> confoooosed??
....about Horned and Eared Grebes? Never.

Probably what you were distinguishing was adults from juveniles. I haven't seen
the ABC guide illustration of grebes. Does it show ages? Having multiple field
guides is often useful. If you ever pull Peter Harrison's SEABIRDS off a shelf
(it's hard to miss), you'll get lots of hints. Either _Birding_ or _Field
Notes_ has run an i.d. article on these grebes, too, I think fairly recently.

My first Christmas in the Pacific Northwest--Seattle--I decided to take a long
walk. I started by finding a short pier. ...No, I started on a bus from
Greenwood to Shoreline, hopped out near Richmond Beach (where Santa waved to me
from the back of a fire truck), walked to the water's edge, and followed the
railroad tracks south to Golden Gardens Park.

I brought binoculars and watched the Sound. I saw grebes that I thought were
Horneds, but kept trying to make into Eareds. About a year later I saw real
Eared Grebes (Penn Cove) and finally I understood the difference. I still get
momentarily tricked, but after inspecting enough Horned Grebes, the true
identity of that other kind is easily discerned.
--
Scott Richardson
Olympia, Washington
salix at halcyon.com