Gibban

The big lake is calm, calm as a small forest pond surrounded by tall trees and hidden from the slightest wind. It rains and a small grebe floats a 100 yards off, as alone right now as I am. Cars are jammed up on the big bridge a mile north. It doesn't have to be that way, but people, when pushed, often close themselves in and see no other way. That is part of the draw of the big lake for me. Is is so wide with the trees so distant and the sky so huge that I can only expand when I am there - not trying but just naturally flowing to fill the space. The far shore is distant enough that one can imagine that they are far in the wilderness. There is just so much to this world. Now, I count 10 of the medium sized grebes and a flock of buffleheads takes off across my bow. They make a whirring sound when they do that and it is their own signature. As I paddle up the east side of Union Bay, I find the eagle pair on the peak of the same boathouse where I saw them a few days earlier when they ...

...the wonderful thought that everyplace that you've gone and everything that you've experienced and felt with your heart remains within you flowing through your veins, modifying the signals of your nerves and altering your brain to continue to seek out and add more wonder to what you've experienced. osprey It is a quiet day, warm and sunny with a soft wind...and it is not a light wind, but a "soft" wind.  The animal life is somewhat still.  The osprey are out and obvious, but osprey do not have much leaning toward seclusion.  I expect more willets than I see, but I figure them to be back away in the spartina where they are hard to spot.  This trip was timed for a high tide that comes at mid-day, not the best time for wildlife watching. black bellied plover One black bellied plover stands out among the birds that I do see, until I spot a shiny yellow fishing lure just beyond the second bridge.  Then, I realize that it has a bird attached to it...in fact, it is n...