western grebe

Formerly thought to be a color morph, the Western Grebe was split into Clark's Grebe (pale morph) with Western Grebe retained for the dark morph in 1985. These large swan-like grebes of Western North America are best distinguished by the placement of the red eye. Birds with the eye surrounded by...

I always thought the foot coming up out of the water (you can barely see it here) might be part of trying to attract a mate. Then I read this: It turns out that this behavior helps to prevent body heat from being lost to the water. They stick the foot back behind them, shake the water off...

This grebe didn't mind me taking this picture from the boat.

Now this is love. That small fish wasn't enough to fill either of their stomachs but they did share.

You have to wait until tomorrow to see.

Part of the mating dance called "rushing". Got this from a boat.

Fishing the docks

Caught this fellow along the shore grocery shopping.

This youngster was more interested in the fish than me

I was hoping this pair would do their mating dance on the water but they decided to stop and watch me.

This fellow means summer is almost here.

It's nest building time on Clear Lake in northern California. Our grebe population has gone from 70,000 in 1990 down to 5,000 this year. One of the main reasons is the lack of bait fish (a favorite of the grebes) but other reasons include the boats' waves washing the eggs out of the low lying...

Western Grebe. Orange colored mast reflections in the water.

Walking back to the Marina, after my walk past Chrissy Fields to Fort Point, I saw some tourists looking worried about something on the beach. They were concerned about this bird, which they thought looked like it might be injured. I didn't think it looked injured. Grebes' legs aren't built for...

Not one of my best images. Yet it is somewhat defining. It shows the male carrying on it's back and feeding this large chick. I've seen males feeding chicks before, but the chicks were always on the female's back. And this chick is gray, not white, making it a Western versus a Clark's Grebe.

The dance... Not only is it graceful, in synch and beautiful, it is POWERFUL! The amount of water they move is dramatic. Absurd amount of energy... but then again, I guess that's what mating is all about. I've got 12 frames of this dance. By zooming in on just the heads, it really appears the...

Taken in Shuswap Lake, Salmon Arm. A well known breeding site for this grebe. Start off early tomorrow for a 2 days trip to Merritt, lead by an experienced birder. Hope better luck this time.

This one was taken back in Nov 06 at a much closer range, may be less than 50 foot.