Tag Archives: grebe

Grebes Scooting Over the Bay

Earlier in the year, I was up at Juanita Bay before things got too warm to make it enjoyable.  We get plenty of ducks and coots on the bay but, on this occasion, there were a load of grebes on the water.  The types of grebes I grew up with a larger than the ones I saw here.  To be honest, I am not certain whether these were adults or juveniles because they seemed to have very small wings.  Maybe that is how they are, but it could be that they weren’t fully grown.  Maybe some of you know your birds well and can enlighten me.

Anyway, they would periodically get excited and start zipping around the bay.  They would be flapping these small wings furiously and just skimming across the water until they found somewhere that they were happier to be.  I don’t know whether this is just normal movement or that they were spooked by something but it was fascinating to watch them hurtling around.

Rushing Grebes

This post doesn’t have any images sadly but I am writing it so you can go online and check something out.  Nancy and I took a walk along the shoreline in Hayward.  We saw something strange out in the water and, when it happened again, we realized that it was a pair of grebes running across the water.  We Googled this and it turns out it is a mating dance that grebes do.  They pair up and then start slapping their feet on the water so quickly that they can actually run across the surface in formation.  It is called rushing and is quite amazing to watch.  I can’t show you anything myself but do look it up.  It is crazy stuff.

Grebes

wpid11783-AU0E0317.jpgIn the area of the marina at Moss Landing, a very elegant looking bird is prevalent. These are grebes. As a kid, we used to have great crested grebes where I grew up and they were a cool looking bird. This is a different sub type of grebe but the family resemblance is clear. They have a nice shape to them and these have a very striking red eye coloration. They were swimming around in the harbor area and diving for food periodically.

wpid11785-AU0E0353.jpgThe boat didn’t seem to bother too much so we got nice and close as we headed by. They seemed to have little interest in us provided we didn’t inconvenience them!

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