I spent a good part of the morning yesterday trying to find a road to a location I’d also been trying to get to earlier in the week – again without luck. One of the roads just didn’t look too friendly without 4-wheel drive while the other (which was only slightly better) has a “no trespassing” sign and, most likely around these parts, an owner with a big gun. I had another place to check out which presented similar obstacles. The good news out of all this is that right off the (paved!) county road I was traveling to try and reach site #2 was a place called Tappen Slough Wildlife Management Area and {woohoo!) it just happened to be full of birds.

The downside is that only the western third of the sky was without clouds while the sun was totally obscured by clouds to the east. It seemed as though the line was moving eastward and, if I remained patient, the light would finally come through. While I was waiting for the sun I was watching a family of Western Grebes moving ever so slowly in my general direction, all the while hoping that they would be within range at about the time the light began to hit the slough. I thought there were 3 chicks in the group until I saw the fourth one being fed – it had been riding on mom’s back while the others (who were a little larger) swam along. The bad news was the sun never made it to the slough; a bank of clouds moving in from the southwest took care of that. Still, it was great watching a little nature unfold; quiet other than the begging chicks and the occasional car or truck passing by.

Today’s forecast was better except that the winds were supposed to be increasing from 6-8 mph in the morning up to 18-20 in the afternoon. Any shooting was going to have to come early. I also decided that a little kayak photography would be the best option so I set out early with hopes of getting some work in before the breezes kicked in to high gear. A couple of the Eared Grebes were cooperative and swam fairly close to the kayak thus adding my second species of grebe for the week and third since leaving Florida.

The big surprise came a few minutes later when I turned my camera toward what I thought was a Western Grebe. After it swam away I began thinking about it – Western’s have black surrounding the eye and this one had been white. I double checked the preview to be sure I saw what I thought I saw and knew then that it had to be a Clark’s Grebe. Of course the first thing I did after coming back to shore was check the field guide to be certain and I had been right. The Horned Grebe (which with luck I will find in Montana) is left to complete the family since I have Pied-billeds from Florida.

The slough is pretty large with cattail marshes on the outer shoreline as well as a couple of “islands” of cattails in the middle. Apparently these islands are where the nests are located; if I got within about 50 feet there would be an exodus of grebes from within – probably trying to lure any potential danger away from the nests. Because of this I decided it would be best to stay away and found a lone White Pelican swimming in between the islands. In addition to the grebes, there are also American Coots, Black Terns, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and Ruddy Ducks in the slough. The winds are supposed to persist through Sunday with Monday looking very good weather-wise. I may go back – I could use a few images of the Ruddy’s. This afternoon may be good to just lay low and see if we can get a couple of shots of the American Goldfinches and House Finches coming to the thistle feeder I have hanging outside the trailer.