Thoughtful Thursday -Kayaking Cape Island Creek



The marsh, to him who enters it in a receptive mood, holds, besides mosquitoes and stagnation, melody, the mystery of unknown waters, and the sweetness of Nature undisturbed by man.

-- Charles William Beebe (1906)

Kayaking Sunday & Monday (May 15 & 16)

Sunday and Monday I kayaked the Cape Island Creek behind/beside Cape May with my sister, Jenny. We kayaked at low (starting to rise) tide to see the shorebirds feeding on the mudflats. The weather was in the mid 60's with a nice breeze to keep the bugs away. We saw Semipalmated Plovers(1), Semipalmated Sandpipers(2), Least Sandpipers, Willet, Clapper Rail(3), Forster's Terns, Least Terns, Short-billed Dowitchers(4 & 5), Laughing Gulls, Snowy & Great Egrets, Osprey along with other birds and gulls. (Numbers correspond to pictured bird)

Kayaking

In October I decided it was time to learn how to kayak. I have a friend who kayaks in the back bays and on Nummy Island to get close to the birds and gets some great nature photographs. My sister, Jenny went with me. First we tried a 2 person kayak. She paddles faster than I do so we went in circles some of the time. But we had fun and laughed a lot. Next we tried one person sit on kayaks. That works better for both of us. we were able to go out about 4 times with each time a different height of the tide. The first tide was a high tide at the full moon which meant the tide was higher than all of the salt marsh so you really couldn't tell where you were supposed to paddle. In November my sister Leslie came down for the day and we went out also. Here's Leslie and there are some Brant at the bottom. They saw us and took off!