Return of the Juveniles

I head across town to the state boat launch, my usual put in for a visit to the tidal section of the Housatonic.  I get the last parking spot. I put my canoe in the water as fast as possible and head down to the marsh and away from the "boat mall".

The tide is almost all the way out.  My route in the marsh will be very limited, but I knew this already.

Common Terns are common right now.  They do summer in this region, but they haven't been in the marsh until recently.  I imagine that their nesting is over and they are coming here to feed on the plentiful tiny fish that are recently hatched. There are 15-20 of them perched on the last dock before the marsh.

Juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron

The other bird of notice is the juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Herons.  Today, my sightings of the juveniles outnumber the adults maybe 3 to 1.  I'm sure the actual numbers are more even, but the juveniles are probably more likely to be at the water's edge as they learn to hunt. There are also a good number of Great and Snowy Egrets.  I imagine some of them are juveniles, but I don't know how, or if, there is a way to differentiate them from the adults. Yellow Legs are also back in the marsh after nesting up in the Hudson Bay latitudes

Probably a Semipalmated Sandpiper

I head back early.  The idea of having to take out amongst a small army of motorboaters has nagged at me while I've been out. I have little in common with any of them and taking out at a launch full of them is like finishing a long canoe trip in a shopping mall parking lot.  Maybe someday I will be big enough to overlook this, but that day is not now.