Duck Creek is a salt-water marsh on the western shore of the Percival River. Duck Creek is across the river from McKies Shore (end of Mill Road). From McKies Shore, it’s only 1 km to access the mouth of Duck Creek. You can access Duck Creek without crossing the Percival River by launching at the ramp in Alaska. From Alaska, the creek’s sand-spit estuary is 2 km along the western shore. Both paddle outings I made to Duck Creek in the summer of 2023 were from Alaska. The first paddle on August 13 was with my 17ft Merganser kayak. The 17ft Merganser kayak doesn’t do well in narrow winding creeks – so I did not get too far up Duck Creek that day.
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I had been to Duck Creek many times before, but this summer, on the September 4th outing, I managed to explore the salt marsh all the way to the first beaver dam in my 12ft Wood Duck kayak. The Duck Creek wetland is isolated from any development and looks pristine. The lower south side of the marsh is Public Lands, but unfortunately, the north side and the upper marsh are still in private hands.
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| Public Lands near Duck Creek |
There was great scenery on both outings, and I also captured a few nature images with my Lumix FZ300 camera. The nature sightings of the day were all posted to iNaturalist.
iNaturalist for August 13, click HERE.
iNaturalist
for September 4, click HERE.
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| Lower Duck Creek & marsh |
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A next trip to explore more of the Duck Creek salt-water marsh could include an attempt to paddle up the upper creek’s north stream. Also, it would be fun to try and jump the beaver dam and go further west!
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| A trio of Greater Yellowlegs |
22Aug2024 (WD12) - Launched from McKie shore and paddled across the river to Duck Creek. Then, I paddled up the creek and explored the salt-water marsh -- looking for the Seaside Dragonlet dragonfly (new species 2024). I did find dragonflies but no Seaside Dragonlets!
ReplyDelete2025-09-05, Duck Creek and area, WD12 kayak
ReplyDeleteThis year's outing to Duck Creek (from Mill Rd) was to explore some small forest areas in the lower marsh area. On the south side of the creek, there are a couple of isolated forest areas that I went ashore to explore. I walked in mostly marsh vegetation around the small forest area - keeping a sharp eye out for Poison Ivy. It didn't take long to find some Poison Ivy, but I managed to circumnavigate the area and penetrate the forest to some degree.
I also went ashore to explore the deciduous forest hill on the north side of the creek. The hill trees are mostly aspens, but nearby (to the SW) there's a Black Spruce forest. Also, in the area, I identified a few EWC and EWP trees. Another nice day on the Percival!