Eared Grebe visits Montour and Lycoming Counties
9/18/16
By David Brown
As summer turns to fall, birders are checking local hotspots more frequently for birds that get lost on migration. Some birds are rare enough that when they are reported the only questions are “Where is it?” and “How fast can I get there?”
An eared grebe was found and photographed at Montour Preserve in Montour county last week. The person who found it just moved to Pennsylvania from the western United States where this species is common and did not realize how rare the bird was so word did not get out until later in the day. Most years only one or two are found in Pennsylvania and some years none are reported. Montour county had no previous records of this species.
A group of us rushed to the lake and got distant views of the bird as the sun was setting. The next morning others went to the lake and found a grebe but closer looks revealed that it was a much more common pied-billed grebe.
Eared Grebe
At the same time another birder was at Rose Valley Lake in Lycoming County and photographed a grebe but he misidentified it as a horned grebe, another common species. Later in the day he was going through his photos and realized that it was actually an eared grebe. Almost exactly 24 hours from the first chase, I was once again rushing to a lake to look for a bird that had been seen hours before. It had been almost 30 years since one was reported in Lycoming county so this could be the only chance of seeing one for a long time. Despite seven people searching the lake the bird was not seen that evening.
I decided not to go back in the morning because I was tired of driving around to search for a 13 inch bird bobbing on some hidden corner of a lake. Looking at the bird migration radar I could see that migration was strong throughout the entire eastern United States and I figured the chances of the bird sticking around overnight were low.
The eared grebe figured otherwise and the next morning I got a text message from a friend who had found it once again at Rose Valley Lake. For the third straight day I was chasing this bird. I got to the lake and after a bit of searching had a distant but satisfying view of it in the morning light. It was my 234th bird species for Lycoming County all-time and my 214th this year.
It is uncertain whether it was the same individual bird or two separate ones, but I'm just glad I was able to see an eared grebe in both counties. Chasing rarities is one of the most stressful parts of birding but it is also one of the most rewarding.
