Return of the Pied-Billed Grebe

No sooner do I mention a grebe (yesterday) than one visits Lakeside Park. At least that is what I thought the small bird was. Looking through my lens from the main seated area, I could tell that it was much smaller than the mallards and it was also diving. It had to be a grebe. It kept diving and surfacing, moving to the far end of the lake:


I followed the path around to the top of the lake and found a good place to chain my bike. Looking out over the lake from the side bank, I should have been able to see the grebe, but there was nothing other than mallard ducks and a great blue heron on the far bank. I waited for the grebe to appear, and waited, nothing. I looked around for something to busy myself with and found this curiously striped and spotted caterpillar on the stem of a grapevine. A good chance to use my DIY macro lens. A later google search came up with an eight-spotted forester moth caterpillar:


I had given up any thought of seeing the grebe. It must have left. I made my way back to my bike, unchained it and then heard a plop sound directly behind me on the other side of the reeds. Not the splash of a kingfisher or the arctic terns, more a plop! I went to investigate, edging into the reeds on the fallen branches. I parted the reeds with my hand, and right in front of me was the grebe. It had been feeding in the top corner of the lake, completely hidden by the reeds which were now providing me with camouflage. I had to use my Merlin app when I returned home to identify it as another pied-billed grebe, an immature pied-billed grebe:


Happy with my sighting of the grebe, I made my way back to my bike, only to be interrupted again by some activity in the trees above me. Not on the trees, but more on the grapevines which had clambered their way through the branches. A number of young robins were feeding on the now ripening grapes:


It was time for me to leave. I wanted to return home and sort through my photos, but maybe just one more view of the lake from the main seated area and one more photo opportunity. The green haze evident in the grebe photo is much more prevalent in this picture of a great blue heron, almost hidden behind the reeds with its catfish:


Copyright © wildlakeside.blogpot.com 2019 Scott Atkinson All Rights Reserved.

Location: Lakeside Park, 206 Lakeside Dr, Kitchener, ON N2M 4C5, Canada

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