Right Off My Back

(Eared Grebes)

“Go ahead. Call me drab. Just hang around a bit and see what you think in the spring.”

Eared Grebes and their close cousins, Horned Grebes, appear mottled in shades of gray and black most of the year and are even difficult to tell apart. But with the advent of breeding season, that all changes.

The growth and appearance of the golden ear tufts against the suddenly black head feathers, now raised in crests, and the chestnut colored flanks and rumps make the Eared Grebe a sight to behold. Their beacon red eyes, present throughout the year, gleam like embers in the night as the head feathers darken. What a sight!

Learn to focus them in your glasses quickly. They will dive in a blink. They are so well adapted to life on and under the water that they remain flightless for up to 9 months of the year. They distribute themselves in small colonies during the breeding season but then congregate by the hundreds of thousands to one of two specific destinations: Mono Lake in California or the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Both of these bodies of water are intensely saline, giving rise to tremendous populations of brine shrimp and alkali flies, which make the lakes historically perfect staging areas for the birds to gorge and prepare for their non-stop, nocturnal winter migrations to southern California and Mexico.