Spring Drops In Early

The red-winged blackbirds are back...and they're much earlier than I usually see them.  They were plentiful on the Assabet River in Stow yesterday and their calls filled the air...

Spent the past three days on three different rivers all within 12 miles of home and each one had the rock-solid feel of spring.

Started with the Concord River and its Old North Bridge on a warm and sunny Sunday...

...followed by the Nashua River in the Oxbow N.W.R. on an even warmer Monday...

...and finally the Assabet River in Stow yesterday...

Wildlife was plentiful starting with a mink running along the Concord...

...and a coopers hawk...

The Assabet River provided, in addition to the red-winged blackbirds, a pair of bald eagles.  This eagle with the dark area around his eyes has been seen in the same general area on several occasions...

He kept an eye on me as I paddled beneath him...

Earlier I watched as a red-tailed hawk harassed the eagle, causing him to temporarily lose his balance...

The bold and daring culprit...

About a quarter mile away was another eagle on the ground, suggesting the hawk should watch his back...

On the Nashua River the railroad bridge at Oxbow was seeing an uptick in freight train action. This is related to the Hoosac Tunnel in western Massachusetts being closed for repairs since a partial cave-in on February 13th.  The pictured train was the second Worcester-bound freight of Monday morning with 3 CSXT locomotives (133, 532, 5279) pulling 100-plus freight cars over the river...

According to a railroad message board this train came eastward from Fitchburg to Ayer before heading down what's left of the Worcester, Nashua, and Portland branch to Worcester. 

The 4.75 mile long Hoosac Tunnel, first opened in 1875, allows trains to pass beneath Hoosac Mountain and is considered "The Western Gateway" to New England.  The 8 to 10 trains per day that ordinarily pass through the tunnel must now be re-routed either to the Green Mountain RR to the north or the CSXT to the south.
This brochure from the Hoosac Tunnel Museum Society provides some of the tunnel's vital statistics...

Hopefully, the repair job will be successful and trains will once again pass through the tunnel.

Speaking of tunnels, I did pass through this miniature one on my way into Fort Meadow Brook from the Assabet River...

Trash recovered from the three rivers basked in the spring sunshine:

Clear Sailing on the Assabet

Before ascending the Assabet River this paddler always checks the water level on the Egg Rock inscription.  Yesterday, on Presidents Day, the level proved perfect for unimpeded paddling to West Concord and Warner's Pond.

Paddlers paddling Nashoba Brook can, at this level, easily reach the end of the line at the Warner's Pond dam where a wooded eagle maintains vigil...

Back to the Assabet in time to see an inbound MBTA commuter train cross the river...

A little further upriver, where the Old Colony RR once crossed, is the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail bridge...

Returning downriver brought me by these saplings sporting a reddish tint...

Some gathered-up trash...

Good article in Saturday's Boston Globe entitled "Bottle Battle" by David Abel.  Hope springs eternal for expanding our Massachusetts Bottle Bill.  If common sense prevails it can't lose.  However, the bottling industry's big bucks have a way of trumping common sense...which after all isn't really that common.  OK, I'm jaded and I admit it.

Solace on the Charles

The way things are going with our country of late, it seems the need for finding solace is fast becoming a regular occurrence.  We all have our places to go to when the need arises.  Mine is on the water, preferably a river, where at least for a few hours something close to normalcy prevails.  On a day this past week which belied the season, I paddled the Charles River from Bridge St. in Dover down to the South Natick Dam and back.  It's an excellent stretch of river that includes paddling alongside Peter's Reservation as well as Mass Audubon's Broadmoor.  An ascent of Broadmoor's Indian Brook is possible when water levels are high enough...

Surmounting this beaver's handiwork allowed me to proceed further and visit his fine abode...

Back on the Charles, the river does a few zigs and zags before passing under this foot bridge...

...and shortly after arriving at the South Natick Dam where things looked perfectly normal (if it were mid-March)...

There's little in the way of warning for those unaware of the dam that lies ahead...

Three bald eagles were seen in the sky about mid-way down.  I later wondered if they might have been feeding on this deer carcass...

Trash was decidedly light...

...but included a balloon of the color suited for the upcoming St. Patrick's Day.

Pre and Post Groundhog Day

The last day of January revealed wide-open water on the Assabet River, even the shallow areas by Crow Island.  An eastern bluebird was the cherry on top...

The gateway to and from Fort Meadow Brook was navigable...

Then, the day after a certain groundhog wasn't frightened by his shadow, I returned to the Nashua River Oxbow stretch and, once again, found all things quiet on the western front...the Fort Devens gun ranges were silent...

Enjoying all that peace and quiet was this distinctive pair...

Some extracted plastic refuse...

As to the groundhog...whatever he says is just fine with me!