Birds - Menunkatusuck River

 I headed east, unsure of where I might put in. Curiosity took the lead, as it often does when I wander. I pull off the highway and stop at the Menunkatusuck put-in. No one else is here - always a good sign. The curiosity part of this stop is to check on the birds. I was here last on August 1 when there were a good many Glossy Ibises and Little Blue Herons in attendance.

After a few days of marginal to bad weather, today is a complete peach. It will top 70F with light north winds and all sun. The tide is very high - the Menunkatusuck is a salt marsh.

I follow the river channel down as far as Opera Point, spotting a few Great Egrets and thirty Mallards along the way. I have not been here at this tide level before, and it is clear that the river channel is just a suggestion today. This marsh is a high salt marsh - most of the ground is flooded only a couple of times each month. The vegetation is the short spartina patens (salt hay), a salt grass that is about 8 inches tall. Only on the sides of the channels does the taller spartina alternaflora (cord grass) grow. Cord grass is up to 3 ft tall. 

Little Blue Heron

I spot a dark wading bird and scope it with my camera. It is an adult Little Blue Heron, and two first-years are standing nearby. The first-years are white, similar to Snowy Egrets except for bill and feet colors. At this point I leave the river channel and my route aims towards any interesting birds. There is rarely less than 18 inches of water anywhere in the marsh.

From the west side of the marsh, I spot a dozen white birds perched near the Osprey platform, some 500 yards off. I head there, and get within about 60 yards without causing any concern on the bird's part. There are 2 Great Egrets, 8 Snowy Egrets, 5 first-year Little Blue Herons, 2 adult Little Blue Herons and a single Little Blue in the calico morph - a patchy blue/gray feathering of a second year bird.

Left to right - Snowy Egret, immature Little Blue Heron,
adult Little Blue Heron, Great Egret, immature Little Blue Heron

I head through the railroad bridge, where there is still a stiff flood current coming in. But the effort pays off - I get to watch a mature Bald Eagle hunting something in the water. 

Young Little Blue Heron morphing into an adult

I head back through the bridge and up into the eastern arm of the marsh. The channel here is positively intestinal, turning back tightly on itself at each bend. But, with the tide I just paddle straight up all the way into the very end of the arm, which I've never been to because of blocking deadfalls. 

I head back out, following the edge of the forest, then over to Opera Point, then across to the forest on the east side, and then back out. I head past the put-in up to the Chapman Pond Dam - just to extend the trip another half hour. 

As with my last trip, the high tide let me collect trash from places in the marsh that are normally out of reach. I finish with contractors bag equivalent.