Apr. 24/05 - Instead of taking an afternoon nap today after a strenuous round of golf, I decided to check out Brickyard Bay to see if the Horned Grebe were still around. I had never seen them in breeding plumage and I figured if I didn't go today, it might be too late. The good news was that there were several Horned Grebe in splendid breeding plumage. The bad news was they were about 300 feet away. It was too far for any decent pictures, but there are times that poor pictures are better than no pictures. This was one of those situations. Maybe you'll agree.

SHOW TIME - To celebrate the fine spring weather, the grebes decided to do a little mating dance. (Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, but I thought they were interesting enough to merit showing anyways.)

I'm not sure of the significance of the dance, but they were happy, and I was happy. I only wish they were 30' away and not 300.

After the grebes drifted away, I spotted a few Marbled Murrulets - about 20 but they were even further away than the grebes. As I was in the shadows and feeling cool, I decided to hike back to my car and get a sweater. When I got back, the Murrulets had all disappeared. I was perplexed until I heard them calling from the west side of the bay. I could see them in the distance, and they were closer to shore. Back to the car and over to the next access, and there they were. They were close enough for a couple of decent pictures.

Most of the Murrulets were in pairs and seemed to keep their distance. Luckily, there was a loner, and it just happened to run into a small school of fish fairly close to me.

I thought it was going to be show time again, but nothing developed after a little display of the marbled chests.

CLOSE CALL - I didn't see the Common Loon and it didn't see me until we were almost face-to-face. It was an interesting afternoon, and I was glad to be get at least one close-up photo.