Early morning swim

IraRunyan

One of the first birds I saw this morning was this Pied Billed Grebe swimming and diving for breakfast.

IraRunyan

The Pied-billed Grebe is rarely seen in flight. It prefers to escape predators by diving, and it migrates at night. Although it swims like a duck, it does not have webbed feet. Each toe has lobes extending out on the sides that provide extra surface area for paddling.

When alarmed this bird often sinks slowly into the water, surfacing again in another part of the pond away from danger. The grebe is the master of its own buoyancy. It can squeeze out both the air trapped in its feathers and in its internal air-sacs — and sink effortlessly.

Rhuarc

IraRunyan wrote: »

The Pied-billed Grebe is rarely seen in flight. It prefers to escape predators by diving, and it migrates at night. Although it swims like a duck, it does not have webbed feet. Each toe has lobes extending out on the sides that provide extra surface area for paddling.

When alarmed this bird often sinks slowly into the water, surfacing again in another part of the pond away from danger. The grebe is the master of its own buoyancy. It can squeeze out both the air trapped in its feathers and in its internal air-sacs — and sink effortlessly.

That is amazing information! It totally makes me look at the shot by the OP in a whole new way.

Thank you both!

Lindiwe

Beautiful shot of a very interesting bird!
The grebes around here seem to be able to recognise a camera at 50 metres, and immediately vanish under the surface. Now I understand how they do it! Thanks for the very informative post, as well as the lovely image.