The morning fog is clearing early today. The past days it has persisted all day. This time of year the sun is not strong enough to burn it away. A few days ago, the fog shrouded the cottonwoods.

Each morning, hearing the ducks at the pond is a relief. So when I step outside, I wonder if they made it through the night. They are more exposed than the ducks in the garden. My desire for them to live as freely as possible conflicts with my wanting to keep them safe from harm.

They are most vulnerable when they wander into the woods, something they don’t do that often. Ducks love water. Most of the time they are either in the pond or on the bank, ready to swim away at the slightest sign of danger. The cruelest thing you can do to a duck is not give it water to swim in.

I saw a bobcat (Lynx rufus) the other day. But I didn’t recognize it at first. The animal snuck into the neighbor’s driveway. But I saw it for just a second, not long enough to know what it was. It was too small to be a deer. Not the right color either. And it clearly wasn’t a dog or a coyote either.

A few days later someone mentioned seeing a bobcat in our neighborhood. So that was what I saw. I saw one while bicycling some years ago, just up the road a bit. It calmly walked across the road in front of me. It climbed up a bank, turned around and watched me pedal by. I stopped to look at it. But it wasn’t the least bit concerned. Maybe it was sizing me up as a lunch possibility. And then it nonchalantly disappeared into the woods. I read that, “Its preference is for mammals weighing about 1.5 to 12.5 lbs.” So, that puts me off its menu.

The fog has been so thick these days that puddles form in the spider webs. So what do spiders make of these puddles in their webs? It’s far too much water for them to drink. Do they call a spider plumber to drain their webs?

The benefit of fog is that is reveals how many spiders there are. Their webs are everywhere. Life must be terrifying for a flying insect. At every turn there is something that wants to eat you.