California Birds

Hawk

Glossy Ibis

Swallow

Seal

Gull

Grebe Resting

Grebe

Widgeon

Blue Winged Teal

Ruddy Duck

Cormorants

Mike took a quick trip to California. Here are few bird photos.

Eared Grebe from Bolsa Chica

 

Here's a photo of an eared grebe. They have similar coloring to the western grebe but are about half the size. They are great underwater swimmers- quickly covering almost 100 feet in a single dive.

Western Grebe at Bolsa Chica Wetlands

The Bolsa Chica Wetlands are a restored habitat in Huntington Beach, California. Here is a photo of a Western Grebe. It is at least twice the size of the pied-billed grebe we occasionally see in New Jersey.

Grebe

Grebe

This is the pied-billed grebe. We haven't seen one since last fall. The grebe sightting is where Mike first coined the "new duck" alert, calling Chris to come see something unusual. This looks small for a grebe. We think we saw a larger one last night, but didn't get a good picture. According to our books, the ring around the bill means it is in the breeding stage. It's so small that Chris thought it was a baby mallard when she first spotted it following behind a mallard this afternoon.