{"id":27921,"date":"2014-11-15T06:28:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T13:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=27921"},"modified":"2014-11-15T10:00:52","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T17:00:52","slug":"an-aggressive-western-grebe-and-a-difference-in-water-running-style-among-grebe-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/15\/an-aggressive-western-grebe-and-a-difference-in-water-running-style-among-grebe-species\/","title":{"rendered":"An Aggressive Western Grebe (and a difference in water-running style among grebe species)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For such a large bird Western Grebes can really scoot over the water surface when the need arises.<\/p>\n

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\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS USM, not baited, set up or called <\/strong><\/p>\n

During breeding season male Western Grebes are extremely sensitive to other males approaching their mates.\u00a0 This\u00a0male\u00a0had been swimming peacefully a few yards to the left of his smaller mate\u00a0when he spotted another grebe (presumably another male, I didn’t notice at the time) approaching her from the right.\u00a0\u00a0Without warning he took off in pursuit of the\u00a0interloper.\u00a0 By the time I locked focus on him he was passing\u00a0within inches of his mate and as he did so\u00a0he gave her a\u00a0quick glance, as if to say “don’t even think about it, just ignore this guy and I’ll send him packing”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

An instant later as his backwash engulfed the female his attention was once again riveted on the intruder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here you can still see the back of the female at the left edge of the frame.\u00a0 Those churning rear-placed feet and legs create an impressive wake…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

as they propel that large, plump body across the surface.\u00a0 This action is fast and difficult to track and I lost focus on the grebe as it approached the other bird, who\u00a0vamoosed\u00a0to avoid a\u00a0confrontation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/42000, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

But just\u00a0a few moments later the love-birds were making goo-goo eyes at each other as they reaffirmed their pair bond.\u00a0 Here the size difference between the sexes is quite apparent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’ve noticed that Western (and Clark’s) grebes seem to have a different style as they run over the surface of the water as compared to that of their Pied-billed Grebe cousins.\u00a0 As seen here Western Grebes run on the surface using only their feet for propulsion but…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pied-billed1\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

the significantly smaller Pied-billed Grebes use their wings in addition to their feet.\u00a0 Presumably the difference in running styles is related to the much smaller size and body mass of the Pied-billed.<\/p>\n

I do wonder if other observers concur with my own observation of this apparent behavioral difference.<\/p>\n

But both styles serve the birds well – believe me, all of them can really scoot!<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For such a large bird Western Grebes can really scoot over the water surface when the need arises.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[338,334,735,394,391,359,366],"tags":[731,88,251,276,322],"class_list":["post-27921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","category-clarks-grebes","category-fighting-bird-behaviors","category-nesting-and-mating","category-pied-billed-grebes","category-western-grebes","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-clarks-grebe","tag-pied-billed-grebe","tag-sexual-dimorphism","tag-western-grebe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/western-grebe-6922-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-7gl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124281,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27921\/revisions\/124281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}