New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

What a plunge in my thermometer the last five days. Last Thursday it was in the mid to high 80's again. Well actually one of a string of days as I can remember. But what a switch we had over the weekend into Monday. A nice Canadian cool front pushed through giving us the first taste of that refreshing Canadian air we have had in a while. And more importantly we got some rain. Not just a teasing dribble like the few we had had this summer, but some real rain. By the end I actually had 2.2 inches of rain I my gauge. That's the most I have had since last winter.

So in just five days the temperature dropped from well into the 80's to 32 degrees yesterday morning. And with this cool air we even got a bit more rain overnight last night. Let me go out to check the gauge. Well I see another two tenths. We sure need a lot more to even put a trickle in the local native Brook trout streams. I'm so worried about our native trout this year. In fact according to the local weather reporters this is actually the second year of our drought.  I recently read an article in the newspaper that this drought actually started in 2013.

In the last week, before the cool front moved in the Monarch butterflies were migrating through. I little over a week ago I had seven pass by me as I sat on my front deck one afternoon. So I figured it was big migration time so last Thursday I headed down to Hampton Beach State Park to do my annual count. I arrived by one pm expecting good numbers. There was a nice northwesterly breeze that I was sure to bring butterflies my way. It was in the 80's. There was not the dozens I had hoped for but only five in the two hours I watched. Three years ago there was several dozen in an hours watch. I think last year I only saw one.

A decade ago at this time of year the flowering goldenrod was draped with thousands of Monarchs. Still I am fascinated by their migration. What oh what is inside them that allows them to migrate thousands of miles to a particular mountain top in Mexico? Wildlife never ceases  to amaze me.

Turkeys galore lately. Between my house and the Epsom Circle I can count between fifty and a hundred turkeys most days. Finally the geese are on the move too dropping into the freshly cut corn fields nearby. Robins poured through my and my neighbor's yard this week. They scampered across our lawns all in a southward sweep one morning. The doldrums of summer are in our rearview mirror as well barge headlong into fall it seems. The pace of life is quickening again.