Pawcatuck

I headed over to Rhode Island with M with the believable excuse of wanting to see what was migrating through the sizeable marsh and lowlands of the Pawcatuck River. 

We put in at the Bradford launch and headed upstream, as usual. The temperature was nearing 50F with light wind and a sunny sky. The water was a foot or so higher than in the summer.

There were quite a few other vehicles at the launch. Trout fishing has just opened, as it has in Connecticut, and we were the only people not fishing. As I have said before, first one in the river sees the most wildlife, and we were a long way from being first. It was a good paddle with a just a little more current than in summer and we explored a bit of marsh connected to the river, marsh that we can't get into at lower water levels. But, other than a few songbirds and a couple of Osprey, we didn't see any wildlife, not even Wood Ducks, which this river is ideal for. There were just too many fishermen moving up and down the river, and when Ducks are flushed, they'll usually move off river to some safe marshy location.

We turned back at Burdickville. A short awkward portage is required to get past a broken dam and the water is still too cold to have M getting wet with the tricky landing.