
Out on the deck, I waited for dawn, just sitting there sipping coffee, while the mergansers, who also get up at 4:30, paraded up and back in front of the cottage. They moved rather randomly, or so it seemed, in a couple of distinguishable groups, but I’d have to say they were one community. Where are they going? Do they know each other? Questions without answers, at least to the solitary observer silently sipping coffee…but I can learn something. Although they don’t swim in a row, these ducks seem to know what they are doing, and they are only minding their own business.
By noon my free-range thermometer registered eleven, so, remembering my keys, I bundled up, and set out for the lighthouse. Invigorating but not frostbiting cold until I began the return home. I’ll just report that I felt the wind chill factor, and leave it at that.