For the past two days the temperature has reached the upper 70's with very little wind. Today is was below freezing when we started walking at the "wind gym" (a pasture outside of town), and it was intense. Days like this are frequent in the Winter and early Spring and generally my brain is numb as I go through the exercise, but occasionally an odd thought will surface. Today as I headed into the Artic gale, barely able to gulp enough air to remain conscious, I wondered if maybe I shouldn't start showering before the walk instead of (or as well as) after. Then I was numb again. Now that I'm back in the house and warm it makes perfect sense. I have always lived by the "don't be in a car wreck with yesterday's underwear on" rule, and I seem to be adapting the philosophy for other situations as I get older.
When we got back to the house, as we started around the pond the large grey bird took off again. I got a better look this time and memorized the form and colors. As for size, it's large - somewhere between a big chicken and an ostrich. Another subject and I've talked about it sometime in the past, but I believe even more now than ever that the two large white birds that spend the Winter using the pond are Whooping Cranes. While searching for the bird I saw this morning I came across this. Several times this Winter and last I have stumbled on two birds that look exactly like them catching fish from the pond. They weren't quite as excitable as this grey one. If I instantly froze, then backed slowly away, they would continue what they were doing. Anyone I've mentioned them to can't believe they would be Whooping Cranes, but they could be, the Bosque del Apache isn't that far from here.
Still don't know anything about the grey bird.