Low Tide through the Wheeler

I first went to the refuge launch, but found that my ideas about the rising tide were a bit too optimistic with twenty feet of exposed mud between firm ground and the water.  And, I know from past experience that the goo will be half knee height or better.  I divert to the state launch, a mile upriver but with a concrete ramp descending into the semi-briny. 

It is mostly cloudy and warm with a light wind from who knows where.  The tide coefficient is very low, so the difference between high and low tide is small, and the resulting tidal currents are also minimal. Low tide was almost 2 hours ago.

Reaching the marsh, it is clearly low tide and I head down Nell's Channel, which is always deep enough for a canoe.  I find a bottle protruding from the cut bank.  It is a one pint Lord Calvert bottle, 15 inches deep on river left, about 1/3 of the distance from the bend to the main lower entrance to the Nell's Island maze. At that depth, the bottle has probably been in place since around 1950.

I continue on to Milford Point, passing the point for a quarter mile or so towards the sound.  But, there are almost no birds of any interest, so I head back to the marsh.

Crossing over to the east shore, I spot a Clapper Rail, but it disappears into the spartina before I can get at my camera.  There is no point of trying to out wait a Rail, so I move on.  I flush an immature Yellow Crowned Night Heron, but again, no time for a photo.  I do pass several Snowy Egrets and one Swan.  Then, at the east shore, I find another immature Yellow Crowned Night Heron.  This one poses for me.  That is the big change since my last trips in here. It seems that most of the Night Herons have migrated out. I do not see any Osprey as well.  

I head back out and upriver. It has been a quite pleasant day.