Eared grebe

[ PODICEPS NIGRICOLLIS ]

At first glance, Mono Lake in the eastern Sierra appears to be a barren wasteland. Unlike a typical lake, it’s devoid of fish, frogs and crawdads, but its extremely alkaline waters are home to trillions of tiny brine shrimp. Drawn to this unusual, superabundant food supply, nearly 2 million eared grebes migrate to the lake each fall and create one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in North America. By late October, when cold storms finally push them south, there are so many grebes at Mono Lake that it’s possible to imagine walking 13 miles across the lake’s surface by hopping from grebe to grebe. And in the shimmering light of sunrise, the entire lake sparkles like a sea of jewels as each grebe dips and bathes in the morning rays.

NATURAL HISTORY

Eared grebes at Mono Lake eat enough brine shrimp to double their weight in preparation for the arduous task of molting all their flight feathers. After several weeks, they gain new feathers, lose enough weight to fly again and migrate south toward the Gulf of California as the first winter storms pour over the Sierra Nevada.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

Breeding birds are a splendid chestnut red with a spray of orange feathers on their face, while migrating eared grebes are a drab dusky gray-brown about the size of a quail with a rounded body and short tail.