The Great River Cleanup of 2018







We learned from our neighbor across the river that we are responsible for keeping the river clear to the halfway-across point. Our landlord neglected that duty for the past several years, so we probably could have called him to ask for him to take care of it, but we decided instead to tackle it ourselves rather than bother. Both Eric and I ended up thigh-deep in the (cold) water, but we cleared it out in a weekend. There were a LOT of reeds and plants and silt. I pulled the reeds and Eric used our (now unnecessary) snow shovel from Boston to clear out the silt.

While clearing out the reeds we discovered a nest with one solitary, tannish, speckled egg in it. After consulting our personal ornithological authority (aka grandma) we determined it was an abandoned moorhen's nest. We left it for a day or two but it was gone after that, probably disturbed by an animal or swept away by the now-free-flowing current. The kids delighted in the discovery, of course.

I failed to take after pictures, so I will try to do that. Just imagine the river all cleared up and pretty. We spent last weekend wading in it, which was much easier to do now that it's mostly clear. Although Justin did lose a flip flop (like, permanently) to the silt monster that still sucks at your feet along some of the banks...

Lest this story makes you worry that we have disrupted ecosystems with abandon, we received careful instructions from our older and wiser neighbors about what to pull and what to leave, so we left plenty of river plants for the trout to enjoy, pulling only the surface plants that disrupt the flow of the river and threaten to flood the houses that are closer to its banks than ours. (This was a big problem further down the river during big floods a few years ago.)

Can you see the egg nestled among the reeds?

Comments

  1. din'illahi5 June 2018 at 12:00

    Bravo for taking on the clean-up task yourselves, giving you a chance to get to know the stream more intimately. What else besides the trout live in it? Where is the river's source?

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    Replies
    1. Rachel8 June 2018 at 10:53

      Yes, it wasn't too bad. There are other fish, apparently, although I've only seen a trout. There are lots of bugs, and we've had a heron and an egret wading. My mom saw moorhens (probably the one nesting...) A man told us there would be frogs and tadpoles, but we haven't seen them. The river comes from the hills above us and is fed by a bunch of springs. We have springs all over here, including one right up the hill that used to feed the village pumps.

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