Hello all,
?
I'd be interested in hearing?your thoughts on this ID.? On 1/30/2011, during our
monthly C.O.A.S.S.T. survey at Griffiths-Priday SP, Terry Risdon and I tagged a
headless Aechmophorus grebe.
?
Upperwing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phainopepla/5423046222/
Underwing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phainopepla/5422440081/
?
Wing chord (19.0 cm), tarsus (74.0 mm), and foot type easily identified the
critter as one of the Aechmophorus species.? As to which one, my current
thinking is clarkii due to the amount - and uniformity -?of white in the flight
feathers.? .
?
Specifically, in?the photo of the spread upperwing showing 12 primary feathers,
white exists on P1 (innermost primary) thru P9 and (possibly) P10.?
Additionally, P1-P3 have roundish brown tips to an otherwise white feather and
dark shaft.? P4 is more extensively brown-tipped but both webs are largely
white.? Also, the inner secondary feathers, like S7 and S8, are nearly all
white.? As seen from underneath, all secondaries are very white with little or
no brown tips evident.
?
In contrast, these same feathers in photos of Western Grebe specimens I examined
(a small sample of photos taken by other C.O.A.S.S.T. volunteers recently),
exhibit considerably more brown (e.g., one web would be brownish, the other
whitish).
?
Carl Haynie
Sammamish, WA