High TIde Wandering

 I set out with about an hour to go until high tide and there is the usual stiff upriver current - something like 3-4mph under the bridges, which can be easily dealt with by hugging the east bank, taking advantage of the eddies and still water that forms in the various convolutions of that shoreline. Yesterday, besides being a holiday, brought a series of thunderstorms, one of which was a real boomer with nearby lightning strikes that flickered the house's electrics. We do get some great thunderstorms here. Today will be on the warm side, but there is a nice south wind and mostly blue sky.

A couple Great Egrets, one Snowy Egret, a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, and one immature Night Heron of unknown exactitude greet me at the top of the marsh. I head into the interior by my favored inside channel. 

Flush a half dozen Mallards.
Spot another YC Night Heron near another immature Night Heron.
Near the NWR launch, I disturb a large immature Bald Eagle. It has some white near the head, but is otherwise dark. I flies out into the center of the marsh and settles in.

From there, I head across the central marsh, winding through the dozens of little mud islands that only number in the dozens at high tide.
I flush one mature and one immature Bald Eagle from about the same spot. They had to be within fifteen feet of each other.

High tide has just arrived, although there is some lag in the marsh as it fills from the outside. But, I have a good hour to go anywhere I want, because I have more than enough time to back my way out of the longest of dead end channels. So, I spend a short hour going everywhere and nowhere. The marsh is surprisingly featureless to the occasional visitor, and damned near featureless to the frequent paddler. I find some new channels, although I may have seen them before. When I find them again on a later trip, I probably won't recognize them.

I spot three Least Terns while I am poking around.

As I head my way out towards Nell's channel, I get scolded by a Willet. This brings in another four Willets to complain. So, now I know where the nesting area is for some of the Willets in this marsh...this I can find again.

Enough, I head back upriver on the last of the lagging high tide.