Red-Necked Grebes

My favorite part of being retired is that I can take advantage of brief sunny interludes in mostly cloudy, rainy days. In five minutes I can be walking Ruston Way or Owens beach. Most of the time I simply get an enjoyable workout, covering two or 3 miles.

Although I usually see birds I’ve seen many times before, occasionally I will see a bird I seldom see or, even, one I’ve never seen before. The other day, for instance, I was watching Horned Grebes and I notice that one grebe was larger than the other ones.

Horned Grebe and Red-Necked Grebe

I didn’t immediately recognize it as a Red-Necked Grebe but I did recognize it was a bird I seldom see and started photographing it.

Soon I noticed there were actually two of these grebes not one,

Two Red-Necked Grebes

and they were looking for food,

Red-Necked Grebe “snorkling”

shrimp as it turned out,

Red-Necked Grebe with Shrimp

though shrimp as large as this are generally known as “prawns” around here. I didn’t even realize we had shrimp, a personal favorite, in the Puget Sound. A little online research revealed that there is, indeed, a shrimp season in the Puget Sound. Amazing what you can learn by paying attention. At the very least, I got the best shots of a Red-Necked Grebe I’ve ever gotten.