LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Redbud Audubon Society has collaborated with two other Audubon Society chapters for six years to conduct a conservation project for Western and Clark’s grebes.
Grebes are loved for their amazing courtship displays where they “dance” in synchronized pairs across the surface of Clear Lake. These water birds have been favorites of Lake County residents for decades.
The grebe program is the February installment of the Lake County Library’s “Know Lake County” free monthly lecture series.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m., Marilyn Waits, a former president of the Redbud Audubon Society, will present a program about the grebe conservation project that she has managed since it began in 2010.
The program will take place at the Lakeport branch of the Lake County Library located at 1425 N. High St.
The presentation will include a video of grebe behaviors on Clear Lake and photos of the courtship, nesting, and parenting activities that are part of the breeding season.
Grebes breed on Clear Lake during the summer in large colonies of floating nests, sometimes numbering in thousands of birds in a colony.
During incubation, the male and female take turns sitting on the nest, and once the chicks are born, the parents carry them on their backs for the first weeks of life.
The grebe conservation project seeks to educate boaters, jet-skiers, water-skiers, fishermen and the general public about protecting the grebe colonies.
The conservation project also includes a research component that Dr. Floyd Hayes, head of the Biology Department at Pacific Union College in Angwin, and his student interns conduct.
Hayes and the students monitor the number of colonies, nests, and adult and juvenile birds each year, compiling valuable data for future researchers.
Waits will present information about Redbud Audubon Society’s annual Heron Days when pontoon boat tours carry participants onto Clear Lake to observe the grebes in their native habitat and to see great blue herons in their tree-top nesting colonies.
This year’s Heron Days will take place April 29 to 30 and May 6 to 7. Waits will also briefly explain other contributions Redbud Audubon Society has made to Lake County since its start in 1975.
The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary .
For more information call 707-263-8817.
Jan Cook works for the Lake County Library.
‘Know Lake County’ spotlights Redbud Audubon Society and grebes
- Jan Cook
- Posted On