Horned Grebes

Spring is the best time of the year for birding.  There are so many great places to bird it’s impossible to hit all of them.  Luckily, one of my favorite places is nearby.  I love watching the Horned Grebes change from Winter plumage to breeding plumage in just a few weeks.  

We noticed that some of the grebes had started changing plumage two weeks ago

and then we were hit with two weeks of nearly solid rain, not ideal weather for birding or photography.

On the first sunny day we headed back to Port Orchard marina hoping that the grebes would still be there.  In the end, we spotted one grebe in the marina in full breeding plumage. 

and another grebe in even darker plumage on the way back. 

I was a little worried, and disappointed that we haven’t seen more Horned Grebes this year, but I’ll have to admit  that I was thrilled to see one in full breeding plumage because I’m pretty sure they will have all moved onto their breeding grounds before we get back.

One thought on “Horned Grebes”

  1. It is so wonderful to see the birds there in breeding plumage. We don’t get to see them here. Your photos remind me of our days in Port Townsend when we fell in love with birds. Such beautiful photos.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.