Watery Wednesday: Pied-billed Grebe

Crex Meadows is one of my favorite places, near home, to go and take wildlife pics. The best times are spring and fall. In the spring you can see things like migrating warblers, common loons, and trumpeter cygnets. During the fall the high lights are rough-legged hawks and large numbers of sandhill cranes. During both the spring and the fall you can find pied-billed grebes, like this one that I found on a trip to Crex on October 25th.

I spotted him on Phantom Lake. I could not tell at first what he was trying to eat, I thought it might be a fish, but it turned out to be a king sized frog. The frog was so large that I did not think that the grebe was going to be able to eat it but, after repositioning it a few times, he lifted it up in his beak and then down the hatch went the frog. Doesn't he look content in the last pic?

Pied-Billed Grebe Crex September

Back in September I was out doing some birding up at Crex Meadows in Wisconsin. Crex is one of my favorite places around home to photograph in the warmer months.

This trip was right around the time that we see an increase in the number of pied-billed grebes, as those that spend their summer up in Canada are returning to the area on their migration back south.
Pied-billed grebes spend the winter in the southern half of North America as well as Central America and parts of South America.
It is very uncommon to see a pied grebe in flight. During migration they fly at night time. To escape danger the pied grebe prefers to dive under the water, as demonstrated in this series of photos, instead of taking flight.
I think that the way that they dive is pretty unique. Instead of diving forward head first, like many ducks and other water fowl do, they often just sink down into the water, as you can see in this series. They kind of remind me of little submarines because of the way that they dive.

Crex Meadows Birding

In the middle of August I decided to spend a Saturday up at Crex Meadows. It was about the same time last year, August 12th, 2007 to be exact, that Michelle and I rescued an injured immature eagle from up at Crex. This year my trip was not quite as exciting but I did have a good day and I managed to get a few pictures too.
Eastern kingbirds are a fairly common sight during the summer months. They are by far the flycatcher that we see the most during this time of the year. One nice thing about eastern kingbirds is that they are not as skittish as many other passerines. They will often sit and pose for you so that you can get an outstanding photo, don't we wish that warblers would take lessons.
The only raptor that I saw that day was a red-tailed hawk. You can see red-tails pretty much any time of the year in my part of the world. They are usually on light posts on the side of freeways looking for the rodents that populate the medians and shoulders of the road.
Sandhill cranes are one of the big draws at Crex. There is a small resident population that spends most of the year, except winter, at the park. During the fall these numbers are augmented by migrating cranes that use Crex as a staging grounds. The cranes gather together, feeding while they wait, and then migrate down to Florida, Texas, New Mexico, or some other southern location, as a large group.
Pied-billed grebes are the smallest member of the grebe family in North America. They are kind of tricky to photograph because when they get frightened they do not fly off, like most other birds. Instead they sink down into the water, a lot like a submarine does, and since they can hold their breath for a long time and are pretty strong swimmers often you will never see where they come back up. I usually only see pied-bills during spring or fall migration.
Another summer resident are the trumpeter swans. A small population of these large white birds use Crex as a nesting ground. In June you can often see a pair swimming through the shallow water followed by many small grey cygnets. During the winter they will migrate to where they can find food. Many may end up in Monticello, MN where the water stays open, due to the Excel Energy Plant, and a kind women feeds them cracked corn daily.

Crex Waterfowl

Yellowstone is not the only place to see waterfowl. On our trip to Crex Meadows, June 1st, we spotted a few ducks that have still remained. The ducks that we saw the most of were mallards and blue-winged teal.
We also saw quite a few ring-necked ducks. The cool thing about this picture is that you can actually see the ring around the neck that the duck is named for. This is unusual. Some people say that you can tell that this bird was named by hunters because usually you do not see the ring around the neck unless you have the bird in your hand. If you want to see examples of how ring-necked ducks usually look check out this link of past ring-necked duck pictures that I have taken. Notice that the lighter colored band around the neck of the bird in this picture is not visible on those other birds.

We also did spot a couple of pied-billed grebes. Michelle thinks that pied grebes are cute, probably because their eyes are so big for their little bodies. I liked this shot because it had just come up from a dive and part of its body is still submerged.

Birding Around the Twin Cities

It was a bit cloudy and hazy on April 27th but I decided to go to some of the local birding locations to see if anything new might turn up.
One new sighting that I found, in the marshland that is a part of Fort Snelling State Park and is right across the road from Black Dog Lake, was a green heron. This was my first green heron for the year.
Another bird which I have not seen many of so far this year is the pied-billed grebe. I found this one at Wood Lake Nature Center. Last year it seemed that I saw a lot of pied-billed grebes earlier in the spring then this year. Maybe our poor weather so far this spring has something to do with it.
There was still at least one pair of wood ducks at Wood Lake. They will probably clear out soon , heading further north for the summer.
Usually all that we have left in the mid summer months are the geese, mallards, robins, crows and redwing blackbirds.

