Lots of things got in the way of a full day of paddling today. I wasn’t able to “get on the water” until nearly noon , and I had to cut it short by 3PM.
Wareham Bay was not kayak-friendly, but Tempest Knob Bay was, and It was also a good day for paddling The Agawam River.
There were at least 50 Brant geese in the middle of Tempest Knob bay along with small flocks of Buffleheads, Mergansers, and Black Ducks.
Ice is appearing in the coves now; not enough to block progress, but it’s a pretty strong suggestion that the water temperature has plummeted in the past few days. It’s a wonderful motive for making me sure that I keep the kayak right side up.
There’s a female Long Tail duck that seems to want to be seen by people dining at The Narrows. She’s bigger than a Bufflehead, and her head is mostly white now that she’s in her winter molt. According to David Allen Sibley the Long Tails do a lot more molting than the other ducks…something like 5 or six times a year. Just a month ago this bird had a pattern totally unlike the present one, but I guess that has been the case with you and me also. A month ago I was a mix of cotton and wool; now I’m 100% wool.
Canada Geese “own” The Agawam. There was a flock of about 70 of them. I jumped them first down by the Nail Factory., and three or four times later as I covered my usual route.They have to take off into the wind and that meant that they had me right in the middle of their take-off strip. Seventy geese all talking at once is a lot of noise: not just the honking, but the swishing of their wings and the splattering of 140 webbed feet as they use a mix of wing power and paddle power to get their heavy bodies airborne. There were six swans , too, and let me tell you that having a swan pass just about 10 feet over your head is something you’ll always remember. They are BIG.
Tomorrow is meant to be horrible, so my mileage is stuck at around 988 until Thursday. All I need is four hours of fairly decent paddling weather . I’ll try to arrange my route on Thursday so that I will hit the 1000 mark on Saturday morning as I’m passing the Nantucket Lightship next to Besse Park. 11 o’clock. I’ll hope to see you there .
