Into the Wilds of Nell's Island

It is the day after Independence Day. It should be busy on the water, but it is not. It's 10 o'clock and my car is the only one at the launch. The river is glassy smooth under a thick and humid overcast, The tide is an hour short of high. There's no wind.

I put in and enjoy the quiet paddle of the mile down to the marsh. With no motorboat traffic to be seen, I stay in the main river. Aerial photos of the marsh show a channel that zigzags through Nell's Island and I have wondered if it has enough water in it to get through. High tide is the time to explore.

Great Egret

Osprey are quite active at the top of the marsh, and as I edge along Nell's, Willets come out to scold me and warn everything in the marsh of my presence. The first channel I get to is about 30 feet across. It winds into the island but peters out after 300 yards. I return to the river and continue down finding a second channel in a couple hundred yards. This channel is at least twice as wide as the first and looks more likely. I expected to find a channel to follow with maybe with a few short dead ends. But, a hundred yards in it just blows up. I get up on my knees and can see that there are good open channels all around. It looks like a shattered pane of glass. One thing is for sure, this is where most of the Willets are nesting. I flush at least fifty while in here. As the channel dies out, I look around and find channels heading off in all directions. I paddle through a narrow bit of spartina and pick up a new trail, repeat, repeat...  I come out into Nell's Channel pretty close to where I expected, but not in the channel that I expected to. This is worth coming to in the future.

The wilds of Nell's Island

I spend the rest of the time connecting some of my favorite inner marsh routes. A few people are getting started from the marsh launch, but they are paddling the perimeter, as almost everyone that comes here does.

With the high tide, my eye is just a few inches above the tips of the spartina. the heads of Yellow Crowned Night Herons are distributed all through the green expanse. Great Egrets are also out there. I saw a couple of Snowy Egrets in the middle of Nell's Island. And at the central phragmites patch, two Black Crowned Night Herons. Twice I hear the scratchy scolding of what might be a Clapper Rail - once on Nell's and once at the central phragmites patch. If it was a rail, it acted like a Rail and stayed hidden. I've only seen them a couple times.

Willet

I head out and up the river. Even now, boats are just beginning to appear. The fireworks parties must have been ferocious last night.