A sunny afternoon drew me up the Monaro Highway to see if I could catch a glimpse of the lurking grebe. Not having a clear idea of where on Yerrabi Pond it might be, I parked near Soroptimist Point and began to walk around the lake. Carrying
my binoculars and a small Canon Powershot camera, I was in the company of children on bicycles, women pushing prams, couples talking quite loudly to one another, and singles talking even more loudly into their mobile phones. My route was counter-clockwise,
over the footbridge and towards the da m wall. I found the grebe at the dam wall, near the outlet channel. I took a few snaps with the Powershot before it took off in a long low curving flight towards Soroptimist Point. One of my snaps is the first one below.
This shows a bird with dry plumage. The bird looked like a young one to me. The second frame is from the HANZAB illustration: ‘A’ is ‘a juvenile entering post-juvenile moult’, ‘B’ is an ‘immature’. The text is quite old and may be outdated. This says
some adults retain breeding plumage year-round, a non-breeding plumage is held for only a short time, and, confusingly, the described non-breeding plumage ‘may represent a combination of immature and non-breeding plumages’. The 3rd frame is from
BWP showing the European subspecies.. C is non-br, and in D ‘imm winter’. You might have to take my word that there are discernible dark streaks on the cheeks in that illustration. For Australian birds a significant point is that dark patterning on the face/neck
is an indication of a sub-adult bird.
After failing to pick up the grebe on my walk back on the southern side, I went to a nearby café, the ‘Samekesh’ to inquire about a takeaway morsel to eat on the parklike surrounds of the lake. From my binoculars, I was immediately recognised
by the staff as ‘one of those grebe-watchers’. I was told that many such had called at the Samekesh for a bite or a cup of coffee during a break in their grebe-watching. Moreover, the staff were thoroughly familiar with the local GCG from having been shown
video of it. Could that have been Steve Wallace, I asked. Yes, they said. From the rather sparse takeaway menu I chose a quiche-style tartlet with sweet potato, fetta and aioli. Having been given this in a closed box, I was delighted to find, on opening
it, that it was accompanied by something that I took to be a quince relish. After the tartlet, I went off for a final scan of the waters from Soroptimist Point. I picked up the grebe on the far side of the little bay to the west. After returning to the
vehicle to get a slightly larger lens I secured the below snaps of a wet-plumaged bird, which show the remains of the dark patterning signifying a young bird, perhaps 5-6 months, I might guess.
