On Saturday, November 18th, I joined about 19 other paddlers for the CPA Fall Eastern Neck Paddle led by Marshall Woodruff. The Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge is located at the confluence of the Chester River and the Chesapeake Bay in Kent County, Maryland and is a major feeding and resting place for migratory and wintering waterfowl on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The 2,285 acre refuge is also home to the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel and the threatened southern bald eagle.


Marshall has been organizing kayak trips around the island through the different seasons to see the various types of birds which migrate and nest at the refuge. Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge provides important resting and feeding habitat for migrating and wintering waterfowl each fall and winter. The highlight of the Fall/Winter paddle is usually the majestic Tundra Swan which rests on Eastern Neck Island during its Fall migration from Canada to North Carolina. While we did see a small flock of large white birds which we think were Tundra Swans the real mass migration of thousands of birds has yet to occur. The Refuge keeps a website devoted to the Tundra Swan Watch and toll free number to monitor their Fall Migration progress from Canada to North Carolina. So we're still waiting and watching.



But we had a great paddle. Even though we knew in advance that the Tundra Swans had not reached the Refuge about 20 paddlers showed up for the circumnavigation of the island. The water around the Chesapeake Bay was a lot colder than the water I paddled in last weekend down in North Carolina. For that paddle I wore my neoprene tights and a tank top. For this paddle I obsessed about wearing the drysuit (which if you've figured out by now I don't like) or fuzzy rubber and a drytop. I decided on the latter and started to regret it as the day wore on, the sun started to set and the air turned colder. By the end of the paddle I was clearly chilled. I figured the only way to stay warm was to keep paddling and to paddle fairly fast. So I took off from the group towards the end and paddle a little faster back to the put-in at Bogle's Warf.



Afterwards a group of us headed to a local restaurant for seafood. I caught the last rays of the sun in this photo as it drifted down towards the horizon. And after dinner Chris, Marshall, Bob and I drove to Laura's renovated weekend retreat bungalow about 12 miles from the restaurant. This was a small house she has been renovating ** by herself ** for the past two years. And I can't even get my small house painted. She put me to shame!

-Susanita