A soaking rain. May ended with a welcome dose of rain, a soaking rain that, before it ended on Sunday morning, June 1, deposited 1.62 inches in my gauge . The hay meadow, which was looking good, will look even better.

Summers with two hay cuttings have been rare in this meadow, situated on a terrace with rich soil above the Delaware River. Currently, Precious and Basil the goats have just three bales in the loft that must last them until late June. They’re praying that the summer of 2003 will precipitate a new weather regime and fill their loft to the rafters.

By flooding ditches and vernal ponds, the rain also granted a reprieve to the offspring of frogs, toads and salamanders. Our small pond, reduced to a large puddle by May 30, has reclaimed its basin and salvaged the careers of hundreds of tadpoles.

High water. Rising waters and wetted bottomlands aided some creatures, but also increased the Delaware River’s current and lowered water temperatures. At the Darbytown landing, below Narrowsburg, my thermometer registered a seasonally cool 59 degrees on the afternoon of June 1.

The next day, the Barryville river gauge, about 13 miles below Narrowsburg, pegged the river at 6.5 feet, a jump of nearly three feet from May 31 (17 feet is flood stage).

The upshot will be headaches for local shad fishermen. Stronger currents, cooler water temperatures, and tons of silt are special bugaboos at this time of year. As a Milford fishing guide confided to the Internet on May 31, “Hopefully the river won’t turn into a mud bath.”

River gauges. The U.S. Geological Survey maintains many river gauges in the Delaware River Basin, with two that are especially useful to local fishermen and boaters. These are the Callicoon gauge, below Callicoon Creek near river mile 303, and the Barryville gauge above the Lackawaxan River near river mile 277. I will post the email addresses in my next column.