Three Close to Home

 

Ended my paddling week yesterday on the Sudbury River's serene Fairhaven Bay.  It was a week where I stayed local and didn't regret it.  On Monday I paddled the Assabet from Magazu's Landing in Stow...

...where most of the week's wildlife was encountered.  Went up to just below the Gleasondale Dam where the Route 62 bridge project appears to be nearing completion...

 

On Thursday I ventured just a little further westward to the Nashua River in Devens, MA where after launching I headed downriver...

...to the Ice House Dam in Ayer, MA...

The aforementioned wildlife encounters included this green heron on the Assabet...

...and this blue heron in the Sudbury's Well Meadow...

The Assabet River's eaglet is still hanging around the nest and practicing branch landings.  On one such landing it chose a near-vertical branch resulting in being upside down until a downward take-off...

...brought it back up to firmer footing on a horizontal branch...

The Assabet also had this mute swan family that seems to have survived their predators...

Trash on Monday from the Assabet included someone's home plate...

Trash on Thursday included 117 miniature alcohol bottles (aka "nips)...

...showing the Nashua River seems to have a bit of a miniatures problem: 11 paddles so far in 2023 produced 1,191 such miniatures for an average of one hundred miniatures per paddle.  By comparison,  22 paddles in 2023 on the Assabet River produced 204 miniature bottles for an average of ten miniatures per paddle.

Trash on Saturday from the Sudbury was minimal...

Odder finds were what appeared to be a floating stone...

...later found to be made of a synthetic material.

Also what at first (from a distance) looked to be a mute swan...

...but was a plastic bag.

All in all a good week with plenty of water in our local rivers as the Nashua attests...

...as well as at Fairhaven Bay's stone boathouse...

...making for very happy hibiscus on the Assabet...