Birding it

I woke in the middle of the night to hear pounding rain on the roof and wind ripping through the trees.  When I woke again, all was still and a quite overcast day predicted some time in the canoe.

My start was late enough and my interest in traveling any distance low enough that I set out for the East River to check on the bird life.  I put in about a hour before low tide so much of the silt bank was exposed.  This always draws the Willets and other shore birds to the water's edge.

Willets were quite active around the put in with far more of them audible than visible.  I like to think that I see most of them as I paddle up river, but that may not at all be true.  If a Willet holds still you can miss seeing it from 10 yards.  The feather color blends in well with the silt.  If they lift their wings it's easy to spot them from 200 yards with the broad white and black bars exposed.

Common Loon in summer colors

I take a short side trip up the channel that leads south away from Cedar Island.  This brings out a sentinel Willet that flies high above calling out warnings.

Two bends up I find a Common Loon in summer colors.  Loons winter in this area, but it seems late to see this bird here at this time.  In fact, I can't recall ever seeing a Loon in summer colors in this area.  I observe and it seems healthy enough.  It is diving and when I near it takes a long evasive dive.

Just below the Big Bends a Hawk sets into a tree and begins ripping its lunch apart.  Looks like an immature Red Tail, not particularly large and with fairly light coloring, but it has a red tail.

There's still a good number of Yellow Legs.  They'll move north to nest.

Yellow Legs strutting its stuff

The Big Bends has more Willets than I remember.  I've never counted, but when I first started paddling here I would see 2 or 3.  Last year it was perhaps 6 or 8.  It's clearly much more and it seems that they've colonized this spot.  I always thought that it looked like Willet nesting ground.  The island in the middle bend might have a couple of nests on it.  There's been several Willets on the island each time I've come this way.

Far enough, I return.  I spot the Canada Geese pair just above the Post Road Bridge.  Both are head low and not moving, so the suspected nest is an actual nest.  It is not far from the top of the bank.

Bird Day

The wind seemed ill informed as to the weatherman's prediction, so I diverted to a more inland location that was primarily in the trees or a shallow river valley. 

Just as we set out, S spots a Kingfisher.  I tell her, for no good reason, "I think this is going to be a good bird day."

We head down river.  The wind is gusting today.  It will be almost calm for 5 or 10 minutes, then the wind comes up for about 5 or 10 minutes before dying down.  That cycle repeats the whole time we are out.

We start to spot Great Blue Herons every so often.  Then, when we get to the first big opening, we count seven.  They are all fairly close together.  I've seen this congregating before in Union Bay in Seattle.  For a few days each spring I might find twenty or so Herons lined up in the marsh, each about 5 to 10 yards apart.  I don't know the reason behind it, but I assume it might have something to do with mating.  This is a common observation for the entire trip, Herons is loose groups of three or more.  We don't count but two dozen individual birds is conservative.

Osprey are out and fairly numerous.  A pair are perched in the tree that holds the old Eagle nest.  The nest has been unoccupied for two seasons and is shrinking as it falls apart.

Woodpeckers are constant.  I spot a few Hairys, a couple of Red Breasted, and several calls without sightings.

When we get down to the Tepee beaver lodge, a six foot tall cone that I am familiar with, and the associated well logged feed zone on the opposite shore, we spot a coyote.  It trots down river always keeping an eye on us. 

The Tepee Lodge

We turn back after examining the rootball beaver lodge.  There's no reason to do the final 1/3 of a mile to the big river when so much is going on in the marsh

A side trip on the return locates a Swan nest.  There is a pair that raises a few cygnets in this section of the river each year.  I never knew where the nest was.

Immature Bald Eagle

With a half mile left to the put in, we spot a pair of immature Bald Eagles.  They perch up in one of the back waters and we get to observe them for a few minutes.

Mattebesset River

Spring Day

We put in on our favorite day trip river, perhaps the best day trip river in the state.  Days of rain and wind have given way to a sunny day nearing 60F.  The flood tide has about an hour to go as we head up the Neck River.

Willet

The first Willet had arrived on my last trip into this river.  Then bad weather and a minor bout of the covid virus showed up.  I wasn't particularly sick, but I sure was short on energy for a good 10 days.  So, I missed the entertaining shenanigans of the arriving Willets - the territorial bickering and mating dances that you can see if you are in the right place at the right time.  In fact, that drove our choice of river today, to see how the Willets were.

Osprey are all in place and it is clear that eggs have been laid.  In each nest, one Osprey always stays while the other hunts or stretches its wings.  We see a few Willets as we head up the Neck and into Bailey Creek.  With the high tide I suppose that most of them are back away from the edge of the water.

