EARED TODAY, GONE TOMORROW?

There was a lone, unusual Eared Grebe at Ashland Pond this morning.  It is an uncommon wintering bird anywhere in Oregon besides the coast, the Columbia and Klamath  (see Contreras’s NORTHWEST BIRDS IN WINTER).  We did record one on a previous Ashland CBC, but that was at Emigrant Lake, not two-acre Ashland Pond.This next image shows the diagnostic crest over the eye, not behind it as with Horned Grebes in winter.  This bird had a surprisingly pale neck, may wintering Eareds have very “dirty looking” necks. Here is cousin Pied-billed paddling past the tired Eared…maybe the recent storm front brought him in.  This species has previously been reported from the pond at this season but is not regular there and it’s my first sighting of Eared at A.P.  EBird shows 160 species recorded at the pond…I have now seen 139 of those.