VA BIRDers,
So I typed into Google "What do Pied-billed Grebes eat?" and here is the
info on the Washington State Bird Web site:
"Insects, fish, and other aquatic creatures make up the bulk of the
Pied-billed Grebe's diet. The birds' heavy bills are adapted to crushing
large crustaceans, but Pied-billed Grebes are also opportunistic feeders,
preying on a wide variety of aquatic creatures including fish. Like other
grebes, Pied-billed Grebes will eat and feed their own feathers to their
young. It is thought that these feathers help them regurgitate bones and
other non-digestible parts of their diet."
Other websites concur with the addition of insects and amphibs.
Connection to SAV? SAV are nursery's to a wide variety of fish and
invertebrates. So, the Pied-billed Grebe is simply foraging in an
appropriate habitat that contains a high concentration of its food.
Other aquatic birds show this foraging behavior, albeit for different "food"
reasons.
Kurt Gaskill
-----Original Message-----
From: va-bird-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:va-bird-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Janice Frye
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 4:26 PM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Va-bird] Occoquan Bay on 10/22
PBGRs hang out in SAV all winter on the James River along Riverside Drive.
I always assumed it had something to do with the current and needing a
steady loafing spot when they were not hunting in open water.
Jan
Richmond
-----Original Message-----
From: va-bird-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:va-bird-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Bazuin.John@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 9:42 AM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Va-bird] Occoquan Bay on 10/22
All,
I spent several hours birding around Occoquan Bay NWR, beginning
about 10:00 a.m. (after a dental appointment). US F&WS employees (and
maybe contractors) had begun bushhogging some of the fields on the
refuge. The field NE of the central parking lot had already been hogged
down and while I was there they began to hog down the big field north of
Charlie Road and east of Bravo Road (the exit road). No real
complaints...I, personally, want the field habitats to remain and you
regularly have to knock the woody stuff back to maintain the (very early
successional stage) fields. However, I do wish they'd done this in the
late winter/early spring, instead, to leave the tall herbaceous cover
available and the on-plant food resources more available during the cold
season. Anyway, I found bird variety pretty low (for there), but did
find a few things of interest. In the (predominantly) hardwood forest
on the slope above lower Marumsco Creek were at least 4 Red-headed
Woodpeckers (I saw one adult and one juvenile and heard the other 2)
gathering acorns and pecking them open up in the trees. There were two
female Rusty Blackbirds perched (separately) in trees in and along the
lower Catamount Creek marshes. In the cove in Occoquan Bay at the mouth
of Marumsco Creek there were 53 Ruddy Ducks and 2 Pied-billed Grebe.
They were actually in the large masses of SAV out there. I couldn't see
any obvious reason why they'd be there and not in the open water nearby.
Is there suitable prey for these species actually in or under the masses
of submerged and floating vegetation? Oddly, on this beautiful day I
saw no vultures or raptors soaring.
I did have an odd encounter with a fellow who walked up to the car
from Fox Road road shortly after I parked. I was surprised by this
because there was no car parked in the parking lot at the time. The
fellow (whose name I did not get, but who was more interested in the
deer on the refuge than in its birds) had apparently dropped his car off
somewhere in the area for repair work and then had walked to and around
the refuge. He told me that he used to hunt deer there when the site
was still the Harry Diamond Lab (they apparently had controlled hunts)
and had been surprised to find out that it was a refuge and had not been
completely developed (as he had expected). He also told me about seeing
a huge laser there a little before the lab was closed and additionally
mentioned that the agency he worked for (I don't know which one) had
been interested in buying the site but had done soil tests there and
found it to be "hot" enough that they decided not to pursue a purchase.
I asked him if he meant radioactive when he used the term "hot" and he
confirmed that this is what he meant. Does anyone out there know what
the story on this is...or if it is even valid?
John Bazuin
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