Snapshots of Nature: 'Yaking

Monday, August 26, 2013

'Yaking

The view from my kayak.

It has been an entire summer and I finally took my kayak out for the first, and sadly, probably last time. My kayak lives at my parents' house out on Long Island because keeping a kayak in my apartment wouldn't be impossible, but it would be a challenge and a half. But if I had it here, I would probably find more time to go for a paddle.
My adventure today took my mother, my best friend Pam, and myself to Empire Kayaks, the place where I actually purchased my kayak from. The people here are always nice to us, the salt marsh is full of stuff to find, and it is where my husband asked me to marry him (yes, in a kayak) so it holds a special place in my heart. If you want a nice place to paddle an explore, check out Empire in Island Park, NY, they rent kayaks of all kinds, they will show you the basics, and ocean kayaks, the kind I use, are very stable and you sit on top, so if you fall out, which isn't impossible (as I have done it), you can easily get back in.
On our paddle we saw lots of birds, a few terrapins popped their heads up, one sad, washed up, dead eastern box turtle, which I am not sure if it was someones escaped "pet" or if they actually live around this area, and some fish below in the water. It was a beautiful day, and using my "real" camera on the kayak was a challenge, especially when you had to put down your paddle for a few seconds to snap a picture and the wind in that time blew you backward about 15-20 feet.

Lesser yellowlegs stand upon some dried seaweed.

A young semipalmated plover.

This gives you an idea of how hard it can sometimes be to spot a bird. When they move is really when you see them, otherwise they are fairly easy to just paddle right by. A young spotted sandpiper is foraging in the mud.