Day of Reflection

Basking Turtles and Ring-Necked Couple

Busy Day on the Pond

Bufflehead Female

Semi-Inflated Hooded Merganser

Yes! Lady Merganser Has Arrived

Pacific northwest cloud cover, wispy and white nearly hides the blue sky. You can see a tinge of blue as if looking at a robin's egg behind thin cotton. Days like this turn Elmira Pond green.

Not green, as in dingy pond-scum green. This clear water bog pond, peat pond, spring pond, mountain valley pond is many things, but never scummy. Today it is green because of cloud cover. With the blue sky blocked, Elmira Pond reflects the green of the Ponderosa pines.

It's a day of reflection. All six painted turtles line the log with mirror images belly-up to the sky. Basking may not be sunny today, but it is warmer and no longer drizzling. A ringed-neck duck couple joins the turtles in basking.

It's a busy day on the pond. Although the American wigeons vacated over a week ago, the knuckle-headed buffleheads that had courted upon these reflective waters left behind their gal. I noticed the female duck, recognizing her white cheek-patch. Like the mergansers, she roosts and nests in trees.

I'm beginning to understand where ducks go at night.

The hooded merganser inflates and deflates his head while I swill coffee, admiring his colorful pond reflection. I'm delighted to confirm that he indeed has a lady. She's the one doing all the silly head-bobbing, wing flapping and preening that the male buffleheads do. The male floats nearby, puffing his crest.

All are diving, but the geese. The big dabblers are pulling up chunks of submerged plants. Fish or frogs rise dangerously close to divers. I've yet to see a merganser swallow a frog or fish whole this season, but I know they do.

As if in absence of blue, Blue Heron remains unseen. Yesterday he showed up briefly with a companion. I'm hopeful that he may yet raise a family this summer.

Another cup of coffee down and my reflections come to a close.