RH Speirs | Photographer - Red-necked Grebes 17

Unfortunately this will be the last Red-necked Grebe gallery of the year, and I'm sorry there isn't a whole lot of variety to the photos within. All the photos, except for the last two, were taken during a nearly four hour period of time, and all from the same vantage point.

Red-necked Grebe, Marshall Springs ponds, Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary, AB - July 19th

It was a fairly concerning visit to the ponds of Marshall Springs in Fish Creek Provincial Park on the morning of July 19th as one of the Red-necked Grebes seemed to have vanished. I didn't realize there was anything to be concerned about until about two hours into my visit that morning. By that time the Grebes would have made their normal switchover in incubation duty, plus, during those two hours I didn't hear a call made by either of them, which is pretty abnormal for them. At the time of shooting these photos I still hadn't processed the photos from my previous visit, three days prior, so I wasn't even aware that one of the Grebes was not looking well, as was eventually reveled within those photos.

Red-necked Grebe, Marshall Springs ponds, Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary, AB - July 19th

This was supposed to be the first day of many in a row where I'd go down to the ponds each and every morning anxiously awaiting the new arrivals hatching..it was getting very close to the point that it could happen any day now. I'd been looking forward to seeing the next generation being brought into the world for almost a year now, since last year's were. All I could think in my head was, where in the world is the other Grebe? If it doesn't come back, then what? During the three plus months or so that I observed the Grebe pair set up and raise a family last year, they had a very meticulous routine that very much involved complete and full input from both of them. So this new shocking disappearance of one of them was quite troubling to say the least. Over the next two hours of my visit it just became more and more apparent that something was very wrong on this morning. The remaining Grebe didn't even once make a call out to its mate, as if it knew what had happened, and didn't even try because it knew its efforts would have been futile. I have no way of knowing what happened for sure, but I do know that one of the Grebes, of the pair, did not look well in the photos taken three days prior. I must admit, it was pretty emotional for me when processing all these photos..and you can call me crazy if you want to, but I can see the distress in this Grebe's face. When in its normally sleeping/resting position, the eyes are as wide as saucers, just staring aimlessly into space, perhaps wondering to itself "now what am I gonna do?".

Red-necked Grebe, Marshall Springs ponds, Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary, AB - July 19th

The next morning I went down to the ponds, hopeful that the other Grebe would have returned by then, and things could resume as normal, but it was not to be. In fact, the nest had been fully abandoned now..I was afraid of that being the case when I arrived. I spent three and a half ours around the ponds on the morning of July 20th and there was no sign of either Grebe throughout that time.

Abandoned Red-necked Grebe nest, Marshall Springs ponds, Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary, AB - July 20th

I didn't really want to, but I just couldn't seem to let it go..I returned to the ponds the following morning, for a short time, just to confirm the Grebes were gone for sure. I'm certainly no expert on this bird species..not even close, but based on the first hand experience I do have observing them thus far..I'm convinced they are capable of deception, so I just had to go down to the ponds one more time to double confirm their disappearance.

Moving on, and looking forward to a potentially better outcome for the Grebes next summer :)

Abandoned Red-necked Grebe nest, Marshall Springs ponds, Fish Creek Provincial Park, Calgary, AB - July 21st

Red-necked Grebes 17 - Calgary, AB

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