Wednesday, February 26, 2020

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:




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