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Wild Life

Slow-as-we-can-go, we paddle the shoreline of a lake that is not Jocassee. One single spotted sandpiper leads our way, jumping from rock to rock just ahead of our quiet canoe. The bird hops past puddling butterflies, bobs under webs of spiny orb weavers, dances around a whole village of unidentified spiders who have colonized a single branch of pine tree hanging over rippling green water. Occasionally the bird darts down the rock to capture some tiny insect with that long, narrow beak. The air is mild and gentle on our skin, and heavy with the scent of mushrooms emerging on the backside of recent rain. Dragonflies of every imaginable size and pattern zip across this narrow arm of lake and flit through branches of fallen trees. Sandpiper pauses, as if watching them, and then, with a loud, clear, “peep peep peep,” leaves us to try his luck on the other side of the lake. ~K