Aimee and I went for a short paddle from the North side of Harbor Island to the Lollipop (as it's known to locals) this afternoon. Winds were light and tide was low. We launched from the closed down gas station, which was pretty nice. We saw the usual avian suspects like ring-billed gulls, white ibis, great egret, great blue heron, tri-colored heron, belted kingfisher, brown pelican, cormorant, hooded mergansers, yellowlegs, etc. There was a opossum eating shellfish in the marsh adjacent to the lollipop. At first I thought it was a glossy ibis because I couldn't think of any other bird that would be that size, black, and digging around in marsh mud. It's funny how it's hard for your brain to process things that it doesn't expect and that you perceive to be out of place. I'm used to seeing birds out there, but not rodents (even though I know that opossum and raccoons live on spoil and marsh islands), so it took a second to realize that it wasn't a bird. He was surprisingly unconcerned about us and let us study him for a couple of minutes from about 20 yards until he lumbered slowly back into the grass.
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We weren't out long, but it was good to paddle. The last time I paddled was over two weeks ago (see previous post). I'm going to start doing some long (15-20 mile) solo paddles to prepare for some stuff I want to do this spring and summer. I have a top secret paddle planned for mid-March, so stay tuned to find out what that's about. Details of the trip will be posted when it's done.
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