Aki keeps a respectful distance from the fawn’s corpse. She sniffs and pulls back, then leans forward to sniff again. Still beautiful, even charming in death, the little deer died along the road after being struck by a car. I think about marks made in beach gravel by a deer that must have been panicked by our approach. The caution it showed might cause it be more careful when crossing highways.
Discordant bird chatter distracted me from the deer tracks. Two belted kingfishers were in the midst of an aerial dogfight. Maybe “ballet” is a better word to describe the way the two birds weaved in and out of each other’s flight path, sometimes almost touching salt water. So much life.
In a few weeks, scoters and ducks will work the waters just offshore from the beach. But now the sea is empty and only a brace of gulls walk the beach. Aki keeps her nose down, hunting for sign. But we only meet one dog on the walk.
Around False Outer Point and across Gastineau Channel a remnant of Lemon Glacier hangs above Costco and the state jail. On most days it looks no more remarkable than a snowfield. But there is something about today’s light that turns its ice a pastel blue. In the Alps or even the Canadian Rockies, there would be a good trail leading to the hanging glacier. But here, its just another sign of the warming earth.
Walking with Aki 