Today I perched at Temple Pond for awhile in Lord Hill Park. The warm
sunshine infected me with a kind of lethargia and I sat still and sleepy at
the waters edge. A movement from down the shore turned out to be a Virginia
Rail, one of the few I have ever gotten to see. It was slowly moving my
direction and finally after several minutes it flew quite close into some
sedges where it bustled about with a surprising amount of noise. Perhaps it
was the noise, or the intrusion that attracted the pied-billed grebe which
suddenly popped up out of the water nearby. I was excited and hoping maybe
to see some kind of territorial interaction when a sharp sudden pain made me
yelp out loud. It turned out to be a bumblebee who I guess took exception
to my blocking its access to some flowers. By the time I was able to
refocus, the birds of course were long gone. My annoyance at insects was
mediated a bit later as I got to watch a dragonfly emerge. An abundance of
snakes today as well.

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Snohomish County