It is in the Big Bends that the Willets become most active.  This area is usually where their numbers peter out.  Today, there are Willet calls from all sides.  Frankly, they are making quite a racket.  I spot four white tail deer moving along the edge of the marsh a good quarter mile off.  It takes S a few moments to find them with the binoculars.

We pass the arch bridge, the smallpox burying ground and Foote Bridge.  With the water high and the day so fine, we head up past Foote Bridge about another 1/3 of mile where the river is blocked with a deadfall.  The next bridge is just a hundred yards up and I know from past experience that the water runs too shallow for a canoe above that.

Above Foote Bridge

We turn around and retrace our route.

First Willet

With a 6 foot tide, I set out from Foote Bridge, up in the forest near the upper end of this short river.  I figure the tide to be just about peaking as the current is completely slack.  Perhaps there is another hour until the 4-1/2 mile lag catches up at this location.  The day is already near 60 degrees with sun and a light breeze.

Above Foote Bridge

I flush a pair of Great Blue Herons from the well submerged Gravel Flats.  They seem intent on staying near each other rather than staking out their own fishing territory.  When one flies off, the other follows.

Walls of the epidemic burying ground

With the leaves still down, the stone wall of the old epidemic burial ground can be seen from the river.  There was a "sick house" nearby although no sign of that remains.  It's old ground from a day when smallpox or yellow fever were the killers.  It confused me the first time I went up and looked at the wall as it was a neat almost square enclosure.  Most old walls here were farm barriers and so they run for fair distances through the woods.

Below the arch bridge, an area I call the Upper Marsh, both of the Osprey nesting platforms have a pair of Osprey.

orange jelly fish

I spot a Willet just below the Big Bends.  In past springs I've noticed that one or two Willets arrive ahead of the others.  This one looks thin as if it had a long and poorly fed migration.  Well, it's arrived and now it can go positive on the energy balance.  At that same point I notice an orange tentacled jelly fish.  I'm still 2 miles from the sea.  There are many more as I continue down river.

The Sneak in a 6 foot tide

The eddies at the railroad bridge confirm that the tide is still coming in.  I head into the Sneak, which is currently more of a water highway than secret passage.  I scope out a few of the Osprey nests that can be seen from this spot.  Single bird on the railroad nest, but pairs at the other two.  It looks like most of the mated Ospreys are here.  I don't see anymore Willets, and the count for the day ends up being just one.

Above Foote Bridge

 I continue up above Foote Bridge, high water making access into the tangle of the last 1/2 mile possible.  I run into some minor tree blockage about 200 yards short of the next bridge, which is where the water goes too shallow for a canoe at any tide or season.  It was worth the extra distance just for the fine frog that I spotted on the bank.

First Osprey

An Osprey hovers high overhead, whistling without a break as if to scold me for my intrusion.

I put in near the mouth of the river on a cool and cloudy day as the tide reached bottomed out.  There was a light wind that didn't add to much to the mid 40 temperature.  I headed straight up the East River knowing that the water level would be too low to use my preferred route through the Sneak.  The first Osprey have arrived and while I don't make it scientific by counting, I guess that 1/5 to 1/4 of the birds are here.  There are about 10-12 nests in this marsh - again, I've never bothered to count.  When the nesting pairs, who often stay together for life, migrate south, they separate and don't see each other until returning to the nest, which they repeatedly use as long as they are together.  I don't see any obvious pairs yet.

At the lowest of the Big Bends, I spot a whitetail doe and yearling, but then further movement reveals that it is a small herd of eight or ten deer, the brush making it difficult to count.  They amble up and over a rise without excessive alarm of my arrival.

Above the Big Bends I spot a pair of Yellow Legs.

Yellow Legs

Just upstream of the Duck Hole Farms I spot a subtle wake on the smooth surface of the river.  I follow fifty feet behind and note a small burst of bubbles coming to the surface every fifteen feet or so.  It's a pretty sure sign of a swimming mammal and after six bubble sets a muskrat surfaces.  It looks around and dives again.  I can stop looking for it as it is going to change direction or tuck under somewhere until I am gone.

I paddle over the Gravel Flats with ease as the tide is not especially low.  I suspect that recent rain has also raised the water level some.  This is confirmed when I get to Foote Bridge where there is a genuine current running through the constriction.  It is time to return.

