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And there has already been an abundance of wildlife to enjoy
and amuse us, as indeed there also is at home in Nova Scotia. Two inquisitive
and playful otters visited us off our
dock soon after we arrived. A beaver was sighted swimming at a distance.
Several deer sightings delighted us as we drifted close in our kayaks in the
early morning. Fuzzy tiny ducklings huddled together in their own family bubble
on a cedar log floating by shore. They appeared to us to have been abandoned
until a terrified mother came flying out of the bush. She mimicked injury and
attempted to lure us away as she paddled and flapped across the water in the
direction we were anyway heading. At least she will feel like she had done her
motherly duty after her neglect.
Nine painted turtles of various sizes sunned on a fallen
tree that had lodged itself off shore. Then there was the graceful heron that
glides in the air close to the surface of the still lake, reflected therein so
that it appears to be a multi-winged monster. And of course there are the large
snappers that swim in the deep and sometimes are discovered lounging on our
diving rock. Creatures large and small amaze us. The dragon flies, the humming
birds and the wonderful song birds all delight. Even the mischievous and
sometimes annoying red squirrel is our daily entertainment.
Now we have witnessed many wonderful land, lake and air
creatures over the thirty-four years we have been coming here; but perhaps the
strangest of all occurred just a day ago. We were sitting on our upper deck
looking out at the lake and the forest beyond. The sun was hot and we were
appreciating the dappled shade on the oak which sits beside the majestic giant
white pine. Suddenly some object appeared to drop from the tree overhead and
into the water below. It surfaced with a leap and quickly swam away cresting
the water’s surface as it made a variable slashing sound.
I was sure it must have been a young bird fallen from its
nest that was trying its best with its tiny wings to stay afloat. John thought
otherwise. But then he had not witnessed the decent from above. He had merely
heard the splash and seen the resurfacing. He was sure it had been a fish of
some description that had jumped and strangely not dived again to the depths
but had kept instead to the surface. We sat pondering the possibilities.
Moments later we both saw and heard the effects of another
splash. Surely not another bird. Even I was skeptical. The fish, which I came
to accept that it must be, had surfaced, and like the first, scurried away in
the same manner as the first across the water’s surface. It made the same odd
flapping sound and disappeared in the same general direction as the previous
one.
We continued to sit and watch the view as we discussed this
bizarre set of events. Then there was another splash as a similar creature
emerged from the depths of the water and quickly disappeared from our sight in
the same direction. Was this some sort of aquatic birthing ritual that we had,
strangely, never before been witness to. We were befuddled. And there were
several more of these creatures that emerged and fled in the same manner.
John became curious as to why they were all heading off in
the same direction. Was there some current, some lunar force, some source of
nutrition that attracted these newly born creatures. He went to peer over into
the bay that lay behind us and hidden by the trees. There, quietly standing on
two separate docks were two keen fishermen repeatedly casting their lours into
the water in front of us.
My disappointment was great as I had already fashioned a
story of alien creatures arising from the depths of our lake as a result of
this pandemic virus that now imprisons our society. But we merely discovered
that the mystery was only something ordinary that two people who do not fish
would not contemplate.
