Memorial Day Weekend
on Barnegat Bay

Page 2

We wove our way through the sedge islands (all bright green with new growth) and anchored in the lee of a point of land just south of the entrance to Spizzle Creek.  A wind shift made this decision undesirable! Up anchor and time to move again!  Mike went over to the canoe/kayak put in area to wait for Tammy (his wife) who was to meet him there around 6PM. I really wanted to get out of this wind so I motored back around the point and snuck in behind an island that protects the entrance to Spizzle Creek. Still water at  last!  I tied the boat up along shore between two pilings and set the dodger up.
 It was then that I became aware of another, previously unconsidered strong point of the Dovekie - bird watching blind!  Sitting in my beach chair far enough back under the dodger to be unseen I was able to observe a steady parade of migratory shorebirds from my blind. Highlights of this afternoon were snowy egrets, oyster catchers, black skimmers, glossy ibis - and my first Louisiana Heron, also called tri-colored heron, which landed in a still pool about 20 feet from my boat!  Even watching my area's common birds, grackles, cowbirds, redwing blackbirds and sandpipers,  foraging up close gave me an opportunity to watch them pluck worms, beetles, and fiddler crabs from the grass and mud of the sedge banks. I just looked up from my scribblings to see a Little Blue Heron 20 feet away - beautiful!