When the Weather Smiles in Winter

It is a another calm day, this one a few degrees warmer than yesterday.  I wait for the tide to get favorable, putting in an hour or so before high tide.  Any current in the river for an hour or so on either side of the high (or low) tide is negligible.  I put in under the highway bridge, cross the river and head upstream. 

I use the channel between Carting and Peacock Islands, flushing about 2 dozen Black Ducks and Mallards as I go - 2 to 4 Ducks at a time.  A Harrier is busy working the four islands, crossing back and forth on the lookout for a meal. A Common Loon is fishing at the channel exit.

The current is slack and it is easy paddling.  I cross over to Great Flat and round it following the edge closely.  I spot a Mature Bald Eagle near the mouth of Garbage Lagoon. Then, back over to the west bank and head back.  

Flush 2 dozen Mallards and Blacks from the west side of Peacock Island. 2 Hawks have joined the Harrier, which is still working the islands.

Winter in the Marsh

Very windy and cold weather has finally relented.  For the most part, fresh water routes, aside from the big rivers, are frozen over or have enough ice on them to make them impassable. The town harbor, which is salt water, with a freezing temperature of 28F, is iced over enough to prevent an exit. The harbor is well sheltered and has almost no current aside from that caused by the tides, so it is some of the first salt water to freeze in these parts.

I put in on the big river, under the highway bridge. It is 31F and there is a very light wind out of the east.  The water is not glassy smooth, but almost. The tide is coming in for the next hour and a half, so the current is slacking off. As I head down to the marsh, I note eddies on the pilings - sometimes showing upstream flow with the tide, and sometimes showing that I am in one of the long near shore eddies that I use to paddle against the current. Below the drawbridge are 3 Common Loons, 10 Buffleheads, and 1 male Long Tail Duck.  The Long Tail is a surprise as I most often see them out in the Sound. A Harrier flies over, heading upriver. 

We've had 3 recent snowfalls.  About 6 inches fell in one of those, the others being less than an inch.  The snow has knocked down some of the spartina, but the effect is that of a "thinning" of the grasses.  Heavy snowfalls will knock it all down and leave the marsh looking like a harvested soy bean field. 

With the very high tide and the thinned spartina, finding and following my usual shortcuts though the marsh is a bit of a challenge. On the other hand, I can see Ducks and Geese out in the marsh in places that I cannot paddle to and cannot normally see.

I head into the Nell's Island Maze, curious if it will be open.  I have to push through 30 feet of rotten sea ice not too far in, but otherwise it is open, although I lose the route as I near the downstream end of the so-called island, The tide is high enough that I can just go anywhere, paddling easily through the thinned out and flooded spartina.

Crossing over to the east shore, I flush a "maybe" Snipe, not spotting it until it flew off.  I spot a second one over near the east shore, sitting motionless.  I take a few photos to confirm my guesswork.

Snipe - overexposing the photo brought out the markings of the bird

I spot a Bufflehead sitting in a clump of floating weed debris... it is a decoy. I retrieve the decoy and head back into one of my inside passages, where I find 3 Coot decoys, which are added to my collection. (Decoys cannot legally be left out unattended by hunters - these were probably left behind, or got blown here by our recent windstorms).