River Trip.

8-23-12 VERMONT: We took the boat, The Chelsea, out on the river, the Connecticut, putting in at North Thetford and motoring up river to look for the green heron and then downstream, south, for more adventures. We didn’t see the green heron, but we did see a blue heron, a much commoner sighting. We also saw what I have ID’d as a double-crested cormorant. The hooked beak is distinctive, and the double-crested is the only eastern cormorant found inland. I considered a female merganser, because of the reddish color, but the eye/beak relationship is different and the orange chin and the swimming depth favor a cormorant.

The bottom of the pond has been draining for three weeks now, and the pond really looks no different except the level is down about two inches because it’s been dry. After another week, I’ll stop draining and wait for a frost to kill any algae and see how it looks then.

New blooms: bottle gentian.


Double-Crested Cormorant. The only eastern, inland cormorant as far as I know. Anyone?

Cormorants swim with the body deep in the water, unlike a duck.

Great Blue Heron stalking the shallows.

The admiral takes the helm.