The Summer of 2016
This summer has been hot, dry and long. The Pond and the Lagoon are very, very low. I've heard many people say it's never been so low. But yes, it has. Before the Scalley Damn was built in the early 70's, the high for the water was not far from where it is now. Don't forget, there was a beach from about where the Foley Memorial and flag pole is, around the corner where the damn is now and up along the side where the parking lot is now. And most summers in the 50's and 60's when my husband was growing up you could walk out to the island from Strawberry Cove. My daughters, who are only in their 30s, can remember walking across the Lagoon in the 80's and getting stuck in the mud! But, it really hasn't been THIS low in many, years. I have been documenting the level of the water since it was obvious that we were going into a drought. And since I shoot record shots as a matter of course, I have plenty of shots when the water was still high. And I continued shooting from the same spot as the water dropped. Below you will find photos documenting the summer of 2016 in the Lagoon.
One of the first stops I make on my route around the Lagoon is the first opening on the dirt trail called "Sewer Line Trail". I started shooting in early July. By the end of the month it was way down.. By the end of August an old tree stump a ways out in the water started to show. And by the end of September that stump was high and dry in the mud. We had some rain the 30th of September and the 1st & 2nd of October but it barely made a noticeable rise in the water. Maybe an inch or so in the Pond but because of the spread, hardly noticeable at all in the Lagoon. At least at this end.
As I walk around the Lagoon my next stop is the wide opening across from "Christmas Tree Rock". (That's a story for another time)! From here you can look out across to the bridge on the Causeway. Normally you don't even know it is a bridge. But now you can see the two culverts where the water runs through from the Lagoon to the Pond.
My next stop is only a few feet away to the right. Looking in this direction as the water dropped, you can distinctly see how the 'channel' of Fowle Brook (named for one of the founders of Woburn) runs through the Lagoon and out to the Pond. As time progressed, the mud went from brown to green as plant life normally not seen in many years, flourished and started covering the muddy bottom of the Lagoon.
I have always taken photos at the Red Bridge but usually only on the upstream side. I started out doing just that this year. But as the middle of July approached and it was evident that we were in for a dry summer, I started taking both the upstream side and the downstream side. At this particular spot what little rain we got was always more obvious here as the stream bed is less permeable than out in the Lagoon where any water was soaked up quickly by the thirsty soil. It's also much narrower so what little water there is, is much more visible. You could definitely notice more water on Sunday Oct. 2nd after the rain.
As you walk down the Road towards the Causeway and the Pond, there is a bench that looks out over the Lagoon. From here you look straight across the Lagoon. There is a ditch along the shore that was dug out back in the early 60's in an attempt to change the flow of the channel. Didn't work! Nature always has it's way!!! Because this section is lower, when we get a little bit of rain, like we did in the middle of August, it gets soupy again. Then it dries up again! Eventually it stayed dry and started to get green with plant growth, just like the other side. In fact it got so dry the mud started to crack!
Back out on the Causeway at the bridge you could see the mud line slowly creeping closer. In July the water was still all the way at the back of the Lagoon. By the middle of August you could definitely see the where the water stopped and the mud started. By late September we had a little rain and the channel completely changed it's course. In the photo below you can see the earlier course of the water in blue, and then the new course in red. (This is on of the reasons skating near the bridge in winter is so dangerous. You never know where the channel is.) Since the mud that covers most of the bottom of the Lagoon is a fine, soft silt, it easily erodes. The flowing water left deep channels that look like a miniature grand canyon when view up close.
Spring started out as usual with lots of baby birds. We seemed to have an unusually large number of Cardinals this year also, especially over by the Red Bridge. It was fun watching them turn brighter and brighter red as the summer wore on. And of course we had our usual Canada Goose and Mallard Duck families. But we also had a couple of broods of Wood Ducks! These very colorful ducks were often seen in the Lagoon. And just like the Mallards, it is just the female that stays with the ducklings. The Canada Geese and the Mute Swans however, are mated for life and both male and female raise the young Goslings and Cygnets.