No doubt about it, we live in the Central Flyway.

Walking home for lunch, I observed a confused skein of what sounded like snow geese flying over Superior. They must have just gotten up from a nearby river bottom field for they had not settled into a structured formation. From my position, their order resembled a flock of sparrows.

Snow geese are noisy creatures. Living in town, I don’t hear the coyotes howl like I did while making my home on Blauvelt’s Hill. But with snow geese that is not true. This area was part of their flight plan when I lived in the county. Now, on still nights, the air reverberates with their chatter.

Wanting to know more about snow geese, I decided to look at a Family Life Concepts book I took illustrations from when teaching a junior high Sunday school class. While the purpose of the books was to illustrate Biblical concepts with stories from nature, I enjoy the nature stories and some days read just for the nature stories.

It was hard to stay inside on Sunday afternoon. After the recent cold and snow and with more in the forecast for mid-week, many people were outside enjoying the sun. On a short bicycle ride, I saw both coatless adults and youngsters outside. A few were even barefoot.

I didn’t, but it would have been a perfect day for bird watching.

I got side tracked in my reading and instead of reading about geese. Instead, I read about the pied-bill grebe. Apparently they are found in this area. While I don’t recognize them, I suspect I have confused them with a small duck, often called a mudhen. I have observed what I thought were mudhens but have never knowingly seen a grebe.

An inhabitant of both fresh and salt water, this 15-inch bird has a wingspread of 23 inches. The migratory grebe weighs only one pound. It ranges from Central America into much of Canada. While many migrate to Canada for nesting, a few nest in the Nebraska Sandhills.

I probably have seen grebes and not known it for they closely resemble a small duck. What distinguishes a grebe is that it floats at a higher level than a duck normally does. When danger approaches, the grebe is able to control the level of its buoyance to the point were only its head is visible above the surface.

I doubt many, if any grebes, nest in this area as we have few desirable nesting places. Should they nest here, we would probably overlook their nest for they are well camouflaged. Though the nest material is carefully selected, it appears to be arranged so haphazardly that most people believe it is simply a mass of dead vegetation.

Whenever the grebe leaves the nest, it covers the eggs with vegetation. For a nesting location the grebe prefers, still, relatively shallow water with lots of vegetation like cat tails.

If you see a grebe in the water during nesting season, would its nest be nearby? Probably not. The grebe takes special precautions to avoid being seen near its nest. When approaching the nest, it will swim underwater to the edge, then quickly slip up on top of the nest, push away the vegetation and settle over the eggs. If the young have hatched, they will climb onto their mother’s back and hang on as she dives and swims away.

When threatened, a grebe may dive as much as 20 feet below the surface, swim away and then resurface in another location with only its head showing above the water until it is sure the threat has passed.