Both the north and south pond is still frozen but there is a small window of open water on the southern
edge of the north pond extending into the woods as flood-water. I spotted four Hooded Merganser
swimming in the very shallow flood waters in the woods. There were two females and two males. They spooked
as soon as they saw me walking the meager trail between the ponds. I figured that they couldn't go far with so
little open water to retreat into so I went back to the car to get my mat and cover cloth. Retraced my steps
to where I saw them and put my mat down in front of a water-side tree and sat down covering myself. Waited
about twenty minutes but nothing came by except a GBH that landed about 8 - 10 meters away. Unfortunately
there was dead wood obstructing the heron and it just stood there for about two minutes and then took off
again. I finally lost patience and got up, put away my kit and headed down the trail a bit to see if there was
any sign of them. RATS! There they were coming toward the point where I was stationed. They would have reached me
in about 5 - 10 minutes at point-blank range. Did I say RATS! Once again I screwed it up, like I've done time
and time again. Mind you I had meat in the oven, laundry in the dryer and someone somewhere was waiting
for my opinion on Lavalin, so it's not like I had unlimited time. That notion somehow assuages my fury at not
exercising adequate patience.
