Little Blue Heron and Glossy Ibis Time

It is not yet 40F with a 10 mph wind that puts just a bit of sting on bare skin. High tide was a half hour ago. The sky is full sun.

I spot a couple of Osprey right off.  Coming down from the top of the marsh, I flush about a dozen Mallards and spot one Great Egret. As I near Opera Singer Point, I start hearing and spotting Yellow Legs at the water's edge.

The Menunketesuck marsh is shaped like an abstract plus sign with east and west arms that are meandering dead ends. It is a high salt marsh that only floods a couple times each month during the highest tides. Because of this, the dominant plant is the short spartina - spartina patens aka salt hay. If the tide is mid level or higher, one can see a long distance.

Greater Yellow Legs and a Lesser Yellow Legs

I first head up the east arm, which meanders while gradually getting closed in by the surrounding forest. I get my first ever sighting of a Lesser Yellow Legs next to a Greater Yellow Legs. Side by side, the difference is more than obvious. I find a few Black Ducks, two Great Egrets and two Snowy Egrets. Because of local nesting of Little Blue Herons, you have to get a good look at Snowys as they are similar in size and appearance to the juvenile Herons. The yellow feet of the Snowy Egrets is the for-sure tell. 

Snowy Egret

As I get back to the main river, I'm thinking about how I will write in my journal that it is a rather thin bird day. Then a flock of seven dark birds rises up way over on the far end of the west arm - a short half-mile away. Ducks maybe?  Then they wheel and circle tightly, all in formation.  That's how Glossy Ibises fly (Ducks usually look like they are going somewhere). As I enter the west arm, two Ibises fly towards me and land, but they aren't Ibises. With the bright sky, all dark birds are just dark birds.  They flush as I maneuver in the wind to get a photo - it's a pair of mature Little Blue Herons. 

Glossy Ibises

I paddle down to the end of the west arm.  If there are more Ibises or Little Blue Herons, they are down low where I can't see them.  I head back out.

Paddling back up the main river, against the stiff wind, two more Little Blue Herons overtake me.  There is a panne on river-right, maybe a hundred yards off of the river, and as the tide is dropping, once they land, I can't see them. Some Yellow Legs fly in and also disappear from view.

I get one more Great Egret sighting as I finish up.  It was a pretty good bird day.