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Re: Grebe at Falls Lake



On Mon, 12 Nov 2001, Dan and Marian wrote:
> 
> Between 9:15 and 9:45 this morning I had essentially the same list as Josh:
> 1 Western, 5 Horned and yes, 1 Pied-billed, which was of course the only
> bird anywhere near Rolling View. The main attraction was much closer to the
> Sandling side [snip]

Hi Carolinabirders,

I have, on at least two occasions, looked at a given bird or flock 
from both sides of that portion of Falls Lake. From Rolling View, the 
birds always look closer to Sandling Beach. But when I get to Sandling 
Beach, the birds always look closer to Rolling View. I think it's just an 
optical illusion, maybe plus some wishful thinking, which makes birds 
seen from Rolling View look closer to Sandling Beach. Birds which really 
are close to Sandling Beach, I've found, are usually not even visible 
from Rolling View. So we don't have to feel so bad that Sandling is 
closed for construction.

Now if Randy or Ginger got out there with their canoes, THEN somebody 
could get closer looks at the grebe, maybe even photos... Otherwise, the 
only hope for a decent picture will be if somebody digiscopes it. 
Hmmmmmm...

On Tue, 13 Nov 2001, Agki Strodon wrote:
> 
> How often do Clark's grebes show up around here?  I used to see both
> Westerns and Clark's but that was in
> the Western US.  Haven't seen one in  a long time.

For whatever reason, vagrant Clark's doesn't seem to turn up nearly as 
often as Western. Either that, or many people are calling out-of-range 
Aechmophorus grebes "Western" by default, rather than "Western/Clark's", 
when conditions preclude actually telling which species a given bird is. 
I'm not scanning the hotlines of other states on birdingonthe.net anymore 
as I did the last two winters (fortunately Paul Champlin is picking up my 
slack), but I can't remember any Clark's showing up anywhere on the east 
coast in the past few years. Western, by contrast, pretty much annually 
shows up on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, usually a few of them each 
winter. Right now, a quick search for "Western Grebe" at 
http://birdingonthe.net/hotmail.html
turns up 11 references on 6 different RBA's since October 29, including 
one in New Brunswick. A search for "Clark's Grebe" turns up only two, 
neither especially eastern: Calgary and North Dakota.

> (or is it Clark'ses... or Clark'ss?)

It's Clark's Grebe, I believe. As in Lewis and Clark. According to that 
natural history book I read over the summer (where from I quoted about 
House Sparrow introductions a few months back), they collected lots of 
animal and plant specimens on their westward explorations and shipped 
them back eastwards. I'm guessing that this grebe was one of them.

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/