Blossoms: Dogwoods are in bloom, but they are not very impressive this year. There is an absolutely beautiful tree with huge pink blossoms on our street and in a few other places, but I don't know what it is. Time to get out the Audubon field guide to trees.

Watching: My Sunday night regulars, X-Files and The Practice. I'm taping Masterpiece Theatre and the last Hornblower movie to watch later in the week. David Duchovny wrote and directed this X-Files episode: it had some moving and some funny moments, but overall it wasn't one of the more memorable eps.

Water Birds

This morning we all went to Trenton State College for Daniel's swimming lesson. Tab took Daniel to the pool, and the twins and I walked around the campus. It was the first time I'd ever explored Trenton State on foot, and I was pleasantly surprised. It's rather pretty, with plenty of shade trees lining the paved pathways that wind among the brick buildings. We saw a strangely-shaped little building in the middle of campus with a parabolic curve of a roof. It was the Alumni Meditation Chapel, built in the late 1950s and about as far removed from Princeton University's Gothic revival chapel as you could imagine. I tried to find a picture of it on the college's web site, but was unsuccessful.

The campus was practically deserted this morning. I guess at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning most of the students are still sleeping off their Saturday night revelry. We strolled down to the little lake on the west side of the campus. The twins wanted to walk across the brown bridge they had seen from the road. There were quite a number of Canada geese in the lake and on the banks nearby. We had to pick our way carefully along the grass to avoid their plentiful droppings. I can see why the geese are becoming unwelcome visitors to this area. There were several mallards in the lake as well. One pair came swimming up to the bridge, quacking hopefully when they heard Stephen and Matthew throwing stones and twigs into the water. They were looking for handouts but were out of luck since we didn't have anything edible with us.

In the center of the lake were several pairs of dark water fowl. I studied them, trying to figure out what they were. They had a thinner silhouette than ducks, with long slender heads and narrow bills, and they were great divers, submersing themselves completely for up to a minute at a time. They were also very shy; whenever we approached their side of the lake, they moved further away. I wished I had brought our binoculars with us, as it was difficult to get a good look at them. I wondered if they possibly could be loons on their northward migration, but I couldn't see any of the white markings of loons. This afternoon, I did a little prowling around on the web and now I think what we saw may have been double-crested cormorants, probably on a stopover during their spring migration.

Soon it was time to head back to the pool to meet Daniel and Tab. Daniel is making great progress in his lessons. Two weeks ago he wouldn't let go of the side of the pool, and now he is floating with only minimal assistance. Daniel is enjoying himself, too, and he glows with pleasure when Tab tells him how proud he is of him.

Photograph used by permission of Jeff Spendelow.

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