Yesterday evening we walked around Anderson Lake. There are at least two in Washington, so this is the Jefferson County one. The park closes at dusk and we left before dark.

The sky is amazing walking and I love to photograph water. The water is even more amazing that normally, but it's because the lake has toxic algae. Bright electric blue and turquoise floating mats of algae along the east shore of the lake, disconcerting and make me feel a bit anxious. A woman walked by earlier with her dog.

"What about the geese?" I ask. "Doesn't the toxic algae bother them?"

"I think it's only mammals." says my friend. "I don't understand someone bringing their dog."

We are both bearing cameras, hoping to sneak up on birds.

Through the trees I see a bird on a log sticking out of the water. We walk as quietly as possible along the path.

"Graup graup burp graup." Deep croaking hoarse sound. We both freeze. Washington state does…

You’re in Belize. It’s night. And you hear a sound that wakes you from your sleep. Listen!

It’s coming the sky. From the trees. There it is again: an unearthly screech. It could be a barn owl. You wait. Listening for the sound again.

But now the screech dissolves into a rattle, like a bag of bones from the cemetery.

Too bad for you. You’ve just heard the Soch, the harbinger of death.

The Soch…

The details of the Melonheads vary. They all have very large heads, but short, almost elfin bodies, like some descriptions of E.T.’s. Their skin is light, and they have little or no hair. Often they lack ears, have flat noses, and have additional features  that resemble Down’s Syndrome

The Connecticut legends center around witches driven away from human society, or fugitive mental patients. (One, outlier legend, talks about a “disabled daughter” kept in a “tower house”—one that my own…