Not Quite Spring

 I set out with the high tide already an hour or so behind me.  It was a beautiful not quite yet spring day with a mild wind and a lot of sun.  A Common Loon was busy fishing in the river where I put in.  It moved upstream as I got situated in the canoe.  A Loon's comfort distance seems to be about 150 yards or more, at least when I am sharing the water.  It moves upstream as I do, maintaining the distance.  But as typical, it keeps that distance by performing long submerged swims.  I am hugging the east shore to catch a little relief from the breeze and after the first bend, the Loon moves to the west shore.  The distance starts to shrink.  I pretty much know what's coming.  75 yards away, it dives.  It is behind me when it resurfaces.

On the stretch up to Cedar Island I flush about two dozen Buffleheads.  They nest in the boreal forest in Canada and winter here and further south.  I suppose they are getting ready to go. 

At the railroad bend, I spot another Loon.  This one is a Red-throated Loon, smaller than the Common and lighter colored.  I see these most often in the spring.  While Common Loons winter in the area, the Red Throated some through on northerly migration and I'll probably see a few more during the next three weeks.  Like the Common Loon before, this Red-throated dives and comes up behind me and although I had my camera ready, I'm not flexible enough to get the shot.

Just past the railroad bridge I notice that the fiddler crabs are out sunning themselves.  I haven't seen any since fall.  None of them is larger than an inch by the longest dimension.

It is a quiet and pleasant paddle with little more to say or think about other than moving the canoe.  At the bottom of the Big Bends I spot a Red Shouldered Hawk.  I almost missed it as it was perched right on top of a break in a tree such that it looked like bare wood. It gave me some good aerial views so that I could see both it's bottom and top.  After that, I see a dozen or so Black Ducks in the Big Bends, but not much else.  With the lowering tide I will run out of water at the Gravel Flats, so I turn back when I get to the old saw mill dam.

Coming into the Big Bends I spot a couple Killdeer and a pair of smaller Plover.  Their markings are rather similar but the Killdeer has a second black band at the bottom of the throat.

The current from the dropping tide outperforms the headwind and the return is quite fast.