I don’t go birding in inclement weather anymore. What I do now is use these cold, rainy days to recall those times when I had no fear (or good sense?) – and warmer, dryer outer-wear. The rewards can be great. On days just like today, forty-five degrees with side-ways rain, I have seen birds I have seldom seen on more temperate days, including common loons, horned grebes and white-winged scoters.
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| Ice Shelf and Grebe |
The last time I saw a horned grebe, I was at Hoover Reservoir, and there was an ice-shelf that extended out about one hundred yards from the shore. The biting wind dragged beautiful, shallow, curving drifts of snow and granular ice across the surface of the shelf. Beyond the shelf of ice, the lake shook itself to keep from freezing. Even with ten-power binoculars, the grebe was at the very tip of my ability to identify it.
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