There are a few pied-billed grebes here. These are little birds compared to a mallard or goose and fairly timid by comparison, this was the only one that swam anywhere close to me. Fortunately, most of the other ducks were drawn off by a family tossing cracked corn near the bridge, so I was able to take some nice pictures during the few seconds it was in view.
During the summer when they are in their breeding plumage, pied-bills have a white bill (which gives them their name) with a black vertical band in the middle, but in their nonbreeding plumage they have a more nondescript bill like this one.
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I'm Batman
This little grebe was floating along early one morning, mostly sleeping, in one of the ponds at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens in Portland. It mostly seemed to just float with the water, although it likely did a little steering with its webbed feet as well. I waited until its eyes were directly lined up with my own, the way that its head is tucked down between its breast and wing reminds me of Batman with his cape pulled up and covering his face.
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Three Eyes
This is one of a pair of grebes that were fishing a narrow channel at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. This was the larger of the two and the one catching the most fish. They would frequently vocalize to each other and given that this was taken in April, I suspect that the two grebes were a-courtin’.
There are three eyes visible in this picture, the large eye of the grebe and the two eyes of the fish in its beak. The grebe caught a number of fish but for whatever reason it always ate them with its back to me. This one time, however, it momentarily held the fish where I could see it before quickly turning away and swallowing it out of sight. |
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Invasive Species Removal
This grebe was doing a little invasive species removal at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge on a rainy spring day. I was driving on the back half of the auto tour loop when I saw this grebe swimming up ahead with something in its mouth. I couldn't recognize what it was from that distance, but assumed it must be a juvenile bird of some kind. When I got up close, I saw that it was not a bird but a frog, a large species that is not native to Washington.
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Down the Hatch
In this picture, the grebe attempts to swallow the large frog by flipping it up and letting gravity aid the frogs entry down the grebe's extended throat. It wasn't successful on this attempt, but it did manage to swallow it a short while later. A much larger meal than the small fish the grebes often catch, I didn't think there was any way it could down the frog, but soon there was only a webbed foot sticking out of the grebe's bill. There's definitely a little motion blur. I've never seen a grebes neck extended like this, I didn't know they could stretch out that far.
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If I Sound Hoarse …
… it's because I have a frog in my throat. (ba dum)
Proof that the grebe eventually managed to swallow the frog, with only a webbed foot still sticking out. After swallowing even the foot, the grebe swam over to the other side of the channel and sat still for quite some time. I suppose that’s the grebe equivalent of unbuttoning your pants after a Thanksgiving feast. It was still sitting there when I left. |
