Pied-billed Grebe photographed on Swan Lake 25 October 2007.
I spent a little time at Swan Lake this afternoon looking for and then watching the Pied-billed Grebe. As I was leaving, the rain started, so I took shelter under the trees at the lower end of the lake.
Weather: It was overcast with periods of rain, but the sun did break out briefly a couple of times.
Birds: At Swan Lake I saw the Pied-billed Grebe, scaups, a Cackling Goose, and 2 American Coots.
While I was taking shelter from the rain, I managed to see a snipe just before it took off. Of course it was moving its wings to fly, but it was still on the ground. This constitutes improvement, as usually I only see them after they are airborne. It flew a big loop, but I could not tell if it landed in the little park area again or not. I ended up walking along a little bit looking at other things and happened to spot it on the ground. It scurried about trying to find a good hiding spot before it took off. It was actually pretty interesting to see how it moved. It stayed close to the ground, but still moved quite quickly. In the end, I guess it did not feel like the grasses concealed it adequately.
Other Notes: There are a lot of crabapples on the trees at the lower end of the lake. I had noticed them on the trees by the road previously, but there are even more closer to the lake. If I had realized that earlier in the year, I might have gone down there to pick them. Now they are mostly soft, and that doesn’t make for very easy picking in quantity. I did pick a few to eat while I was there, however.
