LETTER TO THE EDITOR: The letter writer asks for a bite of bittern pie

* EDITORIAL-4-8DL.indd

For the editor:

Lemon Creek revisited. The Beacon published a letter of mine in the March 25 edition which I have since realized needed some editing and a slice of humble pie or crow to eat (perhaps the less bitter?)

On Friday, April 1, I went to a birding dock in the amberjack reserve and was privileged to observe waterfowl in staggering numbers: dozens of black-necked stilts, treasure of blue-winged teals, hordes of herons and dozens of white pelicans, gorging themselves, crossing the waters at five knots, preparing for their migrations from Montana. The magnificent pelicans took flight in groups of two dozen or more, with wingspans of nine feet...unbelievable!

At 3 p.m. I met Dr. Bill Dunson at Fiddler's Green Bridge over the rest of Lemon Creek. Professor Dunson is retired from Penn State and is well known locally for his involvement in the restoration of the Lemon Bay Conservancy's LBCWP golf course project. Strong southerly winds had blown a wave of dirty tidal salt water below deck against a large, impenetrable stand of mangroves. Dr. Dunson took a salinity reading with a scientific instrument, I took a sip from my jelly jar; as saline as Lemon Bay, certainly disproving my assertion that the tidal interchange "has been entirely blocked off and cut off by the construction of Fiddler's Green".

Some of the physics of hydrology and rising sea levels remain a mystery. How can a tidal estuary stay entirely dry for months? The fishermen who pushed their craft under the Conway Bridge to the headwaters of Lemon Creek all left this life, alas, their reports are no longer available.

James MS Johnson