Day 10: Part 1 – One out of Six Ain’t Bad?, will be posted tomorrow.

(Note: The bird was never very close to shore, so all of these images are clickable links. If you click on the image, you can zoom in for as much detail as there is. After zooming in, you will need to “go back” to the previous page. Usually, this is a back arrow on the browser.)

After feeding the cats dinner, we planned to drive to Storm Point Trail to see the Yellow-bellied Marmots and see if we could find a Pine Marten. We stopped at Pelican Creek, and John saw some weird snake headed bird. (Now referred to as snake bird.) He thought it might be a loon. (Spoiler: it was not.) When he got the camera assembled, he could no longer find it. He took a few pictures of the other birds to get the exposure correct. When he reviewed the photos, it turns out that he accidentally photographed it. (It is just to the right of the flapping duck.)

When we got to Storm Point and Indian Pond, there were four cars there. Since there were so many people hiking the trail, we decided to pass it to see if the river otter or grizzly bear were out at Sedge Bay. (Spoiler: they were not.) When we got back to Storm Point and Indian Pond, we parked at Indian Pond. Sadly, there were eight cars at the Storm Point parking area, and it looked like it would rain soon. We got our gear and headed to the pond through a swarm of non-biting flying insects. Maybe, Mayflies?

While using binoculars to identify the birds on Indian Pond, John saw the snake bird again, and photographs ensued.

This picture is the closest that we got to the snake bird.

Snake bird caught a fish.

Snake bird on the prowl.

Snake bird caught another fish.

Snake bird dove under, startled the ducks into flying 10 feet away, and then surfaced between them. The ducks flapped indignantly afterwards … or tried to dance Flamenco.

Snake bird appeared to have eaten his fill. It just paddled around cleaning its feathers for about 10 minutes, so we headed out to avoid the rain.

When we got back, we looked up snake bird. It appears that snake bird is actually a Western Grebe. These birds are rare to find in Yellowstone National Park, but they are not an endangered species. They have an intricate mating ritual that involves rushing at each other across the water, pulling up grasses, and dancing together on the water. It is most likely to be seen in March and April, so it is unlikely that we will get a picture of it.