Horicon in the rain

Horicon in October is not a secret. The parking lots are full on weekends and the observation decks are busy. I went on a Friday on the theory that rain would thin the crowd. It did. I had the south spur of the auto loop mostly to myself.

The big story was Canada Geese — thousands, maybe tens of thousands. I’ve never been good at estimating flock sizes and I don’t try anymore. Add in a respectable push of Sandhill Cranes, a flotilla of Ruddy Ducks with those ridiculous blue bills, and two flyby Trumpeter Swans that I almost missed because of rain on the lens.

Ducks I could ID: Gadwall, Mallard, Northern Shoveler, a handful of Green-winged Teal. A cooperative Pied-billed Grebe worked a channel close to the auto loop pullout and I got the shots I wanted in about six minutes.

Best sequence of the day was a skein of geese coming off the water against a really heavy gray sky. The light wasn’t great but it was right. I shot a burst at 1/640s and got maybe eight keepers out of forty.

Ate a cold sandwich in the car with the heat on and drove home wet and happy.