When I started my search for grebes at Well College boathouse late yesterday morning I scanned from the dock and saw zero of them. The water was calm but the air temperature was below freezing, so there was heat shimmer as I looked through the layer of warmer air at the water surface, and mid-distance Canada Geese looked all garbled. I figured a bit of elevation would help me see farther and also let me look down through the air layers so the distortion effect would not occur nearly as close. It worked, I could see farther clearly, and I immediately found a couple groups of HORNED GREBES plus a very distant pair of birds, one of which was a Horned Grebe and the other of which was similar in size and behavior but darker. During the next half hour I watched as they swam obliquely closer, and eventually was able to make out the dark bird's taller neck leaning more forward, the smaller head with higher crown, and briefly the light mark curving up behind the ear patch: EARED GREBE. Then, before Jay and Tim and Brad and another person whose name I don't know (sorry) arrived, the viewing conditions began deteriorating with a very slight breeze, and more distortion. Nonetheless, they agreed on the ID. As they headed north, I texted a report, but when I looked up I saw a boat traveling through the place the birds had been and one bird flying north, a Horned Grebe by its angled body and neck, which flew far north and alit again. I didn't see the Eared Grebe again, but learning Bob and Susan were on their way I gave them what info I had. When I heard from Bob a long time later that it was only from the dock that they could ID it, I felt bad that maybe my advice to view from the hill was bad. Then I realized that in the interim the temperature had risen to the high 30s, likely about water temperature, and probably whatever distortion effects I had dealt with had changed. In fact if the wind calmed at that temperature, the viewing was probably nearly ideal. Anyway I'm glad they finally found the bird.
I had just finished up a recording session along Hoag Avenue this
morning (100 Pine Siskins - no crossbills) when I got Dave's call
about the Eared Grebe at Aurora. I headed over to the boathouse, met
up with Susan Danskin, and spent a good hour scanning back and forth
among scattered groups of grebes. A light breeze had picked up,
ruffling the water and bouncing the distant dots around a bit. We
eventually confirmed ten of the dots as Horned Grebes (the same number
reported earlier by Dave) and focused on the eleventh, most distant of
all. After awhile the breeze subsided and the water smoothed out. We
had been scanning from the parking lot, thinking that a bit of
elevation would help with the shimmer. Susan suggested that we get
closer to the bird by walking out on the dock. So, instead of 7,000
ft, we narrowed the distance to 6,900! But that was all it took. The
shape we had been looking at was now clearly an Eared Grebe: darker
overall than Horned Grebe, higher, fluffier "bustle", much less white
on the neck and face, thin bill, and the head had a definite "crown"
above the eye.
Bob McGuire
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