Lakes Bay 2/22--Eared Grebe

Until yesterday, I'd never heard of Lakes Bay, which is just east of Atlantic City, but since it was only 10 miles or so from Brig, where I was with Mike on his field trip, and since there was an Eared Grebe reported there, after we had made two trips around the wildlife drive, we, along with Peggy & Chris, decided to drive down there and take a look.

We tried one vantage point, and saw some grebes, but they were way too far away to identify, so we drove down to where the bird was originally reported, Lakes Bay Preserve, which is a rather scruffy area set aside among condominiums and a bland office building. Eared Grebe, in basic plumage, looks pretty much like a Horned Grebe in basic plumage and after Mike finally found the Eared Grebe we then played "Three Grebe Monte" for about a half hour, as the grebes dove and resurfaced, never in the same order. Peggy took some shots of one of the grebes that I have to say looked pretty good to me but upon further examination she was shooting the wrong bird (that doesn't sound right). My memory of the bird didn't match the photos precisely, but I chalked that up to light and distance. Anyway, we know we saw the bird. We just couldn't get it stay still long enough to capture it digitally. It was pretty frustrating as the birds bobbed along, mixing in with Buffleheads, diving, and going into a strip of glare on the bay.

Yellow-breast Chat
© Peggy Cadigan

At Brig we had the usual birds for the month. If April is the cruelest month, then February is the slowest. The highlight of the day was refinding the Yellow-breasted Chat that has been inhabiting the beginning of the Leeds Eco-trail most of this year.  I saw it last week with Bob, but it was a year bird for both Mike and Peggy. Peggy has kindly allowed me to use her beautiful photo to illustrate this entry.

After we left Lakes Bay we made a stop off at Mott's Creek. Within a minute I'd found a huge hawk once again sitting atop the distant Osprey platform. This time the shimmer wasn't too bad, but I'd still not call it. But again, the bird cooperated by flying, and flying toward us even, so that we were able to get all the field marks for Golden Eagle. Easy. A nice way to end the day.