{"id":57269,"date":"2019-04-15T06:24:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T12:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=57269"},"modified":"2024-11-09T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2024-11-09T16:43:10","slug":"spring-western-grebes-at-bear-river-mbr-time-for-their-courtship-displays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/04\/15\/spring-western-grebes-at-bear-river-mbr-time-for-their-courtship-displays\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Western Grebes At Bear River MBR – Time For Their Courtship Displays"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SpringSpring Western Grebes at Bear River MBR – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/3200, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Last Monday while I was at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> the sounds of Clark’s and Western Grebes calling was a soothing, welcoming sound. I miss their calls over the winter and delight in hearing them in the spring. Clark’s and Western Grebes were highly visible from the auto tour route at the refuge last week and their calls echoed over the marsh. There is a wonderful recording of a breeding colony of Western Grebes here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is the time of the year when the courtship displays of Western Grebes can happen at any time while driving the auto tour route and for few seconds last week I thought I was going to see a pair rushing but they stopped before they began to rush.<\/p>\n

Western Grebes have two courtship ceremonies, the “Rushing Ceremony” and the “Weed Ceremony”, and both of them are fascinating to observe and photograph but the trick is that you have to be in the right place at the right time for that to occur.<\/p>\n

I have thought about packing lunch and dinner into a cooler and staying at the refuge all day so I can up my odds of photographing both Clark’s and Western Grebe courtship displays.<\/p>\n

The two Western Grebes in my photo above appeared to be bonding but they didn’t hang around long last week because by the time I photographed them other vehicles on the auto tour route had begun to pass by me and that seemed to make the grebes a bit anxious because they moved out into the water further away from the road.<\/p>\n

These elegant black and white Western Grebes are beautiful while they feed, preen, rest and stretch but they are even more striking when they dance across the water while performing their courtship ceremony. I wish that everyone could see it at least once in their lives.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Western Grebe photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These elegant black and white Western Grebes are beautiful while they feed, preen, rest and stretch but they are even more striking when they dance across the water while performing their courtship ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,26,161],"tags":[4004,699,2498,877,707,4094,2138,165,3996,3533,4014,4095],"class_list":["post-57269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-utah","category-western-grebes","tag-adult","tag-aechmophorus-occidentalis","tag-courting","tag-grebe","tag-grebes-2","tag-marsh","tag-mates","tag-spring","tag-water","tag-weed-ceremony","tag-western-grebe","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/western-grebes-courting-mia-mcpherson-8019.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-eTH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":116223,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/24\/demure-looking-western-grebe\/","url_meta":{"origin":57269,"position":0},"title":"Demure Looking Western Grebe","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I photographed this demure looking Western Grebe on one of the water units from the auto tour loop at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Demure looking Western Grebe at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/western-grebe-demure-adult-mia-mcpherson-0816.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/western-grebe-demure-adult-mia-mcpherson-0816.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-adult-pair-mia-mcpherson-0776.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-adult-pair-mia-mcpherson-0776.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-adult-pair-mia-mcpherson-0776.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/clarks-grebe-adult-pair-mia-mcpherson-0776.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":101597,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/04\/14\/spring-clarks-grebe-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":57269,"position":3},"title":"Spring Clark’s Grebe Images","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sharing a few spring Clark's Grebe images today that I took up in the marshes of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge during the first week of April.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pair of Clark's Grebes in early spring, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/clarks-grebe-adult-spring-mia-mcpherson-2649.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/clarks-grebe-adult-spring-mia-mcpherson-2649.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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