<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/western-grebe-0839-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"western-grebe-0839-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n
1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I’ve never posted this image before because of the Pied-billed Grebe in\u00a0the background\u00a0photobombing my primary subject, a Western Grebe running across the\u00a0water. I have mixed feelings about that little\u00a0twerp – part of me admires “him” for having the audacity to ruin my shot and\u00a0the other part feels nothing but aggravation that he did. The photo was taken in late\u00a0October of 2015 at Bear River MBR and the image is full frame (uncropped) so I was very lucky to get the entire bird in the frame and sharp without clipping anything. But I decided to post the photo\u00a0despite the photobomb\u00a0because it documents a behavior I very rarely see or photograph.<\/p>\n With their leg attachment placed so far back on their bodies it’s almost like grebes of all species have outboard motors attached to the rear of their bodies and that\u00a0fact makes them very fast and efficient when they run across the surface of the water but these\u00a0two species almost always use dramatically different techniques. Pied-billed\u00a0Grebes flap their wings furiously during the dash to assist them in accelerating\u00a0quickly,\u00a0maintaining speed and changing direction. But\u00a0Western Grebes nearly always\u00a0use only their feet during the run while keeping their wings tucked tightly against their bodies. Perhaps that difference is somehow related to their dramatic difference in size but that’s just a stab in the dark.<\/p>\n So it goes without saying that this Western\u00a0Grebe really surprised me when it used its fully extended\u00a0wings during the run\u00a0(it was chasing after another grebe)\u00a0because I don’t\u00a0recall ever seeing\u00a0this species\u00a0do that before. Western Grebes\u00a0rarely fly during daytime (they migrate at night) and when they perform their patented “Rushing Ceremony<\/a>” during courtship they do lift their wings but they never fully extend or flap them so about the only time I see Western Grebes with their wings fully extended is when they’re stretching or performing wing flaps while they’re stationary on the water.<\/p>\n My intense interest in bird behaviors makes me notice and appreciate\u00a0little things like this but I realize that some readers may not share my\u00a0fascination\u00a0with behavioral minutia.\u00a0In an older post I’ve documented the dramatic difference in water-running style between Western and Pied-billed Grebes<\/a> so perhaps if you visit that post you’ll see why this\u00a0unusual behavior really\u00a0jumped out at me.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Once in a great while an image with a fatal flaw still tickles my fancy.<\/p>\n