I begin my hike in the woods near Meadowside. I’ve done this dozens of times before. The rain from the past several days has stopped, and now, finally, it’s dry enough to bring my camera out. The skies are still very gray.
Maybe today I’ll get an action shot of the belted kingfisher zooming over the creek. Or I’ll be right there when an osprey strikes, smashing into the lake’s surface and rising with a bass in its talons. Or just as I turn a corner, near the end of the day, the setting sun will break through the trees behind the covered bridge at the perfect angle, the one I’ve imagined, for a postcard shot.
I’ll capture it all.
I start walking. Binoculars strapped to my chest, backpack on my back, and camera draped across my body.
The first stop on my usual two-mile loop: the frog pond, at the bottom of a grassy hill. Then over to the marsh, up the hill to the eagle’s nest, turn right along the creek, and back up to the nature center.
Canada geese are loitering and fighting on the shore of the pond. I see adolescent tadpoles in the water, but no full-grown frogs. Movement on the left! In the bushes there close to shore, a butterfly. Click.
Keep walking.
On the path to the marsh, I see a flash of orange. Huh? Ooh, a tiny slug on a dark trunk, stretching its body over the edge. Click.
I get to the path near the marsh and it’s full of water. Not what I expected. I see the creek has risen over its banks, and the path isn’t walkable today.
But wait! Goslings! Swimming in the creek with their parents and snacking on the grass. Click. Click. Click.
I squish through the flooded path a few feet, before I leave, and there is a mallard couple, resting on submerged logs near the shore. Click.
OK it’s too wet here. Over to the lake. Oh! It’s overflowing after all that rain. A drowned sign strikes me as apocalyptic. Click.
How about checking out the old footbridge around the corner. Nothing really happening there … but that tiny red spot in the green leaves! Click.
Near the nature center, as I’m finishing, I see that someone has left painted rocks with inspirational messages. Click.
“Enjoy the Moment” says one, from inside a tree stump. Thank you, rock. I have.
