The Connecticut coast has submerged about 9.7 feet (3 meters) in the last 3500 years and about 27.5 feet (8.4 meters) in the last 8000 years. The submergence rate decreased to half an earlier rate about 3500 years ago, and salt marshes then filled the formerly open bays. Since their formation, the salt marshes have built upward to keep pace with continuing submergence. Vertical accretion on selected Connecticut tidal marshes has ranged between 1 and 16 mm per year between 1962 and 1966. Typical marshes are building upward at about 4 mm per year, which approximates the regional submergence rate for recent decades. Marsh edges have eroded unusually fast in recent decades, but only minor erosion was measured during detailed surveys between 1962 and 1966. (Author).

The author chronicles the daily life of a salt marsh as observed from his nearby home, where he also records in intricate detail the activities of regional birds.

NPR contributor and nature writer Mark Seth Lender chronicles the daily life of a salt marsh near his home Mark Seth Lender's home is on the edge of a salt marsh. From his front porch and back yard he is witness to an astonishing array of wildlife, but nothing he sees is more beautiful and inspiring than the birds that fill the air, perch on trees and wade in shallow water. His reports on the sighting of birds like great horned owls, little blue herons and snowy egrets are featured in the segment "Salt Marsh Diary" heard on NPR's Living on Earth. For the first time, he has chronicled the marsh's life in a book penned from his perch. With the soul of a poet and the precision of a naturalist, Lender transports the reader to the edge of his salt marsh and makes us both see and hear kingfishers, terns, bluebirds, egrets and other wonders that fill the sky above us.