Marsh Time

I put in under the highway bridge and head down river to the marsh. Yesterday was windy and it rained most of the night, and the morning did not look much better, but the wind dropped off by 9am and the sun came out for an hour or so before the sky decked over with an even overcast of thick clouds. Anyways, it was all good enough for canoeing and I started out halfway into the rising tide.

I flushed a couple Great Blue Herons and a Great Egret right away, and it seemed that there was always a Kingfisher with me for the mile down to the marsh. There, I spotted one Night Heron, so they have not all migrated, yet. Mostly, I am flushing Black Ducks and a few Mallards as I head into the marsh. It is not huge numbers, but I figure to have flushed 75 or so by the end of the trip. 

Juvenile Night Heron

I head into the central phragmites patch, just to get a read on how many Night Herons are still in the area. I flush five - one Yellow-Crowned, two Black Crowned, one juvenile and one that I could not identify. This is about a third of what I have flushed in two weeks ago.  They are still here, but some have moved off.

I find about a dozen juvenile NIght Herons in the lower east corner. Juveniles tend to hang out in this corner for some reason. It is shallow, so perhaps the young birds have better luck hunting in shallow water.

I head west and, getting bored with open water, head into the spartina and get lost for a half hour before finding my way back to the bottom of Nell's channel.  I flush a few Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets while I am in there. It seems that the Snowy Egrets are gone - have not seen one. I spot a mature Swan with two cygnets - one is the rare white morph.

It is an easy and peaceful paddle back up river. I had the entire marsh to myself.