Yesterday's unseasonably warm conditions proved ideal for a paddle to the Sudbury River's Fairhaven Bay from Sherman's Bridge in Wayland, MA. Temperatures reached the mid 50's F. once again. The photo above is looking downriver toward Lee's Bridge at the base of Lee's Hill.
Pantry Brook was noisily flowing over the sheet-piling dam...
At the brook's mouth was the floating carcass of a white-tailed deer...
...perhaps having reached the river before succumbing to a hunter-inflicted wound. Its exposed ribs indicated something had been feeding upon the remains.
Upon reaching Fairhaven Bay an adult bald eagle was seen in the bay's southwest corner...
...and I wondered if he was aware of the dead deer upriver.
The bay itself was quiet considering the good weather. Fishermen worked the bay from two bass boats.
The stone boathouse faced the southwest breeze...
Around the corner beyond the boathouse access to Well Meadow was possible with a view towards the Andromeda Ponds and ultimately Walden Pond about a mile distant...
On my return trip, when approaching the mouth of Pantry Brook, another eagle was seen feeding upon the deer carcass noted earlier. He flew off to a nearby tree...
This immature eagle, with a head beginning to become white in color, seemed to have the carcass to himself. As a result of today's eagle sightings I can report having seen at least one eagle for every month of 2020. What makes this a little unusual is that all of these eagles were seen while paddling Massachusetts waterways.
Trash was on the light side with most of this found underfoot at the boat launch...
Leaving the boat launch my car's thermometer showed 57 degrees F. while the weather forecasters on the radio were talking an approaching nor'easter with plowable snow. They were also using that scary meteorological term 'bombogenesis'. Not a favorite of us winter-haters.
