Grebes have featured a number of times recently, but at the risk of ‘grebe overload’ I thought the following observations worth sharing. Exploring one of the bush dams near South German Track I spotted two tiny (and I mean tiny!) shapes paddling amongst dead branches near the edge of the dam. They proved to be very recently hatched Australasian Grebes … surely not more than a couple of days old. The characteristic striping, which disappears rapidly as they grow can be seen on the plumage and even the bill.
Juvenile Australasian Grebe, South German Track, 26th January 2012.
Presumably the striping provides camouflage at a vulnerable stage of life.
Mysteriously the parents were nowhere to be seen – their floating nest visible some distance away. At this site there are two dams, the first closest to the road is higher in the catchment and I had spotted a well-advanced juvenile at the upper dam on my arrival. I’m wondering if the parents may have been there as well, overlooked as I passed – perhaps the tiny youngsters were the offspring of their most recent breeding effort.
Australasian Grebes nest, South German Track, 26th January 2012.
Whatever the situation I suspect the baby grebes were at great risk without the parents nearby – a Little Pied Cormorant was perched just overhead and while this species prefers yabbies, fish and frogs I suspect the unattended grebe chicks would have made a tasty morsel!
The alert and hungry cormorant.
Geoff Park
listeningearth
pkavanagh
EJ
francescincotta
darrylobryan
nathankwong
nungeena
john1055283
And ‘grebe-ing’ on even more – I was interested to observe the nesting grebes in Green Gully – before the parent sitting the nest jumped off she/he appeared to pull some of the nest material up and over the egg/s. A wise move as the pair nesting on my dam earlier in the season failed because someone pecked open the egg/s.
Chris – Green Gully