Low Tide

I set out at low tide and head down to the marsh.  This time of year is particularly good bird watching with recently fledged locals and a variety of migrators.  It is about 75F, almost overcast, with a stiff but doable wind out of the SW.  

Low tide is especially peaceful in the marsh. The choice of routes is very limited, but the low water and exposed mudflats discourage most people from visiting.  All that exposed mud brings out a different bird crew than what one sees at high tide.  A dozen Yellow Legs are at the top of Nell's Channel, and just about anywhere that there is a foot of exposed mud, there seems to be some Least Sandpipers.  There's probably some other look-alike Sandpipers, but that has to be left to the Sandpiper freaks. 

Greater Yellow Legs

 I make my way down the channel and then through one of the side channels that heads toward Milford Point.  A lot of this is in six inches of water.  Four Teal overfly me.  I did not expect them.

Least Sandpiper

I turn around and head back towards Nell's and I decide to see just how far into the island I can get at low tide.  It would be a good spot to spy a Rail, but that's not going to happen.   With the tide rising, I can drift into the island.  There are more Yellow Legs, Sandpipers, plus a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, several Snowy Egrets and some Mallards.  Just about where I run out of water, maybe a 1/4 mile in, I turn a bend and find 3 Snowy Egrets and a Glossy Ibis.  Since I drifted in rather silently, I get to sit and watch.

Glossy Ibis and Snowy Egret

That is the limit for low tide in the island, so I spin and head out.  I flush 4 Teal, possibly the same that overflew me, in Nell's Channel.  The upper east side entrance to the channel has just barely enough water to make the passage.  Then, I head back upriver.