Low Tide Mattabesset

The river runs through freshwater tidal marsh and swamp, and the tide is all the way out. With the extra gradient, there is a current at the put-in that is rarely seen. I get an almost early start. The day will be humid with temperatures in the upper 80's, but it looks like the overcast will hold and there will be little wind if any.

Even with the nearby highway, the river is peaceful. No one else is around and it looks like I am the only one that has put-in, so far. The call of a Woodpecker comes over my right shoulder - probably a Flicker. A hundred yards in, I pass a Great Blue Heron and take the obligatory photo. This is good Heron terrain and I will see fifteen or twenty during the trip. 

Near the Point Beaver Lodge, I spot a Green Heron. It will be the only one today, and it will be in this same area when I return. The lodge looks like it might be in use although I can say exactly. We had three flood events last year that topped every known lodge in this section of the river. There is a noticeable lack of beaver sign - no cuts or peels, no scent mounds, no leftover feed sticks floating in the water. Each of the floods lasted about 2 weeks, and I suspect that the colonies moved on. Farther down the main river at Salmon Cove, the beaver responded to the high water by adding height to their lodges, but they were dealing with 5 feet. of water, not the 15 feet that the Mattabesset was getting.

There's a heavy growth of a plant that I don't recognize. I pause to take a look and realize that it is yellow pond lily fully exposed by the low tide. I did not know that the stalks were stiff enough to stand. I spot only a couple of white pond lilies today. The white lily is a floater and it may be that it doesn't do well in the tidal zone.

Yellow Pond Lilies

A muskrat crosses the river in front of me. 

 

As I round the point near where the Coginchaug enters, there is a young Bald Eagle. Its feathers are mottled - probably a 2 year old just moving toward the white tail and head coloring of an adult. It stays pretty calm and lets me take several photos. As I turn away, there is a whitetail doe swimming the river.

I head up the Coginchaug. It is running a bit more shallow and faster than the Mattabesset. The beaver lodges look abandoned and there is no sign. There are a lot of Kingfishers. In fact, by the time I come out, the Kingfishers will have outnumbered the Great Blue Herons by a good amount. Besides fish, they may be feeding on some bugs, there is a healthy horsefly and green head fly population. The other day, I saw a Kingfisher snatch a cicada out of midair, so it can be done. 

I manage to get to the first big log jam. I wasn't sure that would happen with the low water. Anyway, this is the turn-around point, as it is also the point of useless-to-continue being that there are more logjams and only a couple hundred yards of canoeable river above this.

I pass the Green Heron pretty much where I last saw it.