Jim Flynn continued the queries about...
>the feeding habits
>of Western Grebes. A couple of months ago a man fron the Washing-
>ton Dept. of Fish and Wildlife gave a program on waterbird
>monitoring in Puget Sound. He mentioned offhand that Western Grebes
>feed at night. Surprised me and I haven't
>read any more info on this yet but would love to hear more.

First, the WDFW biologist was Dave Nysewander, project leader for the
Puget Sound Ambient Monitoring Program bird and mammal surveys.
As for the Western Grebes, I, too, have heard they forage at night.
At the Pacific Seabird Group conference last November, James Clowater
from Simon Fraser Univ., Burnaby, BC had a poster presenting preliminary
results of some Western Grebe surveys in Saanich Inlet. He wrote:
"...in mid morning grebes collect into large cohesive flockes which
persist until dusk when the flocks begin to disperse. These flocks are
primarily "roosting" flocks where most time is spent either resting or
preening."
He followed some grebes as they dispersed at dusk and found them
beginning to dive at least 1 hour after sunset. He also remarks that the
Great Crested Grebe is a crepuscular forager in the Netherlands (Piersma et
al 1988; incomplete citation in abstract) and the behavio(u)r is associated
with increased availability of vertically-migrating prey (e.g., euphausiids).
--
Scott Richardson
NE Seattle
salix at halcyon.com