Redhead, Scaup, Grebes, Flickers and Mergansers

I did also find some birds at Fort Snelling State Park on April 20th.
I have seen quite a few northern flickers around lately. Since they are pretty migratory it is possible that many of the birds that I have been seeing are on their way up to summer nesting grounds up in Canada. All of the flickers that I have seen are yellow-shafted northern flickers. The red-shafted northern flicker has a more westerly range. Perhaps I will get some pictures of a red-shafted when we travel to Yellowstone later this year.
Male redhead ducks are aptly named and easily identified, especially in breeding plumage. After the mating season is complete the males fly to large lakes, typically further north, where they group together. At that point they go through a molt which leaves them flightless for about a month. After the molt they appear pretty much brown all over but still maintain a red tinge on their heads.
Unlike its cousin, the greater scaup, the lesser scaup can only be found in North America. It is difficult to tell the two apart unless you have them right next to each other for comparison. However since the lesser scaup prefers fresh water, while the greater prefers saltwater, most of the scaups that we see here are lessers. From what I have read the best trait to use to identify whether you are looking at a greater or lesser scaup is the shape of the head. Lesser scaups have a thinner more rounded head then the greater do. My guess is that this was a lesser.
The horned grebes have been out in full force lately. Maybe it is just me, but it seems as though there are more horned grebes around this spring then normal.A group of grebes, like the one pictured above, is not called a flock or a kettle it would be called " a water dance of grebes"

Another grebe that I spotted for the first time this year is the pied-billed grebe. Typically I have seen more pied grebes, around home, then any of the other types, but this year I have seen a lot more horned then I have pied.
Another bird that seems to be more numerous this year, at least where I live, are the red-breasted mergansers.
These birds are coming from winter grounds on the east or west coast of North America, as far south as Mexico, and are heading to their breeding grounds in the Arctic and Subarctic regions of Alaska and Canada.

Playing hooky at Wood Lake Nature Center

On Saturday October 13th I participated in the Upper Midwest Audubon Conference in Bloomington, MN. I arrived at the conference at around 8:00am and after registration and the welcome I went to a very interesting program session entitled The Great Northern Owl Irruption of 2005. Having photographed many great gray and northern hawk owls during the irruption I was very interested in hearing the speaker, Dave Grosshuesch, talk about his research on the phenomenon. It was very interesting and it left me looking forward to the next northern owl irruption whenever that may be.

The second program session that I went to was not very exciting and it was all that I could do to keep from falling asleep. As soon as it ended I went outside to check the weather. As the weather man promised the clouds had left, the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. This was the first nice day in a week and I was going to be in the conference all day. I was scheduled for a field trip to the Bass Ponds at 2pm but I could not wait that long to get outside. So I took my camera and headed over to Wood Lake Nature Center, which was right down the road. I figured that I would skip one session then head back for lunch but sometimes plans just don't work out, especially when out shooting on a beautiful day.

When I first arrived, at Wood Lake, I checked the small trees down by the dock near the visitors center. These trees always have a lot of small birds to photograph and this Saturday things were no different. The first thing that I spotted were a few song sparrows in the brush next to the trees.Up in the trees there where northern cardinals.
The male looked like he had completed his molting.

The female looked like she was still missing some feathers around her face.

I also spotted some ruby-crowned kinglets. This one almost came right down to me. He got real close and flashed me his crown, unfortunately I was not fast enough to get that shot but I did get him a bit further up. I also caught this american goldfinch. The ruffled feathers kind of threw me off and I thought that it was a yellow-rumped warbler at first, but a helpful reader pointed out my error and when I looked at it closely I can see that it's beak looks too wide for a warbler.I guess I am not the only one who likes a good bath. Out on the trails I spotted a white-throated sparrow. The last one of these that I saw was in Duluth three weeks earlier.I also spotted a fox sparrow out on the trails. This was the first one of these that I have seen so far this fall.Even though it is already mid October there were quite a few insects around, like this autumn meadowhawk.George Bush finally admitted that there is such a thing as global climate change so I guess now it is real and the dragonflies can hang out here into winter. LOLThere were a few waterfowl out too. American coots have been moving through the area in the past week or so. I saw about 20 coots through out the park.I also got some shots of the pied-billed grebes that have been hanging around for about a month.

By the time I got through the park the lunch time for the convention was already half way over. So I decided to eat the food that I had with me instead. On my way back to the convention I took a wrong turn on 494 and somehow ended up at the Bass Ponds.

More pictures from Crex Meadows

Here are some of the rest of the birds that I photographed at Crex Meadows last week.

There are still quite a few pied-billed grebes hanging around.

Most of them were either on Phantom Lake or in the North Fork Flowage.A lot of american coots have migrated into the area.I saw two flocks of around 50 or more coots. One flock was in the shallow waters on the north of phantom lake.The second group was near the boat landing on the east side of the North Fork Flowage.I spotted a few greater yellowlegs in the Upper North Fork Flowage.There were also some greater yellowlegs near dike 4.Sandhill cranes are all over, with the biggest concentrations in the fields southwest of Reisinger Lake.On my way out I was driving south on County Road F, which is the west boundary of Crex and I spotted a male wood duck, back in breeding plumage, in the L Dikes mixed in with canadian geese.