AN ENCOUNTER BETWEEN A PIED-BILLED GREBE
AND
AN AMERICAN WIGEON
On Willow Pond/Murray/Jordan River Parkway,
Murray, UT., March 8, 2012
Even though my STRONGEST lens has already magnified this bird by 6X, it still appears far away.
Here is the same image, digitally magnified (cropped).
I'm not quite sure of the sex of this bird, since it doesn't have the metallic green eyestrip.
I photographed this typical male several days later just a few miles away.
I've included it for comparison.
To the left, The Perpetrator... a Pied-Billed Grebe with an attitude!
Let the Games Begin!!!
"Gangway!!!"
Most of the attack was done with the Grebe being underwater
"Careful on those turns!"
A Closeup of the "little Devil"
And, although there was considerable splashing, the Grebe only
appeared briefly and sporadically.
The Wigeon has had enough and becomes airborne.
The Wigeon puts some space between them!
It lands again, thinking the foray was settled by distance.
The Wigeon begins a 'stretch', before it settles down again,
beginning here.
In its stretching, it provides some marvelous images
suitable for I.D.
Here is another image hopefully providing more detail regarding its sex.
I was shocked to see another attack
by the Grebe, here still submerged!
The water erupted and the Grebe appeared,
(reminded me of the movie,"JAWS"!)
This time the Wigeon "hightailed" it to another distant location!
Having seen lots of American Wigeons like the ones shown below:
(Sandy Pond)
I find the above bird a bit perplexing due to lack of the male 'baldpate', along with the missing metallic green eyepatch.
Is the above bird a 'first cycle male' or what?
Sandy Pond, January 15, 2009
(for Comparison)
