{"id":10005,"date":"2021-08-21T11:08:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T18:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/?page_id=10005"},"modified":"2023-09-16T09:23:25","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T16:23:25","slug":"2021-1-pied-billed-grebe","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/published-writings-and-art\/salish-sea-stories-48-north-magazine\/2021-1-pied-billed-grebe\/","title":{"rendered":"2021-1 Pied-billed Grebe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A winter\u2019s walk around the marina and there, all by itself, was a pied-billed grebe. Diving, floating a moment, diving, floating. These birds are here until spring, so take a walk and have a look for them yourself. About the size of a man\u2019s shoe, these diving birds nest in eastern Washington and British Columbia\u2019s prairie lakes. After that, they are solitary for the rest of the year and many come to visit us in winter. Others head south for warmer lakes and coastal bays. When I first found out about them, I thought the \u2018pied-billed\u2019 name referenced something to do with the bill the shape of a piece of pie, but it\u2019s not, this is an original old-English name for stripe \u2013 the vertical bill-stripe seen during breeding season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This critter is proof that all birds have certainly not been created equal. Many have evolved traits that work together for success. These grebes don\u2019t fly very well, notice there isn\u2019t even a tail to steer with. The legs are so far back on the body it can\u2019t walk on dry land but instead sort of helps scooch them up on shore to nest. But those two evolutionary changes happened because of its other abilities. A chicken-like bill, tall and short, gives them an advantage in cracking crab shells or crunching down on large crustaceans. It dives instead of flies to escape danger, and is completely at home underwater where it uses those huge feet and legs for easy propulsion. While there are many ducks with the same features, these birds gain the ability to dig out crabs and invertebrates underwater. A rare bird indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Larry Eifert paints and sails the Pacific Northwest from Port Townsend. His large-scale murals can be seen in many national parks across America, and at larryeifert.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A winter\u2019s walk around the marina and there, all by itself, was a pied-billed grebe. Diving, floating a moment, diving, floating. These birds are here until spring, so take a walk and have a look for them yourself. About the size of a man\u2019s shoe, these diving birds nest in eastern Washington and British Columbia\u2019s … Continue reading 2021-1 Pied-billed Grebe<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11841,"parent":6453,"menu_order":16,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10005","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10005"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11842,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10005\/revisions\/11842"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryeifert.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}