Soon after we set off, we found three cormorants perched atop a directional sign. We had seen them there yesterday, and they seemed like three sentinels watching over the marsh and keeping an eye on the human invaders. They were unflappable, however, as we paddled up right next to them and they didn't fly away.
The Dunstan River meanders through the marsh as it heads toward the Atlantic Orchard at Pine Point just north of Old Orchard Beach. This map shows the general layout, and marks many of the features we saw kayaking:
Kathy took a bird census and reports that, during the 3 hours we saw:
14 cormorants
18 snowy egrets, over a dozen in one flock
4 great blue herons
several sea gulls
sparrows
sandpipers
...and one flying ibis!
Here's a photo of Kathy on the lookout for more birds while paddling upriver:
The river meandered so much, that as we got to the farthest upstream point, it wrapped around on itself, and we could see each other paddling opposite directions with the equivalent of only a little sandbar in between us:
As we paddled back to the Audubon Center, we ran into today's canoe tour, with a naturalist in the lead. The canoers were paddling all over the river, disturbing all the birds with their noise. Were we that loud yesterday? We were glad that we started early today and had a chance to see all the birds before they were scared away.
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