Low Tide in the Wheeler

I put in under the highway for a short trip into the Wheeler marsh.  The tide is very low still, even though the it has been rising for almost 2 hours.  It is a sunny day, about 60F and warming.  The wind is 10mph out of the south, which is a quartering headwind.  He feels stronger than it actually is. Of course, I am also paddling against the flood current, so it is a crawl down to the marsh.

I head into Nell's Channel, which always has enough water to paddle no matter the tide.  I find a brown glass beer bottle protruding from the bank and collect it - specimen 26. It is 15 inches deep. 

Specimen 26 - brown glass Owens-Illinois beer bottle 15 inches deep

Nell's Island does a fine job of blanking out the wind and it is an easy paddle down the channel.  Osprey are up in the air fishing and there are some Yellow Legs along the shore.  Halfway down Nell's Island, I start hearing and seeing Willets.  There is a good number of them around given the noise that they are making.  There are a dozen or so Brants, and I get overflown by a flock of Cormorants who have a couple Canada Geese joining them, just to put confusing bird calls with the wrong birds. 

Brants

I collect another bottle from the bank - an Owens-Illinois condiment? bottle.  It is 18 inches deep and right next to a strip of rubber seal.  I collect some of the seal as well.

Specimen 27 Owens-Illinois condiment bottle

I try to go east through the marsh, but the water level is still too low and I backtrack to Nell's Channel. From there, I head back out following the river-left bank.