Western Grebe

Aechmophorous occidentalis Sun-setting spear-bearer On any one of his long-strided walks near the Mandan settlement that first fall, Meriwether Lewis encountered all manner of shorebirds and ducks plying the sloughs. Naturalist, explorer, he shot one of each. Taxidermist, he sent specimens back East. Diarist, he described each one shot to the last pinfeather. I write in my journal (a letter to you from the West) ...the wind that flattens the tall grass prairie and keeps blackbirds and meadowlarks low, deafens foraging waterfowl to my slow advance. I am seeing for the first time for the first time! imagine! long-legged, blue-legged avocets giddily spinning phalaropes the thin-necked grebe with its sharp bill and red eye So would you, reader, be my correspondent, my accomplice? My Jefferson. --Marie Harris