The Crooked River is a small tributary of the Wareham River located entirely within the town of
Wareham,
Massachusetts
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, United States. Its source is found in salt marshes and cranberry bogs east of Indian Neck Road, and its mouth empties into the
Wareham River opposite Swifts Neck. In all, its length is just over one mile.
Flora and fauna
Fish from
Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles (45 kilometers) long by 8 miles (12 kilometers) wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Sinc ...
swim up the Wareham River and into the Crooked River, although the upper half of the Crooked River goes down to bare mud at extreme low tide. The river is home to a number of
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
s that feed on the fish, including the
kingfisher and the
great blue heron
The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos I ...
. In winter it is home to
duck
Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...
s,
Canada geese and occasional
swan
Swans are birds of the family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Som ...
s.
Oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes—deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock ...
s are scattered over the river bottom, and
marsh grass lines its banks.
Human habitation
Small single-family wood-frame homes line much of the river, some of them with private docks and boats ranging from small rowboats to 34-foot yachts.
See also
*
List of Massachusetts rivers
List of rivers of Massachusetts ( U.S. state).
All Massachusetts rivers flow to the Atlantic Ocean. The list is arranged by drainage basin from north to south, with respective tributaries indented under each larger stream's name, arranged travelli ...
External links
*https://web.archive.org/web/20060724194129/http://www.savebuzzardsbay.org/bay-info/BBGRP/PDFs/18.pdf
*http://oaspub.epa.gov/pls/tmdl/enviro.control?p_list_id=MA95-51&p_cycle=2002
{{authority control
Wareham, Massachusetts
Rivers of Plymouth County, Massachusetts
Rivers of Massachusetts