What a Difference a Week Makes

A week ago the River was showing her quiet power, today the picture on the Wood River looks a lot like the Christmas cards I should be writing right now.

Let's see, it was 5 inches of rain in one day last week, a foot of snow in one day this week. What will next week bring?

The River Flexes Her Muscle

The keywords that best describe my sense of the Wood River are usually terms like tranquil, serene, or peaceful. Drop 5 inches of rain in a single day on the watershed and River shows a different face -- strong and powerful. The water flowing over the Barberville dam roars, and on the south side of the bridge the rapids froth. The baseball diamond at Dow field in Hope Valley is totally submerged and the high water line by the concession booth is frozen. Summer sure seems far away.

My favorite web site during high water conditions like today is the USGS real-time stream flow site. The URL is: http://tinyurl.com/5v86o5 . The water level in the Wood River in Hope Valley peaked last night and has been slowly receding today.

The Otters are Back!

Winter is here. The days are getting shorter, the outside temperature as I tap out this posting is a brisk 22 degrees, and the river otters are back! I saw my first otter of the winter this morning working the edge of the reeds looking for something to eat. 98% of all my otters sightings on the Upper Wood near Frying Pan Pond are in the winter months, especially when there is snow and ice on the river and its banks. The otters love playing in the snow and snacking on those slow moving trout. The color contrast between a pure white winterscape and the dark mahogany otters makes for a pretty easy visual target for any naturalist. Until it freezes up, the otters are a bit harder to spot. Keep your eyes open for that brief glimpse of the otter head as it porpoise-swims along the banks of the river.

PVA

Photo by Jim Leopold / USFWS

Being WPWA's Program Director has many perks. As you can see from the photos above, I work in one of the most scenic offices in the region. The view from my desk shows the brown and gold colors of the river and woods in November. If I step out side my door, I can look upstream and see the trees reflected in the still water of the Wood. On the opposite river bank is a tree we call the Heart Tree. It's a red maple that leans way out into the water and then has curving branches that looks like one half of the shape of a heart. When it is reflected in the water, the mirror image produces a nearly complete heart.

The River Watch Blog

Welcome to the WPWA River Watch blog. The purpose of this forum is to provide a place where noteworthy sitings, events, conditions, etc. on the Wood and Pawcatuck River can be posted. Animal sitings, fishing conditions, photos, WPWA activities, and blowdown reports are all examples of newsy things that would be appropriate to note here.

Only blog authors can develop postings but anyone can read them and respond. If you want to be a blog author, contact info@wpwa.org.

Blog postings should be short -- no more than a paragraph or two. If possible they should have a picture. This is not the forum to debate contentious or controversial issues in the watershed. There are other forums that are better served to support those important topics.

Is there enough fun news and interesting natural history to report for the River to keep the blog active? Let's see.

P. August