Pre-Spring Mattabasset

It rains some and there is a bit of wind at home, but by the time I put in, it is sunny and the low 30F temperature is quickly climbing.

I put in at the usual spot. The water level in the big river is down at normal levels, about 4-1/2 feet on the Hartford gauge. The tide is coming in, but the high water mark from the last high tide is still about 15 inches up. This area is tidal freshwater marsh and swamp.

At the T-bend, a Common Merganser speeds through just two feet off the water. Then, I flush a Great Blue Heron that was standing unseen behind a large rootball. Nearby is a possible beaver bank burrow - a suspiciously well organized pile of branches without the mud packing that a lodge has.

Point Lodge

The large marshes on either side of the river look like they have been mowed. In a more normal winter, a good snowfall would have crushed the cattails and grasses, and that hasn't happened this year. It has been cold enough for thin sheet ice to form - probably not much more than a 1/4 inch here. I suspect that the ice formed, and with the tidal movement and some wind, much of the reeds and cattails have been trapped in the ice and sheared off. When one really looks at it, the height is quite uniform across the marsh.

I spot two immature Bald Eagles when I get down to the collapsed Tepee Lodges. I watch them for about 15 minutes. They are soaring and doing the Eagle mating dance - swooping at each other high in the air. I think these two adolescents aren't old enough to nest, but maybe next year. Then, I continue on down to the Coginchaug River. The Big Lodge, which is only a 1/4 mile in, just past the second bend, looks like it has been refurbished since the flooding that occurred a couple months ago. Two floods, six months apart were kind of tough on the local beaver. 

New Coginchaug Lodge

 About a 1/3 of a mile up from the Big Lodge is a brand new one. The new lodge is well built and has a large quantity of winter food stashed outside. Another 1/3 of a mile and I get to a downed tree crossing the river, which is not worth messing with since I know that I will get more of that soon enough. I turn and head back out the way I came.