Sneaking About in the Marsh

It is overcast except for a couple of tiny blue patches of sky among the clouds. And, it is unusually dark, reminding me of the dawn starts that I used to do more often. Those sunrise marsh moments always reminded me of the early morning duck hunts with my dad, which began several years before I was old enough to have my own gun. With the conditions as they are, my guess is that I will be the only one out here for the next hour or more.

The tide is coming in, but there is already enough water to make it through most of the inner channels, and heck, if I should happen to bog out, I would not have to wait long for the water to rise enough to make my exit.

An Osprey splashes down and lifts off - a miss. A Great Blue Heron flushes, then a couple Night Herons, and a couple Egrets. I head into a narrow passage that will take me to the Left-of-Nell's-Channel Channel. This channel stays open except at low tide, while Nell's is always open for a canoe.

A bottle on a sloughed bank draws my attention. I can't use it to date the sediment, but I'm glad I made the diversion. It is probably not particularly old, but it is well embossed - "The Crystal Bottle Works" from Ansonia. Ansonia is about 9 miles upstream, but I did not know there had been a bottling plant there. 

As I get near the lower marsh, I cut across to the east shore, weaving through small islands of spartina. I flush a dozen Night Herons and a flock of fifteen Ducks. The Ducks are too small to be Mallards and too large to be Teal, and I don't get a good enough look to identify them any more than that. There are two Snowy Egrets, but as one of them flies past, I reassess - this one is a juvenile Little Blue Heron.

From the east shore, (a Sharpshin Hawk flies over, close) I head in to the Central Phragmites Patch where I flush three dozen Night Herons. Six of them are Black Crowns and the rest are either juveniles or Yellow Crowns.  I try to push through the narrow exit channel west and north of the patch, but it is too overgrown and I have to back out. I hear some voices, the first sign of anyone else in the marsh. A Harrier overflies me, as close as the Sharpshin had been. I exit without being noticed and head back across the marsh in a convoluted route towards Nell's Channel. I daydream about someone asking me if I know where I'm going.... "No, I don't know where I am going although I do know where I am." That's a pretty good description of myself.

Two Black Crowned Night Herons

When I get to Nell's Channel, I turn upriver, taking the little side exit that I used to enter the marsh. A pair of faddleboarders are coming by, so I wait for them to pass, and I exit unseen.