Completing the flying heron triplet: The day after you posted this,
my local newspaper ran a front page article on blue herons with a
large photo. Apparently they can be found in areas where dams have
flooded rivers and created ponds/swampy lands. This is because they
build nests in dead pine trees (the flooding from the dams kills the
trees).
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "Michael Donner"
<barbaria_longa@h...> wrote:
> thanx again lowell & theia too
> i like them both
>
> an online japanese english dictionary agrees nobori means ascent
> while incidentally denying nabori means anything at all
>
> & for sawa
> this dictionary gives swamp or marsh or valley or dale
>
> so perhaps sawa nobori really refers to the ascent of any valley
> & not necessarily only a particularly high or steep or wet one
>
>
> in any case it was indeed already showering as we climbed gently
out of the
> greater hartford area
> & by the time i could find a suitable place to duck into the bushes
for a
> rest stop
> i was surprised to find myself standing over a perfectly idyllic
little
> canoe stream
> which
> when i finally consulted the map
> proved to be none other than the willimantic river
> in fact just below stafford springs
>
> i guess that stop marked the unofficial start of the physical
sawanobori
>
> but wondering also where to officially start double checking my
guesses
> i inspected first the confluence of furnace brook & middle river in
downtown
> stafford springs
> where a great blue heron i flushed gave me my start
>
> but i was not surprised to find the latter stream the greater
>
> as the hour was late & the shower increasing too
> we next made a bee line up route 32 past state line pond til i saw
a
> familiar looking ctma marker go by on our right
>
> i pulled over & stopped tho
> for i knew we had made a rather tentative decision here about
following
> sawmill brook
> a decision which was really still blowing in the wind & in need
some
> buttressing before we could proceed up this brook with a clear
conscience
>
>
> that old truth head
> colonel schoolcraft
> is credited with discovering the source of the mississippi
> & naming it lake itasca as in
> ver itas ca put
> which he thought meant true headwater in latin
>
> it is always forgotten tho
> number one
> that the true mississippi is not the upper mississippi but the
missouri
> river
> & number 2
> that even this truth head lake has several feeder streams
>
> & so there is still in fact somewhere to go & grow on a nominal
upper
> mississippi itasca sawanobori
>
>
> of course we dont want to make these same old mistakes on our
sawanabori of
> the new thames
>
> & moreover it would have been all too easy to just plow ahead right
up
> sawmill brook or even to just assume & declare our state line pond
here the
> itasca or truth head of the thames
> & call it a day
> as it was growing darker too
>
> this would have been a beeping fine place to quit too
> right at a border stone near a state line pond
>
> yet this divided pond was not divided by the border
>
> yikes
> divided object freaks
>
> what it was divided by was only 2 distinct major watersheds
>
> the one entering from the north & called sawmill brook
> & the unnamed one entering from the east
> http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=42.0225&lon=-72.31528
> where selecting large map size & updating map at left gives you the
state
> line itself
>
> of course
> what i really needed to do first was examine the mouths of both
these brooks
> in order to compare the volumes of their contributions
>
> & yet when i turned around & scouted the neighborhood
> i found i couldnt reach or even see the mouth of sawmill brook
without a
> canoe
> & also found that the unnamed brook was streaming significantly at
its mouth
> near stoney lane
>
> & i then concluded
> all i could hope to do was carry my visual impression of this
stream with me
> up to the lowest place on sawmill brook where i could see it &
compare these
> apples & oranges impressions
>
> not a very satisfactory method
> but if the sawmill was found to be streaming anywhere better than
this
> nameless brook was streaming at its mouth
> it could win hands down by such a method
> without needing to pull rank by comparative appellation
>
> which had been the only & tentative basis of my earlier assessment
>
> so maybe we might get away here without a canoe trip
>
> but tho the rain was increasing
> sawmill brook was not appreciably stronger than its unnamed
competitor
> when i finally reached it at the first road crossing
>
> so all bets were suddenly off
>
> & the expedition is stalled again
> at state line pond
>
> this is of course not the whole story of the try
> but it is the essential nutshell
> among many other wanderings around moulton hill i will save for
later
>
> but when as a parting gesture
> i examined the outflow over the dam of state line pond i found it
> substantially greater than the sum of my 2 admittedly imperfect
inflow
> impression assessments
>
> which threw the last of my calculations & assessments into complete
disarray
>
> & was startled again by a second great blue heron i had also
surprised into
> flight
> here at the exact top of the middle river
> to perfectly match the one i had started with at the exact bottom
of the
> middle river
>
> but i kid you not
> bottom middle & top
> she really wrote
>
> & you dont often see a couple of great blues in a month around here
>
>
> should i leave you with aerial pix of the state line pond feeder
streams
>
> thats where i am headed next
>
> will also try to compare watershed areas
>
>
> yoicks tally ho & boops
> i mean beeps
>
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