Two virus-free escapes

            I’m sitting here watching Jeopardy, wondering how long it will be before coronavirus catches up with the game show. How far in advance do they record their shows? I decided not to look it up. For now, I can pretend for half an hour that I’m still living in pre-virus world.
            The world outdoors is also virus-free territory. It’s business as usual for emerging wildlife. Goldfinches (still in muted winter plumage), phoebes, bluebirds, and song sparrows are back, house-hunting and singing their spring appeals. This morning, first full ice-out, I startled 24 mallards into the air in three waves of splash, quack, and flapping. Beady-eyed mergansers are around too, the males with their white balloon pompadours, the females sporting punk mohawks . Yesterday while birdwatching by the pond, Jonathan happened to catch a pair of mergansers in flagrante, through his binoculars, apparently a disturbing spectacle. He sent me a text: “You do NOT want to be a female merganser.”
           
My 60th year in 60,000 words
Day 214: 159 words, TOTAL = 35,147; 24,853 remaining