Watch Your Step -- Clark's Grebe Nest with Eggs at Santa Margarita Lake, California
by Darin Volpe
Title
Watch Your Step -- Clark's Grebe Nest with Eggs at Santa Margarita Lake, California
Artist
Darin Volpe
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Watch out where you put those feet down, someone went and left some fragile stuff on your floor!
The large feet of the Clark's Grebe allow them to engage in one of the most spectacular mating displays of any bird - the rushing display. After swimming together, presenting vegetation and food, and engaging in a series of calls and movements, the two birds will simultaneously rise up and run across the water side by side for up to 150 feet. They are the largest animal capable of walking on water, and they do so by using their large played feet slapping the water and pushing down at up to 20 steps per second.
Clark's Grebes anchor their floating nests to the lake floor by by underwater vegetation. After their elaborate mating dance, the female will lay a clutch of 3 to 4 eggs. Both the male and female take turns at incubating, and the young hatch about three weeks after the eggs were laid.
Uploaded
September 19th, 2020
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Comments (6)
John M Bailey
Congratulations on your feature in the Fine Art America Group "Images That Excite You!"