Loon Fest 2025

Today is a brief calm, few of which we have had this month. The beginning of the month was windy as hell with repeated days of 30mph gusts. During that time the temperature dropped enough to start freezing up the fresh water. By the time we had a calm day or two, the only open waters were near the salt water of the sound.

I put in about 2 hours after low tide under the high bridge and head downstream to the Wheeler Marsh. A couple guys are pulling out their small oyster boat prior to a cold snap that is due to arrive tomorrow. It should be cold enough to freeze the calmer spots in the river.

Just down from the draw bridge there is a large Loon in midstream. It still has most of its summer colors.  Common Loons winter in this area. Many people don't know this because the Loons are rather silent in winter and they lose mush of their fancy coloring.  In fact, there are 4 Loons in sight as the pair of what I assumed were Mergansers on the far side of the river are actually Loons.

I head in for a clockwise circuit of the marsh. Ahead, a large bird crosses the river. Backlit by hazy sunlight, it's not easy to identify. It could be a Great Blue Heron or a Bald Eagle, but it rises up and sets its wings for a glide... almost for sure an Eagle. Then, a large number of birds flush from the river as the big bird begins a wide slow circle. That is an Eagle for sure, and those birds know that it is an Eagle on the hunt, for one of them.

I round the marsh, which has just enough water for me to coast over the shallowest section on the east side. A hundred Canada Geese come in from the sea, overfly me, and scatter off to who knows where. I don't think I could ever get tired of hearing the honking of Geese as they fly past. I spot several Harriers. It is probably 4 to 6 different birds, but it is impossible to tell - since Harriers skim the marsh hunting for prey, I can't see them once they are away from the channel that I am in, and they often skim all of the way across the mile wide marsh.

I find 2 more Common Loons in Nell's Channel. I collect an old liquor bottle from the east side of the side entrance to Nell's - 15 inches deep and by the embossing, before 1968.

I return upriver, counting 6 Loons, and a flock of a dozen or so Buffleheads.

First Day of the Year

I put in at the old stage crossing on the East River. But as often happens in these parts, I talk with a couple of guys who are passing by on their walks out into the forest. They ask how far I am going, and I tell them, "down to the sound, it's not that far." This is not true, but I don't know it, yet.

It is overcast and quite gray. The tide is close to peaking and there is very little wind. Wind, in fact, is the reason that this is the first day of canoeing this year. Since New Years, We have had repeated days of wind with 30mph gusts. The temperatures have been wondering around freezing for most of that time, just cold enough to get ice forming on fresh water, particularly along the banks and in protected areas with little current. But, here at the put in there is very little ice, and I've crossed the brackish section of the river recently and there was no ice there.

A Red Tail Hawk flushes from a tree and crosses the river just as I get started.

There is some ice slabs floating in the river at the irst bend held in place by skim ice that formed during the night. There's quite a bit of ice over the Gravel Flats, but I get through by following a meander of skim ice and only have to push through thicker ice for a dozen feet. The solid ice is about a half inch thick and with a gentle push and some rocking, it's not too hard to open a channel. 

The next bend has some thicker ice to push through, but again, it isn't too bad. But, the bend near the saw mill dam is nearly solid for about 150 yards. I take a side trip though the flooded cattails, getting down half of that distance, but there isn't a let up.  I could get through this section, in maybe a half hour or so, but the real issue is that I need to make it back up to my start point, and as the tide drops, more ice is going to break loose and come downriver, and this section of ice looks like it is going to stay put for the day. That is one of the considerations when paddling in ice - making sure that you can get out/back to shore at the end of the trip. I figure that this section of the river is going to be a portage on the return, and I don't want to do that.

I turn around and head back.  With the high tide, I can get up into the twisty upper section of the river, which braids into two or three narrow and brushy channels.  I find some wintering over Wood Ducks in there, and make it up the bridge above the put-in, and then head back down to the saw mill dam bend, deciding to do a couple laps of this section of river instead of just packing it up. 

On my third lap, I stop in the Gravel Flats.  The Flats are mostly clear of ice at this time, but all of that loose ice is jammed up in the narrows below the Flats... science, duh.