[tn-bird] Western Grebe at Norris

From: K Dean EDWARDS <kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tennessee Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2002 23:29:38 -0400 (EDT)


After the KTOS trip to Rankin WMA, myself, Tom Howe, Ron Hoff,
Dollyann Myers, David Johnson, Jean Alexander and Kelly Roy
decided to try for the Western Grebe.  We found the bird as
soon as we drove up, about 1/4 to 1/2 mile away.  Later we
moved up the road and were able to view it from about 200 yds.
We watched it for about an hour.

During that time, it dove three times for, I would guesstimate,
about 30 sec to 1 min.  I couldn't tell if it was successful
in finding food.  The rest of the time was spent preening.  At
one point it flopped its wings.  Someone (sorry, I don't remember
who) watching through the scope at that point said that they
didn't see how it could fly with wings that short.  Since grebes
molt all of their flight feathers at once leaving them flightless,
this bird could be here a while if that is what it has done.

Some details on the bird:  The bill is yellowish in the center
when seen from the side with significant greenish along the
top and bottom.  Black on the head clearly extended below the
red eye with no trace of white around the lores.  The black
on the back of the neck was rather wide, wider than I am familiar
with on a Clark's.  Having seen hundreds (close to thousands)
of Clark's and Western Grebes in San Francisco, many at very
close range, I would consider this clearly a Western Grebe.

I tried to take some pics through the scope but, as usual, they
pretty much suck.  There is one that is fairly identifiable which
I may try to post online.

Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN


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[tn-bird] Western Grebe at Norris

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