This past week was a good one for seeing new additions to our national bird population. Three of these eaglet additions were seen to have recently fledged and were observed while taking some of their first flights. Nests on both the Assabet and Sudbury rivers have proved successful yet again. My paddling week ended early yesterday morning with a sighting of a Sudbury River eaglet lifting off from a tree a short distance from the nest (above photo).
I'd started my week last Monday with a visit to the Assabet River nest where I got to see both of that nest's eaglets fly back to their nest in expectation of a food delivery. One of them spread his wings to regain stability...
The adult eagle food deliverer stuck around the nest for awhile...
Monday was a beauty of day to be out on the Assabet River...
A tree-top heron...
...and an osprey...
Mid-week, on a mostly cloudy Wednesday, I paddled the section of the Merrimack River Thoreau referred to as the "Horseshoe Interval"...
...in his
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. On the upriver passage he mentioned Horseshoe Interval being "where the river makes a sudden bend to the northwest - for our reflections have anticipated our progress somewhat". On their return trip he mentioned it again describing it as "where there's a high and regular second bank". At the Interval's north end this adult eagle was seen...
Leaving the Interval's southern end at the Tyngsborough Bridge...
Thoreau's account of that Friday in 1839, the same day that he and his brother passed through the Horseshoe Interval on their return trip, made the observation:
"My life has been the poem I would have writ,
But I could not both live and utter it".
He also wrote in the Friday section "How fortunate were we who did not own an acre of these shores, who had not renounced our title to the whole. One who knew how to appropriate the true value of this world would be the poorest man in it. The poor rich man! all he has is what he has bought. What I see is mine. I am a large owner in the Merrimack intervals."
Early yesterday, it being the morning after Fourth of July celebrations, I found a very quiet and peaceful Sudbury River especially the Conantum section near Martha's Point...
The river was at a much lower level as this dock's steeply-pitched ramp attests...
The low level allowed passing through the smaller portal at Lee's Bridge...
Beavers have built a sturdy dam of sticks where the outlet from Farrar Pond joins the river...
The Sudbury River eagle nest is another example of a stick-built structure...
Over the past two weeks eagles have been seen on seven out of seven paddles (Maine, New Brunswick, Massachusetts).
Trash on the Assabet River was scarce...
...and included this empty can of "Big Blue" blueberry ale...
The Merrimack River was more plastic endowed...
...and included this odd container...
Trash on the Sudbury River was zippo (even at shore-fishing spots) which was nice to see for a change.
