A bench over open water, and how to read a bird flat — plus how to share the bank safely with a basking alligator.
About half a mile in you'll come to a bench set where the dike opens onto a sheet of open water — and I want you to actually use it. Sit down. Go quiet. The single biggest mistake people make out here is walking too fast and talking too loud; give it five still minutes and the water starts to give up its secrets. Here's how to read a flat: don't hunt for the big obvious bird, scan the edges and the shallows for what isn't moving. That gray smudge on a far stump resolves into a heron. That white fleck is an egret. A little patience turns an empty pond into a crowded one.
And a word of care at a spot just like this: open water with an easy bank is exactly where an alligator likes to haul out and bask in the sun, often lying dead still right at the water's edge. If you see one, admire it from well back, and never let the trail put you between the gator and the water it wants to escape into. Give it room and it wants nothing to do with you. Then look back at the water, and wait. Something is always about to happen here.
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided · Public domain
