Small and chunky, the Pied-billed Grebe always looks like a baby-faced juvenile to me.

Last week several of them were swimming in the rice field canal. Saltbrush seeds from shrubs that lined the bank were drifting over the water.

The lowering late afternoon light and growth on the opposite bank changed the look of the water as I proceeded down the canal.

Further along the Saltbrush seeds looked like sparkly feathers floating on the water. Saltbrush, Baccharis halimifolia, is a woody shrub or small tree in the Asteraceae family, and is also known as Groundsel.