Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Clark's Grebes at Bear River WMA

Well, I jinxed my remodel project by posting "almost finished" on Friday the 13th.  The project ground to a halt and limped along for more than two more months.  Nothing I could do about it, so accepted it and waited while things slowly happened.  More on that another day.  

In the meantime, I was having some fun and a little luck with my birding.  So here is the first of a trilogy of posts on birds.

On June 9th I headed out to Bear River Wildlife Management Area with one goal in mind:  Grebes.  And grebes I found.  Both Clark's and Western Grebes, but only got photos of the Clark's.  My camera battery died before I was halfway around the auto route.

Grebes seem almost playful with babies riding on the mom's back.  There were dozens, maybe hundreds of these.  Just adorable.
One baby on board
Two babies on board.
Dad catches a rather unwieldy fish.
Babies at play, mom completely unruffled.
Racing - go, mom go!
And, of course, the refuge offered views of many other birds.  Here are some Cinnamon Teal ducks.
And Eastern Kingbird, a first for me on this one.
Mallard ducks.
Northern Shoveler ducks.
Stately pelicans.
They seemed to fly in slow motion flying into a stiff wind.
A Snowy Egret.
Two White-Faced Ibis, appearing to be paired off with avocets.
A flotilla of cormorants.  And many more birds I didn't capture.

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