MILL CREEK PARK Sights and sounds from a kayak

A kayaking trip included close-up views of a great egret and a beaver lodge.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- A pair of great blue herons flew low over the East Newport boat launch as if to welcome eight kayakers into Lake Newport on an overcast and seemingly dreary and foreboding morning.
Flying gracefully and emitting their signature vocalization, "fronk," the birds headed south toward the Newport Wetlands.
The eight kayakers, including two park naturalists and two kayak program volunteers, assembled recently for Mill Creek MetroParks' first naturalist-escorted kayak tour, which would take them into those wetlands.
"Keep your nose over your belly button," to avoid tipping over into the water, advised naturalist Mindy Henning as the participants stood on the Lake Newport shore and practiced paddle strokes under her guidance before entering the water.
The naturalists and volunteers had received some 20 hours of classroom and in-the-water training in a variety of subjects, including water rescue, before leading the first trip.
Quotable
"I loved it. I really enjoyed learning how to do it. It's something I've wanted to do for a while. It's a beautiful trip, and I had never been back there," said Patricia See of Canfield, referring to the wetlands.
"I really enjoyed it. It was really nice. It was just the serene feeling of being on the lake," said another participant, Bob Wakefield of Youngstown.
Wakefield also said he enjoyed learning to maneuver the kayak. "It was real easy to steer. It went faster than I thought I could get it to go," he observed.
"I jog and ride a bike around on the land, but it was a nice perspective" from the water, he said. "Whenever you get back there along those [wetland] channels, you become unaware that there are any cars, or roads or buildings around."
Shortly after the lightweight, easily maneuverable kayaks glided quietly into the water, the light drizzle ceased, and the kayakers enjoyed comfortable 60-degree paddling weather with calm winds and water.
The overcast skies protected them from sunburn and glare, and recent rains kept the water level high enough to avoid running aground, even in the shallow wetlands channels.
As a hawk flew overhead, the kayakers paddled at a leisurely pace over an underwater dam and into the wetlands, which teemed with the activity of aquatic birds, including numerous ducks and geese.
A rare sight
The lead kayaker, Ray Novotny, spotted a great egret, which is commonly found along the Lake Erie shoreline, but rarely seen in Mill Creek Park. Novotny said he has seen this bird in Mill Creek Park only twice in his 18 years as a park naturalist.
Conspicuous because of its white color, the egret and a great blue heron, both wading birds, sat facing each other a few feet apart on tree branches that had fallen into the water.
As the kayakers spotted red-winged blackbirds, passed alongside a beaver lodge and circled around Smythe Island, fish jumped out of the water, a woodpecker flew overhead, and another great blue heron perched along the shoreline took flight.
"That beaver lodge is hard to see from land," Novotny said.
With naturalists providing thorough instructions and helping everyone into and out of the kayaks, nobody overturned or fell into the water during the 90-minute excursion into a wildlife paradise. See, who had kayaked only once before, said she felt completely safe.
"Seeing the great egret was a highlight," said Rick Shale of Boardman, a kayak program volunteer and Youngstown State University English professor.
The kayaks are more stable than canoes, he said.
"I'm down at the wetlands all the time on the foot trails, and the beauty of the kayaks is that you see it from a different perspective. You get much closer to some of the birds and the wildlife than you can from the boardwalk," he said.