Horned Grebes on lake Nokomis

[Cyberfish]

I also saw 200 Ruddy ducks, a few Red Breasted Mergansers, red heads, and a few Loons

[Todd Caswell]

Sweet photo, now I know what grebes taste like

[eyeguy 54]

That is really a Dandy !

[PierBridge]

Definitely Lake Nokomis you can tell by the size of the crappie.

What a capture!

[Jim Almquist]

Sweet shot and to get a Crappie in the shot was a bonus!!!

[PierBridge]

It appears they are still all there on Nokomis.

I need a good camera.

[PierBridge]

It appears they are still all there on Nokomis.

I need a good camera.

[PierBridge]

Hopefully some of Cyberfishs Loon pics turned out from this evening.

[Cyberfish]

hey! Yeah, they were a bit far out for great pics...

red heads

Two headed duck checking out the hen!

[Cyberfish]

[half-dutch]

The number of the various types of waterfowl that lay over on our Twin Cities park lakes waiting for ice out up north is amazing. Not just Nokomis, but also, Harriet, Hiawatha, Calhoun, Isles and on up through the Metro. Pretty good numbers down on the river too.

It is kinda cute to watch how poorly the grebes and the loons get along. At just a fraction of the loons' size the grebes are often as or more aggressive than the loons are.

[Cyberfish]

I never saw any interaction between the loons and grebes, that would have been interesting to see.

[delcecchi]

I have never seen any interaction between loons and any other bird, except for eagles and maybe an osprey.

[half-dutch]

Normally I don't expect loons and grebes cross paths too often, but they do before there is enough ice out up north for them both to keep moving in the spring. And they are both fishing birds. Right now there are lots of pairs of grebes in and around the flocks of coots. Earlier there would have been some loons and mergansers also with some pairs of grebes scattered around. The loons being the biggest seem to expect deference, but the grebes are fiesty little critters and don't take to bullying all that much. I expect that as soon as it is fit farther north they will each move more into its own niche but early in the spring they are crowded together and there is some squabbling over that. It happens every year right here in the heart of the metro, but only for a short period of time. Just keep your eyes on the Park Board lakes as soon as they start to show open water in the spring. Lots of different species of true ducks generally mixed in as well. Nokomis, Harriet, Calhoun and a number of others are yearly layovers for a much larger group of north bound water birds than many ever realize. FWIW One particularly bright little jewel, if you want to see wood ducks is Powderhorn, and it will be full of geese later towards autumn and occasionally full of wintering crows once the snow flies.