Unprepared

I always do this. I talk myself out of bringing along some obviously essential item because my field pack is too heavy. That is how I ended up this morning at the salt marsh of Marine Park without my boots.

To be fair, I had planned to stay out of the marsh itself, checking out the flora that rimmed the wet areas. I have seen Spartina alterniflora often enough that I could go without an up-close-&-personal viewing. What I didn't plan on was a poacher.

In the midst of my vegetative reverie, a middle-aged Asian man with a hand cart filled with tools & bags walked confidently by me. Suspicious. Sure enough, he proceeded to walk into the muck, pull out a tool & rake the marsh for mollusks. As you may have suspected, removal of anything from a park is illegal, especially the very animal life we are trying to conserve.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but you can't do that."
Nothing
"Excuse me, sir, you can't do that!"
Now he looks at me & smiles.
"Sir, you will have to stop that! You aren't allowed to do that!"
He shrugs his shoulders & gives me this look like he doesn't know what I'm talking about. So then I was reduced to repeating "No!" & "Stop!" while I walked out after him. I tried to stay dry, hopping from tussock to tussock, but that became futile after 5 minutes, when I slipped & went in to my knee. That's the thing with muck, you never know how deep it is.

By the time I reached him, he had out what I swear was a harpoon & was jabbing the water vigorously. He seemed to finally get it, & proceeded to leave without more protestation from me. As I climbed out of the low marsh, I watched him leave, cart in tow. I was so satisfied in having put an end to a poacher. I felt good.

Ten minutes later, I was in the nature center. This is a nice building which takes full advantage of the superb views with its large windows. As I was admiring the marsh, in the distance I saw a blue speck moving purposefully along the edge of the Spartina grasses.