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Feb. 14, 2007          Grebe fun at Lake Merced                 An Otter at Heron's Head

Magic Act watch the fish disappear

Several times we saw it quickly pursuing prey under water but never saw it actually capture or eat anything.

Below: Pied-billed Grebes are true optimists. Here's a few   outtakes of a huge, sumptuous one course meal The whole feast lasted a good five minutes as the Grebe wrestled the fish into position shaking its head in apparent frustration before finding just the right angle of descent

Both Anna's and Allen's hummers were actively displaying. At times, quite near to one another

Left: A Black Phoebe posed nicely on the handrail Below: This Great Blue Heron inspected several different nests during my visit - old nests are often added to seasonally and can become quite bulky

We watched it off and on for about an hour - it was primarily preening and twirling in the water. As we left it appeared to be sleeping on it's back as is their custom According to those that monitor Sea Otters, occasional sightings in the Bay are very uncommon  but not rare. The last report from the bay was about three or four years ago Reported the tag number to a  volunteer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and she thought it was one they had released about a month ago and had lost track of

Oh yeah, the main reason we went out was to see if the male Harlequin Duck was still present - it was!

A "tweener" Aechmophorus Grebe, maybe a second year bird at Lake Merced begged for a share of this Westerner's fish Below and right: A comparison of Western, Clark's & ???

Skies went overcast in the afternoon - headed over to Heron's Head The highlight of the trip and a first this at this location for us was a Sea Otter - Wow!