I head downriver as the last few minutes of the high tide comes in. It is a sunny day with a few large cumulus clouds floating about and a light wind coming upriver.
The Common Terns seem to be gone. Recently, they were perching on the first dock above the marsh. I am not sure, but I imagine they have continued on their migration south. Terns have very long migrations.
 |
| Nell's Not-much-of-an-island |
I head direct into the Nell's Not-Island. Nell's whatever-it-is has been part of a recent art project, so I end up thinking about it when I'm out here. Nell's is at least 90% spartinat alternaflora, the variety of salt marsh grass that grows where the grass is flooded on most every high tide - twice a day. When is an island not an island... maybe when it is fully submerged twice a day? Anyway, I've pretty much decided that it became known as an island because their are navigable channels on either side of the what-ever-it-is.
 |
| The middle of Nell's Not-really-an-island |
The main river is to the west and it is capable of handling large barges and the steamboats that once traveled it. The smaller channel to the east still can handle a pretty large boat - something around 50 foot or so, at least during mid to high tide. And that's pretty much why it is an "island"... because you can't run into it without wrecking your boat. It probably all stems from an era when marshland was considered wasteland - Nell's was only marked on maps because it was in the way.
At high tide, no part of the island is any different than anywhere else in the marsh. It's just channels and ponds separated by strips and patches of flooded spartina. I flush Night Herons as I pass through the maze. Then, I head across the marsh to the east. There are Night Herons and Egrets perching in the trees south of the refuge put-in. I head north instead and take a back channel up to the Central Phragmites patch, where I flush about a dozen mature Black Crowned Night Herons and a few Yellow Crowns. Then, I head back upriver.
No comments:
Post a Comment