{"id":36324,"date":"2016-01-03T06:33:29","date_gmt":"2016-01-03T13:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=36324"},"modified":"2016-01-03T08:42:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-03T15:42:43","slug":"26-pied-billed-grebes-in-a-struggle-to-survive-a-cold-spell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/03\/26-pied-billed-grebes-in-a-struggle-to-survive-a-cold-spell\/","title":{"rendered":"26 Pied-billed Grebes In A Struggle To Survive A Cold Spell"},"content":{"rendered":"

When temperatures get this cold and nearly all fresh water freezes up some bird species are at a distinct disadvantage. Pied-billed Grebes are among them.<\/p>\n

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\"pied-billed1\/800, f\/10, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

On New Year’s Day morning temperatures along this section of\u00a0the Bear River reached 0 degrees F. and it’s been nearly that cold at night for some time without warming up much during the day (it was 7 degrees F. when this shot was taken)\u00a0so nearly all of the river is frozen and snow-covered. Only\u00a0isolated small patches of fast-moving water remain in the liquid state and this group of tightly packed Pied-billed Grebes had taken refuge in one of them that morning. I believe there were at least 26 of them but only about half of them can be seen here.<\/p>\n

Most of these grebes are migratory in this area (their migration is triggered by ice-up and food availability) but I always see some year-round, birds that apparently take their chances on a mild winter.<\/p>\n

These birds may have taken the wrong bet because at least for now they’re stuck. Pied-billed Grebes need a long, running start over open water while flapping their wings to become airborne and that much open water just isn’t in the cards for these birds right now\u00a0and they can’t take off from solid surfaces (it would seem that\u00a0ice and\/or snow would present an even larger problem for take-off than solid ground). Cornell’s Birds of North America Online reports only two documented instances of this species\u00a0taking off from land or other solid surfaces\u00a0– one bird successfully took off from a lawn and another from a\u00a0Kansas highway after it had landed there in the fog.<\/p>\n

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The following video clip should give readers a better sense of the predicament of these birds (sorry, a glitch prevents me from centering it).<\/p>\n

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