Recently, during a hiking trip to Lake Conestee Nature Preserve, I encountered an American Bittern, beautiful, well camouflaged, a relative of the many herons I see at the park. I startled it as I walked across an observation deck access-ramp over beaver pond water, where it was hiding underneath. My encounter with the bittern stirred some old memories, causing a déjà vu moment which I could not pinpoint at the time.

Then I remembered.