Pied Bill Grebes in "Stealth" Mode
I was down by my pond this afternoon, doing some late afternoon bird watching. I really enjoyed watching the grebes do their submarine like slow submerge into the water in addition to their dive. But what was really fun was to watch one swim partially submerged with just his head out of the water. At first I thought it was a turtle, but then I realized it was a grebe with just his head above water swimming along. I watched variations on this theme for several minutes. At times the grebe would be in normal swimming position except that his head was ducked low next to the water. I also watched it submerge partially keeping head and a little bit of neck above the water. Even though I had been sitting quietly for some time, I think perhaps it was trying to sneak past me.
