ML644544056

Observation details

I know this doesn't seem real, but I assure you that this was definitely very real. I was very, VERY surprised to see this grebe resting on the edge of hwy 190 about 0.5 mile east of Panamint Springs. As I drove past it, it took a moment for me to realize what I had just seen and passed. Vehicles had to move left slightly to avoid hitting it. Another vehicle turned around to go back to it before I was able to. They got these two photos. They were not birders. Before I could get a photo, this grebe finally flushed, and it flew into the desert. It was struggling to fly/maintain flight. I doubt that this bird survived very much longer as it might have been sick or injured, and it was a long ways away from any body of water. This grebe was in winter plumage, and it had a sharp demarcation between the white cheek below the level of its eye and the black head above the level of its eye. I had been at the Furnace Creek Ranch looking for the Ruddy Ground Dove. I was unsuccessful, and decided to drive back home near Sacramento. Again, this was a very unexpected sighting... a Horned Grebe sitting on a highway in the middle of a desert (Death Valley).