Birds and Nature

This Clark's Grebe crown feathers are lifted up in a courtship display almost looks like it's wearing a hat. The red eyes found on both aechmorphorus grebes (Western and Clark's Grebes) really stand on this species as the eyes are surrounded by white feathers and white lores and thin red loral stripes. Something I just learned from Birds of North America online: "Grebes are the only birds that are able to spend their entire lifecycle on water. Floating nests and back brooding their young make this possible. " SeEtta

This is from the group of bathing Baird's Sandpipers I saw at Lake Henry I posted earlier. I was not kidding when I said that they were exuberant bathers -check out the large drops of water on the back of the bird in the top pic (it is best seen by clicking on the pic to enlarge it). SeEtta

These were some of the Baird's Sandpipers I saw along the shore of Lake Henry in southeast Colorado yesterday. It was apparently bath time as I watched several of them bathing for about 10 minutes. The sandpiper in the top pic had just finished bathing and was flapping it's wings to dry them. The bottom pic shows how vigorously these little sandpipers were in their bathing behavior. SeEtta

When I scoped for waterfowl at Lake Henry (near Ordway,CO), I was disappointed to find no nesting grebes. Last summer hundreds of Clark's and Western Grebes nested here in the vegetation growing on the west side of this lake. In fact there were few Western and Clark's Grebes compared to the numbers I usually see here. I was surprised to find that all the grebes I observed had the brownish stain as shown in the top pic and I don't know the origin of it. The bottom pic of another Clark's Grebe at Lake Holbrook (carrying something in it's beak), which is less than 20 miles away, that does not have this staining. If anyone knows why the grebes are stained please note it in the comments. SeEtta