De Pan

One Eye on the Weather

The North Marsh

I have to make a decision.  I've crossed the river straightaway from Essex's North Marsh.  Upriver is Hamburg Cove, which was ice blocked on my last trip in there.  Below me is Lord's Cove, a favorite that I have already visited several times since ice out.  A bald eagle drops out of a nearby tree and head back straight across the river as if to say,  "it's your problem, not mine."

It is a humid and peaceful day, the sky overcast with a thin layer of clouds, a haze in the air underneath, and wind that does nothing to disturb the peace because it is already so warm.  Thunderstorms and gusty winds are possible if the heat should start the air moving in vertical currents.  I keep one eye on the weather.

Great Egret

I turn toward Hamburg Cove.  An osprey soars high overhead with a fish in its talons.  It becomes three osprey, then five.  Osprey always carry their caught fish with the head forward.  It is macabre humor to me, the idea that the osprey is giving the fish a scenic flight, a birds eye view of the river... before eating it.  I pause just once to pick up three specimens from the beach.  One is a bird carapace...for a substantial bird.  I begin to push a great blue heron along the shore, following it around the point and into the cove where I spot a deer well off on the opposite bank.
The cove is fairly well sheltered from the wind.  I follow the north shore where the forest descends right to the waters edge.  The houses that can be seen from the water on this side of the cove are often late 18th or early 19th century.  I imagine that they were built by ship captains and pilots.  On the south side the houses are new, huge and a bit garish.  I imagine that they belong to stock brokers and corporate executives.  One side had a connection to the land that seems lacking on the other.

I turn when I get to the beautiful arched bridge that the Joshuatown road crosses, the place where the cove ends and the Eight Mile River enters.