Como Lake really isn't on my way home, but stopping there only adds a couple of km to my journey. And sometimes there's interesting stuff happening at Como Lake. It's got a little bit of wetlands habitat, and an interesting mix of trees; it's mostly open parkland but there is a little bit of brushy area, too.

I park at the south end of the park, which is a little unusual, as I generally park at the north end. Going towards the lake, I see that there are the usual Canada Geese and Mallards around. The resident young Muscovy Duck is also there, as is the Barnyard Goose. The late is sparkling in the sunlight, with little bits of fluff from the cottonwood trees floating around on it.

I look out on the lake and see a small head out there, and I think that it's probably a young Mallard. It's a little late for young Mallards, but I know some ducks have late clutches.

I pointed my binoculars at the young duck and was quite surprised to find that it wasn't a duck at all. It was a Pied-billed Grebe. He's about half the length of a Mallard, and sometimes looks to be more head than body.

Now, the young'uns are far out on the lake and I have no chance of getting a decent picture of them. So I try to anticipate where they're headed, and go to that part of the lake.

When I get there, they're swimming the other way, to the other side. So I walk around to the other side.

And find the little grebes out on the center of the lake swimming the other way. I'm getting tired, and snap off a few photos of them at long range, and decide to check what else the park is offering today.

Stopping near the marsh area, I see a young House Sparrow sitting on a fence. I'm not surprised that there are juvenile House Sparrows here; I've seen the adults here all spring and summer.

Also by the marsh there are a bunch of dragonflies in competition for the skies. I spend some time tracking them and trying to get photos of them, with little luck. Finally I catch one sitting on a branch.

I don't know his name (haven't gotten my books yet). His body looks like that of the White tail, but his wings are different. The green eyes and orange body are different, too.

There was also a dragonfly that looked like a black-and-white version of a Twelve-spot Skimmer, but it never lit and I wasn't able to catch it in flight.

So after a mainly fruitless 30-45 minutes chasing dragonflies, I look out and notice that the little Pied-billed Grebes seem to be moderately close to the opposite shore. I head over, and for once they haven't run away yet. I sit down on the bank and start watching them and taking photos.

Apparently, the adult was feeding the young. The adult would go off and dive, almost invariably surfacing with a fish in its mouth. It would then swim over to the young.

The young would just be paddling around the surface while this was going on, or maybe doing short (one- to three-second) dives. Young grebes can swim and dive from birth.

Once the adult reached the young, it would give the fish to one of them.

The young were quite colorful; more colorful than the illustration of young Pied-billed Grebes in my guide book.

Once the child had the fish, it would maneuver it in its bill until it was lined up with the long direction of the fish pointing the directly away from the bird. This could take some doing, as the young were small and the fish seemed sorta big for them.

Once the fish was in line with the grebe, he would suck up as much of it into his mouth as he could, and try to lift his head a little.

Next, he would toss his head back, trying to straighten out his head and neck, and to swallow the fish whole.

It's a good thing the parent was supervising this, because six times out of seven, the grebeling failed and spit the fish back out again.

The adult would just stick its head down and grab the fish as it floated (or tried to swim?) away.

Then he'd return the fish to Junior (or maybe to another Junior).

This was repeated as often as necessary to have a grebeling swallow the fish. Here's one that was successful. You can see his bulging, straightened neck as the fish is going down.

Now that I've seen young grebes in this lake, I'm going to be checking it next spring for the courtship and mating displays of the adults. Grebes (in general; I'm not sure about Pied-billed in particular) are known for having some of the most intricate and interesting such displays by birds.

Well, it had been a great morning and a great evening for birds and photography...and the weekend was just starting!

Your roving nature reporter,
Tom