Contrasts

It is exceptionally still and the ripples from setting the canoe in the water radiate out and don't fade away until they are more than a hundred yards out.

I head up and round the top of Pope's Flat and follow its west side downriver until crossing the channel over to the other spartina island of which I can never remember the name.  I spot 4 Willets.  I don't remember seeing Willets out here.  The government has been performing phragmites control...eliminating large patched of the dense invasive reed.  Willets nest in grasses where they have long uninterrupted sight lines.  They seem to keep their distance from trees and other vegetation that can hide predators.  Removal of the phragmites so that the native spartina can thrive creates additional nesting territory.  In fact, phragmites only supports 20% of the species that a spartina salt marsh can hold.

It is steamy hot with a thick layer of translucent cloud that acts much like greenhouse glazing.  I shoot some photos of the old coal plant noting in the eyepiece the contrast of the monolithic structure to the low marsh islands with their dark brown banks and green tops. 

Swans at the top of Wheeler Marsh

I turn back at the top of the Wheeler Marsh.  It is low tide and much of the marsh is impassable, even for a canoe.  I also want to beat the sun as it is starting to burn off the clouds.

I spotted 3 Great Blue Herons, 4 Willets, 3 Black Crowned Night Herons.