Afternoon

We put in on the East River about 2:00.  It is a nice day with a light upriver wind and temperatures just less than 70F. The tide has been falling for 2 hours.

There are a lot of Red Wing Blackbirds in the forest section, and they seem very busy.   

We hear several Marsh Wrens once we are below the Clapboard Hill Bridge.  They've returned since my last trip in here.  We see a few Yellow-Legs, but no where near as many as on earlier trips.  They migrate a little ways north for nesting, and I assume that is where they've gone. S asks about Willets and I tell her that we will start seeing them when we get to the Big Bends, which is just what happened.

Willet

The Willets have all arrived.  They were still migrating in on my last visit.  They are putting on a good show with lots of squabbling and antics along the shoreline. A crow flies over, and we get to watch a Willet chase it, then another, and then when the crow lands, several come in and start hassling it, until it gets up and leaves. Down in the main marsh, we spot a small cluster of four Plover.

Plover

Otherwise, it was just a nice 9 miles of canoeing.  The last mile of the return is in shallow water with a fairly strong current.