Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Looking for birds in tidal marshes can be dicey. The older marshes
are almost entirely covered with pickleweed, and the channels
beneath often invisible. You have to poke your way along in your
waders—you're always optimistic that today is not the day you're
going to get wet. But inevitably, when you're out there all alone, you
get distracted—you hear something or see a bird or write something
in your journal—and suddenly you fall in a six-foot-deep channel.
It's easy to get stuck down there, with the bay mud almost like
quicksand, and the channel banks sloughing off while you try to get
a foothold. Plus, you're already handicapped because you're busy
trying to save your scope or binoculars or topics. Some marshes are
so dicey we carry a 10-foot piece of PVC pipe horizontally as we
walk, so we have something to pull ourselves out of the muck with.
JULES EVENS, AVIAN ECOLOGIST, AUTHOR, CALIFORNIA BIRD LIFE ,
CALIFORNIA NATURAL HISTORY GUIDE
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