Western grebe at Colonel Sam Smith Park

You could practically hear all the Tweets in the air Sunday, after a Western grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) was spotted in the inner bay of Colonel Sam Smith Park near the lakeshore campus of Humber College. Tweets, of course, are today’s version of jungle drums, getting the word out quickly and thoroughly to all interested parties.

And so the birders came, each one bearing a bigger lens — some covered in camo — than the last. (Just a bit of the green-eyed monster showing itself there, eh?)

I’ve had only a few glimpses of grebes of any type over the years, and confess I was not even passingly familiar with this member of the Podicipedidae family of waterfowl. Western grebes are not native to the eastern half of North America, but my Smithsonian guide remarks that they are “casual in the east during fall migration and winter.) Hmmm. Didn’t say anything about spring migration.

I hope someone will make a comment, and let me know more about this bird that appears to have lost his GPS.

At any rate, a lovely and remarkable bird, this Western grebe.

Birders were none too happy later on Sunday, after a “now infamous,” kayaker according to one Tweet I read, disturbed said grebe and sent him packing, hopefully with a new itinerary for points west.

That’s the thing with these sightings….Now you see ’em, now you don’t. But they’re will be another interesting species to admire at any moment. That’s what keeps us out there in the field, eh?

Oh . . . I nearly forgot . . . There were lots of red-necked grebes at Col. Sam Smith Park on Sunday, as well. Some just sleeping and drifting — like a lazy August day at the cottage on an inflatable mattress on the lake — and some more active, feeding in the bay near the Western grebe.

With their matching Mohawks, you gotta wonder who does their hair . . . Must be the same salon as does all the styles for the American merganser.

© BCP 2010