East River

I put in up at the high end not long after the low tide.  Nothing here looks to the eye like it would be influenced by the sea, but it is.  Fortunately, recent heavy rains have added a couple inches to the "natural" level of the water.  I drift off on a good current, gently weaving the canoe through the occasional boulder or deadfall, enough water to float the canoe but, more often than not, not enough water for the paddle.  As it is, the water is shallow until past the stone arch bridge, but I only step out in the gravel flats, three short wades to push the canoe a few feet to water that is an inch deeper.

fiddler crabs

The whole time while above that first bridge, there are four osprey circling.  But, the dominant birdsong is from marsh wrens.  The cattails are waist high everywhere.  There is enough material for nesting and so the males are advertising.  I spot one nest, still in construction and not quite the round ball of woven cattails and grasses that it will be. 

wren nest in construction

I start to see willets just before the big bends.  This isn't their favorite spot, so it is just a few here and there.  It's below the railroad bridge where willets take over.  Sometimes as I approach, one on the bank seems to imagine that I won't notice it.  I'm sure that it often is not their imagination...unless they make rapid movement or show their wings, which are black and white banded, their coloring hides them on a mud bank quite well.  When they do complain, the call raises the alarm and a dozen others repeat...everyone knows where I am.  They are sentinel birds.

the well dressed willet

I turn back at the confluence of the Neck and East Rivers.  Looking at the bank, I've arrived 3 hours before high tide and there will, therefore, be no passing through The Sneak.  I turn back up the East and ride the flood tide and tailwind. 

Common terns start showing up to fish, splashing headlong with fair frequency.

the two adult osprey are feeding a fledgling whose head can be seen in between them