It Might Be Gray, but it is also Calm

It is a warm and gray day with the cloud ceiling quite low and the wind standing at calm. I set out from under the highway not long after low tide. 

When I get to the marsh, I take the only viable route - Nell's Channel.  There is 4 to 5 feet of exposed cut bank, so none of the inner channels will be passable until the tide comes in.  That 4 or 5 feet of exposed bank is 200 years of sediment.  I've been collecting embedded bottles as a method of determining a sedimentation rate for this salt marsh and today I find none.  If I think hard about it, this might be a tip off as to the stability of the marsh and that erosion is a slower process than I have assumed.  All I find today are tree branches sticking out of the bank. They look like roots that you find in rivers, but there are no trees in the marsh.  Some of the branches are driftwood that settled in the marsh back around the Civil War. 

I exit the channel and continue down the main river.  There are some fifty Brandts at Milford Point.  I continue out hoping to maybe spot a Long Tail Duck. But, I don't find anything except some Mallards and a few more Brandts.  But, it is calm and it is definitely a good day to be out here in the mouth of the river.

I cross the channel, minding the oyster boats, of which there are several. In the river, to limit the catch, the oystermen have to winch their dredge by a hand crank. I find a Common Loon working the tidal current on near the west shore.  When I cut back across to Milford Point, I spot another three Loons.  They still have summer colors.  They will winter here and during that time lose the white cross pattern on their backs.

I work my way through the shallows to the east shore of the marsh.  There is just barely enough water to get through. Spot a Harrier hunting the marsh, but otherwise it is very quiet.