Paddling, 9/22/06 6:00am
Aqua Hedionda Lagoon
After a long graceful glide, a Brown Pelican crashes on the water.
A Blue Heron, uncorks his neck on final approach, extends the landing gear, and without a ripple, steps into the shallow water.
Paddling,
An Egret having a morning breakfast, shuffles one foot, like a child shaking off the sand. Small crustaceans, disturbed by the earth shifting above, rise to check out the source of the quake, and to experience the end of their life, thus providing life to the happy Egret with the wiggly neck.
A squadron of Black Skimmers, flying fast an inch or two above the deck, they’re hunting, dipping their fish catching lower mandible into the first inch of water, skimming for a hundred feet, then a quick jerk of the neck backward. The skimmer has been successful, rising now to ten feet above the water.
A Santa-Ana wind from the east, the air is clear and crisp with three quarter cloud cover. The sun rises and for 10 minutes or so, the clouds become color wheels changing from grey to gold, red to yellow, back to a much lighter shade of grey.
Paddling,
Looking on the south bank of the lagoon, dozens of small plovers scurry about. You can’t see them from a hundred feet away they are so well camouflaged with the muddy flats of land. Movement on the mudflats appears first, and then the plovers.
I am buzzed by seagulls.
A dog barks from the middle of the lagoon…. another bark but from a different side of my kayak. What the heck? Two seals bracket my kayak and bark their hello's before swimming off.
Paddling,
I feel the focused eyes upon me first, causing me to look up at the top of the coastal oak, and there I saw, what I first thought to be a Bald Eagle. Much larger than the more common hawk with tufts of white near the head, it is an Osprey. Somewhat rare, but more and more often appearing along the coast.
After an hour, I paddle back, and I look up the hillside to Herons’ House, sitting as if it belongs to the land, resting in the valley of a canyon overlooking the lagoon. A feeling of extreme gratefulness and happiness is within.
Paddling,
Landing, I am greeted by an elderly couple and their companion, a chocolate brown labrador who thinks my kayak is his play toy, playing tug-o-war with my kayak pull handle.
Good mornings are exchanged, followed by their comments about how beautiful the sunrise was. I simply say, yes. More words are not necessary.
I am nourished.
We live in paradise,
http://www.aguahedionda.org/AHLFhomepage3.htm