{"id":88673,"date":"2020-08-19T05:51:40","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T11:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=88673"},"modified":"2020-08-19T06:08:41","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T12:08:41","slug":"western-grebe-still-incubating-eggs-yesterday-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/19\/western-grebe-still-incubating-eggs-yesterday-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Grebe Still Incubating Eggs Yesterday Morning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seems to me that these grebes are cutting the nesting season window a little tight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yesterday morning I photographed a Western Grebe still incubating eggs. In this species both sexes incubate but based on bill shape my best guess is that this is the male, though I could be wrong.<\/p>\n

As I drove by the first time he was getting off the nest for a brief break from his duties so I turned around so I could photograph him out my driver’s side window. Here he appeared to be inspecting the two eggs in the nest (clutch size for this species is\u00a0 2-3 eggs).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Several times he rearranged some of the vegetation on the nest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Eventually he decided it was time to get back on the eggs. Western Grebes are exquisitely designed for life in the water but they can barely walk on land or any dry surface, including their nest. They have huge awkward feet and their legs are attached at the rear of their body, an arrangement that makes walking next to impossible.<\/p>\n

So even the short trip from the water’s edge to the eggs was going to be a challenge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He popped up out of the water…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

and began his awkward and painfully slow journey to the eggs.<\/p>\n

As he approached the eggs he had to place those huge lobed feet very carefully…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

to avoid damaging them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then with his legs splayed and his feet far apart to accommodate the eggs he appeared to turn them partially over which is typical behavior for most incubating birds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then he exposed his brood patch just prior to settling down on the eggs. In this species both sexes have a brood patch so its presence isn’t a reliable indicator of sex.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He didn’t stay settled on the eggs for long. Apparently something didn’t feel quite right so he…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

stood up again and appeared to turn or rearrange the eggs one more time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He did a little dance to get his feet far enough apart before…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

settling back down on the eggs. This time he seemed comfortable so I left him and drove down the road to look for more birds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Western Grebes are known to have an extended nesting season but this pair seems to be cutting it a little close. The incubation period for this species is 24 days but even if we assume that these eggs will begin hatching today the adults will still back brood the young chicks for up to a month. Youngsters stay with their parents until migration but it takes 70 days for the flight feathers to fully form, allowing them to make short flights and become completely independent.<\/p>\n

Depending on how early the snow flies that seems to be cutting it a little close, especially if these eggs aren’t close to hatching.<\/p>\n

I probably worry too much but worry I do.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

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

Seems to me that these grebes are cutting the nesting season window a little tight.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88677,"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":[338,334,391,366],"tags":[731,2634,60,1318,480,311,1763,322],"class_list":["post-88673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","category-nesting-and-mating","category-western-grebes","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-breeding-season","tag-brood-patch","tag-clutch-size","tag-turning-eggs","tag-utah-2","tag-walking","tag-western-grebe"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/western-grebe-0341-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-n4d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88673","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=88673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}