Torrential Rain

Today's rain filled the river again with silt.  The work of erosion never stops.

Broad Brook

I have been looking at the USGS topographical maps for the Ottauquechee watershed.  These show the many tributaries, large and small, named and unnamed. One of the bigger feeder streams, Broad Brook, enters the Ottauquechee just east of Bridgewater Corners.  The brook begins on the east slope of Blueberry Hill in Plymouth.  In the middle of the township, the hill forms the boundary with the Black River watershed.  The headwaters of the latter flow just other side of that hill, slowing down for a time to form the string of lakes on Rt. 100.  The Black flows to the Connecticut through Springfield.  The watersheds of the Black to the south and the White to the north frame the Ottauquechee territory.

Hazy

This morning in the narrow Barnard Brook valley, the temperature fell below freezing.  I don't know if ice formed along the edges of that Ottauquechee tributary or not. At 1 p, m,, with the thermometer at about 70, hazy sun lit the river, clearer after taking the last rain's load of sediment downstream.

Beginning the River

With last night's rain, the river thickend up again, growing browner as the day progressed.  On the surface, tiny white flower petals flowed, sharp against the earthy water.

Today, we drove along the road through Barnard Gulf, which crosses from the White River to the Ottauquechee watershed.  Gulf Stream, an Ottauquechee tributary, begins here.  I took the picture below of one of the many headwaters which form the roots of this river and the great Connecticut.

 

Tiny rivulet

barely visible among

leaves, light, rock and woods.



Two Geese

Before I walked on to the bridge this morning, I could hear repeated honks from the Canada geese. Having counted the six adults and eleven goslings crossing the stream last night, I was hoping to see them again.  Today, two adults swam near the bend by the rapids, honking again and again, until one went with the flow downriver.  The other remained another minute or two, still crying out, and then went after the first, out of sight, round the bend.  I saw no other geese then, or this evening.

Two Boys and Seventeen Geese

When two boys strolled along the left bank this evening, three sets of Geese parents and eleven goslings took to the water in their family groups, paddling across the river and downstream.  They stayed in the quiet water and climbed out at the base of the History Center lawn.

Twilight in Early June

After traversing several southern and central New England watersheds in the past days, we returned to the Ottauquechee and the Middle Bridge at about 8:30 p.m., when I took this picture, with barely enough light.  I spotted two sets of Canada geese parents, with a collection of goslings, on the left bank near the the river bend.