Another trip to big pond out at the local wastewater treatment plant, and this trip paid off handsomely. With my opportunities to photograph wildlife being primarily curtailed to my immediate local area, I have to go forth on mostly hope and optimism. Not that seeing the regulars daily, and especially the seasonal visitors seasonally, aren’t fully satisfying on their own accord. It’s just that I really experience a deep thrill when my lens comes in with something brand-new to my eye and I know I have a never-before-observed or photographed species, and my list is going be supplemented by at least one more by the close of the day.
Hey, when you’re old and decrepit like I am, ya gotta have something to give ya that ol’ jazz, ya know what I mean? (Oh, so what I know I’m exaggerating on that “old” and “decrepit”. If I can’t kick myself in the pants, who can?)
On the way out to the pond, I saw a couple of fresh spring lovelies.
American Goldfinch, female
American Goldfinch, male
Bewick’s Wren
Before I show the “good” photos of the Eared Grebe, a couple of others from the area that day.
Brewer’s Blackbird, female
Here is the wetland filtration area that serves the wastewater treatment plant process. This is the final stage of the water treatment, returning it to completely clean and safe water as it progresses through the soil under natural gravity flow, until finally flowing back out into Spanish Creek, and from there down into the Feather River, and eventually through the Sacramento Delta and out into the Pacific Ocean. Ah, yes, some evaporation occurs along the way, of course.
Same grassland/wetland, from a slightly different vantage point; the wastewater treatment plant is in the middle background.
What you can’t see in the foregoing photo is the main pond. Here’s a photo of the pond, taken during a previous visit.
And the aerial satellite view. The pond is at lower left, the filtration grassland/wetland is in the yellow boundary. The grassland is nearly thirty acres.
OK, now on to some information, the main show, and the closer.
- In the fall, almost the entire population of Eared Grebes flies to Mono Lake, California, or Great Salt Lake, Utah, to fatten up on brine shrimp and alkali flies before migrating farther south. Here they more than double their weight, and the sizes of their muscles and organs change. The pectoral (chest) muscles shrink to the point of flightlessness and the digestive organs grow significantly. Before departure for the wintering grounds, the process reverses; the digestive organs shrink back to about one-fourth their peak size, and the heart and pectoral muscles grow quickly to allow for flight.
- A cycle similar to that of the fall staging areas occurs 3–6 times each year for the Eared Grebe. For perhaps 9–10 months each year the species is flightless; this is the longest flightless period of any bird in the world capable of flight at all.
- The Eared Grebe migrates only at night. Because of the length of its stay at fall staging areas, its southward fall migration is the latest of any bird species in North America.
- On cold, sunny mornings, the Eared Grebe, like some other grebe species, sunbathes by facing away from the sun and raising its rump, exposing dark underlying skin to light. This behavior may make the bird appear to have a distinctive "high-stern" profile.
- Eared Grebes might be the whales of the bird world in one sense. Researchers suggest that they use their large, fleshy tongue much as baleen whales do, crushing prey against the palate to squeeze out the salty water.
- The oldest recorded Eared Grebe was at least 8 years, 7 months old when it was found in California in 1998, the same state where it had been banded.
Source: All About Birds
My better photos:
In all I counted four birds, but there could have been more. Here’s two together. The male and female look alike. This could be a mating pair as they are in breeding colors.
Best photo of the day.
Now it’s your turn. What’s been up in your world, nature-wise or nature related? Please share in the comments and include your location and any photos if you can.