Head of the Gut: I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

 

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“The camera has always been a guide, and it's allowed me to see things and focus on things that maybe an average person wouldn't even notice.” - Don Chadwick


    What peculiar names we give to places! Who could imagine a head or a gut being terms for an area of water? How can so many rivers and creeks in the Northeast end with the malevolent sounding kill? (Hint: There's nothing violent to worry about; it's from the Dutch colonists who originally explored there.) Did you know an inlet is also known as an arm of the sea? Some of these terms are for similar types of water features but depend upon their size... for instance, “you can step over a brook, jump over a creek, wade across a stream and swim across a river" as an old saying goes.

    Where I grew up, a creek was actually called a crick, at least by my mom. In Scotland, a large stream is a burn, thus the common ending to so many Scotch whisky names. I love how these wondrous terms give such imagery to our world. The next time you come across some body of water, take a moment to learn about it. You just might encounter a new word! As I wrote in my post on February 27, 2021...

    The Nature Preserve on the north side of the Indian River Inlet is another treasured local place in Lower Delaware. Not only are the beaches and marshes wonderfully wild, the water views from the hiking trail are magnificent, filled with shimmering golds and bright blues. Just north of Burton Island’s Sawpit Cove is a narrows known as the ‘Head of the Gut.’ A head, as it applies here, is a point of land that extends into a body of water. And a gut is a coastal channel that has strong tidal currents flowing in and out.

    This photograph shows the gut in all its glory marking the transition between Rehoboth Bay to the north and Indian River Bay to the south. Captured just a few hours before sunset, the sky is still brilliantly lit with a gorgeous cloud gracefully passing through the image. I think knowing more about our beautiful lands and waters will encourage us to love and protect them. As always, I wish you peace and to be well, my friends.

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Location: Burton Island, Delaware 19930, USA

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