Turtles

I did get out in the canoe this morning. The river was fairly high and still slightly murky from recent rain so it was a pretty fast trip. I covered the 7 mile route from the Crofton boat ramp to the Palmyra boat ramp in about 2.5 hours.

I saw a bald eagle shortly after starting out, and again near the end of the trip, but he doesn't show up in the pictures. I spotted a pair of otters swimming near the shore as well, but the primary wildlife of the day were turtles. I started about 8:00 a.m., the sun was up but it was still low enough that one side of the river was shaded and the other was in the sun. The turtles were out sunning themselves on the warm, sunny side.  They would climb up onto limbs and logs that were partially submerged along the river bank. As I approached they would slip into the water, sometimes almost silently, but if they were fairly high up they made a pretty big "plop" as they hit the water.  They are pretty shy and most slipped out of sight before I got close enough for a picture, but a few brave souls stood their ground and didn't seem to care about or feel threatened by me.  At one point I saw what must have been a dozen of them slide or dive down the river bank en mass.  I didn't see them until they moved, but then it was just like a small landslide and they disappeared in the water in an instant.  Moments later I saw two or three of them poking their little heads up above the surface of the water, to see if the threat (me) had passed.

I saw a bald eagle again near the end of the float. He surprised me by letting me float almost directly underneath his perch before taking off. I got a good view but no pictures. I saw something disappear into the woods up on the river bank, two somethings, but I still have no idea what they were.  Mammalian I believe, but beyond that, I don't have a clue.  I also saw the head of something bobbing through the water in an area of some minor rapids.  I didn't get enough of a look to venture a guess as to what that was.  River monster probably.

This isn't very clear, but you can see a line of geese in the water along the shoreline. They didn't
fly off but they did get as far away from me as they could as I floated by.  There were four adults
and probably 8 young geese that must have been this year's hatchlings.