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Siblings Stretch and Poke!

While the parent Red-necked Grebe patiently swims nearby, these two younglings are playfully poking and stretching while enjoying the late afternoon waterfront of Sulphurous Lake near 100 Mile House in the Caribou. This variety of Grebe is one of the larger of the family Podicipedidae and is a duck-like diver with flat, yellowish, lobed toes, thin red neck and small tails. The sexes are alike in coloring with a long rufous neck, light cheek, black cap and a long bill yellowish near the base. As can be seen in this photo, the young chicks still have their gray down and have black and white strips on the head which help these younglings to more easily blend into shadows. In Summer months the Red-necked Grebe can be seen scattered throughout Alaska to the southern BC border from the Pacific Coast to as far east the Prairie provinces. In Winter, these birds rarely leave the Pacific shores of the Aleutians to Northern Mexico.