Yesterday I received a call from a fellow who lives near Grundy at the Bend of Slate Creek. He had what he thought was a loon sitting in the snow in his yard, and it wouldn't move, except to peck at the fellow's small dog that went near it and barked. This fellow thought the bird might be injured, and I explained to him that it may not be injured, that loons and some other water birds have difficulty moving around on land, especially in 3 or 4 inches of snow. Since this guy lived right beside the creek he decided to put the bird in the creek to see what it did. When he did that the bird immediately went under and came up some distance upstream. He said it seemed perfectly healthy and was moving around very quickly. He watched it swim away. Before he released it I asked him to take a photo for me. This is the photo of a Red-necked Grebe, a species that doesn't normally nest in the U.S. but in Western Canada and Alaska. Some do spend the winter along the northern U.S. coasts, but are not commonly found inland. This is the first record, to my knowlege, of the species having been found in Buchanan county. In 2003 several of us birders got to see 3 Red-necked Grebes that were found on the Counts Pond in Russell County. I checked my records and Lynda and I saw those grebes on March 11, 2003, but they had been found a few days earlier by Bob Riggs, if memory serves me. Roger Mayhorn Compton Mt
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2014_3_4 Red-necked Grebe_r.jpg
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