August 7

This morning was overcast with mist blowing in from the ocean. It was strangely quiet except for the planes. The thickets were particularly empty. There just was not much to see. I emerged from the trees and noticed this unlikely sight.

It’s just grass but it is Spartina, marsh cordgrass, in full bloom. Seedheads full and each stalk green with health, the ultimate green enviro-engineer of the marsh. It converts salt water and sun into hay and seed for all.

The young Ospreys were off  and not to be seen. One of the adults was around sporadically.

The big entertainment of the morning were the Goldfinches. The wild plants are right now heavy with seed that the finches are gorging on while making lots of companionable noise to each other.

The Overlook panne had a few ducks including four adolescents dabbling in the shallows.

Out beyond the  Boardwalk, the Egret posse was hanging out in one of the more distant pannes. I was surprised to see them. It was dead low tide and they appeared to be mostly just hanging out and sleeping. They are an impressive gang of big white birds.

It was a fine day (it did not rain and the mosquitoes were not active) even it was a little slow.

Ciao!

-Jorge

This entry was posted on August 7, 2008 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Daily - the next year. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.