{"id":44403,"date":"2016-12-18T05:41:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-18T12:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=44403"},"modified":"2016-12-18T07:49:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-18T14:49:09","slug":"the-bizarre-biology-of-the-eared-grebe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/18\/the-bizarre-biology-of-the-eared-grebe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bizarre Biology Of The Eared Grebe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The little Eared Grebe may be the most biologically interesting bird species\u00a0I’m aware of.<\/p>\n

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1\/500, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 II Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As common as they are in northern\u00a0Utah during certain times of the year I’ve rarely been able to get close to them. The exception was a few years\u00a0ago when I found several\u00a0of them\u00a0feeding on an insect hatch on Glover Pond near Farmington Bay. They were scurrying around on the pond as they snatched “bugs” off the surface and occasionally one would pause and look at me with an intensely scarlet eye.<\/p>\n

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\"eared-grebe-9431-ron-dudley\"<\/p>\n

1\/800, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 40D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 II Extender, not baited, set up or called in <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I actually preferred them a little further away so I could get their reflection in frame on the mirror-like surface of the water.<\/p>\n

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The Great Salt Lake is one of only\u00a0two primary staging areas of Eared Grebes in North America\u00a0(the other is Mono Lake, CA).\u00a0This photo, taken in early May along the causeway to Antelope Island, shows mind-boggling numbers of grebes from the shoreline to roughly a half mile out into the lake.\u00a0And there were just as many birds for much of the 7 mile length of the causeway.\u00a0At times it’s estimated that there are 2.5 million Eared Grebes on the lake which is over half of the entire North American population<\/p>\n

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The physiological changes in body composition of Eared Grebes during their migration cycle\u00a0are truly bizarre. Consider the following:<\/p>\n