{"id":33558,"date":"2015-08-21T05:38:01","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T11:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=33558"},"modified":"2015-08-21T07:26:25","modified_gmt":"2015-08-21T13:26:25","slug":"western-grebe-still-back-brooding-a-youngster-this-late-in-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/21\/western-grebe-still-back-brooding-a-youngster-this-late-in-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Grebe – Still Back-brooding A Youngster This Late In The Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m always surprised when I see Western Grebes with young chicks this late in the year but it does happen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two days ago\u00a0I photographed this one with a\u00a0chick on its back\u00a0at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.\u00a0Western Grebes have an extended breeding season and some are even known to still be on eggs in mid-August and with chicks through the end of the month. I enjoyed finding these birds because this was the first time this season I’ve been able to photograph back-brooding grebes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

Youngsters have a bare spot on their crown through their first several weeks after hatching. Typically that patch is straw yellow to salmon colored (as we see here) but in times of excitement, when begging for food or when they’re separated from their parents for example, it turns bright scarlet. I can’t help wondering if it’s just a coincidence that the color then\u00a0matches the eyes of the adult…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"western<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 640, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/em> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n

But this\u00a0little guy was as\u00a0calm as could be as it rode contentedly, slept occasionally and played with the\u00a0feathers of its parent\u00a0so the patch never did turn color that I noticed. I’ve seen it do so before and the color change\u00a0can be\u00a0dramatic.<\/p>\n

Usually Western Grebes have\u00a0more than one\u00a0chick.\u00a0This time I only noticed one in the field but in looking at these images I believe there may have been another one buried in the feathers between the wings directly behind the neck of the parent. If so it apparently slept the\u00a0entire time I was there.<\/p>\n

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

I’m always surprised when I see Western Grebes with young chicks this late in the year but it does happen.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33561,"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":[338,334,366],"tags":[731,738,49,2634,740,762,322],"class_list":["post-33558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","category-western-grebes","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-back-brooding","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-breeding-season","tag-chicks","tag-crown-patch","tag-western-grebe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/western-grebe-8760-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-8Jg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33558","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=33558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}