Bailey Creek Bird Television

S and I get an early afternoon start putting the canoe in on the East River sometime before a not-too-low low tide.  The possible rains have held off and the sky is overcast with a light south wind, and it is sticky humid.

The Neck River meets the East River just about a hundred yards upstream and we take the Neck since S has not been there and I found the bird watching to be very good on my last trip.  Before we get to the first bend we spot two short billed dowitchers, a cormorant, several osprey (most with fish in their talons), a marbled godwit, a black bellied plover, several least sandpipers, and as usual, quite a few willets.  I tell S that I feel spoiled by this area - there is so much happening and at such close range that it feels like I don't have to work for the reward.

short billed dowitcher

When we get to the where the Neck and Bailey Creek meet we choose the creek, which is new water for me.  The bird life drops off some with the banks growing the tall spartina grass, a native but it blocks the sight some.  The creek meanders for at least a mile.  It is longer than the Neck and maintains its depth almost to the very end where we get to watch a young snowy egret feeding on a mud bar.  They shuffle their yellow feet (it looks like they are wearing rain boots) one at a time in the mud to stir up food critters and this is egret is unusually tolerant letting us drift by at twenty feet.

 

black bellied plover

marbled godwit