The Home Turf

I set out into a murky day just as the morning mist dissipates. The tide is very near high and there is no wind with a temperature somewhere under 50F. I follow the east shore down the river to the marsh.  I was just thinking about how I hadn't seen any Common Loons in their normal fishing area around the bridge when one surfaced in mid river.  

At the top of the marsh, I head over to Nell's Island.  With the high tide, it is a perfect opportunity to head into the Nell's Island maze. I flush some Black Ducks and scattered Canada Geese in the maze, and make it through to the south end of the island with only one wrong turn, although I seem to find the exit via a secondary channel that I've not before been in.

Ducks and Geese are well distributed throughout the marsh, which I credit to the end of hunting season a few weeks ago.  I flush some Geese, which sets off a chain reaction of Ducks and Geese going to wing.  But, unlike during hunting season, I watch them settle down in the marsh again.  In hunting season, they just leave the marsh. I flush a flock of seventy five Green Wing Teal from the center of the marsh.  I saw a hundred or so Green Wing Teal yesterday in the Connecticut River, so they are definitely on the migration. There are more Teal scattered throughout the marsh.

I somehow miss the passage leading to the Central Phragmites Patch, so I back out, interrupted very briefly by a Snipe flying at high speed across the top of the spartina. I take an obvious route over to the east shore, then cut back into another inner channel that leads to the top of the marsh. A Harrier sweeps through. I really like watching Harriers hunt, gently and silently gliding low across the top of the marsh, weaving and bobbing at times to get closer looks at possible prey.