Bittern Number Five

I put in for a short trip around the marsh, starting from under the highway bridge. The tide had just begun to come in, but the day's tide coefficient is low, so the water won't be particularly low and the tidal currents will be light. Tide coefficient is calculated from locations of the moon and sun, but a low number gives you small difference between high and low and a high value gives you a large difference. Anyway you look at it, today I will not have much current to impede or help me, and I should be able to clear most of the shallower channels. It is partly sunny and the wind is about 10mph out of the W and N, which is mostly at my side.

I head downriver. There is a lot of woody debris in the water, much of hit hanging up on pilings. Spot a Common Loon just below the drawbridge. At the marsh, I continue down Nell's channel. A Great Blue Heron flies across ahead of me. I flush a Harrier near the top. Just a bit farther, I flush a Bittern from a small open mud patch a few yards back from the river. At first, I assume that it is a Night Heron, but I quickly decide that the body position/shape is way off. I've flushed dozens of Night Herons, and this was not one. It's only the fifth time that I've seen a Bittern.

Coming across the bottom of the marsh, a flock of 20 Buffleheads fly past. Towards the center of the marsh are two hunters tending a flock of decoys.

I finish circling the marsh and head back up. A hundred yards from the end, I catch, out of the corner of my eye, something fairly large diving, less than twenty feet away. I pause and wait for many seconds. A Loon surfaces about 75 yards away.