The tide is coming in and the Sneak is passable on the return.  There a column of 30-some large Gulls soaring over the lower marsh.  The clouds parted about a 1/2 hour ago and I wonder if they are catching a minor thermal off the spartina marsh.  The nest just below where the Neck River and Bailey Creek meet has a pair of Osprey in it.

Up to the Cascades

I set out in the long shady cove.  It is exceptionally quiet and any bump against the canoe reverberates off the forested hillsides.  What first appears to be a 100 yard long patch of pond matter - small sticks, pine needles and other veggie material, turns out to be a layer of cellophane ice from last night.  It is so thin that the canoe barely makes a sound as it slices through.

Skim Ice

At the main river I turn down to round the first point and head up the more secluded Shephaug River.  Just short of the point I hear a half dozen Canada Geese coming.  It is, in fact, only a pair that flies by, the ghost geese being the echoes of their calls.

A disturbance in the water ahead, what looks to be the final remains of a boat wake, signals that I might not be alone.  Around the point I find a motorboat with two men.  One is wearing a drysuit like surfers or divers wear - the entry zipper running across the back of the shoulders.  Perhaps they are setting a mooring anchor in front of Mr. Bigbucks house.  Then, the drysuit guy  jumps into the water and takes hold of a tow rope.  He is barefoot water skiing and they speed about 2/3 of a mile up the river before stopping.  With 45 degree water, I tell myself a story that the skiers legs are numb to the knees and he has collapsed in a heap unable to feel or control them.  As I near them they speed off the other way.

I spot a young Bald Eagle.

I had planned to observe an Eagle nest that I have seen up on the ridge top.  But, I am unable to spot it and have no sightings of any mature Bald Eagles.  So, my bird tally is made up of several Common Mergansers, a pair of Mallards and a few Wood Ducks.  I also note that there is a frequent beaver activity along this shore -perhaps four well used feed zones.  This is bank burrow terrain without ponds or marshes where beaver could build the more commonly known conical lodge.  I've yet to spot a bank burrow here.  I usually find them by locating the branch pile that guards the vent hole.  Here the banks and hillsides rise up so quickly that they might not have a vent.

I add eight Mallard decoys to my collection.  A sip of schnapps to warm ones self while duck hunting might be "almost" okay, but if you drink the whole bottle you're going to lose some gear.

The Cascades

After two hours I reach the cascade that halts further progress (it also prevents downriver travel as there is a deep gorge of junk rapids that can't be walked out of).  A sandwich, some coffee and some sun before following the opposite shore back.

Social Distancing

It is a good day to be outdoors.  Last night it dipped down below freezing, but now it is sunny and the temperature is climbing into a seasonal 40 degree range.  At the put-in two guys are talking about the virus.  One guy, the one doing the talking, has a raspy hoarse voice, as if he talks alot.  With as much stealth as I can muster (with 16 feet of canoe), I sneak off to the water.

I put in at the bottom of Salmon Cove, a favorite canoe trip of mine since I moved here and "discovered" it.  The upriver side of the cove is the former site of the Yankee Nuclear power plant, which has been visibly removed.  The old site is now a no trespassing National Wildlife Refuge, so the cove has regained a reasonable sense of wildness. 

Text book beaver gnawing

 On the way in I pass a well maintained beaver lodge.  It's been here for a few years and is loarge enough that the adults must be breeding.

Bald Eagle in tree

Up ahead at the bend are about twenty Mute Swans.  After the bend I only find two more.  It has been a mild winter with few of the inland lakes and rivers freezing over for very long if at all.  I've counted over 130 swans here during normal colder winters as this area remains open year round.  

At the top of the cove where the Salmon River enters I spot an immature Bald Eagle.  It is unexpectedly calm about my presence and I get a chance to observe it from a closer than normal range.  A pair of Broad Shouldered Hawks occupy a tree top across from the Eagle.

The Leesville Dam is my turn around point and just as I am approaching, a beaver walks off the beach.  It disappears downstream as I take a short look-see above the dam.  When I return I find that the beaver has also returned to the same spot where I first saw it.  Again, it slips into the water and swims back and forth.  With poor eyesight, beaver rely on motion or smell to determine whether something is a threat.  I cross the river and sit in an eddy and the beaver returns to the same spot again to sun itself and groom.  Time for me to go.

Just before exiting the river and entering the cove I spot two, then a third, then a fourth - immature Bald Eagles.

On the last stretch, I find a flock of swallows.  They must be migrating.  They weren't here when I went in and they aren't actively feeding.  In fact, when they leave their perch high in a overhanging tree, they spend most of their energy chasing each other.