November Exits

Saw our fairly benign November to the door this afternoon on the Sudbury River in Wayland.  No sooner had I launched from Sherman's Bridge than the morning's bright sunshine gave way to dark-bottomed clouds brought in on a northeast breeze...ideal conditions for Old Man Winter's impending arrival.

Water levels on the Sudbury were higher than I expected to see...perhaps due to last Sunday's beneficial rainfall.


In paddling upriver to Rt. 27 and back I ran across the following:

A late staying heron...

 
A tennis ball that acted as a water-chestnut seed magnet...

Some window-pane ice in the slough leading to the 4 arch bridge...

This possible antler-rub on the old causeway...

A watchful hawk near Rt. 27...

A pair of otters a little downstream of Rt. 27.  Could only get a photo of one and his head turned away just as I snapped it...

When I see otters in the Sudbury River I think about the signs along the river warning of mercury contamination and can only imagine how fast mercury levels would concentrate in their systems, given a diet so heavy in fish.

Some trash rounded up along the way...