It was the strangest sound. Really, it was. Sort of like a snorting sound coupled with a blowing of air and spraying of water. It was an aquatic creature sound, for sure. I have lived near the ocean long enough to know that sound. I wondered if another seal had gotten stuck somewhere between the rocks and shore, although it didn’t sound like a seal.
It was in an area we call “the pond,” an area where seals do
not swim. The pond is between two small
peninsulas, and the ocean water has been damned off to allow only some water
in. The rest is freshwater that flows
downward from the craggy land and into the pond. If there’s one thing we have a lot of here in
Maine, it’s
water. The combination produces a
brackish kind of water with some salt but not nearly as much as in the
ocean. Consequently, when the weather is
very cold, the pond freezes over completely and becomes a mile-long ice skating
rink.
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| The fog brings out the strangest things. |
But the weather is not
very cold and the enormous pond is not frozen over as it usually is this time
of year. It usually has a good layer of
ice on it with another layer of snow.
Usually the wretched coyotes can travel back and forth on it now. But not this year. This year is different.
So, as I said, it was the strangest sound. The fog was tremendously thick, and I peered
and peered into it, looking for what had made the sound. I went closer than I should have, but I was
afraid to go any closer than that because I was unsure of my footing. Sinking in up to your waist is not good this
time of year because even though things aren’t frozen, you can still easily get
hypothermia.
I took this photo.
This was the best I could do. I
know it isn’t clear. I blew the photo
up, and it looked a bit like a small protrusion from the water with some twigs and
seaweed stuck to it. However, I can tell
you that I am very familiar with the
area I was in, and there is nothing protruding from the waters of the pond in
that area. Nothing. I have seen that area daily for many
years. But today there was something
there. I just don’t know what it was. I heard a splash and blowing again, and that
prompted me to take the picture when I did.
Right after I took the photo, whatever had made the noise was gone, and
the surface of the water was flat and gray again.
Was it just a trick of the fog moving in and out, even
thicker in some spots than others?
Maybe, although I wonder where the sound came from if it was just a
trick of the fog. It is true that the
water plays tricks with our hearing as well, and sometimes I can hear a
conversation a half mile across the cove on the next island because of the way
the waves amplify and seem to bring sound across. But this was in the pond where there aren’t any
waves to speak of.
You can make your own mind up about this, but I have seen
enough strange things in Maine
to know that something odd was out there.
I have seen strange creatures on the side of the road at night when
driving. I have seen wolves, although we
are told by wildlife “experts” there are none here. Ask any Mainer and they’ll tell you
differently, though. There are cougars
here too (also called mountain lions and pumas), but we are also told that we
are mistaken. No matter. I have seen them.
So I do not know what this was, and I did not get to see it
as clearly as I have seen a wolf or a cougar because of the fog. If it had been a rock or earthy outcrop from
the water, it would still be there but it disappeared after I took the
photo. Something was here, and I think
it was here because of the strange weather.
Another reason to continue documenting the strange case of Maine.
