Lord Cove Grand Tour

It would have been a perfect day to put in at Norwich, the high water making it possible to get up through the rocky shallows to the first dam, maybe. But, curiosity won out and I stopped at the bottom of Lord Cove - curious about how the cove fared with the flood waters of last month. I put in at Pilgrim's Landing. The weather is near perfect, again, with a gentle south breeze and temperatures in the 70's.

I go wide around Goose Island, a short stretch in the main river before returning to the cove. The light chop in the river is more than made up for by the tidal flood current and a quartering tailwind. I find a family of Mute Swans as I enter Goose Bay. They've done well, with five healthy gray cygnets in tow.

As for wildlife, it is a very quiet day - just a few Osprey, a couple Great Blue Herons, a Kingfisher, and frequent calls of well hidden Marsh Wrens. I find a muskrat lodge hidden in the cattails and see a few Marsh Wren nests, that's about it.

I paddle the "grand tour", taking in some side trips that are possible, or at least more enjoyable, with the extra water of a very high tide. I head around the cove in a clockwise direction. I do a circle through Coult's Hole, an odd circular open pond in the middle of the marsh. I remembered it having a couple entrances, but it seems to only have one during the summer. The eagle nest in the farthest arm is unoccupied, as it should be, the Eaglets off learning to hunt.

Swamp Rose Mallow

Swamp Rose Mallow - a type of Hibiscus, is blooming all throughout the marsh. The cattails are also doing well and it looks like the wild rice has escaped the fate of the flooded out crop up in Salmon Cove. I find a few Tiger Lilys near my take out - quite pretty, but not native, of course.

D comes across the street while I'm getting out. He's the publisher of an excellent magazine, "Estuary". He gave me a copy in the spring, and this time I get the summer issue. We have a good chat and find out that we have more in common than we would have expected.