I set out on slack high tide water. It is about 40F, almost calm, and the sky is clear. The spartina in the marsh has gone golden, and still stands tall. It is beautiful. I spot three Common Loons in the river just below the draw bridge. Common Loons winter in this area and are often seen near the mouths of rivers.
I head into the Nell's Island maze. The island is one of the older features of the marsh, existing before people began dredging and mucking about with the way things were. I've never seen anyone else in the island, with "in" being the correct word as one could only be "on" the island at a low tide. I have figured out four ways to get in or out of the island and still give myself a full hour to find my way out. Aside from a few patches of phragmites, which mark high ground, the island is all cord grass. There are several ponds and dozens of deadend channels and nothing that could really be called a landmark.
This is my fourth time in the maze, and while I am still guessing at some of the turns, my guesses are somewhat educated, and I am surprised that I get from the top of the island to the bottom without making a wrong turn. I imagine someone asking me about using GPS, and the conversation goes, "Navigating with GPS is for people who don't know where they are and don't care." At this point, I've been outdoors enough that I care where I stand, and if I don't know exactly where I am, I will figure it out by looking at my surroundings. And, that is a bigger idea than the Nell's Island maze.
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| Norther Harrier |
I flush two Great Blue Herons from the maze. I expected to see more birds, but this is hunting season. Two hunting boats heading out passed me as I headed into the marsh. It's only a square mile and surrounded by houses, so a coupe of shotgun blasts and everything has moved to the outer edges where there is no hunting.
Cutting across the marsh, I see a few Black Ducks, just a couple or a few at a time. I spot a soaring bird and without anything to scale it, I manage to get a telephoto shot of it. The photo shows it to be a Harrier, its white butt patch and owl face clear enough. I push through the grasses to get to the Central Phragmite Patch, and from there, I follow more open water out and back to where I came from.
