Sunday, August 9, 2015

Oxbow's Otters and Osprey

Woke up a little early this morning and headed to the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge in Harvard, MA arriving there about 20 minutes after sunrise.  Things were on the quiet side at the canoe launch and there was a feel of fall in the air.

My downriver progress was interrupted by numerous stops for bottles trapped behind snags.  This plastic sake bottle was a first of its kind...

Can only wonder what this over-sized Canada goose head may have been for...

The cries of an osprey were heard and an occupied nest was spotted atop one of the taller trees...
...seems late in the season for there to be chicks.

  No sooner had I left the area of the nest when this pair of river otters were encountered...
One is by the right margin and the other to the left.  Both had telescoped their heads up above the water's surface but I would have had to have been much quicker on the draw with my camera to have caught them.  I would see them several more times as I neared Route 2.
This scent mound was in the same area and may belong to them...

Below Jackson Road I turned around and headed back upriver, seeing this green heron along the way...

This morning's trash haul...
This much was gathered from a 3 mile stretch of the Nashua River.

This past Friday, an after work paddle covering the same distance on the Sudbury River in Wayland produced only this...
Go figure.

1 comment:

BERNIE said...

Wow, a Jurasic Park Canada goose head!