Birds in the mist

The conventions of coots were on the south side of Green Lake this afternoon, along with large groups of other water fowl. They always know when something is in the wind. It was rainy, grayed to almost black and white with occasional blurs of color in distant trees, and the little black birds were interspersed near the naked reeds that stick out in large clumps; the effect was of random musical notes on oddly slanted staffs. A bald eagle perched on the very top of a sequoia, fluffed up to its maximum against the wet and chill. Its yellow beak glowed like a beacon.