Grebes and More Grebes

We may have originally gone to Bear River to see Avocets, Ibis, and Stilts, but we probably ended up spending more time photographing Western and Clarks Grebes. I hadn’t even left the parking lot to begin the driving tour when I spotted this Western Grebe.

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On a previous visit, I’d had the privilege of seeing Grebe pairs performing a mating dance and I was hoping to see the same on this visit. Though most of the Grebes I saw did seem to be paired off, all I saw was some preliminary necking and head bobbing.

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In fact the most exciting moment of Grebe watching in the first two days took place while photographing this pair

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and one Grebe casually scratched its back,

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which was about the same thing we were doing inside the car while fighting off mosquito bites.