Making Friends

There have been a fair amount of grebe-sightings between the second and third dam. These are slender-necked, fish and crustacean eating birds that build floating nests on the water and mate with elaborate dance rituals.

Our VP of Wildlife thought we had a Clark’s Grebe, and I thought we had a Western Grebe. Turns out we were both right! Check out this amazing photo from Cheryl Reynolds showing one of each down at the secondary dam. They look almost identical, but the Clark’s grebe has white around his eye, and the Western’s dark stripe goes right through his eye. See for yourself:

Boy we’re all going to be naturalists before this is through.

Speaking of eyes, mom’s is looking unhealthy again. Remember she was photographed with a condition back in October, and then it seemed to improve. I’ll do some more asking to see what can be done, but it appears to be a recurring condition that at least, isn’t contagious to her or to the others.

The fourth (almost) dam to be exact. Jon spied 7 mallard ducklings yesterday and this specimen, a western Grebe.

This isn’t our photo, but that’s our fella. We’ll get the photographers out soon. I’m happy to see the ducklings again this year, and wondered when they’d appear. One of the treats last year was seeing how much more protected family numbers were by the beaver dams. Instead of seeing a progressive attrition (one day 8 baby ducks, then five, then three) we saw family ranks that kept their numbers until maturity. The dams make a more protected habitat, and this year the would have been 4 times as protected, although the city interfered with the progress by removing vegetation and installing sheetpile. The beavers did what they could to mitigate.

Still, baby ducks are always a good thing.