Merganser Lake

 

December 20, 2021

Rose early and drove to the Hard Times trailhead. Walked to Lake Powhatan, which I want to call Lake Merganser because I see two pair of hooded mergansers almost every time I go. Caught them this time not only from the fishing pier, but from a loop of forest, and they no more than forty feet away, sporting in the silver water. Mallards too, unusually shy. Heard a kingfisher but didn’t see it. For a while, it being early and cold, I had the paths and the lake to myself. One woman standing at the cultured edge of the lake talking on her cell phone was unbelievably loud. I walked a long way trying to get away from the sound, and never did until I sank back in the forest.