More Bronte Marina Grebe Pictures

I'm getting behind again!  And that is my excuse for the fact that I can't remember for sure how/when I visited the Bronte Marina again, except that I think I had a meeting just after lunch in Oakville.  The chicks were a little bigger, and I got to see the feeding routine a couple times with better views than my last visit.

This time I was there sometime mid day, and with partially overcast skies, the light was dispersed instead of a glare.

Joey?? Where are you?!?

In my room, Mom!

It was still just the two chicks from last time.  This time, there were eight eggs, one of them a fresh white colour - evidence of egg dumping.  I had seen someone mention this on the Hamilton Birders group and thought they were mistaken... I thought it meant they were starting to push their own eggs overboard, giving up on the ones that didn't hatch.  But when I looked it up, I learned that it's actually an offensive, competitive move by neighbouring Grebes to try and sabotage the egg recipient's efforts at incubation.  Seems backwards at first, but if they have too many eggs, then they can't keep them all at the proper incubation temperature.  The Grebes end up rotating them all and often then none of them stay long enough at the proper temperature and none of the larger clutch size hatch. 

Evidence of 'Egg Dumping'
(note the one bright white egg on the right)

The strategy seems to have worked here - out of the final egg count of 10, only two hatched.  It was reported not long ago that the nest is abandoned with no eggs left, and the chicks almost the same size as the adults.

Room Service

Now what Dad?

 

Son, there are little fish, and big fish. 
You eat the little fish, but the big fish eat you!

Red-necked Grebe with vegetation
they continually add to the nest.

Red-necked Grebe chick.

Red-necked Grebe chicks on adult's back.

I doubt I'll be back here again this year. Sure a nice spot to see these birds up close and enjoy seeing the distinctive chicks with their neat colour patterns.

Till next time...
Keep enjoying His handiwork!

Bronte Marina Grebes

I went into work really early one morning a couple weeks ago, with plan to go first to Bronte Marina hoping to use the first light for some pictures of the Red-necked Grebe chicks. I had seen on someone else's blog that that two chicks had hatched and wanted to see if the morning light would be better than the mid-day sun I had had last visit.

Red-necked Grebe in the early morning sunlight.

For the adult birds swimming around, the light turned out alright for a few angles, but the rising sun is still on the water side of the birds and there is no public access to the floating Marina docks where the lighting would be amazing.

I didn't get many pictures that I was really happy with, though the following one was hilarious with one of the two chicks resting under an adult's wing with its legs just dangling out.

Red-necked Grebe pair - one chick hanging out, tucked under mom's wing.

The water's edge was just teaming with little minnows, and the Grebes must continually be catching them to feed to their young.

Red-necked Grebe with minnow.

Red-necked Grebe preening.

Under the Marina eaves, a small colony of Cliff Swallows (life bird #129) make their nests and raise their young.  What a lot of mouth-fulls of mud it must take to slowly create these sturdy shapes that become little caves of mud to protect little clutches of eggs and young.

But my first glimpse was actually of these beaks and eyes, not of swallows but of sparrows.  Soon an adult arrived with food and the hungry mouths opened with eager anticipation.  I can't exactly figure out what type of sparrow this is.  I believe it is a female, but can't figure out which kind.  Any suggestion? 

UPDATE: House Sparrow - thanks Caleb S.

House Sparrow young

female House Sparrow feeding young.

The Cliff Swallows were noisily flying back and forth. I didn't see any young ones, and didn't see any birds arriving with food, but they arrived so quickly and darted in their small nest holes so quickly, it was hard to see.

Cliff Swallow

Cliff Swallow adding to nest - you can see the new
part it just applied and some mud still in its beak.

Cliff Swallow nests

Cliff Swallow

Till next time...
Keep enjoying His handiwork!

Red-Necked Grebes in Bronte Marina

This has been a "grebey"summer so far. I've seen all three of the different grebe species  which are normal for this area within a month including Pied-Billed Grebe at Valley Inn Road, then Horned Grebes in Grimsby, and now a beautiful pair of Red-Necked Grebes in Oakville. 

Red-Necked Grebe attending the nest.

I don't typically get much further than LaSalle Park in Burlington, but I had a meeting in Richmond Hill and decided to use my lunch hour to stop by the Bronte Marina where a pair have been nesting for years on tire in the boat marina.  This year, the tire seems to be sitting lower in the water, and was not even visible, vegetation covering it nicely.  Nice for pictures, but must be a bit nerve wracking for the birds with any rougher water cooling the eggs down.

For the first while of my visit, the one bird (male and female have similar markings and size is the only real way to tell the difference - since they were never side by side, I could never make out which was which) decided to preen for quite a while.  I had hoped to see some interaction but that didn't seem likely at first.

Red-Necked Grebe preening

Red-Necked Grebe showing off "ear tufts" or "horns".

Post preen fluff.

After all the preening, the bird gave a nice stretch and I felt like I was at Marineland with a trained Grebe doing a polite wave to the crowd.

You can see here how Grebes have partially webbed toes and their legs
are located way back on their bodies.

And then, it decided to try for a snooze.  They will often put one leg up on their back, and then use the other leg to manoeuvre against the wind to hold their desired location.

Snoozing Red-Necked Grebe

But, patience paid off and soon nap time switched to nest reinforcement.  The one bird kept diving down and coming up with green algae which was strategically placed on the nest with cooperation from the two of them.

Red-Necked Grebes reinforcing their nest.

Red-necked Grebe pair.

Just as I was about to head out, the nest sitting bird must have needed to stretch its legs, or more likely, wanted to make sure it was keeping all the eggs warm with a new position.  A nice view of at least seven eggs became mine before they were covered by the hopeful parent.  That was a rewarding end to sitting with your butt on the corners of rip-rap!

Seven Red-Necked Grebe eggs.

Now, if only a meeting out east would come up again... I'd love to see the young ones.
If you'd like to find and see them for yourself, the pair is here and they are nice and close to the edge of the water giving great views. With a well used public walkway, they seem to be quite comfortable with onlookers, so their doesn't seem to be any risk of scaring them off their nest.

Keep enjoying His handiwork!