Pied-billed grebe

This story comes from the newspaper in Port Aransas, Texas, “The South Jetty”.  You may not know but Port Aransas, Texas was voted the “Most Birdist City for a Small Coastal Town in the U.S.”  A town of less than 100 square miles.  There is a birding place there called Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center.  Each morning at 9a.m. there is “BIrding on the Boardwalk”.  There is a well built wooden walkway that goes into the large lagoon nearby.  It has benches for rest and several elevated observation areas.  One morning Boots, the 13 foot alligator rose out of the silt and stated a slow swim to the outflow channel,  called the slough.

It seems that a pied-billed grebe and her  mate had already raised their first nest and were incubating a 2nd set of eggs.  The alligator slowly headed toward their new nest.The grebe swan directly towards the alligator and the swan parallel to the alligator’s head just out  of distance of a sudden jump by the gator.   It had been observed by a group of birders before and was nerve racking to watch.  Boots continued to swim toward their nest with the grebe shadowing  him.  Then as they approached the nest the grebe displayed and amazing distraction.  The grebe began to feign injury by lapping its wings and raise itself up and fall back down into the water in the most unusual manner.  The alligator took immediate notice and turned away from the nest and began  to follow the “injured” bird about 40-50 feet from the nest.  Then the grebe began to swim slowly  away and the alligator lost interest and turned to the slough to hunt for something else.
Written by Jack Kidd

pied-billed Greb

Pied-bill Grebe