[mou] Clarke's Grebes at Osakis (3) one breeding-notes on same

[JELLISBIRD at aol.com]

    Having failed several times at both Thielke and Osakis to find a Clarke's 
Grebe, I broke down and rented a boat ( Linwood Resort 1-800-458-5136, east 
side of Lake Osakis). Friday was calm- glassy to a few ripples. I sorted 
through Western Grebes nearest the shores-down the east side from the resort, 
through town on the south side, into the reed bays on the SW corner and up the 
western side. In the NW corner of the southern lobe of Lake Osakis (possibly 
scannable from Douglas 10) I found the first Clarke's Grebe in the company of a 
quite smaller Western Grebe with a small downy chick on its back. The Clarke's was 
obvious, and made me realize how futile it had been to study the more 
ambiguously plumaged Westerns (or possibly hybrids) I'd worked hard on earlier. The 
bill was large and orange/gold colored (no yellow or green-yellow.) The white 
around the eye was a large scallop of white-a full 3/4 to an inch of white 
enveloping the eye on both sides and above. The back and flanks were very clearly 
lighter in color than the Western.
    While I was studying the Clarke's the Western had started diving and I 
realized I'd lost track of the single chick. The (female?) Western brought a 
minnow over to the Clarke's and the chick popped out from under the back feathers 
or wing of the Clarke's Grebe. The chick had very light colored down with a 
few faint darker highlights on the head. The chick was one of the very smallest 
I'd seen that day-a few days or maybe several days old.
    After a bit I continued North around the reed bed and within 15 minutes 
found another Clarkes Grebe- again a larger, golden-billed bird with a white 
scallop fully enclosing the eye-the same dimensions as the first. The back and 
flank feathers did not seem as light on this bird as the first, but the light 
was from a slightly different angle. This second bird was associating loosely 
with three other birds-all Westerns. It may have been paired with one of the 
Westerns, but they were all actively foraging so it was difficult to be sure. 
There were no chicks in evidence with the foursome. After leaving this group I 
found a third Clarke's Grebe- this one about 20 minutes later, again off the 
reed beds on the western (Douglas) side of the lake. This bird was associating 
with a much smaller Western Grebe, had a golden-orange bill, but the white 
enveloping the eye was much narrower over the top of the eye, on the order of half 
as much white as the first two. The white at the sides of the eyes was about 
as wide as the first two-but narrower over the top. The sides and flanks were 
lighter in color than the Western, but not as much (relatively) as the first 
two. All three Clarke's Grebes were large birds (male?), had very large bills 
(orange-gold) and while there was variation, the white clearly surrounded the 
eyes.
    In the Westerns there was much variability in size and in coloration of 
the bills. Bill color ranged from greenish through yellow-green to yellow and 
even yellow with golden tones. The dark caps on the heads ranged a lot- curved 
down below the eye, straight line below the eye, straight line almost through 
the eye, curved line through the eye. Bill size was remarkably variable also. 
It would be interesting to know (if anyone does) whether a larger population 
of Clarke's Grebes has size, bill size and bill color variation similar to the 
Westerns. We hay have only larger Clarke's here in Minnesota.? I would welcome 
informed comments. Thanks.

    John Ellis-St. Paul

P.S. My outing took 3+ hours and I covered maybe 20-25% of the surface area 
of the lake (though a good part of the reedy area of the southern part of the 
lake.) The birds are very mobile.

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