Michael, tweeters,

Thanks for the valuable information on the late nesting date of Pied-billed
Grebes at Jericho Park (December 2, 1980, down-covered, dependent young).
Was this written up somewhere? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this implies a
possible hatching date of mid- to late-November.

I'm working on the Birds of North America account of the Pied-billed Grebe and
this is the kind of stuff (among everything else imaginable) I'm looking for.

BTW if anyone else out there has observations on Pied-bills they believe are
exceptional or out-of-the-ordinary, I would love to hear/read about it. If it
is indeed new, I will follow up with a request for a written account or if
appropriate a reference to a source, so it can be included.

The BNA accounts are supposed to be state-of-the art, but as I know from my
own experience, not everything one sees is written up, submitted and/or
published.

To name some subjects:
Brood division; early and late nesting dates; number of eggs; number of eggs
hatched; survival of young; age at which young become independent; young
helping at the nest; cause of mortality in adults and young (remember last
year's report on young having eaten poisonous newts?); distribution (remember
someone reported Pied-bills from The Netherlands and several people -myself
included- reacted that this probably was a case of mistaken identity? Well,
early this spring a Pied-bill did actually show up in The Netherlands for the
first documented time...); interaction between American Coots and Pied-bills;
terriroty-size; data on nest size; you name it, I want it.
Of particualr interest would be anyone who has been observing courtship and
aggressive behavior. I'm working on an article on that, but would love to hear
of someone else who's been watching this. It's somewhat confusing in the
Pied-bill, but I believe I'm at least beginning to get a handle on it.
In short; if you think you have something, please let me know (but should
probably be off-list, so tweeters doesn't get totally swamped with Pied-bill
material).

Bent didn't have the advantage of e-mail, but can you imagine if he had had
this kind of forum to collect bird information?

If you can think of someone who may be of help, please do forward this
message.

"Hope to be flooded with information from all corners of the earth"

Thanks.

Martin Muller
6205 Latona Avenue NE
Seattle, WA 98115-6552
martinmuller at msn.com