Toy Ducks

I put in and cross the river, then head up under the drawbridge while following the west shore.  Then into the channel below Carting Island.  There are 4 islands here, and I sometimes call the the Quad Islands.  Pope's Flat (an old name for a marsh island) is in mid channel.  Long Island is west of Pope's but still in mid channel.  Carting is further west and the longest of the four islands. Peacock is nestled between Carting and the shore and both of those islands are separated from shore by narrow channels that can run too shallow at low tide for a canoe to get through.

It is colder than expected, still under 40F, and the predicted 5 mph wind is more like 10-15 mph.  It is somewhat raw.

I flush a few Mallards, a few Black Ducks, and a few Common Mergansers, as I go through the islands.  There is probably better feeding down in the Wheeler Marsh. I collect a little yellow toy duck, a remnant of some well meaning charity fund raiser that can't think of anything better than to race plastic toy ducks in one of the tributaries. 

I follow the west shoreline upriver.  About a half mile from the Windtunnel, the wind lives up to expectations and comes full in the face.  It is a crawl with the current also against me.  At the Windtunnel, I cross the river and start my return along the east shore.  I continue to collect toy ducks.  I end up with a dozen.  They are showing up probably because the winter ice conditions clipped off the spartina, which acts like a filter for all floating trash.  With the spartina down, the filtered trash begins to move to places where it can be seen.