Forgetting Something

I set out with nagging thought that I have left something important behind.  I am out often enough that I keep my gear packed and ready to go, so that when there is a break as the recent weather mandated, I tend to be a bit out of sorts.

It is a fine sunny day and two duck hunters are taking out just as I am getting loaded up.  They've been out since sunrise and managed to shoot one Bufflehead.  They tell me they've been up by Cedar Island, which is on the main river.  It's not where I'd hunt if I hunted, but I wouldn't use an outboard motorboat either.  The ducks in this area are almost always where the hunters don't go.  If you're going to be a duck, you don't have to be stupid about it.

The lower marsh is almost devoid of birds, at least as I can see.  It's probably not due to the hunters as it would be quiet at this time of year anyway. The tide is midway down and falling and my sight line is limited by the bank and the still standing reddish blonde spartina.  I start seeing wildlife signs as I near the Post Road Bridge.  First, it's a recent raccoon track in the silt.  I know it's recent because an hour ago that silt was submerged.  Then, coming into the Big Bends, a Kingfisher and a Ring Neck Duck, two solo Bufflehead hens in the middle bend, then I start flushing Black Ducks.  Black Ducks are shy and usually flush before they can see me.  I suppose I see about 75 Black Ducks.  It's all good.  The middle marsh looks like a autumn marsh should...in most any direction I can see a few ducks flying.  Just before the arch bridge I scare up 75 Canada Geese who were busy fertilizing someone's oversized lawn. 

I decide to turn from just above the arch bridge.  I'll hit shallow water in another 1/4 mile and beyond that I have to wade some to continue.  

Heading back down I realize that I was fighting a bit stronger current on the way in than I had perceived.  Now, the middle marsh is quiet other than four Ring Neck Ducks at the 2nd bend.  The other ducks and geese have moved back to more secluded locations.  

I spot three Great Blue Herons in the lower marsh.  One flies off skimming the top of the spartina, silhouetted by the bright thin haze of clouds that is beginning to form.  The big hawk that I spotted a half mile back has turned out to be a perched mature Bald Eagle.  It's not far now.  I did not forget anything.