Monday, August 29, 2011

Sudbury River in Irene's Wake

In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, the Sudbury River between River Road in Wayland and Weir Hill in Sudbury seemed the best bet for not encountering downed trees and excessive current.  Here the river has nearly a quarter mile of marsh on each side of its main channel acting as a no-tree zone.  A few side channels head off across this buffer zone and provide a visual explanation of why the Native American word for this region is "Musketaquid" or "grass grown" river...

One of the few available trees was occupied by a belted kingfisher who held his ground despite being buzzed by tree swallows...
  

Even though today's weather was beautiful, yesterday's storm reminded us all how fast summer is coming to an end. 
When I saw this iced coffee cup/styrofoam huggie combo, it reminded me of those hot and humid days fading in the rear-view mirror...
Perhaps it should be "Dunkin' grown" river.

Usually there isn't much trash in this section but thanks to Irene raising the river level, a fair amount of trash was set afloat from the area around the Route 27 overpass...

The catch totaled 46 pieces  and was composed of 34 recyclable containers (14 redeemable) and 12 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as styrofoam, mono-filament fishing line, and a plastic pail.  YTD total stands at 4482.  

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