Girls Turn to Fly

River Time: Lower Mississippi River Dispatch No. 847

Sunday, Oct 3, 2021
Quapaw Canoe Company LMRD #847
Clarksdale, MS ~ Memphis, TN ~ Vicksburg, MS

(Recap: last week the boys explored the Mississippi River…)

This week it was the girls turn to fly! For many, this was their first time canoeing, first time camping, and first night away from home. So many skills being learned all at the same time. Mother Nature seems to ease the pain, and simultaneously make the learning a joy…

So much beauty to observe… (Wild Hibiscus in bloom)

And life to discover…. (Viceroy Butterflies mimic the Monarch Butterfly for protection, their life cycle tied to that of the black willow, which thrive in abundance on the Lower Mississippi River)

Long morning shadows seemed to beckon the long view…

We were visitors in God’s Creation, inhabited by flora & fauna, by fish & fowl, by insects and amphibians… (Leopard Toad found under a driftwood log)

Some alive, some fed the lives of others… (Grass Carp, probably eaten by Bald Eagle and Crows)

Tracks coming & going led us on a meandering path…

A Red-Eared Turtle found scrambling in between blue holes…

Another Red-Eared turtle, its hidden geometry exposed by death and decay, and the effect of the sun’s bleaching…

A flock of egrets seemed to beckon from over the sandbar…

A blue hole full of Silver Carp!

We rescued a gar trapped in the shallows…

We carried the gar across the sandbar desert, several hundred yards….

And released her in the harbor near our camp…

We collected Egret feathers from the mud…

Following Shadows across sandbar…

And learning to fly…

Now it is time to pack up and continue downstream to the next island…

The never-ending journey…