Break Time

I am an artist, and one of mediums is hand embroidered beadwork. My work is large, often photo realistic, and of course, detailed. I'm currently about ten months into a project that always seems to have another year left to completion. People, when they see my work, often ask me if it is hard on my eyes. I tell them it is not, rather it is hard on my butt, back and shoulders. I spend a lot of time sitting still sewing by hand. So, break time is all about moving.

Rain with possible thunderstorms was predicted for the day, but as is usual, the forecast is not particularly accurate. Although there is a light sprinkle as I head out, the weather report showed that any storm threats have headed either to the north or south of us.

I put in under the highway bridge and head down river to the marsh.  It is almost low tide, but it will be a higher than normal low tide. A good current speeds me along. 

Snowy Egrets - black bills, yellow rainboots

Low tide in the marsh limits route choices to the main channels - mostly an outer perimeter route. During very low tides, even this runs out of water in the south and east areas. However, low tide is especially good for wildlife observations as shore birds come out to pick over the exposed mud flats. None of the Egrets or Herons are perched in the east side trees - they're all down and feeding.

Maybe a migrating Stilt Sandpiper - smaller than a Yellow-Legs

As I near the marsh I start spotting Snowy Egrets. They like to eat small critters that hide in the shoreline sand or mud. Once I enter the marsh, it is clear that this is a good bird day. There are lots of Night Herons, and "lots" means two or three dozen for the day, several Great Blue Herons, some Great Egrets, the Yellow Legs are numerous, Semipalmated Plovers and a few sightings of what might be Stilt Sandpipers (longer billed and smaller than Yellow Legs).

Semipalmated Sandpiper

At Cat Island, I get by with about 8 inches of water, this is mud during a normal low tide. There are several large schools of minnows here - a Great Egret takes off and the water surface looks like someone just through a couple of handfuls of gravel as the schools kick up the surface. 

I can't make it through the lower east corner, only a few inches of water there, but the last cutoff has 8 or more inches of water and takes me all the way across to the top of Nell's Channel. I double the number of Night Heron and Snowy Egret sightings on this section.  I've seen far more Snowy Egrets today than I have in a long time. 

I retrieve an old bottle from the mud bank. It's a cork bottle and it was sticking out about two feet down from the top of the bank. It's green glass, no standard maker marks on the bottom, with rather thick glass, so it might be fairly old. You can't really date stuff based on depth in a slat marsh as there is no real rule to silt build up as opposed to, for example, tree rings. Anything in this marsh doesn't have an archaeological context - everything in here is something that floated in. There is a second bottle nearby, but I can't get at it without going knee deep in mud.

I exit the marsh out of Nell's Channel and have an easy paddle up the river. Break time is over.