The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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October 31, 2018
Salish Sea, Pacific Northwest
Horned grebes are the earliest waterbirds to return to my local bay from their summer breeding grounds, sometime in September. Ducks and mergansers follow in October, so it’s all Horned grebe action livening up the bay after a very quiet summer, waterbirdwise. This year I saw the first Horned grebes on September 6, which is about two weeks earlier than the past couple of years.
They arrive in a good size flock of 20-30, then in winter dispersing. Right now I’m seeing them in groups of half a dozen or so.
While Horned grebes prefer fairly shallow quiet waters, they are tiny birds and tend to stay a ways from the beach so I don’t often get great looks at them. That’s why I was so pleased to see a few the other day only about 30 feet away. Four were playing around a floating clump of bull kelp. I can’t think of any other description. They weren’t foraging or grooming or sleeping. At this time of year they haven’t embarked on mating displays (which are incredibly elaborate, like all grebes. I wish I could see that but they breed inland, likely the British Columbia interior). Perhaps some or all of these were youngsters, who look very much like adults in winter.
We’re into the early days of winter season: grey days more often than not in the PNW. The black and white winter plumage of the grebes makes them nearly invisible on a choppy sea (their red and gold breeding plumage finery — including horns — I rarely see except occasionally in late spring just before they depart). However these tiny water birds are bundles of energy, which becomes evident close up. I took some pics and video.
Grebes swim entirely with their legs and feet. Their legs are attached way at the back of their body which is a good configuration for swimming, but not so good for walking. I rarely see them out of the water. These guys climbing onto the kelp mass showed they can clamber around if need be, though nowhere near as gracefully as they swim.
Note the lobed feet of the grebe on the kelp. No other group of birds has feet like that, including loons, with whom they are often spoken of in the same breath. But loons have webbed feet, like most water birds. Turns out their similarity in lifestyle and form is an example of convergent evolution. Molecular and morphological traits actually show grebes most closely related to flamingos! en.m.wikipedia.org/...
More grebe video:
Winter is the “off season” for waterbirds like ducks, grebes and loons. Pressure’s off. All they have to do, now they’re here, is catch some food now and then. This bay is chock full of fish, crabs and clams, hence ducks and grebes in winter. Not really a surprise this little gang of grebes would be playing with a clump of drifting kelp.
🦐
Pouring rain today in the Pacific Northwest, quite dark and grey out. Light wind from the SE, classic pattern for the leading edge of storm fronts rolling in off the Pacific.
What’s up in nature in your area today?
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