Life Birds, Finally

April 23, 2025 — Day 18

Pokomoke River State Park: Shad Landing, Snow Hill, Maryland

We went kayaking today! (susan here: especially exciting because it was the first of the season! Plus!? Last year was so horrible rain wise that we didn’t get much kayak time so it was long overdue.) We waited until late morning, about 11am, because it was too chilly earlier. We brought some power bars with us for lunch. (susan here: that would be PAUL’s first lunch and my only. I knew that when we got back to the RV he’d be prowling for a “real” lunch.) But, those darned Thule Hullavators that make transporting the kayaks attracted some attention at the boat launch from a couple who were car camping (we didn’t know it at the time). We answered their questions, learned about each other’s adventures, exchanged “you really should go here!” kind of info, and we got around to them asking if we wanted to see their rig and of course we wanted to. They were car camping in a Honda Pilot—yikes, that’s tiny! That took quite a while! We said our goodbyes and we were both hungry at this point, hungrier than a power bar would take care of so Susan drove back to Clifford to make sandwiches. When she got back we ate on the dock listening to but not seeing any birds. While she was gone Paul saw a Red Bellied Woodpecker and a Bald Eagle while waiting for “Door Dash” :- ) to return.

Consequently, we didn’t get on the water until about 1:15! We thought we’d be home by then, but no worries, we’re in boats and there are warblers all around us!

Don’t expect any pictures of these warblers. They are tiny, move fast, we’re in a boat, and Paul has already wrecked one waterproof camera by bringing it with him!

But turtles, Susan loves them and they are slow, easy to shot with an iPhone. (susan here: every once in a while I manage to glide up to one and catch it. Okay it was only once. But I’ve come super close at least a dozen times.)

We both really wanted to see the Northern Parula. It’s a very pretty bird and also a life bird for us. We had been hearing them all day. Everywhere. All around us. (susan here: they were like that Yellow-billed Cuckoo that drove us nuts a few years back. We could hear it but never saw it.) Now, it’s not we’re that we’re that good. We use the Merlin app on our phones which hears them and tells us what it hears, gives us a nice little pic so we look for it. It’s a lot easier than when Susan’s parents birded some 30-40 years ago with paper and memory. (susan here: They also didn’t have cell phones that could play their songs to coax them out, not that we did that, nope nope nope. We’d never do that.)

But eventually we found the Northern Parula, and it was almost like he knew we wanted to see him. We watched him for about 10 minutes before we moved on. Now, more kayaking photos.

We’ve been on this river before but never knew it was tidal. This time around the water was low and that meant we could go under the bridge on Route 113. It was almost impossible to kayak under last time we were here.

We only paddled 3.7 miles and with our side bird attractions it took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Paul is feeling the first paddle of the year which means he’s not using good body mechanics. He said no kayaking tomorrow, just bikes, and that’s ok. Susan felt fine. (susan here: The kayaks are as much about paddling as it is getting us to where the real nature is away from people.)

Back at the RV Paul tried to set up his ham radio antenna. He discovered he’d forgotten the sturdy tripod for the antenna although he had brought along the cheap-o lightweight Amazon one that he’d bought for hiking. He’d hoped the cheap-o would be stable but it couldn’t handle the load the antenna put on it.

He googled around to find out what do other people do for free standing antennas. One person carries a collapsible mast (aka long fish pole) that inserts that into a mast support (aka PVC pipe) and securely attaches that to a tree with bungie cords. Susan thought about it for a second and said ” said, “Can’t you just strap the blue thing to a tree?”

And he did, sorta.

Many campgrounds near water have these things, a long thin standing table with a pole. You can’t see it in the photo but there is a hook up there and also a plaque with fishing regulations. It is a fish cleaning table. Or is it is an antenna mount? It depends on your hobby!

Paul didn’t feel like cooking and we hadn’t eaten out in awhile. Snow Hill has a great place we’ve eaten at before, Oak 110. We thought we try a place down the street, Elliott’s Tavern. Bad choice. Susan’s Korean chicken BBQ was from a jar (and the chicken was rubbery) plus the fries were over salted by a lot. Paul’s “stuffed flounder” wasn’t stuffed more like a blob of crab perched atop a filet of flounder. His brother had a great crab stuffed flounder just a few days ago which was what he was expected. Worse, the flounder wasn’t fresh and his coleslaw was also from a jar. This gastronomic “delight” wasn’t inexpensive and coupled with Susan’s dinner disaster neither of us thought it was worth it so nope, not, going back.

Life Birds: 2 (Northern Parula, White-eyed Vireo)