kayaking

We've finally had some nice weather the past two days, and I've been kayaking with my husband. Yesterday we went on the Charles River and today we spent three hours on the Ipswich River. A wonderful way to spend time! My husband is very good at spying any sort of wildlife. I'm slower at seeing it, but I am better at IDing things. So - we make a good team.
We saw lots of stuff out on the water, but some of the interesting things were:

A musk turtle laying eggs - right by the boat ramp at Elm Bank Reservation! I didn't know it was a musk turtle at the time, but now I do. We also saw one basking, along with a painted turtle. We saw lots of painted turtles also - more on the Charles than the Ipswich. Both rivers were, not surprisingly, quite high, but that made the boating easy - except when the current got too strong.

Pickerelweed - very pretty, and one that I felt I should have been able to identify right away, but wasn't. Anyway, now I know what it is. We saw pickerelweed on both rivers. And that leads me to another sighting.

We saw muskrats! I've never gotten a good look at one before, and today I saw two, napping. My husband saw one swimming, he thinks - he definitely saw something, but wasn't sure what it was. Anyway, muskrats like to eat pickerelweed. And they like to live in marshy areas, which much of the Ipswich river is like. We also saw lots of evidence of beavers, including several lodges, but no actual beavers.

On the Ipswich today, I saw a cedar waxwing, and many eastern kingbirds, at least, I think that's what they were. We saw lots of redwing blackbirds and tree swallows, and a great blue heron flying, as well.

All in all, two lovely days - maybe summer really is here!