Scott Canoes Because it is Raining

 My friend, D, a programmer at the excellent local free format FM radio station, WPKN, sends shout outs to people, and today they are mixed with a weather report.  "So and so is not doing such and such, because it is raaaining." 

He does a few of these and then I hear, "Scott is not canoeing, because it is raaaining."  This comes over the car radio just about the time I pull up to the river.  Of course, I often canoe BECAUSE it is raining.

Snowy Egret (black bill, yellow feet)

A heat wave of 90+ temperatures has kept me off the water for about a week.  Today the temperature has dropped ten degrees, the sky is overcast, the winds near calm, and the rain is at most a light sprinkle.  I put in at the bottom of the East River and head up the adjoining Neck River paddling into a light humid wind.  

Laughing Gull

This is a time of change in the salt marsh.  The bird life in particular changes as dramatically as it does during the migrations.  Right away I spot a few Laughing Gulls.  They are easy to identify, medium sized with black faces.  They're only here in mid summer for a couple weeks and always down here at the bottom of the river.  This is also the time I call "the Doubling of Osprey."  The fledglings are no longer hiding down in the nests.  They've started flying and are sitting in nearby snags or high on their own nests.  For a week or so they will be easy to distinguish from the adults; their wing beats are clipped and the wings don't stretch to full span.  The analogy is someone walking on ice and it seems that they think they will fall from the sky if they don't keep flapping.  The other very obvious notable in the marsh is the complete lack of Willets.  They have fledged during my absence and moved to better feeding grounds.  I am above the railroad bridge before I see one, and only one.  It comes from a long ways across the marsh and overflies me several times calling out a not too panic'd warning cry.  And, with the lack of Willets, Great Blue Herons are back in the lower marsh.  Since they will eat baby birds, the Willets don't tolerate them during the nesting period.

I continue up river until I'm a hundred yards or so beyond Foote Bridge.  From there I return.  I pass two guys in a canoe who are either working out for a canoe race or pretending that they are canoe racers.  I suspect an onrush of boring gear questions, so I give a quick greeting and move past...they're busy.  A kayaker at the Big Bends is the only other traffic for the day. 

The dropping tide carries me along fairly quick and I make it to the Sneak in time to get through - it is a mid tide or higher passage only.

AS I return, the Osprey are almost all out of the nests and perched in trees.  It rained last night and the river is cloudy with silt.  It wouldn't surprise me if the Osprey can't see enough fish to make the effort worthwhile.  I get the idea that they are waiting.