After a delightful paddle on Canadian Thanksgiving, the weather turned cold and we put the kayaks away for the winter.
For the most part the fall colors in the Upper Valley were muted.
We had a white Thanksgiving,
and the Connecticut was ice covered by mid December.
We are still kayaking, though more in the afternoons and are still seeing wildlife; some migrant and some resident.
We have been out a few times this week, on the Connecticut River and the Pompy. (North Hartland Lake is closed for the season.)
We saw a few mammals, great blue herons, mallards, mergansers, some turtles, and a hornets’ nest.
There have been an overabundance of squirrels this year after last year’s bumper crop of pine cones and acorns. They have been migrating across roads and rivers, looking for greener pastures. This week we have seen them swimming the Connecticut almost every day we have been out.
This grey squirrel landed on the pile of logs in the middle of the river for a rest before continuing on to the Vermont side.
We’ve paddled the usual places the past 10 days. The mornings are getting colder and more foggy. We’ve seen great blue herons, green herons, cormorants, loons, ducks and other creatures. Loons do fly, they just take a long runway to take off.
