Best of 2022 No. 3
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Best of 2022 No. 3
The Final Selection from 2022 -- Lower Mississippi River Sights & Scenes from the Historic Low Water Year -- All Aboard!
***Advance Note*** Our first Community Canoe Daytrip Adventure of the year is this coming Saturday, February 25th, 1-5pm from the Helena Harbor round trip to Buck Island. Special opportunity for those who have never paddled on the Mississippi River! Free for youth under 18. 1/4 price for educators. 1/2 price for adults. Details at bottom of newsletter.
***Also, a correction and identification from a reader, ASU biologist and curator of the herbarium, Dr. Travis Marsico***
"I wanted to point out that in this Best of 2022 edition, your harlequin butterfly picture is mis-identified. It is actually a red admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta).
"Also, I’m pretty sure your unidentified caterpillar photo is the native species Spanish moth aka the convict caterpillar (Xanthopastis timais), which is found throughout the Southeast US, the Caribbean, and northern South America. The caterpillars feed mostly on monocots in the Amaryllidaceae family and based on the backdrop of your photo, these guys were also feeding on monocots in the Atchafalaya."
Thanks for this Travis! (Note: Dr. Marisco is Jefferson Science Fellow, U.S. Department of State, as well as Professor and Curator, Arkansas State University Herbarium (STAR), Department of Biological Sciences, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, AR)
Lower Mississippi River Dispatch No. 898 "Voice of the Lower Mississippi River" Memphis, TN ~ Helena, AR ~ Clarksdale, MS ~ Vicksburg, MS Photos & Text (c) 2023 John Ruskey
Final installment: This is #3 of three newsletters, each with 32 photos. Click here for #1 Click here for #2 It's February, and we are finally getting a chance to share the "Best of Quapaw Canoe Company 2022" scenes and sightings, from day-trips, overnights and week-long expeditions. Including the Atchafalaya and the Birdsfoot Delta. Many of these depict the historic low water year, the lowest water levels ever in some places.
You might notice a lot of photos with wild bees, and dead fish. We have seen a lot of both in the past year. It seems like the bees have been begging for attention. Has anyone else experienced this during the previous year? I personally have had about a dozen unusual bee visits, sometimes on my sketchbook, sometimes on my arm, one time on the tuner of my guitar! It seems like all of the dead fish are a significant sign as well. If nothing else, they are a reminder of the catastrophic results of extreme low water on certain species. Also -- we have also been frequently witnessing striking new cloud patterns, in particular long wave trains of clouds, and flee cy cloud shapes with trailing waterfalls of rain appearance scratchy parallel lines (that never reach the ground) -- and vivid arresting colors in the sky, mostly in the red spectrum.
A few of these photos come from when the water was high (although it never got to flood stage in 2022, or even near it). Many come from our favorite sections of river including the Chickasaw Bluffs, and the wildest of the wild, the Muddy Waters Wilderness. Many illustrate our favorite adventures, with old friends, and new friends made. Many feature the creatures we saw, the insects, mammals, fish and birds --the precious sparkling variety of creation we visit with and live with during our river trips -- some in full color expression (like the katydids and kingfishers), others we know only for the footprints they leave in the sand (such as the bobcats and coyote).
Photo Puzzle #1: Can you guess WHAT each one of the next 9 photos are?
I will send a “The River Connects Us All” arts postcard with a personal congrats to each person who correctly guesses WHAT we are looking at (who made the tracks? what is the subject? or object portrayed?) — in all 9 photos!
Respond to this email or send email to john@island63.com
Photo Puzzle #2: Can You Guess WHERE each one of the next 9 photos were taken?
Respond to this email or send email to john@island63.com
I will send a “The River Connects Us All” arts postcard with a personal congrats to each person who correctly guesses WHERE each of the following photos was taken. If you can’t guess geographic location, an accurate contextual location will suffice!
Photo Puzzle #3: Each one of these has an unusual but simple element involved. Can you guess what the STORY is in each one of the next 9 photos?
Respond to this email or send email to john@island63.com.
I will send a “The River Connects Us All” arts postcard with a personal congrats to each person who correctly guesses what the “REST OF THE STORY” is!
We hope you enjoy the journey as much as we have enjoyed serving you in 2022, and simultaneously serving our Queen Mother Mississippi. Wherever she goes, we follow, in all her multi-layered muddy floodplain and overflowing rainbow extravaganza of creation. Now in the New Year of the Swamp Rabbit, we continue doing the same into 2023. Go here to visit new website for an array of new trip offerings, mixed with our traditional classics (like the Muddy Waters Wilderness)! Or cut & paste this address: www.island63.com. Our dear sweet Mother Earth needs us more than ever, and we need her. The big canoe is the ideal way to regain the balance!
Saturday, February 25th, 1-5pm is our first Community Canoe Daytrip Adventure of the year is this coming from the Helena Harbor round trip to Buck Island. Special opportunity for those who have never paddled on the Mississippi River! Free for youth under 18. 1/4 price for educators. 1/2 price for adults. Reservations required: email john@island63.com for details and saving your seat! The Buck Island Adventure is a roundtrip voyageur canoe paddle on the biggest river in North America, the Mighty Mississippi, involving a tour of an archipelago of Mississippi River Islands with big beaches, swim holes, birds, turtles, and other wildlife. This round trip paddle affords an incredible variety of giant sandbars, wetlands, gravel/fossil bars, deep willow forests, and miles of beaches to swim from or walk along. So — a little bit of everything! Buck Island is a 1,498 acre island located 1 mile upstream of the mouth of the Helena Harbor. It is one of the big islands of the Lower Mississippi. At low water its sandbars stretch 5 miles north to south and 1 ½ miles east to west. The forested high ground of the island is approximately 2 miles tall and a mile wide, in kind of a half moon shape, with a smaller forested “splinter island” found to the east. (During low water this splinter island becomes joined to the main island by a wide valley of sand & muddy pools). Meet at 1pm at the big boat ramp in the Helena Harbor, in downtown Helena. Round-trip paddle. Pack your own snacks and water. Dress for weather. Don’t forget sun protection. No previous experience necessary, all paddle together in our big canoes with guides. But must be willing to paddle — sometimes hard paddling necessary. Return to land around 5pm. Saturday, February 25th Itinerary: Meet: 1pm Big Boat Ramp in the Helena Harbor Park your car near Boardwalk (In the Helena River Park, over the levee from downtown Helena) 1pm: Helena Harbor Intro Talk, Safety Talk 2pm: Arrive Buck Island 3-4pm: Explore Buck Island sandbar 5pm: board canoe to return to Helena Harbor