Wheeler Marsh Solstice

I put in to the marsh from the Wildlife Refuge launch instead of my usual start a mile upriver. High tide passed about an hour ago, and it was a very high tide, so the river current will be moving at just about the same speed that I can paddle and I just didn't feel like the dealing with brutal return against the current. 

It is an exceptional day, sunny and calm with the temperature just a notch below freezing as I set out. We have not had any appreciable snow yet, so the spartina is still standing and with the sun it makes for a golden landscape.

Cat Island

I turn inland from my start, with the tide still high, I can get around the back of Cat Island. I spot a Mute Swan well concealed in the spartina, and I flush a Great Blue Heron as I near the inlet that goes behind the island. I do not know if the Cat Island is an official name. It is the name that one of my artist friends uses. He messed around there with his friends when they were kids. I also know that it was used by Native Americans as a fishing camp. There is a archaeology exhibit in the town hall about the dig. It would be a superb campsite for a canoe trip, so the use as a fishing camp is pretty obvious (there is also a large shell midden at Milford Point). Rounding the back end of the island involves some pushing through reeds and spartina. Today, I notice that there might be a road bed submerged in the most shallow spot and even if not, there is definitely a well packed trail. This is not nearly so visible during the growing season. I also notice a pair of rounded granite boulders that seem a out of place, as if they might have been set there on purpose to mark the edge of the route. I am not sure, but I suspect that Cat Island might be glacial in origin - a left over moraine or drumlin, so the source of the boulders might not be to far from where they are.  I flush three dozen Black Ducks from this area.

I head out and up to Beaver Creek.  The creek is a good spot for wintering birds. I head all the way up until the creek comes out of an impassable culvert. I spot two medium/large Hawks, forty four Black Ducks, about  twenty Mallards, two Hooded Mergansers and a Kingfisher.

Buffleheads in the middle of the marsh

That dine, I head out and over to Nell's channel and finish with a counter clockwise paddle around the marsh.