I made a couple of short trips outside today. I went to Swan Lake to look at the birds and then down to Sage Beach around sunset to check on the moon.
Weather: Mostly sunny today. There was a pretty heavy frost last night, but it did not really seem to freeze the plants. I guess there was a lot of moisture in the air that crystalized into the frost when the temperature hit 32F, but it did not get too much colder than that. When I was at Swan Lake, there was a pretty good breeze blowing across the lake out of the north.
Birds: The American Coot was still at Swan Lake. It seems to like hiding in the vegetation near the green moose just off of the penninsula while people are around. When it’s comfortable, it will venture out a little bit and feed by diving down and pulling stuff up from the bottom. In the times I have observed it this year, I have seen it go some distance from the moose and adjacent vegetation, but it seems pretty clear that it’s most comfortable there.
There were quite a few scaups out on the lake, but they were too far out for me to get a good identification.
At the upper end of the lake I did see a few Buffleheads.