Back to Salmon River

In the morning, S tells me that she wants to go canoeing.  She wants to look at birds, and I want to paddle where there is no road noise.  It will be just under 60F, mostly sunny with a light wind developing in the afternoon.  We head to the Salmon River.

There are two active Osprey nests at the bottom of Salmon Cove.  One of them was there last year, but the other is brand new.  Each nest has a pair of Osprey working on them.

Continuing in, spot a distant Bald Eagle out beyond Dibble Creek. 

Dibble Creek dam and lodge (right of canoe)

Our first stop is the Dibble Creek beaver dam.  I figured out through Google Earth that the dam is about 10 years old. We paddle right up to it and S gets a good look at the current beaver lodge.  The dam is about 200 feet long and being 10 years old it is root bound with saplings that have planted themselves, although the current residents have eaten most of those saplings.

We head up the cove crossing over to the far side to enter the Moodus.  We flush several Common Mergansers and a few Mallards.  The Mergansers are the most common Duck today.  

The Moodus

There is a very active beaver colony up in the Moodus and I want to show S all of the cuts and drags.  We cross the first beaver dam easily, but get blocked before the tight bend by a deadfall.  I think I paddled over this deadfall last week, but the water is a good 8 inches lower. It is also possible that the beaver are using the deadfall as a foundation for a new dam.  I'll have to check back later.  There is a Red Tail Hawk in trees about 50 yards away.  It is easier to spot the partially cut trees on the way back, and they are very classic school book cuts, exactly what anyone might expect to see.

The wind is coming up.  We cross the top of the cove to the Salmon River.  There is an immature Bald Eagle perched at the bend. It seems a little small and scruffy, but it has second year feathers.

It is a stiff paddle down the cove.  By some trick of geography, the wind seems to be funneled into the middle section of the cove.  Once we get farther down, it is calmer, even though there are no trees or hills to explain such stuff.