Duck Cove - Osprey, Big Fish, & Really Big Snake

We brushed the cobwebs off our kayaks and headed out to Duck Cove today. This is upriver from Mountain Island Lake along the Catawba River. It borders a waterfowl refuge. We didn't see much in the way of waterfowl at mid-day. We did see two osprey - which were much bigger birds than I was expecting. No pictures, but I did bring my birding binoculars and got a good look at the white of their underside. No diving for fish either. They just circled. We did see what they were looking for - big honkin' fish. I don't know fish. Maybe they were carp. But we saw lots of them, usually in pairs or threesomes, that were 2-3 ft long. [UPDATE: They were grass carp. Imported for vegetation control.] The cove is very shallow, only a foot or two deep through most of its stomach-shape. When we too close for comfort, they kicked up quite a dust cloud swimming away from us. Some even kicked up a wave. As for the leaf peeping, we saw sweetgums that had turned already and a number of drought-stressed poplars that were yellowish.

Our put-in was at Killian Rd. We started on a smaller cove/inlet and went up the main river channel just a bit to get to Duck Cove. After circumnavigating the cove, we went a little further north to find another creek scouted by others. On our way up, we caught sight of this:

From a distance, it looked like a branch/log, but it didn't move with the current. It kept cutting across heading for the other side. Kathleen wasn't too happy at the time. And she didn't want to see the pictures I took. I don't know snakes either. I'll update the post with an identification later. The impounded river had to be 150 yards across. I was amazed a snake would try to cross it. I wouldn't believe it unless I'd seen it. And, you can keep your Loch Ness monster jokes to yourself. I was moving. The snake was moving. I used my photo processing software to adjust the contrast. Unfortunately, I can refactor the focus. The thing had to be about 6 feet long. [UPDATE - Fellow paddler, Mike Slater, says it was a banded watersnake. According to that article, my "snake" story exaggerates it's length by 50%.]

The other creek was quite neat. Both Duck Cove and this creek had rather clear water. With the shallowness, it was quite easy to see to the bottom - of only a couple feet or so. Is with my previous post, when I can see under the water, I find what's there much more fascinating than the land above it - the undulations, the sand/silt patterns, the shells, the branches & other stuff in the water. With some leaves on the water, it was interesting to see their shadows on the bottom. For the most part, they did NOT look like the leaves. They were much more rounded. I guessed that the way the leaves sat in the water was part of it. But I also noticed that a small stick didn't have a noticeable shadow at all. The light refracted enough around it to make any shadow very faint. The big shadow here is my boat and paddle:


Finally, for posterity's sake, here are a couple shots of the put-in & take-out. I'm standing on the packed dirt road off the paved Killian Rd. The dip is deep enough that I didn't trust getting our truck through from both directions. We parked on the side of the road. If you can get through the dip, there is space to park offroad. The put in is just to the left.