First Great Egrets

I put in on the far side of town, under the high bridge. There is just one more hour until high tide and the current is already starting to lessen. A Red Throated Loon is fishing about 50 yards ahead of me and a Common Loon is off to my right in the middle of the river. Just below the drawbridge, I find a second Common Loon.

The wind is out of the south and west and is probably blowing about 10 mph. Even with that and the flood current, it is an easy downriver paddle. When tides are higher than average, long stretches of slack water and eddies form along the east shore. I spot a good sized flock of birds at the far end of the marsh, almost a mile away. 

Upper entry to the Nell's Island maze

I head into the Nell's Island maze.  The upper entry has a fork in it, and for the first time, I take the left arm. It is more open than the right arm, but it returns me to Nell's Channel in a hundred yards. I find another way in off of the channel, but it has a patch of very shallow water that would be mud in all but the highest tides. I can write off this route.

Near the lower entrance to the maze, I spot a white pvc pipe standing vertical in the spartina. This needs to be investigated, and it turns out to be my first Great Egret Sighting of the spring. Nearby are four more Egrets. Aside from that, I am flushing some Black Ducks and finally, some small flocks of Teal The flock of birds that I saw earlier were Teal.  Black Ducks, Mallards and Teal are fairly plentiful in the marsh today.

The first Great Egret of the spring

Yesterday, one of my canoe contacts posted a question about what type of GPS watch people preferred. My first response was, "Don't you know where you are?" Later, I added that I use a map and compass, my GPS works only if you slap it just right, and I leave it at home anyway, and my flip phone doesn't have a browser. Canoeing long ago became a way for me to connect spiritually with the environment. I learned pretty quickly that the use of GPS for route finding or route recording was not only superfluous, but actually detrimental to my spiritual intentions. Every time I referred to the device, I found that it took several minutes to get back to where I was. I've described it as a sky-down view when what I was really looking for was an earth based view.