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I start early today and I am in the water by 8:30. This afternoon the rain and wind is supposed to come. At my put-in, there are footprints in the ice leading to a hole 30 feet from shore. Fortunately, there are footprints coming back and the water would have been less than waist deep including the muddy bottom. The ice has receded enough that I can scoot my canoe over the ice 40 feet to the water. When I get to the main bay, I spot 4 swan. They are 3/4 of a mile away on the far side, but easy to spot with the naked eye. So, I paddle counterclockwise around the bay. I don't see the eagles, but as I get closer to the lunch counter, I spot 4 more swan, one of which is still gray. That group flies off when I get within 75 yards. The others swim away. I also spot a solitary horned grebe. I decided to pick some trash as yesterdays wind storm has moved some logs around so that I can get closer to shore. This time, I get out of the boat on a firm hummock to collect the junk. In the photo you can see one of the last really visually offensive pieces of floatation foam. It was 2 x3 x 1 feet. I also gathered 12 tennis balls, some plastic bottles, old rope, and several lightbulbs. It always amazes me that lightbulbs survive so well. There's so many bits of plastic that remain - I'll need a net to gather that stuff or I would be there all day. As I am picking trash, a nearby flock of ducks (at least 100) take off and I swing around to see the two eagles hunting as a team. No catch this time, but they take a perch in a tree near the lunch counter and bide their time. The trees in the photo are also a favorite perch for the eagles.
In the 40's today and the roads are almost clear of snow. This has been my longest stretch of 'not paddling' since I got my canoe. I put in at one of my two usual spots today, almost. The ice was too thick and I had tow, slide and pull the boat 50 yards to open water. It is a lousy ice as it snowed on top of a the 3/4 inch of good ice. So where the ice is thin enough to paddle through, it is soft and flexible, half slush, half ice. There is no cracking when it breaks, it just makes a shooshing sound as the canoe slides against the folding ice. The ducks are in larger than usual flocks out on the open water. The eagles were nowhere to be seen. Of note, there were five swan near the lunch counter. Sometimes swan have nested near there. These five took off when I got within 100 yards and their wings made a sound like that of a large flag flapping in a strong wind. They are so big! I picked trash from the north shore of the bay: Fourteen tennis balls (dog toys), a bocce ball, a childs play ball, some plastic and glass bottles, and some floatation foam. Tennis balls are the single most common and identifiable trash item that I see; they float (unlike most cans and bottles) and they don't biodegrade. I also hauled in a large inflatable lounge... it was a fight, yes, it was a fight to the finish, but the mighty beast was no match when I drew my well-honed Swiss Army knife and eviscerated the creature, dumping the gallons of water it had swallowed in an effort to defeat me. I'd like to take a moment to thank all the people of Switzerland... Thanks. In the photo - The marsh to the east of Foster Island, frozen over with rotten ice. By the end of todays trip, the light breeze had strengthened to a wind and it began to rain just as I left the water.
No, I haven't quit canoeing. We have had 8 inches of snow on the ground for several days - in a city with no snowplows. With an ocean nearby, our snow usually packs into glare ice as soon as someone drives on it. I just haven't felt like doing the 1 mile portage to the lake (because it means a 1 mile portage with a 270 ft climb after paddling. Stay tuned
In the 20's today with just a bit of snow around. I start by paddling a hundred yards through ice that is about 1/2 inch thick. I use my extra beater paddle to pole my way through. Once I get out to where there is any wind at all, the water is open. All of the birds are out in the main part of the bay where the water is open. There is a wind out of the north today and while it is brisk, it is also sunny. I paddle under an eagle perched on the west side of the bay. There is a kingfisher in a tree to my right. When I get up against more ice in the NW corner, I pause and see the eagle as it swoops down on a flock of ducks. I drift with the wind towards the action, but the ducks have gotten away. The eagle then gets up and flies low to the north shore, and begins hunting again. The cattails prevent me from seeing the prey, so I slowly paddle along the edge of an island and wedge my canoe between two logs where I can watch. The eagle sits on the shore and it seems that its prey has gotten away again. Just then it hops up a foot or so and drops with its full weight, then it flies off with something in its talons over to the "lunch counter". I go over to get a closer look, which takes me about 10 minutes. The mate is over there but there is no sharing of the kill - that will happen later when they have young. The catch is being eaten very quickly, so I drift downwind to see if whether it is fur or feathers on the water. It is feathers and lunch is probably coot. In the photo - The largest of the beaver lodges in the bay, this one is about 20 ft in diameter and 6 ft tall. Just to the left is the island that I call the workbench. The beavers seem to drag food to the workbench, they leave the stripped branches scattered about. My channel through the ice is much easier to navigate on the return trip.
Yesterday, the edge of a winter storm came through with lots of wind and rain. This morning was calm and in the upper 30's. I wanted to see how things were in the bay so I got an earlier than normal start. The wind would gradually rise throughout the two hours I was on the water. I spotted the eagles right away although later I noticed that there are now at least three eagles in the bay. I saw two northern pintails during the trip. There are more geese in the bay also. There were more herons than usual. I saw two adult otters. I don't think they are from the five member otter family that I've reported on before. In the photo - For a few years there has been this 20 foot long culvert section up against the cattails and I always figured that it must be too heavy to move. A couple of weeks ago, I went over and gave it a bump and it turned out to be filled with floatation foam. So, today I tied a rope to it and towed it a few hundred yards to where I could wrestle it onto dry land where a road crew will eventually be tasked with hauling it away. It's a bit of semi-bandit-good-deed-earth-stewardship. It sure was fun wrestling the bastard out of the water. But I'm really glad I won't have to look at that thing out in the marsh anymore. At the end of todays trip I watched two eagles hunt ducks for about a 1/2 hour. It appeared that they wounded a coot as all of the others flew off except the one. The eagle would circle and take runs at the coot while the coot tried to spend as much time as possible underwater. After a few minutes, the eagle would rest in the trees and the coot would swim toward safety. This happened three times before the coot finally escaped to hide in the brush.
Weather is moving in from the north today. It is a raw day. We put in and I showed S where the beaver has been marching up and down the outside of its lodge making repairs for the winter. It has been very industrious lately and there were many stripped branches on the little island (I call the "workbench") next to the lodge. We spotted both eagles sitting together in a birch tree on one of the marshy islands and they held still until we were within 30yds. I paddled while S watched with binoculars. I pointed out the different ducks (there were quite a few teal today) as we continued, but S outdid me when she spotted three nutria sitting quietly, just 10 feet from the canoe (see photo). The nutria came from South America and in our region they are fur farm escapees and pests. They overgraze, girdle trees and dig burrows that damage wetland root systems. Nutria are a bit larger than muskrats. The above link will take you to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries where you can see one of their nutria eradication methods.
Today is dark, gray, cool and calm. When I first walked out of the door, it reminded me of the early mornings when I would go duck hunting with my dad. I always hoped that we would walk instead of standing thigh deep in a 40 degree marsh. I saw a ruddy duck just as I started out today. What appears to be a rock with the trees growing out of it, just left of the canoe is called a "nurse log". It is a western red cedar that probably was left behind back when logs were floated through this area to the mills. This one is about 7 feet in diameter, but it is only a short section, some 15 feet long. Cedars are the matriarchs of the NW forests. They provided basketry materials for Native Americans and grow so large and so long that they very much define the areas that they grow in. After they've fallen or been cut down, they continue to nurture by providing place and nurishment for other trees that take root in their remains. I know where there is a large cedar stump (large means 10 ft high and about 10+ feet in diameter) that has 13 full size trees growing from it. This one is growing birch trees and nice variety of mosses and grasses.
