It is a fairly calm and mostly sunny day, and putting in at Foote Bridge and 10 AM, it is already nearly 60F. The tide is coming in with about 2-1/2 hours until peak.
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| Looking upstream at Foote Bridge |
Just a hundred yards below the bridge, a large bird is perched high in tree. It is silhouette with the bright sky behind it, but I guess Bald Eagle as it seems too large for an Osprey, and the wrong shape for a Heron. It flushes as I near, crossing the river and confirming my guess, a mature Bald Eagle.
It is a peaceful paddle with just a small wind out of the south. I decide to follow the East River down and return through Bailey Creek and the Sneak. In the bend above the confluence, I spot a Red Throated Loon. Usually, Loons dive and swim off, but this one flies away. Fortunately, I get a photo to confirm my sighting.
I turn up the Neck River. The dock Osprey nest is under renovation by the mated pair. It looks to be about 300 lbs of nest at this point. There are quite a few Lesser Yellow Legs on the Neck River and Bailey Creek shoreline. I pass through the Sneak with ease, as the tide is at peak.
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| Green Winged Teal in one of the Big Bends pannes |
Coming back up to the Big Bends, the tide is high enough that I can peek over the spartina and see one f the pannes. Besides the expected Yellow Legs, there are several Green Winged Teal. 80 or 90 years ago, the government trenched the hell out of the entire marsh in order to drain the pannes and reduce mosquito habitat. The Green Winged Teal, which I rarely see in the main river, are kind of a marker for how backwards that idea was. Eliminating mosquito habitat also eliminated some perfect bird habitat.
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