October 16th, 2003
by John Hicks-Courant
johnhc@theworld.com
 
This happens to be the day that I finally sat down and wrote the previous article. It was also
the day that I put in the river at 8:30 to check the bottom of the Fourth Meadow one last time.
The river was unusually high because of the rain a couple of nights earlier, and I turned my boat
around and headed upstream. The two things I wanted to check were the results of the previous
night’s wind storms and the condition of the beaver colony in the Little England section of Billerica.
 
It was a glorious fall day, with a bright blue cloudless sky and crisp cool air. I made it all the
way up to the beaver dam in Little England before I turned around.  I never even had to get out of
my kayak, and I only saw one tree that had been broken by the wind. It had fallen away from the river.
 
Seldom has the river looked so beautiful and the foliage so stunning. After the occasionally
strenuous upstream paddling, the downstream trip felt like a ride on the jet stream. It was on
the downstream section of the trip, in the middle of the Fourth Meadow, that I saw a Red Tail Hawk
emerge from the trees edging the meadow. A second later, another Red Tail Hawk appeared. They were
performing a graceful wind-choreographed ballet when they both started screaming. Then I saw the
Osprey come upstream. The hawks continued to screech until the Osprey disappeared in the Fourth Woods.
You’ve just got to get out on the river this fall.