Friday promised to be a pretty day so in spite of a pretty good list of tasks to do: mow lawn, split and stack wood, exercise the dog, and so on — I headed out early for a paddle on Wrightsville Reservoir with my new Hornbeck boat. (More on that in a future post.)

There was no one on the water as I headed out to the calls of a Belted Kingfisher and a host of Common Yellowthroats and Song Sparrows. I had my binoculars and instead of my camera, my iPhone 6.

I am experimenting with the zoom on the iPhone and finding that the quality degrades fairly rapidly. Coming upon a family of nearly mature Mallards, I coasted toward them, getting this low-res photo.

Moving slowly with the boat, I never startled this group, even though they certainly knew I was there.

A little further up, another family, less the daddy, cruised along. These were younger.

Since the reservoir is a flood control unit, the water levels vary greatly throughout the year. There are many old pine trees that died but still stand starkly along the bank.

Heading back, I came across three River Otters out for breakfast. Mom was chirping away at them as I nosed over toward them and took a few video clips with the phone. I’m learning IMovie to edit but am still low on the learning curve. These guys were neat and again, I never disturbed them.

It was a nice way to spend an hour or so on a perfect Vermont morning, and get a bit of exercise in the bargain. Good paddling.