Mattabesett Morning

I start out early enough, early enough to beat some of the day's heat, early enough to catch some of the animals feeding... maybe.  Too early for most people, that's for sure.

A good sized beaver lodge

The tide is out and the water is low.  An oddity of Connecticut that we have tidal fresh water marshes 20 or more miles from the sea.  I started in the forest and green is the dominant color.  With the overcast even the water is green, a combination of silt and algae and reflection of overhanging trees and undergrowth.  This little river passes through what might be the most bountiful crop of poison ivy in New England.  The clouds, however, carry the tone of blue-grey.  They are heavy with water and billowy enough to keep an eye on, but it will be later in the day when they will stack vertically and threaten a thunderstorm. 

I pass someone who camped out last night.  Not a great campsite, but not a bad idea either.

Great Blue Herons are the prime bird today and when I reach the big river I do the math and figure that I saw one every 8 minutes. 

Beaver

Just short of the big river a beaver swims back and forth keeping it's poor eyes on my and slapping tail every so often. 

I circle the long island that guards the mouth of the Mattabesett.  On the far side while I am admiring the downstream bridges, my glasses on my forehead with my eye in the camera, I spot a large blurry bird with a white butt.  The question is not so much why I didn't see the Eagle, but why the Eagle didn't see me.  I flushed it from 20 yards and that bird had to have been focused on something.  I paddle over toward shore and spot the remains of a duck.

When I get back to the little river, the tide is coming in and I get a small current to aid my way up.  I pass a few fishermen who are going after large mouth bass.

I pass the put in and explore upstream another mile or so before returning.