Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 18:48:16 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Patty Craig Subject: Re: Eared Grebes in Maryland MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Rick, The Eared Grebe that was at Patuxent River Naval Air Station last October had me a little hesitant in making an identification on my first hurried look. Several field marks that I look for were a bit confusing. The head shape was deceiving, there looked like a light tip to the bill and there appeared to be light patches on the wings other than the secondaries were just some. This individual was a juvenile and I believe that helps to explain the head shape which on a subsequent (and longer) visit proved to be very variable. I think the light tip was from the bright light shining through the bill which may be thinner on a young bird. But I could not understand the wing patches until I had photos taken on 10-14-99 developed and one showed the outstretched wing. It appears that the bird was in molt and that lighter feather bases not usually exposed were the cause. In any case, the light areas were not in the exact location that they would be on a Horned Grebe. I wonder if others have been mislead by similar plumages. Good Birding, Patty Craig Dameron, MD pattycraig@mail.ameritel.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================