Things I saw just walking around.

Lots of friends spotted at the lake today.

Lady ruddy duck, resting tidily on a small rock, probably on her way to breed somewhere cool:

When she saw me photographing her, she looked a bit indignant, then waddled off.

Resident pelican is getting all decked out in bright orange, head tuft, and the beginning of a beak bump poking out from behind the wing...

Eared grebes still going strong, but they'll be gone any time now...

I think I bore them: they're always yawning when I approach. Right before they dive underwater to show just how jaded they are.

A rare sighting of a land cormorant. It was pulling at some frayed string at the edge of the rowing dock. Nest materials perhaps?

Night heron with green and gray stripe background.

Some cheerful humans who got excited when they saw me pointing my camera into trees. So I took their picture too. They waved (not pictured).


And another in the series of "animals sniffing the camera."

Friends!

I guess every bird has ears really. It should be called the metaphorically eared grebe.

Here is what a winter eared grebe looks like

And here are some gorgeous shots Tom got of them last weekend (yes, with the toilet-tube-o-scope):

Sassy McBigForehead:

Here you can see the big lobed feet typical of grebes:

And this one's just pretty. Worth clicking to see larger, it came out pretty crisp.

Yawn and foot stretch!

I have never heard an eared grebe make a sound. It's probably saving up its squawking energy for when it reaches its breeding grounds, probably some inland freshwater pond.

Some cool things on the lake that are too far away to take pictures of.

As I've already mentioned, my camera doesn't have a very powerful zoom. So any bird that's more than 100 yards from me comes out looking all blurry in photos:


There are at least 20 Western Grebes hanging out on the lake these days, but they just won't come close enough for me to get a good shot.

But they're doing the coolest things!

Their mating displays are basically long games of "Stop repeating me! Stop repeating me!"

... accompanied by some head puffing and running-while-flapping.

There are also still at least two eared grebe pairs hanging out on the lake. Could they be nesting? Last year I wrote down that I saw17 of them on April 4, and none after that. Here's a picture from someone with a cool camera:

Breeding Eared Grebe
Originally uploaded by Fort Photo.

And while I'm posting photos I didn't take, here's one of the Double Crest that gives the double crested cormorant its name.

Double-crested Cormorant, Morro Bay Heron Rookery, April 8, 2007
Originally uploaded by mikebaird.