Worm Moon Tide, March 10th 2020

High tide today Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 was at 12:06 PM.  The tide height predicted was 11.6 feet, the highest of the month, coinciding with yesterday’s full and “super” moon at 1:47 PM.  Another super moon will appear on April 8th. These pictures were taken at 12:13 PM.  The drop in height was about a foot in height.  If you look closely on the opposite shore, right at the waterline, there are two bored holes in the rock ledge where iron rod of the old dam structure was fastened into the rock.  The two holes make a good reference for comparison as we less formally observe the tide height.  The speed of the current was astonishing. 

The flow made a huge eddy in the largest (and deepest) “pool” area of the marsh (outlined below).

At the same time the water was rushing into the marsh, the surface waters on the ocean side of Ripley Creek showed very little movement at all.  Keep in mind, the culvert is seven feet in diameter!

Our neighbor in the house bordering Ripley Creek on the marsh side of the road came out to tell us about recent beaver activity.  We saw numerous places along both side of the creek where beaver have been felling or chewing saplings and trees.  She told us they had climbed the bank to the top and taken her forsythia stems.  She thinks they are actively building a lodge in a nearby location and they had sticks and structure across the outlet that has been washed out overnight in the high tides.  We are very interested in documenting the activity of the beavers.

We did measure the salinity with our hand-held probe.  Interestingly, the salinity on the surface continues the pattern of low salinity readings we have observed in the past.  We measured a salinity of 0.94 PPT and 0.52 PPT in the outlet area.  There will be another supermoon high tide of 11.3 on April 9th at 12:40 PM, so stay tuned!!