Dan's Feathursday Feature: Horned Grebe

A number of decades ago, inspired in part by a book titled Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I jumped on a 700cc Honda and headed off from Detroit on a cross-country trip to find myself. My odyssey ended just a few days later when I stopped at a friend's cottage to make an international phone call and propose to the woman who is now my wife. That truncated road trip was the start of a wonderful journey.

The things I think of when sitting here trying to write about birds...

Actually, if I recall correctly, Robert Persig's book was not so much about Zen. It was more Plato than Dogen. But that's OK. As any Zen master might say: It's the lack of thought that counts.

And when I think about it, I find that I am attracted to birding because of the often zen-like spirit that it requires. I don't mean just the sitting still and being quiet part. I mean the soul-emptying drive-four-hours-to-see-a-rare-bird-and-see-nothing part. If the bird's not there, you're not going to see it.

If you see it, it is as it is; if you do not see it, it is as it is.

Which brings me to the Horned Grebe, my birding Zen master. I was at my favorite park one late fall day, happy to have spotted my first Horned Grebe of the season. On a large lake, this little bird can be difficult to find, because when it's in a hunting mood, it spends more time under water than above. It would surface, I would just get it in focus for a photo, and then it would dive, just as I snapped the shutter. The dive is graceful, sometimes comical, like Jimmy Fallon when he plunges into his Thank-You notes routine. Twenty minutes and a dozen dives later, I had some 120 shots of nothing but grebe butts.

When I got home and looked closely at the photos, I found something fascinating in those grebe splashes. Almost every time it dove, it created a splash in the shape of a perfect circle. In Zen, and in the martial arts, the circle is the symbol of simplicity, perfection and emptiness--enlightenment.

Now any normal person would just say, "Cool." But I saw a message in those zen-like grebe-circles. At that point in my life, as I indulged my passion for birds, I was beginning to take it maybe a bit too seriously. Bird ID can be difficult and frustrating and humbling. And the more you learn, the more you realize you're only scratching the surface. I found that my birding walks were beginning to feel a bit too much like preparing for an exam.

Those grebe-circles told me to stop taking it so seriously. I started humming more Bob Marley tunes and enjoying my walks more.

Now you know where enlightenment comes from.

Except for its fiery red eyes, the Horned Grebe is various shades of gray for most of the year. But come spring, when it molts into breeding plumage, it is a strikingly colorful bird. And the raised "horn," together with the red eyes and sharp pointed bill, can make it look downright fierce at times.

Take it from me. If you haven't seen a Horned Grebe yet this winter, don't get bent out of shape about it. Listen to Bob Marley: "Don't worry, about a thing...."

Dan's Feathursday Feature is a weekly contribution to the COS blog featuring the thoughts, insights and pictures of Chicago birder, Dan Lory on birds of the Chicago region.