Watch Your Step -- Clark's Grebe Nest with Eggs at Santa Margarita Lake, California Canvas Print

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.

I have been photographing the things I see for over thirty years. A resident of San Luis Obispo County, I'm lucky to have many excellent photo destinations within a few minutes' or hours' drive. Beyond the local area, I have traveled throughout California and the western United States, visited far away American destinations such as Chicago, New York, Florida, and Alaska, and international destinations in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. My photography varies from Architecture to Industrial Art to Nature to Wildlife and I'm sure you'll find something suitable for your home or office. Visit my blog