Dear Clare, Congrats on seeing the western grebe. You are lucky. Western
grebes used to be really common right where you saw yours; always a late
fall/winter bird. But in the past several years, western grebes have become
extremely scarce at the Fill. There is a winter flock that always hangs out
in the lake farther north (around 125th St.), but not at the Fill. I don't
know why the grebes have abandoned the Fill, because there are still plenty
of fish for them to eat. Maybe they dislike the increased traffic of boats,
canoeists, kayakers, etc. Or maybe the fish they like have left - whenever I
see an eagle, osprey or heron take a fish, it's always a catfish.

Re the dark ducks, I wonder if they're domestic/mallard hybrids? That kind
of thing is really common in general, although most of those kinds of ducks
tend to hang out where people feed them, and that almost never happens at
the Fill. Still, whenever I see a really aberrant duck that appears nowhere
in any of my field guides, that's what I always think of.

Re the cormorants, haven't a clue. Maybe another tweets will be able to
answer this one. Dennis? - Connie

on 9/24/03 4:55 PM, Clare McLean at clareishere at hotmail.com wrote:

> Mysteries to me, at least, although I'm sure they can easily be cleared up
> by some of you (paging Ms. Sidles...)
> I've recently taken the plunge (no pun intended) and am beginning to tackle
> identifying ducks and waterfowl, etc. Here are some questions based upon
> trips to Montlake in the past 10 days or so:
> 1. Around 7 pm saw a Western Grebe swimming around a couple dozen mallards
> sitting on the docks at the UW Crew House. It was my first sighting of this
> species there and haven't seen it in subsequent visits; how common is it at
> this time of year?
> 2. Have seen a few dark chocolate brownish ducks with dark beaks and a white
> spot at its lower neck/upper breast. On the largish size, possibly bigger
> than a mallard. Can't find it in any of my field guides--any ideas?
> 3. I was standing underneath the trees where the DC Cormorants hang out by
> the Cut; a few of them appeared to be vibrating or flexing or puffing
> or...something...their upper necks. What is that activity's name/function?
> I look forward to resolution of these small mysteries.
> Much thanks.
>
> Clare McLean
> Seattle, WA
> mail to:clareishere at hotmail.com
>
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