One baby grebe at Green Lake

There's one fluffy peeping baby left from the latest clutch of the pied-billed grebes at Green Lake.

The young one from the clutch before is still around too.

Previous posts:

June 3: one egg
June 10: seven eggs
June 27:first hatching
June 28: second hatching
June 30: three babies, two eggs
July 1: still three babies, two eggs
July 3: three babies, one egg
July 6: two babies, away from nest
July 21: One baby left, but what are the parents up to?.
August 12:Five eggs in the nest
August 26:Four babies, one egg

Green Lake Grebes have four babies, one egg

As of this afternoon, the pied-billed grebes nesting at Green Lake had four stripy, big-footed babies, and one egg to go. My count last week was wrong.
They're keeping the parents busy.


Previous posts (apart from the one I just deleted for being incorrect):
June 3: one egg.
June 10: seven eggs.
June 27:first hatching.
June 28: second hatching.
June 30: three babies, two eggs
July 1: still three babies, two eggs
July 3: three babies, one egg
July 6: two babies, away from nest.
July 21: One baby left, but what are the parents up to?.
August 12:Five eggs in the nest

Green Lake grebes have more eggs

The pair of pied-billed grebes nesting in Green Lake have new eggs. I could see five. Given that there were none when I last looked in, on July 27, and pied-billed grebes have an incubation period of about 23 days, that means they won't hatch until about August 19.


Settling down.


The youngster from the last clutch was fishing alone at the north end of the lake.

Previous posts:
June 3: one egg.
June 10: seven eggs.
June 27:first hatching.
June 28: second hatching.
June 30: three babies, two eggs
July 1: still three babies, two eggs
July 3: three babies, one egg
July 6: two babies, away from nest.
July 21: One baby left, but what are the parents up to?.

One big baby grebe in Green Lake

I visited the pied-billed grebes this morning and found they have one baby remaining, and it has grown in the two weeks since I visited last.

It was diving and swimming alongside its parents, making lots of noise between dives. The parents would feed it. After a while, they went back to the nest. One parent climbed on, and the baby rested and groomed nearby.
The parent called a couple of times.

After a while, the other parent came back. They both added some material to the nest. Then they ducked under a willow branch and sang a duet. The baby stayed put.

What are they up to? Another clutch? It seems a little late in the year.

Previous posts:
June 3: one egg.
June 10: seven eggs.
June 27:first hatching.
June 28: second hatching.
June 30: three babies, two eggs
July 1: still three babies, two eggs
July 3: three babies, one egg
July 6: two babies, away from nest.

Pied-billed grebes away from the nest

I arrived this morning to a blustery gray lake. The pied-billed grebe nest was empty. I could see one of the adults just beyond the edge of the lily pads.

Hmm. This bird is riding pretty high in the water. And where's that peeping sound coming from? Wait. Those back feathers are wiggling.


It turned out the parent had two small passengers. And they're staying close by.


I found the other adult diving among the lily pads a bit farther south. No passengers there.

Previous posts:

June 3: one egg.
June 10: seven eggs.
June 27:first hatching.
June 28: second hatching.
June 30: three babies, two eggs
July 1: still three babies, two eggs
July 3: three babies, one egg

Green lake grebes eating feathers

As of 10 a.m. today, there were three babies and one egg in the pied-billed grebe nest. Here the adults are singing a duet, while the babies swim toward them.

Martin Muller emailed me with this fascinating point about the feather seen on the baby's bill in Wednesday's pictures. He wrote that grebes eat their own feathers, and that their flank feathers molt constantly, giving them a steady supply.

"All grebes will eat their own feathers as well as some 'found feathers' (for instance when ducks are molting and many small feathers are floating around). Sometimes the very first 'meal' a newly hatched grebe chick receives is a feather the adult provides.

Feathers line the inside of grebe stomachs and also provide a 'plug' in the pyloric exit (stomach to small intestines). The feathers are thought to provide protection from sharp fish bones (adult grebes swallow fish whole and they slowly dissolve in the stomach acid, youngsters are proffered smaller pieces of fish but those may contain fish bones too), as well as a 'strainer' to keep the partially digested food inside the stomach long enough to dissolve.

A third theory postulates that the feathers provide bulk for pellets (grebes regurgitate pellets containing indigestible matter like chitin shields of insects they eat, or plant material ingested along with animal mater). The pellet is also thought to clean the esophagus of parasites as it works its way up and out (like the sponge that is sent through pipes, using water pressure, to clean the inside of the pipes at dairy farms, hence the name for the theory 'polishing sponge theory' -translated from the original Dutch 'poetsprop theory'-)."

Here's an adult feeding a youngster a feather.


Previous posts:

June 3: one egg.
June 10: seven eggs.
June 27:first hatching.
June 28: second hatching.
June 30: three babies, two eggs
July 1: still three babies, two eggs

Three fluffy baby grebes

By 11 a.m. this morning, there were three fluffy baby pied-billed grebes in the nest and two eggs. The parents took turns with the task. One would dive around, forage, fix up the nest and feed the babies. The other would sit on the eggs.
The babies clambered over whichever adult was on the nest, often stopping to snuggle under its wings. And they ate a lot.


Funny, the pink on their faces matches the pink on the willow leaf in the last picture.


Previous posts:
June 3: one egg.
June 10: seven eggs.
June 27:first hatching.
June 28: second hatching.

Grebe hatchling number 2

I came to Green Lake to check on the pied-billed grebe nest this morning and found no sign of the baby that hatched yesterday.
But one of the remaining six eggs had a hole in it.


Soon enough, another hatchling arrived.


The adult's first response was the same as it had been for the first hatchling. It started chewing at a nearby water lily.


And back to the nest, to feed the baby and remove the eggshells. It carried the eggshells away from the nest, and dove with them.


After a while the baby became more lively and started peeping.


The other adult arrived and changed places with the parent who had been there at the hatching. The chick tried climbing on the adult's back. Check out those feet.


It proved quite difficult.


Still trying.


Ah, made it. The baby is now tucked under the grown-up's wings. I hope it stays safe.

First grebeling

I stopped by to see the pied-billed grebe nest, and found it unchanged, although the adult seemed restless. Twice she (or he...they are identical in plumage and habits) left the nest, covering the eggs with bits of nest material.
Then, as I was taking a picture of something else (to come in a future post), s/he called. So I started watching more closely. One of the eggs started moving.

Sure enough, it hatched.

Hello world.

The parent left the nest and found food for the chick, which started to waddle around the nest and cheep. Then the adult came back, picked up half the hatched eggshell, and dove down with it. S/he repeated the procedure with the other half. Then she called a couple more times, climbed back on the nest, and sat on the remaining eggs, with the chick nestled against her/his feathers.

Pied-billed grebe nest, week 3

There's the floating nest, safe and sound. I think the eggs will hatch some time next week.

Shift change at the grebe nest

I visited the pied-billed grebes at Green Lake this morning. I found one on the nest, which looks larger and sturdier than it did last week.

Then another arrived, and adjusted the edges of the nest while the first one rose off the eggs.

Looks like there are at least seven eggs in there.

With one off and swimming away, the second one climbs on.

It makes small adjustments to the nest...

And sits.

Pied-billed grebes on Green Lake

A pied-billed grebe sits on a floating nest.


Another grebe comes up with a beak-full of brown plant matter, and she (or he) steps off and starts gathering plant matter too. There's one egg in the nest. According to my reading of the bird books, there may be up to six more on the way.


Both birds dive among the lily pads, bringing back more nest material.

Visit here for an update.