Sepia Day

 For the last week, whenever it has been nice out, I've been hanging an art show. My days off have coincided with the grimmest of rainy and windy weather. I finally got out.

I put in under the highway bridge. A car is parked in the middle of the state boat ramp, but oddballs often come down here to have a smoke or just stare at the river. I give it little mind and set out down river.

It is about 50F, no wind to speak of, and cloudy enough to almost be fog.

Halfway to the marsh, a woman is out walking her 3-year old. I greet them with, "Did you see that Eagle?" my arm pointing to a mature Bald Eagle perched in a tree top about 50 yards away from them. Now they are busy. Watching a Bald Eagle is far more fun than watching some guy paddle a canoe.

When I get to the marsh it is easy to see that the tide is half down. I head into my secret channel, the one that leads to the central phragmites patch. A pair of Black Ducks flush and cross my bow. This is no fault of my own however. Behind them is a Harrier, which gives up and arcs away back into the marsh. Flight is a Duck's safe place. Once they are airborne, there aren't too many birds that can catch them. The narrow exits from the channel are about 20 minutes too shallow, so I backtrack and then proceed clockwise around the marsh.

A pair of Scaups having a hissy fit

 
There are a lot of Canada Geese and Ducks today.  I have flushed about a 150 Geese by the time I get to Milford Point.  As I am crossing over to the point, I look up to see birds in the air all around. The one in the middle of that is a mature Bald Eagle. It turns tightly, touches down and lifts a duck with in its talons, and then lands again, no doubt at a nicer table with a better view. What I saw was part 2 and 3 of a typical duck hunt. Eagles often come from a distance with their wings set in a fast smooth glide - no extra movement to alert the target. Then they strike and stun the prey hard, fly past and wheel around to finish the kill.

There is another 150 at the point, and they all take wing together with no shortage of honking. I can hear them even after they are out of view, so they probably settled in the shallows on the ocean side of the point.

Wood hairbrush in situ

I head back up Nell's channel paddling close to the east bank. I find an old wood hairbrush handle protruding from the mud. It's down about 12-15 inches, and while it is undatable, it's probably been there for 50 years.  On the river-left bank just below the little island near the top of the channel, I find a milk bottle sticking out of the back side of a calved off block of bank. It is about 12 inches deep. The block of calved bank will melt away by summer, and before it fell off, that bottle was a foot own and two feet back in the mud. 

1 quart milk bottle, as found (next to the canoe)

Lamb Co. Milk bottle probably 1929-1947

I leave the marsh and head up river. That car is still parked in the middle of the ramp. The engine is idling and it has been there for at least 2 hours, Two people are inside, either sleeping or unconscious. I call the police, who ask me to wait. The fire department comes out and talks with the knuckleheads. Then I have a nice talk with the firemen, trade bird stories and stuff like that.