Boy Scout Day

It's a fine day with a watercolor wash of clouds above.  It is a fine visual metaphor for my canoe trips.  I always feel washed afterward, the edges softened and the complexities melting into one.

Three Snowy's and a Great

I ride the ebb current down to the top of the marsh, which seems to be Egretville today.  Seven Great Egrets and twenty feet further, seven Snowy Egrets.  Three Cormorants, a few Mallards and a pair of distant Osprey finish the momentary count.

I down through one of the internal channels, the tide still being high enough for such tomfoolery.  I'm surprised to find "that" Swan still on the nest.  It seems late for the hatching, and if it is going to happen, it can't be too many days away. I pass a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, and then aim for the tip of Milford Point, as the marsh is well flooded between here and there.  There are no less than a dozen Great Egrets in sight, as they stand out against the lush green spartina, which is only grown - 15 inches at most right now.

That Swan Nest

Two Osprey at the point, but the migratory shore birds of the two weeks ago are gone, at least until fall.  I head counter-clockwise around an out, picking a few items of floating trash as I go.

Then, I head back upriver against a stiff ebb current.  This is the time to hug the shore and take advantage of eddies and slower water.  Nearing the first docks of the shoreline houses, I spot two women on small sit-on boats. They are wearing their PFD's...something I always check for when I get near people.  One flips.  They're out at the edge of the main current, which is moving at 3-4 knots. She's floating, but having a minor struggle.  She gets on her board, but flips again when she runs into the dock raft.  She crawls onto her board-thing as I get there.  Her paddle is missing, I suspect it is under one of the floating dock rafts as it should have come near me.  I tow her over to the shore so she can catch her breath, then I call her friend over, and out of the stiff current.  The paddle finds its way into the open and I go retrieve it.  My new friends are fine, but clearly surprised by the current.  I give them a brief lesson in paddling upriver (and checking tide charts)...hug the shoreline, rest when you get into an eddy, and stay away from the upstream side of the dock floats.  We chat and I assess the skill level, and decide to escort them, without really telling them.  I turn it into a lesson in reading water, pointing out the tell-tales that I'm looking at to spot eddies and faster water.  We talk about birds and I tell them of a couple other good spots to put their boats in.  It all works out.