I do fresh water only in my canoe (in recent years, flat water only except once when I got onto an unanticipated part of the south fork of the Shenandoah a few years ago). As for wildlife: lots of bald eagles, herons, and such as well as the occasional deer on the middle Potomac. Beaver sightings, as I wrote above, are common there at dusk. Best sightings have been bucks with full racks of horns swimming with a trail of a few does on the Shenandoah and alone on the lake in Douthat State Park in the Virginia Alleghenys. Majestic!

Lady Hillary, I used to take my archaeology field school classes to Jamaica Bay for mapping/field survey exercises in the area of Old Mill Creek (also known as Spring Creek) near Howard Beach. Lots of remains, mostly pilings and artifact scatters, of old fishing cabins along the mud flats there. The approach from the water would be interesting, I suspect; although I never tried it. Kayaking through the Bay should be terrific this time of year.