Plum Island

Before moving on again we're briefly checking in on my mother in law's house on Plum Island, Mass. I've been here dozens of times before and lived here in 2005 for six months. Winter is a terrific time to visit the place. The Merrimack River is choked with ice and the Plum Island basin freezes over. The bottom two thirds of PI is a bird and wildlife sanctuary and if you're a twitcher there are many interesting avian critturs this time of year. There are many species of geese and ducks down from Canada of course but also hawks, sparrowhawks and other raptors out of their range (according to the maps in the field guide). This morning I saw an enormous adult bald eagle. It must have had an eight foot wing span and when the geese saw it they panicked en masse and headed off in giant voleries for somewhere less terrifying. 
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Incidentally the spellcheck for this post hates twitcher, critturs, masse and voleries but I'm keeping all of them.