Hey, who pulled the stopper out of the Mother Brook?

There's probably a good reason why the "pond" off Sawmill Lane and Milton Street in Dedham has been allowed to dry up and become a giant field of mud with a rivulet meandering through it. Like maybe the state's planning to clean up all the shopping carts, scooters, computer monitors and other stuff that's been dumped there (anybody know?).

In the meantime, though, parts of it now look more like something out of a region at the beginnings of a prolonged drought (the other side of Sawmill is apparently more fertile - it's full of green plants):

But what looks unattractive to people is apparently desirable to birds - yesterday, I spotted ducks, geese, an egret and a couple of herons on the new mudflats.