habitat. Katie did an excellent job of describing how the state's GIS information layers are used to score significant habitat for any town. This is a new Fish and Game program started last summer. Too bad the weather turned several away as I had several folks call or email me to say they would be there. I any case it was a great training experience for me and Katie. Of coarse I had my camera in my shirt pocket the whole time, but didn't take a single picture for some reason. It was buried under my rain coat. I am seldom without a camera in my pocket.

The sun is supposed to shine some this afternoon. I can't wait!