Friday, April 20, 2007

high water


The good news is the sun came out. The bad news is there's not a lot of beach left. Had a message on my voice mail this afternoon that tomorrow's shift is canceled -- lack of beach and lack of signs. No word on exactly how much of the contents of the Goffstown dump has made it down the Merrimack to Plum Island yet. Yep, that was some storm. Not quite up to last year's epic flood disaster, but pretty darn close. What with road closures and detours and fact that my neighbors' kids vandalized my downspout I feel like I've got water on the brain. That could explain that exploding feeling in my head. Hmm...

And it has nothing to do with birds or beaches or protection thereof, but just in time for tonight's Red Sox/Yankees game, a Red Sox Mr. Potato Head arrived on my back steps courtesy of Charla.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We just visited Plum Island beach today. In previous years, the PP nests were in the loose sand above high tide. There is no loose sand now, and it looks like high tide goes almost to the new dune cliffs.

Will they nest in that hard sand?

Dick.

Janet Egan said...

Thanks for the update, Dick.

The piping plovers definitely prefer dry, loose, sand. Their preferred nesting sites are between the high tide line and the dunes. Lack of dry sand will definitely change where they decide to nest.

That said, after a storm like this the sand does come back in over the next month or so. It accumulates where there is still beach grass and then builds up on the beach.

We shall see.