New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

The "Storm of the Century" has left the Suncook River flooded.

Tuesday 04/17/2007

"The rain storm of the century" has ended today leaving the Suncook River in my view from my home office higher than last May's "Storm of the century". This makes the fourth "100 year flood" we have witnessed on the Suncook River since October 2005. Maybe, just maybe, Al Gore has something of importance there. Could this weird weather, January 1st to the 15th was warmer than April 1st to the 15th, be just another anomaly. I don't know about you but in the last few years I'm kind of noticing a trend in weather extremes I have not seen in my previous 50 years.

Roads locally were washed out by the quick hitting rain storm. It was predicted days out to be a major event and it sure has been and in fact continues to be. My road between my house and my mothers a mile away was washed out by little Deer Brook leaving a hundred yard gap this was filled by dozens of loads of large stones and a thick layer of gravel by 11 PM last night. All through town and the surrounding towns many roads are washed out. The Suncook River behind my house reached the highest level I have seen in nearly 28 years living here. And as I glance out my window this Tuesday afternoon it is still running as high as it got last May in the last worst storm. Yesterday I ventured out to capture some pictures of the flooding. At one point I found myself in a line of traffic north of the Epsom Circle driving through 6 to 10 inches of fast flowing water pouring across route 28. Today many of the state's major highways are closed due to flooding from route 101 to the southwest to route 4, 43, 9 and route 28 in Allenstown. In fact when I headed over to WOKQ radio station this morning to do three new public service announcements I had to jump from one road to another to bypass the closed sections. It took me an hour and a half to get there. Today marked the tenth year I have been doing the psa's at WOKQ. Mark Williams the production manager has been producing them all those years and making sure the appropriate ones are played each month. What a debt of gratitude the Fish and Game Department has to him.

Late yesterday afternoon as I went down by the rivers edge to place another marker at the very edge I head the fore lorn call of a pair of geese with the "lost nest wail". Indeed tens of thousands of duck and geese nests have no doubt been swamped by this deluge. At least many along our rivers, stream and many ponds. Probably the ducks had not started incubating the eggs yet, but the geese may have had their full clutch of eggs laid and the ducks no doubt were hard at filling their nests with eggs before setting on them for the 28 days needed to hatch them. That usually starts by months end. Geese may have just about started based on some early season hatches of goslings I've seen in past years.

It could very well be for the second year in a row that numbers of beaver and muskrat dens with young have been flooded out loosing this years crop of juveniles. It's a little bit early for some, but many may already have had their young. These animals cannot have another batch of young unlike the ducks and geese that will no doubt lay another clutch of eggs as soon as they can.

Still not a frog or salamander to be seen or heard by me. And with this afternoons temperature hovering in the low 30's I doubt they will be moving any time soon. Spring continually is being kept at bay.