Monday morning trip to the grocery and library - where another patron asked, after a greeting of 'Good Morning', "Did you see that sunrise this morning? It was spectacular."
No. But I was out looking as the purple of night shaded into the lavender of morning. And I saw the waning moon in its final days before the new moon again appears. I also, in that minute of verbal exchange, experienced a touch of envy - for those who still live in the country and are privileged to see both the sunrises and the sunsets.
Mother Nature is and has always been my greatest teacher, comfort, interest, soother. Where I live now, the pond is my daily retreat, but I'm always on the lookout when I'm around the nearby lake.
This morning there were the usual Canadian Geese, but it was two dark headed, long-beaked birds that caught my eye. They kept diving under the water and coming back up with pretty much only their long necks showing.
The name that came to mind was
Cormorant. But I wasn't familiar enough with their behavior to know for certain that's what they were. They would go completely under the water and come up with something small that they were swallowing.
Like the Pelicans we saw on the lake last year, I hadn't seen these birds there before. I came home to look up 'Cormorants in Iowa' and found in Audubon's,
Guide to North American Birds, that the Double-crested Cormorant is "found in almost any aquatic habitat" but according to their migration map are mostly seen in Iowa during migration.
They do forage by diving and swimming under water for fish and other aquatic life and plant material. After comparing the Audubon pictures to my photos, I'm sure the birds I watched are Cormorants.
I'm equally as certain that my first experience with them came via their mention in novels while actually seeing them was most likely on Cape Cod or Nantucket - a trip memorable enough that their name and appearance stayed in my subconscious.
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