ML285847741
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
I was scoping Edinboro Lake from the north end of Lakeside Drive and had three Horned Grebes on the south end of the lake. In the middle of the lake, diving very near the raft of 60+ Ring-billed Gulls, was a lone grebe that looked slightly different to me. I was kind of in a hurry, so shot off about two dozen voucher photos, then had to leave town for the day. In the back of my mind, I thought there was a tiny chance it was an Eared Grebe, but thought that more likely, it was just an intermediate plumaged Horned Grebe. When I got home, after dark, and pulled up the photos on my big computer screen, I realized only then, that this was a winter-plumaged Eared Grebe, a first for the Edinboro Lake and species #241 for the Edinboro Lake Hotspot! The odd thing about this grebe, was that it was being followed by a kleptoparasitic, immature Ring-billed Gull. Every time the Eared Grebe dove, the gull swam over to the spot it dove from, then hovered in the air above where it thought the grebe would surface, hoping to steal its fish prey when it surfaced. I saw the gull do this 4-5 times. I never saw the grebe surface with a fish and thus never saw the gull successfully get a steal. Notice the thin, upturned bill. Notice that the black cap extends downward into a smudge on the cheek that creates a look of two white spots on the face. This bird has a crown/forehead hump, characteristic of the species.
Technical information
- Model
- COOLPIX P1000
- ISO
- 400
- Focal length
- 1078 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire
- f-stop
- f/8.0
- Shutter speed
- 1/250 sec
- Dimensions
- 4608 pixels x 3456 pixels
- Original file size
- 4.23 MB