Immature Pied-billed Grebe

Soon it will be time to start seeing youngsters again, like this immature pied-billed grebe that I photographed at Crex Meadows. Currently pied-billed grebes are just returning to the area. In the next month they will begin to build their nest. Both male and female work to build the nest, which is bowl shaped and made of vegetation. Nests are usually built on floating platforms of vegetation, which helps keep them from some predators, and attached to cattails to prevent them from floating away.
Once the nest is complete the female will begin to lay eggs one per day. The typical grebe will lay between 3 to 8 eggs. The female incubates the eggs until she has completed laying then both male and female take turns incubating them. It takes about 23 days for the eggs to begin to hatch. The down covered chicks can leave the nest shortly after hatching, however they can not swim very well so they typically spend most of their first week of life on the backs of their parents. By about four weeks they are fairly self sufficient and look like the bird in the pics above.

Crex Meadows Road Trip

The second road trip that I took with the new car was to Crex Meadows. Crex is located about 90 miles north of the Twin Cities just over the border in Wisconsin. All together I ended up driving about 200 miles, this included driving around the park and ended up using a little bit over 4 gallons of gas.

While driving I try and keep an eye on the road, an eye on the dash, it turns green when I am driving more efficiently, and an eye out for wildlife. It's a good thing that I have four eyes that way I can also keep one closed to get some rest while I drive LOL. You never know what you might see while you drive like an American kestrel hanging out on the power lines. Fortunately I spotted this kestrel after I left the interstate so I could stop to take some pics. Usually kestrels are quick to fly away when you pull your car over but this little guy did not seem to mind me very much. If you look closely you can see that he has one foot tucked which is not something a bird will do if he is nervous or frightened.

Crex is named for the Crex Carpet Company which owned the land in the early 1900's. The Crex Carpet Co. harvested wiregrass from the areas marsh lands to create grass rugs. In 1933 the carpet company went bankrupt, later, in 1946, the state of Wisconsin bought the land and turned it into the Wildlife Management Area that it is today. The carpet camps are long gone but the marshes where the grasses where harvested from still exist and are now home to a lot of wildlife. One of the most noticeable wildlife that you can often find in the marshes of Crex during the warm months are the very large sandhill cranes. Sandhills can be found in Crex through out the spring and summer but the largest populations are seen in the fall when migrant birds use crex as a staging area for the fall migration.

Crex Meadows stands on what is sometimes referred to as the Northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens. The barrens is a long narrow sand plain that was formed as the Wisconsin glacier retreated 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. As the glacier retreated north, glacial till was deposited in the area forming the sand prairies that make up the Barrens and much of Crex.

The sand prairies support the growth of many different prairie grasses and plants. Wild flowers like butterfly weed, black-eyed Susan, and blazing star help to add color to the prairie and attract butterflies like the pink edged sulphur, pictured above, and the Aphrodite fritillary, pictured above the sulphur.

As the Wisconsin Glacier receded it also created Glacial Lake Grantsburg over where Crex now stands. Over the years the lake drained away leaving shallow sedge marshes behind. Today there is approximately 6000 acres of open water with in the Wildlife Management Area. Most of this comes from the twenty-nine flowages which are managed by a series of dikes, pumps and transfer ditches. Besides the flowages there are also four natural lakes, numerous ponds and three streams which begin on the property.

These waterways are home to many different types of wildlife including fish, reptiles, mammals, and waterfowl. Some of the waterfowl are visitors who stop in the spring and the fall during migration to rest and to feed. Other waterfowl like the common loon and pied-billed grebe can be found all summer long. The common loon in the photo above is an immature that was born in the park and photographed on Phantom Lake. For more information about Crex Meadows check out their website here.

Watery Wednesday: Pied-billed Grebe

Today is Cinco de Mayo, a regional Mexican holiday which celebrates a victory that the Mexican army had over the French on May 5th 1862. Even though Minnesota is pretty far from Mexico we have a significant Mexican American population here that celebrates Cinco de Mayo. One immigrant that I frequently see during the summer that is known to possibly spend some time in Mexico is the pied-billed grebe.

Pied-billed grebes spend most of their lives on or under the water. They find food by diving under the water to catch fish, aquatic insects and crustaceans. When a predator is around the pied-billed grebe will usually choose to dive under the water rather then fly away to escape the predator.

Although pied-billed grebes look a lot like ducks they do not have webbed feet like ducks do. Instead they have lobes on each of their toes which give them extra surface area to paddle and move through the water.