Long Enough

I was in need of a long paddle and a little more, so I set out from the nearby Feral Cat Park on the Big River and headed upstream, a light tailwind at my back and the last of the ebb current on my bow.

The Osprey, which have several nests in the vicinity of where Peck's Mill once was were a short bit upstream of that place circling or perching, but generally looking for feeding opportunities.  At spacious intervals on all shorelines were Egrets, also looking for feeding opportunities.  A pair of adult swans kept two cygnets safe between them and some gulls waded about in the splash of water that covered the nearest sand bar.

...spotted a deer along the steep and shady bluffs on the east side of the river.  We both seemed to be enjoying the shade and the cooler air sliding down that slope.

At the second island up, the name which escapes me, I spied a nuclear family sunning on the shore near a beached motorboat.  I was waved over.  The owner was receiving a lesson in tides.  He had beached the boat and gone about messing around with his daughter only to find his boat a little farther out of the water than where he had left it.  The two of us managed to spin it around and get it almost free when a sewage pump boat happened along.  They tossed us a line and towed it free.

I stopped in the shallow side of the third island, Great Island.  From here, I phoned my dad and caught up.  A kingfisher did a fine 45 degree dive not 50 yards away, a couple Egrets worked the shallows, and a mother duck with nine very small ducklings moved past without alarm.

The return was less exciting.  But, the headwind was very refreshing on such a warm day.  It was not as long a paddle as I had intended, but it was long enough.