[obol] 500 Pied-billed Grebes in one place

[Jay Withgott]

Certainly a personal record for me....    Yesterday I visited 
Smith-Bybee in N. Portland looking for shorebirds.  The water was too 
high and there were virtually none, but there were an astonishing 
number of PIED-BILLED GREBES.  Scanning both lakes with my scope, I 
counted 497 Pied-bills.  This includes 194 from beyond the blind at 
Bybee Lake and 303 from the canoe launch at Smith Lake.  These 
numbers do not include any birds under water as I scoped passed them, 
or any hidden in the vegetation at the edge, or any on parts of the 
lakes not visible from those two spots.  I only scoped once from each 
spot, so a more thorough investigation would have undoubtedly turned 
up considerably more.  The majority of individuals (perhaps 65-75%??) 
were young birds (of all ages & sizes, most large but still with face 
markings), which helps account for the high number.   Nonetheless, 
this seemed to me to indicate an extraordinarily high number of 
nesting pairs of grebes on these lakes.

Jay Withgott
Portland