Terrapin Station

It is a calm and sunny day. I set out with about 2 hours of rising tide to go. 

I'm in the maze thinking about my success rate at getting through without having to backtrack, "about 4 out of 5 I suppose." Then, I find myself in a pond with no exit other than the way I came.  I spend the next 20 minutes wandering about.  There are no landmarks other than a couple of stands of phragmites.  Phragmites grows on slightly higher ground than the spartina that dominates the marsh, so it marks un-canoeable turf.  I decide to head for the west entrance and I find that channel via a smaller twisty channel that was quite nice.  Then, in the west entrance exit channel, I notice the upriver channel that I had been looking for all along.  That exit is still blocked by a big log, but the alternate path out to Nell's channel is open.  It was all quite a bit of fun.

Yellow Crowned Night Herons are well distributed throughout the marsh.  Just when I think there aren't any around, I spot the head of that bird with its dull yellow mohawk poking up out of the spartina.  The lower marsh, which is well flooded, is occupied by the white birds - Swans, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets.  I see a single Oyster Catcher. 

There are a good number of terrapins basking on the remaining high points.  They slide off into the water whenever I get within 60 or 70 feet.  Then they poke their heads up out of the water - it looks like dozens of thumbs.  Going through the maze, I turn a bend and watch 30 to 40 terrapins all slide off the bank in unison.