I raced over there and sure enough, a beautiful Clark's Grebe! It wasn't quite right as it had just a little smudge of black below the eye and the black cap came right down to the eyes, The bill didn't seem quite as yellow as it should be and the business with the line between the eye and the bill wasn't quite right. Finally it seemed that the black stripe on the back of the neck was too thick for Clark's.
Despite the above anomalies we really thought it was a Clark's. It called a few times giving the classic single note "kreeeeek" call.
Tom and his son Wyatt and I saw it again on Saturday morning, the 26th, before going to the New Mexico Ornithological Meeting in Albuquerque. We showed the pics to several of the state's top birders and they all immediately said it was a hybrid. Since then others have echoed the same opinion. So there you have it - it's a Clark's/Western hybrid!
So still at 299 county birds and holding!
Take a look for yourself!
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| Clark's/Western Hybrid |
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| Clark's/Western Hybrid |
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| Clark's/Western Hybrid |
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