Wandering Waterfowl

Last week, Erin, being the local animal expert, got a phone call about a "duck" that was stuck in a puddle by the fire-house. She went to check it out and found a pied-billed grebe, unable to walk out of the puddle onto the land and unable to take off into flight. Erin rescued it, let it swim around in her bath-tub for a couple hours (to assess whether it was ready to be released or if it required further care) and then decided it was fine to be released back into the waters of Lake Superior.

Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) (Photo from: www.allaboutbirds.org)

This is not an uncommon situation this spring. The wildlife rehabilitation center in Duluth has seen a huge increase in the number of grebes admitted and it all has to do with our terrible weather. It has been unusually cold and snowy this "spring", even for the North Shore. Thus, when the migratory waterfowl have returned north, they have found their typical inland lake and stream habitats completely frozen over. In the case of this grebe (and apparently many others) it mistook a puddle for a body of water in its search for suitable habitat.

Raven Lake: Still Frozen

Wolf Lake: Still Frozen

Grebes are a family of waterfowl, related to ducks only in that they both spend time on the water. Pied-billed grebes are built with their legs so far back on their bodies that if they attempt to walk on land, they fall over, top-heavy. A grebe in a puddle is an unfortunate situation because it can't walk onto the land and doesn't have enough water to properly take off, so it is stuck. Grebes are incredibly well adapted to life on the water: in fact, their toes are all individually webbed (as opposed to ducks, which have toes webbed together) providing extra surface area and increasing the efficiency of the paddling. Furthermore, they are great divers, earning the colloquial nickname "Hell-diver" because of the amount of time spent underwater. When underwater, the grebe can compress its feathers to force the air out, causing it to become denser and sink further and faster. Pied-billed grebes even build their nests on floating vegetation in the water!

A pied-billed grebe nest (Photo courtesy of: the internet somewhere)

With no inland lakes to land on, the migratory waterfowl has resorted to hanging out on Lake Superior. Our executive director noted 17 different waterfowl species on the lake during a recent visit. At Palisade Head on Monday, I was able to see at least 15 distinct groups of waterfowl on the lake, some so far away I had no way of identifying species, even with my binoculars. In the past week, much of the Baptism River and Sawmill Creek have become unfrozen, so it is not uncommon to see the summer residents hanging out on these rushing water sources as well.

A trio of hooded mergansers on the Baptism River (5/1)

A pair of ring-necked ducks on the Baptism River (5/1)

Today, atop Marshall Mountain, I saw multiple loons flying by, calling as they searched for open water. Unfortunately, they'll have to continue to be patient, at least for another week or two, before their ideal habitat has melted and is accessible to begin nesting once more.