Egrets, egrets and lots of egrets

Thursday, my painting group met up at the end of Stackyard Road in Rowley, in an area called The Great Marsh.  The skies were a deep cerulean blue with numerous cumulonimbus clouds floating along.

S Jaworski-Stranc, The Great Marsh, oil on panel

What overwhelmed all of us upon our arrival were seeing hundreds of white egrets milling around in the brackish pannes of the marshes.  In the large gathering were Great White Egrets, largest species with black legs black feet and a yellow-orangish bill, Snowy Egrets, smaller in scale with black legs, black bill and yellow feet and a lone Great Blue Heron.  Most likely they were gathering together before heading to their wintering grounds. All of us agreed one may see a couple of egrets hunting for food in the wetlands but not hundreds like this late summer gathering.  This sighting was magical.

        Just think... these beautiful birds were hunted close to extinction for their plumage to decorate women's hats in the 19th century.  In 1890 five million birds were killed annually for the fashion industry. The National Audubon Society was formed in 1895, New York State's Audubon Plumage Law (1910) banned all sales of birds and US legislation such as the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty (1918) helped to put an end to this avian travesty.  Today all of us can enjoy the privilege of watching these spectacular birds grace our landscape and our imaginations as was experienced by the plein air painters.

Alewives and Bluebacks

Thursday was a beauty of a day for painting at the Jewel Mill along the Mill River in Rowley.  In this river, where many of us were painting along, there a continuous churning of small fish leaping over small rocks in this rushing stream.

The anadromous Alewives or maybe they were Bluebacks are members of the Herring family and were making the springtime run up river to spawn.  These small fish are one important source for bait fish used in the sport fishing of Bluefish and Strippers and for baiting lobster traps.  In the 1960's their populations were in decline due to industrial dams which block access to spawning sites up river and water pollution.  Today with proper river management and fish ladder constructions, these fish which are important to the health of a bio-ecological cycle, are making a comeback.

As I continued walking along the path to the pond, I smelled something putrid.  It wasn't the foul smelling Skunk Cabbage well past spring emergent but dead fish (Alewives) decaying on the path; each with a hole punctured in its abdomen.  I'm guessing...Great Blue Herons had the opportunity to snack on the migrating fish.  Native Americans too awaited each spring for their return to be caught in their fishing weirs set up in streams.

Below is a pic of my plein air painting(8"X20") of the Mill River path: on left side the babbling stream, the other side a quiet pond with wild Irises.