A Clever Ruse

It is a far too nice day to not be out. I put in under the highway bridge It is about 60F with a light wind out of the East and the tide has just started to fall. It is an easy and quick paddle down to the marsh.

I'm greeted at the top of the marsh by a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, my first sighting of this bird this spring. It is clever ruse.

Yellow Legs

The marsh is still very much flooded as the passing high tide was a higher than usual one. The shoreline feeders, like Willets, Yellow Legs and Sandpipers are standing on the small patches of marsh that remain above water. Before I am even fifty yards up the inner channel, I've spotted 30 Yellow Legs, in groups of 6 to 20 individuals. There are also some Willets, but the Yellow Legs are much more numerous. 

The Central Phragmites Patch

I head up the east side, then out into the center of the marsh and paddle up towards the central phragmites patch. I flush a dozen or so Green Wing teal, a few Mallards, and a couple of Black Ducks. There is a Goose Nest well hidden in the phrgamites patch and a Swan nest out in the open on the east edge.

Perhaps Semipalmated Sandpipers

Next, I head along the upriver side of Cat Island. The water has already dropped enough that I can make it all the way around the island. So, I come back out and head up into Beaver Creek, which I haven't visited for a couple weeks.

The clever ruse is revealed right away. 4 Yellow Crowned Night Herons, then 2 more, then 2 more, then a few more. Before I turn and head back out, I've spotted at least 20 of them hiding back here. They will all nest on Charles Island, which is a mile distant.

Yellow Crowned Night Herons

I hug the shore on the way back up river against the ebb current. It's counterintuitive, but the stronger the current is, the longer the eddies and slack water sections are, at least in this part of the river. It goes pretty easy.