Thursday, June 9, 2011

Assabet River - Egg Rock to Rt.2 and Return

Today, between thunderstorms, I trash patrolled the Assabet River from Egg Rock up to Route 2.  The large family of Canada geese pictured at left was encountered upstream of Spencer Brook.
At the start of my patrol, before leaving the area of the Calf Pasture, I noticed the trash barrel across from Egg Rock is full...

I'm not sure who maintains this barrel but hopefully it can be emptied before this weekend's RIVERFEST events.  Most of the trash in this area is left by shore fishermen.  Some of those fishing on the other side of the river resort to this technique to dispose of their trash...

There was ample wildlife active this mid-day on the river.  The most plentiful creatures were chipmunks.  They seemed to be behind every tree...
Perhaps today was their RIVERFEST.
In addition to Alvin and his associates there were Canada geese, blue herons, wood ducks, Muscovy ducks, mallards, cardinals and turtles.

One other boater encountered today was Jeff paddling his Czech-made Zastera...

After reaching Route 2, I turned around and began heading back to Lowell Rd.  On the trip downriver a new looking canoe cart was seen stashed behind a tree.  My hope is that the owner left it there on purpose, though I didn't see a canoe out on the water.

At Lowell Rd., my boat was emptied...
Today's total was 117 pieces of trash.  There were 34 recyclable containers (9 redeemable) and 83 pieces of miscellaneous rubbish such as styrofoam, nip bottles, spay cans, and many plastic bags.  Most of the bags had been submerged until just recently when dropping water levels left them hanging in the wind.
My YTD total stands at 3111.

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